The Meme Is Dead; Long Live The Meme

I never thought I'd say it.  It's been around four months now since the two great memes began and thrived.  But unfortunately, all good memes have to come to an end.

The John Cena and the Shia LaBeouf Just Do It memes are dead now.  It truly pains me to say so.  If you know me just a little bit, you've probably had me cut you off in a sentence by screaming "JOHN CENA!!!" right before you were about to say something. (If this has happened to you, I'm sorry.  (I saw the chance and I had to take it; I don't regret anything.))  Or you've heard me whistling the John Cena theme in class and it probably made you want to punch me in the face -- I don't blame you.  Or possibly you've heard me screech "JUST DO IT!!!" in the halls or in class when someone was having to make a decision.  I know it was annoying, but I was in the heat of the moment.  And plus, at the time, you gotta admit those memes were golden.

(Via Wrestling Forum)

If you haven't already figured it out, a meme is a funny or interesting video, photo, or piece of text that's spread rapidly on the internet.  For awhile, the John Cena and Shia LaBeouf memes were the one of the biggest.  They were on every social media website.  In these meme's cases, people took the original video and incorporated it into another one. For instance, I'll describe my first and favorite experience with the meme. My first encounter with the John Cena meme was a great one.  I was on Tumblr and I came across this video that appeared to be the I Write Sins Not Tragedies music video by Panic! At The Disco.  So of course, as the video goes, it shows Brendon Urie pacing the pews in a church corridor.  But after about thirty-three seconds or so, when he goes "what a shame the poor grooms bride is--" the video cuts and changes to John Cena's theme song. (Here's a link to the video if you want to see what I mean.)

(Via Yahoo)

I can't entirely remember my first encounter with the Shia LaBeouf meme. Honestly I think I watched the video before it became mainstream.  I still was a big fan of Shia LaBeouf ever since the Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf theatrical video.  So when I first saw screenshots to the Just Do It video, I thought it was excellent and inspiring. So with that, I sent it to a couple of my friends and I also made a bunch of references to it for around a week. After awhile, the remixes took off and the meme became mainstream.  I can't pinpoint my favorite Shia LaBeouf meme, but the Just Do It one was a pretty good one in general.

So I enjoyed these memes for months; it was a good time.  Unfortunately, like they all do, these memes had to die.  Eventually memes get to a point where they're too mainstream and overused it's not funny or ironic anymore.  But, just because they're dead doesn't mean I'm gonna throw away the John Cena birthday card I ironically bought for myself. (It came with a poster, don't judge.) They had a good run, and I guarantee there'll be a bunch of good memes in the future. After all, we're in midst of a meme renaissance right now.  Who knows what else could happen?