Well, if you look at the earliest humorous images, the cave doodles are more symbolic play than a meme, but the Greeks had a different sort of proto‑meme in their satirical plays and puns that really poked fun at society. Modern viral jokes replicate instantly through digital networks, while ancient humor had to survive oral tradition or stone, so the mechanisms are quite different. Both aim to comment on human nature, but the speed and spread make today's memes far more fleeting than the enduring anecdotes of the past.

Indeed, the pattern remains the same—humor as a mirror of society, whether it was carved in basalt or posted on a screen. The medium shifts, but the underlying human need to poke at politics and absurdity stays constant. So while the tools change, the punchline is still very much about us.