SurrealMemes

SurrealMemes

Status	Active
Subscribers	905,000+
Owner	u/ThePokemon_BandaiD
Founded	January 19, 2016
Founder	u/magicsdevil
Discord	SurrealMemes (Discord Server)
Link	https://www.reddit.com/r/surrealmemes/

/r/SurrealMemes is a subreddit devoted to the concept of surreal memes, they are a sub-genre of ironic memes that are artistically bizarre in their appearance, similar to DeepFriedMemes but not exactly, as there are subtle differences that make a surreal meme.

What Fits into The Subreddit

Surreal, often artistically bizarre memes. Remember, surreal memes are essentially dank memes that are so incredibly dank they're on another plane of existence. Surreal memes can be hard to understand for humans at times, but given enough thought we may be able to find humor in them.

Top 5 Posts

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Rules

• 1. All posts must be surreal.
• 2. Comments that you make should be surreal, make them look out of place, it is preferred.
• 3. The mods have the ultimate say in what counts.
• 4. Only downvote if you don't think the post belongs
• 5. No hate speech or personal insults
• 6. No brand names or advertisement. Use fake brands. You can make up or modify existing brand names, but using real brands in posts is usually a no-no.
• 7. Follow the stickied posting guide. Posts should be surreal in the traditional 20th-century artistic sense. No r/DankMemes or r/DeepFriedMemes-style posts.
• 8. No politics.
• 9. No reposts.

Timeline of Subreddit Events

Origins

The origins of what was known as surreal memes started way back around 2015, as certain facebook meme groups would create proto-surreal content before the creation of the subreddit. On January 19th, 2016 a subreddit devoted to these surreal memes would be created by user u/magicsdevil. It remained relatively small over the course of 2016, not even being able to hit one thousand subscribers in that year alone.

Newcomer Flood

The growth of the subreddit began surging in the beginning of 2017. On January 5th, 2017 the subreddit would reach 1 thousand subscribers. In around a year the subreddit would reach over 30,000 subscribers, thus something had to be done by the mods for the subreddit not to go fully into shit.

On February 8th, 2017 the mod u/typicallydankmemes would post an announcement to help newcomers make good, fitting memes after a recent wave in popularity of the subreddit. (He would state that the subreddit reached around 34,000 subscribers as of writing the announcement) he would state that the levels of posts which fit the subreddit, aswell as their quality had gone down, thus something akin to a guide had to be made, what made a surreal post, and what didn't. Within the announcement there would be five main questions that the mod wished to ask newcomers that were about to post a meme they made or found.

1. Does your meme make you and possibly others question reality?
2. Does your meme make memes on r/me_irl and r/dankmemes look like they were made by normies?
3. Does your meme have some sort of hidden meaning behind it?
4. Is your meme relatable in some far off, specific way?
5. Does your meme have more content than just random stuff with Meme Man, Orang, Pillar, or other characters? (Meme Man, Orang, aswell as Pillar are very iconic characters within the subreddit, during the early days they were constantly used in surreal-like memes.) Especially on youtube, where many youtubers would make videos and series with these characters, making them play out strange stories and different act

If a person answered YES to all of these questions, then their meme fit what a surreal meme was.

“	Surreal memes are NOT just normal images that have been severely messed up in photoshop. Those should go here: r/deepfriedmemes. They are also NOT just Meme Man, Orang, Pillar, and other characters scattered around with random stuff. Surreal memes are also not "memes" you'd find on r/funny, as they are almost always not even past irony level one. To get a feel for what a surreal meme is if you still are questioning yourself, scroll down to the bottom of this subreddit and look at those memes. Those are some of the most surreal memes I've ever laid eyes on. Thanks to all those new subs, I came here when we were at just a few hundred and now we are almost at 35,000! I don't mean to offend anybody or be mean, I just want to make sure that this subreddit stays as surreal as possible as more and more people continue to join.	„
	— u/typicallydankmemes

Temporary Meme Man Ban

On March 3rd, 2017 Meme Man would be temporarily banned off the subreddit, eventually he would later be unbanned due to it being a somewhat controversial move.

Creation of Official Discord Server

On March 23rd, 2017 the moderators of the subreddit would announce the creation of an official /r/SurrealMemes discord server, as someone had requested that it was made. It is still relatively active and has reached around 2,300 users.

