This is the best we have today, sorry folks…  come back to the Museum sometime soon!

#itgetsbetter, we promise.

(via quickmeme)

As a tribute to the end of the holiday season and the end of 2011, we have on display here at the Museum this extraordinary gingerbread creation of the UC Davis Pepper Spray meme.

(via bunnyfood)

(Source: nickholmes)

Here ye, here ye!  The Artifacts of Modernity Online Museum is proud to showcase what began as one of the more disturbing acts of police brutality the #Occupy movement has seen yet and now serves as one of the fastest-sweeping memes the internet has seen since Rebecca Black.

Less and less has gone untouched by the now-famous cropped image of Lt. John Pike pepper-spraying innocent sitting protesters.

And now we’re excited to unveil the latest, and most to our Museum-esque liking, installment of the Lt. John Pike Pepper-spray Meme…  Famous Works of Art!

(via OpenCulture) 

Pepper spray students in the face on Friday, and you wake up the face of evil on Saturday. Then, the brunt of some clever jokes on Monday. Look! There’s Lieutenant John Pike popping into the famous painting, The Spirit of ’76, and macing a wounded soldier while he’s down. That’s low.

Now the symbol of French freedom, Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People. Is Pike using pepper spray? Or, on closer inspection, is that a shot of deodorant? Quel con ce mec.

Freedom from Want is part of Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms series of paintings. And guess who is ruining freedom, Thanksgiving and everything wholesome?

Oh, and of all the dinner guests, you had to spray Grandpa?  No mercy, Lt. Pike.

Edward Hopper described his painting Nighthawks as “depict(ing) loneliness and beauty in a uniquely stark yet pleasing fashion,“ but lookie Lt. John Pike taking loneliness to a new level by adding temporary blindness.  Way to ruin all the pleasing-ness for everyone.

Yes, he eventually desecrates Picasso’s anti-war mural, Guernica, too.

Bonus feature:

Bonus track number two (sorry, they’re just too good)

Watch him work the runway… hopefully the nice goodie bag makes up for it.

Bonus feature 3:

Ok last one we promise!

Kudos to Tumblr user ryanhatesthis for the brilliant meme he has created which we’re excited to feature here in the Museum.

This is a new meme I made up called “Primary Source Account Of The Trail Of Tears Hipster Headdress”.

The rampant Islamaphobia in this country is truly despicable.

Thus, no better time than now to turn it into the greatest meme since ‘Harmless Boy Scout Leader’.  Because what better way to shed light on terribly prejudiced, shameful generalizations about an entire ethnicity than by meme-ifying it?  (But seriously, this might be the greatest solution that 2011 offers)

Introducing your average, run-of-the-mill, ORDINARY MUSLIM MAN.

Who hasn’t at some point wanted death to America Online?  What an ordinary guy.

This sounds delicious.

An ordinary, concerned citizen.  Here ye here ye.

And the absolutely-hands-down-100%-this-is-the-winner-you-just-won-the-game winner:

No matter how many times you already may have seen this video that has exploded into the memeosphere in the past week, you simply need to watch it again to end your weekend / start your week.

Background:
- The year - 1991

- The song - “Vogue” by Madonna

- The human dancer - a now 29 year old screenwriter named Robert Jeffrey who posted it on his Vimeo account and says: 

I performed to MADONNA’s ‘VOGUE’ in the Summer of 1991 when my parents took me to Hampton Beach Casino in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. A business in the casino at the time gave tourists the chance to lip-synch to their favorite pop songs in front of a blue screen background, and I was lucky enough to partake that summer. 

Happy late Sunday / early Monday, depending on your current location and approximate hour of day of viewing the Museum.

Just to prove that the leader of your son’s boy scout troop is a kind, up-to-only-good, caring not-pedophiliac, here comes this lovely new meme that’s sure to blow you

…away with its good natured intent.

Presenting: Harmless Scout Leader.

And now for our personal two favorites of the collection:

Introducing Hipster Animals.  Honestly, this doesn’t need much explanation, it’s pretty brilliant / self-expressive / post-ironic / fuzzy wuzzy.  Enjoy:

Which Hipster Animal do you relate to most?  Which do you think defines your personal brand best?

What’s your ideal animal + Williamsburg-chic aesthetic combination?

Most important question: When are they gonna design Blipster Dog??

Yeah, yeah, we see what you did there.

But we also see how horrible “meta” this is via a meme reference within a meme reference within a meme.

(Explanation of the above/how “meta” this is: A girl’s photograph with face paint that makes her “look like a Hitler-esque character” becomes a meme.  Then this image above references the fact that it became a meme.  Then the bottom phrase “Did Nazi that coming” perpetrates the meme of ‘wordplay at the bottom of a memegenerator image’.  But then by reblogging this, we are actively turning this whole image into a meme of sorts.  Oh god, what have we done?  Even we did nazi this coming…)

(via yourmindblown)

(Source: quickmeme.com)

In case you’re unfamiliar with the logistics of the social media communication site Twitter, a Twitter home page consists of a few things, one of which is ‘Trends’.  Trends is a list of the 10 most popular phrases or topics tweeted about on the entire Twittosphere at that moment in time.

On Monday, April 18, 2011, the following was listed at nearly the top of the Trends list: ‘Black Twitter’.  As in, if the social media site had a version for black people.

We here at the Museum have taken the time to archive some of the better tweets that came out of this meme / Trending topic.  Enjoy the following…

Okay, that it might, that’s fair.  Moving on.

Hmmm… colorful and comical, we suppose… not offensive to any race or gender or anything… 

Wait a sec, we thought that Black Twitter would be called Twidda.  Now it’s being called Twizzle?  Which will it be called?  Which name will be used?  (Which seat will I choooose?)

Some people like the user above took to the twittosphere to tweet about how the trending topic seemed rather unethical.  This user not only got to share his opinion openly, but also got to hashtag some 2010-era rhetoric at the end via #justsaying.

Welp, that’s a statement.  Or maybe this is one of those things that’s accepted and okay amongst Black communities to say.  The Museum curator staff apologizes for not being black enough to be sure.

Lolz.  Does that even make sense?  Is Black Twitter really gonna be at the club?  This user clearly sees Black Twitter as not a social media communication site.  We think there’s some confusion going on here.

(FYI, for all non-Twitter users, Twitter is not something that has the capacity to steal your girl or your guy or anyone at a club, or anywhere for that matter.  It is not a living person, just to clear things up.  Maybe more people are confused about this than we think, who knows.)

Gotta love a little #UrbanHonesty.  (The Museum definitely plans on utilizing this hashtag via its Twitter account at twitter.com/ArtofMod in the near future)

Well #UrbanHonesty aside, it seems that some people like Francine Frensky here are clearly upset.  

Okay everyone stop, wait a second, if you also just read Francine Frensky and thought “That name sounds familiar,” it’s definitely because that is the name of the tomboy-ish girl from the kids book series/tv show Arthur.  Yes, she’s the one that resembles a monkey.  

Yeah, dis girl: 

Moving along, and fast…

Good to know some people enjoyed it in all it’s humor and wit.

Oooh, shit gets political.  But that’s pretty fair…  Way to be raw, GrumpyComments.

And finally:

Hope you all enjoyed what we did here.