Got a username mention today on Reddit and got this blast from the past. Had no idea that I had entered the halls of meme history but not how I had hoped...
It's STORYTIME!
And in my usual fashion, provide you a lesson in meme history.🤓
Too bad I didn't realize that!
What If Zelda Was A Girl?, otherwise known as Link and Zelda Confusion, refers to a common mistake by people with little to no prior knowledge of The Legend of Zelda video game series confusing Princess Zelda for the protagonist, Link. The question "what if Zelda was a girl?" became a copypasta used to troll users on 4chan sometime around 2010, spreading across social media in the years since.
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/what-if-zelda-was-a-girl
So, where do I come into this story?
From the Spread (how the meme spread):
Confusion between Link and Zelda, as well as jokes about it, have persisted online over the last decade. On May 18th, 2015, Redditor u/alexd281 posted an image to /r/facepalm[2] of a shirt being sold online with an image of a gender-swapped version of Link that read, "What if Zelda was a girl?" referencing the meme, garnering over 470 upvotes in six years (shown below, left). Many, including the OP, were unaware of the meme and believed the shirt was legitimately claiming Zelda was a girl, which the OP admitted to in a comment that day (shown below, right).
Edit: I think they meant legitimately claim Zelda was not a girl but you get the gist.
If memes were akin to a virus which British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins had likened them to in his essay "Viruses of the Mind", then I served as a vector of transmission for this one.
You could even say I was a Super Spreader!
That's my story but now I must pass the torch to the next generation. /u/Low-Volume-8358 looks like you're it!
And you can bet your ass I'm going to username mention them with a link to this post so I will be finally freed from the facepalm facepalms curse. 😂