/r/Place Attempt and Creation of /r/SurrealLore

On March 29th, 2017 the owner of the subreddit, u/ThePokemon_BandaiD would begin discussing a possible concept, starting a subreddit that branches off from the ideas of /r/SurrealMemes. But is aimed at just text posts rather than photos. Focused on surreal meme stories such as made up backstories for memes, and etc. With around 50 comments, there was a somewhat large discussion about if the subreddit should be even created, as many users stated that what made the subreddit special in the first place was its complete detachment from reality, and adding a storyline would go against everything that the Surrealist movement stood for. And that the majority of the subreddit's surrealism had already been lost, and this would be the final nail in the coffin.

“	Agree 100 percent. The second any form of story or lore is created, it stops being surreal. Even the relationship of meme man and orang being antagonistic towards each other is too coherent.	„
	— Users' Opinion

On April 2nd, 2017 u/ThePokemon_BandaiD would announce that the subreddit was partaking in /r/Place. A 50x50 pixel wide and long meme man was to be made from ground up, the location was to be a rainbow around the (600, 430) coordinates. Afterwards the sister /r/SurrealLore subreddit was to become the main hub for discussions regarding this. On April 4th, 2017 r/SurrealLore was finally officially announced to be a new sister subreddit, a new post equivalent of the SurrealMemes subreddit.

Change to Approved Posts Only

On December 2nd, 2017 users who wanted to post something would have to become an approved submitter first, thanks to the flood of new users the subreddit would constantly have off-topic posts, aswell as memes that did not fit the subreddit. In order to combat this, the subreddit would be restricted to approved submitters only, users could request approval by posting an OC meme in /r/SurrealApprovals. There would be some guidelines to follow if you wished to be approved, such as to be original, not repost, not use any of the recurring characters, put time and effort into your meme, etc.

“	When r/surrealmemes was young, nearly all of the posts were high quality and fairly original. Since the subreddit has rapidly expanded, most of the posts are low-effort and/or don't fit the subreddit. This approval method introduces an initial level of quality control to keep the subreddit clean.	„
	— u/MC_Labs15

Small February 2018 Changes

Icon of RavioliBoi's Youtube Channel.

On February 24th, 2018 20 new flairs would be released for users of the subreddit, these would be : unacceptable lobster, long tea, cubed person, baguettes, sipp, red, A X O L O T L, dave, corrong, leg, the elevated one, hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, sorry about that, i am not good with computer and a few other ones.

RavioliBoi Takeover

On April 1st, 2018 the subreddit would become a RavioliBoi themed community, raviolibot was the character of a popular facebook group and a small youtube channel.

Subreddit Restoration Act of November 2nd, 2018

On November 2nd, 2018 the mod u/MC_Labs15 would begin a meta discussion, "Restoring Meme Man and /r/SurrealMemes to their former glory." Meme man was originally a niche character used in a variety of places such as the "Special Meme Fresh" Facebook page as a stand-in character, Meme man had few consistent attributes and a heavy emphasis on the bizarre and surrealistic scenarios he was in, as the character gained popularity, the quality of his representation began to suffer. (And after the normies found him out... It was OVER...) The subreddit was also not in a good state, the rules had been far too loosely enforced, and the moderation team was far too small to effectively enforce quality control over the subreddit. Some things had been done such as the approval system, but the subreddit was still not in a good shape, a discussion was commenced to discuss how to properly fix the state of the subreddit, there would be around 75 comments in the megathread, discussing everything and what to do to help the subreddit and Meme man return to their former glory.

The Great Downfall of /r/SurrealMemes

Around the time of 2019-2022 moderators of the subreddit would get somewhat drained out of their energy and determination to keep the subreddit going, many low quality posts would start appearing quite often, and there were many posts made by users often criticizing the shameful state of the subreddit, the issue of people posting unrelated memes would come back, the subreddit was unmoderated for a long time, and after that it was taken over by new moderation with a somewhat different course of what the subreddit's future should be.

The Posting Guide

Posting Guide, Repost Preventions

On December 2nd, 2022 mod u/spacemanaut would post an /r/SurrealMemes posting guide, to help new members and posters alike in knowing what should and what should not be on the subreddit. On May 6th, 2023 a bot was added to counter a recent increase of reposts within the community. There were also small community polls to help determine what the users of the subreddit want to see done with it's state and future. There were also moderator applications, in which users u/horrorkitten96 and /u/Rethy11 became moderators of the subreddit.

List of Subreddit Moderators

• u/spacemanaut
• u/ThePokemon_BandaiD
• u/MC_Labs15
• u/Llim
• u/ashcastor
• u/horrorkitten96
• u/Rethy11

Banned Content

• PSA-style posts ("beware the X for it Y", "do not X because Y", etc)
• Void and "surreal warnings"

SurrealMemes is part of a series on Meme Subreddits Visit the Subreddit Portal for complete coverage.