This Was A Meme Before Memes

When I discovered the Internet in its vastness years ago, there was one thing that didn't surprise me about it: Memes.

You see, my family independently invented the meme in the early/mid-'90s.

One of the earliest household memes was an "interact-with-the-environment" line from the 1995 LucasArts biker RPG Full Throttle:



For weeks after first playing the demo (we never quite got the full game), almost everyone in the household would repeat this (slightly mutated to "I ain't puttin' my lips on that") to each other at vaguely appropriate (or inappropriate) times.

Of a random piece of food that hit the floor or was ruined by a mischievous cat: "I ain't puttin' my lips on that."

Of something that was merely incidentally unpleasant: "I ain't puttin' my lips on that."

Apropos of nothing whatsoever: "I ain't puttin' my lips on that."

It still came up months and even years later, and even with virtually no context, my sister remembered what Full Throttle was.

That's a sign that a line, even a silly throwaway one, is memorable.

-Signing off.