Internet obsessions: Is this 1921 cartoon the first meme in history?

"Ryan Gosling will not eat his cereals", Facepalm, Gene Wilder in an image of the film Willy Wonka, Troll Face and Kanye West who stops Taylor Swift's awards now have an "ancestor".

Users of social networks believe, in fact, to have found the first meme in history.

This is a cartoon "What You Think You Look Like Vs. What You Actually Look Like" was discovered by some in a 1921 issue of The Judge, the satirical journal of the University of Iowa, according to others on an edition of the" Wisconsin Octopus ", a similar magazine of 1919 or 1920 .

Whatever the true origin of the image, it is undeniable its resemblance to those of the meme type "Expectation vs Reality", which became a trend after the success of the 2009 film (500) days together.

The meme is an invention by Richard Dawkins that in The selfish gene in 1976 defined it as the minimal unit of cultural evolution, information that influences the environment and can be transmitted. With the Internet it has become a fragment of image, concept or video that encapsulates pop culture, current affairs, politics, sport, fashion or art and, manipulated by art, spreads from person to person, to become a real phenomenon mass. So, alone, the 1921 comic is not a meme. Combined with the comics of 1919 or 1920, however, it begins to adapt to the definition, since they are two variations of the same style.

What do you think about it?