21 Funny History Memes You Won't Find in Any Textbook

If there's one thing the internet loves, it's making fun of serious historical facts. When people also get a chance to correct others for making factually inaccurate memes, it's like Christmas morning for some web users! Thankfully, the good people over at Reddit's r/historymemes love to share their knowledge of history with a healthy dose of comedy mixed in, so we can laugh while we're learning. Win, win!

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The Wolves Never Saw This Coming

It took over 130,000 years of selective breeding, but we have reached the pinnacle of evolution with our canine companions. We've now got these former apex predators fetching our slippers, sleeping in our beds, and rolling over for belly rubs. Progress!

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So Far, Anyway

"Of the 193 members of the United Nations, Britain has invaded 171 of them."

Since this fact appears on a Snapple bottle cap and puts "Real Facts" in quotes, we had to do a little digging to see if it was true. Scholars tend to bicker over what constitutes an invasion, but generally the answer is yes. Historian Uri Granta asserts, "While the assertion is not totally baseless, it is pretty misleading. By my slightly less sensationalist reckoning, Britain has invaded all but around 63 countries, and even that counts many different ‘types’ of invasion, including very minor ones."

Basically, sending aid to a foreign country hardly counts as an invasion... but we guess it depends on who you ask.

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You're the Real M.V.P.

The folks on Reddit's r/historymemes are doing their part to spread knowledge in the funniest way possible. Heroes, every last one.

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The Other Side of the Story

Americans are so used to hearing about "taxation without representation," but perhaps the British have a different perspective on our little revolutionary experiment? Frankly, we never thought to ask.

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It Just Doesn't Have the Same Ring to It

At least his name was Romulus and not something embarrassing. Rome could have been called something like Smut or Knob Lick, after all.

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Good Guy Vikings

You call it pillaging and thievery, we call it preserving history. Tomato, tomah-to.

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Really? Never?

In case you're not familiar, the yellow vests (or yellow jackets) movement is a populist, grassroots political movement for economic justice that began in France in 2018.

While we're certain that these protests have been a big deal in France, we can't help but giggle over the claim to be the biggest protest in history. Anybody else remember that little thing called the French Revolution?

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"Inconceivable!"

Now we know where William Goldman got the idea for the "iocaine powder" in "The Princess Bride!"

This meme is correct. Mithridates VI was the king of Pontus and Armenia Minor in northern Anatolia from about 120–63 BC. He did indeed build up a tolerance to poison, only to attempt to kill himself with poison and fail. To this day, antidote drugs and the practice of building an immunity to certain poisons are called Mithridatic drugs.

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It Must Run in the Family

It's funny because it's true! In 1842 Joseph Geefs created "The Angel of Evil," a marble depiction of Lucifer that was installed in St. Paul’s Cathedral in Liege, Belgium. Apparently, church officials weren't pleased with the original statue because they thought the statue's parted knees and the snake winding around his legs were too scandalous, so they commissioned Geef's older brother, Guillaume Geefs, to create a new statue of Lucifer called "The Genius of Evil."

The new statue is even more buff than the last one, but hey—no snake. We guess that's a win?

The original statue now resides at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, where it's no doubt corrupting the minds of all who see it. Typical Lucifer!

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Just a Poor Copy

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right guys? Right?

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Beware of Phony Scholars

"Where did you get your degree in history?"

"YouTube, mostly."

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Art History for the Win

No matter how many masterpieces Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh created in his lifetime, he'll always be remembered for cutting off his ear. What's up with that? You cut off one little body part and that's suddenly your legacy?

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1914 - 1918

I don't know why they called it "the Great War." It seems pretty terrible when you read up on it.

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A Harsh Truth

Well, aren't you just a ray of sunshine. There are lots of great, happy things that happened in history too.... We just can't think of any off the top of our heads.

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It's a Good Joke, But...

Okay, this one is funny but not exactly true. Copernicus did present the theory that the Earth revolves around the sun, not vice versa. However, the church didn't set him on fire for this theory. In 1543, the seventy-year-old mathematician and astronomer died from natural causes right after being presented with the final printed pages of his Dē revolutionibus orbium coelestium.

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Adam Really Does Ruin Everything

Okay, so Napoleon was most likely an average height for his time (some say he was about 5'7"), so the fact that he was supposed to be so tiny is one of the most perpetuated myths in history. On r/historymemes, everyone loves correcting this fact the first chance they get.

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Blame Caesar for This One

Two thousand years ago the largest library in the ancient world burned to the ground. The library is said to have contained original volumes of work from the greatest thinkers in history, including Socrates, Plato, Homer, and more.

After Julius Caesar's death, the truth came out and it turns out he was most likely responsible for setting the blaze that caused "the greatest catastrophe of the ancient world."

Nice going, Caesar. Reeeeal smooth.

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The Ice King Always Wins

Does "Game of Thrones" actually take place in Russia, or...? Asking for a friend.

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In a Time Before Selfies

Before we knew about angles and filters to make us look better in pictures we were stuck living with whatever the artist's interpretation of us happened to be. Might be a good idea to kiss up to the artist before he starts painting, am I right, ladies?

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Oh, Yeah. A Real Gas.

"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?"

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Columbus Gonna Columbus

There are so many misconceptions about Christopher Columbus it makes our head spin, but one thing we do know is that the Native Americans were here way before America was "discovered."

If you liked these history memes, you'll love these 25 Hilarious Historical Facts You Won't Believe Actually Happened.