Scribbls

After missing all of last month's Mondays, we continue a fine new tradition started in November and take a look at one of the magnificent memes made fresh for you here on Scribbls. This month's Monday, let's put the marx meme under the microscope. And to make up for the missing month, let's also magnify another marx mini-meme.

Marx was originally drawn in 2008 by johnnay #991 when he filled in the history of Soviet Russia with marx + lenin. Marx sat quietly and unused for just over a year, perhaps knowingly saving itself for its future glory. Then things got interesting.

The marx drawing was first used in another outcome in September 2009 when Saturnyn #1593 contributed to Scribbls the epic pun: mad + marx = Mad Marx.

This was answered a few minutes later when Floriaen #1566 created an addition to marx: marx + LSD = Question mark over the Himalaya. At this point the marx meme hadn't quite fully materialized yet, though both Saturnyn and Floriaen's outcomes were ultimately saying the same thing: it is funny to put marx's face where it doesn't belong.

But before we really dive deeply in the direction of the actual marx meme, I want to take a detour to look at a mini-meme. You see, Floriaen also created the history for marx: sight from a cave + LSD = marx. If you look at both of these outcomes by Floriaen, you see defined a mini-meme wherein a little lysergic acid diethylamide has you seeing faces in geological formations, or vice-versa.

Now, getting back on track to the main marx meme, we know that Saturnyn and then Floriaen both began marx-ifying things, though in slightly different ways. Three days after Saturnyn created the pun-iful Mad Marx he further cemented the marx meme as we know it today with another pun of equal glory: marx + piece = Marx Payne. Then on October 5, 2009, Saturnyn drew a personal all-time favorite outcome of mine: marx + Alien Invasion = Marx Attacks

It was with this outcome that others took notice of exactly what Saturnyn was up to. The same day Marx Attacks was drawn, Paul #3 Paul gave us all: Treasure + marx = X Marx the Spot.

Paul saw that Saturnyn was taking phrases including words that kind of sound like marx — such as mark, mars, or max — and punning off the name and drawing in the trademark Karl Marx unkempt beard, eyebrows, and moustache. In other words, Paul knew a good meme when he saw one. October 5th ended up being a defining day for the marx meme. That day, I drew Karl Marx Jr, Saturnyn himself drew three other marx puns, and Onilink #1679 created a fantastic marx meme outcome: marx + Mark Twain = Marx Twain.

The comments on Marx Twain help tell this meme's story. Paul and Saturnyn both expressed a sentiment that marx was their new favorite meme, and Onilink pointed out, "Marx + Scribbls = infinite word play." And that's not far from the truth. There's been at least 17 more marx meme outcomes by about eight people. Check them out (they're all golden really), and then draw one of your own.

Well, that concludes this Meme Monday. Thanks for reading, let me know if you enjoyed it! We'll keep trying to do them on a [mostly] monthly basis.