2016 killed off a lot of people, but this one is just too much. The greatest internet meme ever, the “Wat Grandma,” passed away on Dec. 17, 2016. The meme, which is just a picture of a very confused old lady, spread like wildfire, quickly lighting up the internet like wildfire. She’s been photoshopped on everything from celebrities, to other memes to even light bulbs.
The internet is filled with forum posts celebrating the life of “wat grandma” and the sorrow of her passing. Nobody is really sure where the original picture came from, or how it grew in popularity. The meme started sometime around 2013 and then blew up from there. A 4chan poster in 2014 managed to find a real picture of the grandma, who claims that she didn’t even know she was an internet superstar.
I can’t even prove that she’s dead. This could all be just an elaborate hoax to try and gain sympathy on the internet, which is far from the weirdest thing that’s happened online.
Still, if she has passed, we lost an actual legend. The “wat” meme will live on past her memory. Like Prince and David Bowie, the spirit of “wat” grandma will never die.
