speech 100 meme meaning

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How skyrim gave birth to the hilarious speech 100 meme.

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It's the ability everyone would love to unlock in real-life, so here's how The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim gave birth to the hilarious Speech 100 meme. It speaks to the quality of Skyrim that a game that was first released back in 2011 is still being talked about to this day. Bethesda Softworks ( Fallout 4 ) created a sprawling fantasy sandbox for players to explore, where no two playthroughs are ever the same.

From slaying dragons to the perils of buying a house, Skyrim offers danger and excitement at every corner. In keeping with a lot of Bethesda titles the game has been criticized for numerous bugs and technical flaws that can impact the experience, but the truth is the game is such a rich, in-depth adventure that players tend to overlook a lot of these issues. Even experienced players are still uncovering new things about the game years later.

RELATED: How Skyrim's Survival Mode Changes The Game

One of the upgradable skills in Skyrim is speech, with a higher level opening up more dialogue options. This can be particularly useful for bringing down prices with merchants, bartering or persuading NPCs to give up particular information during a quest. Naturally, maxing out this ability and reaching level 100 is a very useful skill for players to have, and it quickly spawned the Speech 100 meme.

The joke behind this  Skyrim meme involves someone who comes out with a particularly witty comeback or can convince anyone they're telling the truth, regardless of how outrageous the lie. The meme first became popular when attached to a photo of a real-life escaped prisoner managing to convince a police officer he was just out jogging. Naturally, the memes become more exaggerated, outlandish and dark from there.

Like the "Who Created Kirby" meme or the Get Out challenge, it's strange to see how something can evolve into a meme that just keeps running. In the case of Speech 100, there are a lot of hilarious examples out there, so it's a meme that will likely continue for a long time to come. The meme extends to other Skyrim skills too, such as Illusion 100 or Sneak 100.

On that note, Speech 100 is clearly a good skill to acquire in Skyrim itself, though it can be a grind reaching that level. That are some in-game exploits that be used to reach this level faster, though the honest way to Speech 100 is buying and selling a lot of items, with repeatedly buying and selling expensive gear one method of getting there quickly.

Next: How A Google Glitch Created The "Who Created Kirby?" Meme

• SR Originals
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Quick links : Meaning | Origin | Spread & Usage

What does Sneak 100 mean?

Sneak 100 is the most popular skill from the Skyrim skill tree meme series, some of which include Speech 100 and the fanmade Wholesome 100 .

It is usually photoshopped on to pictures or texts that involve someone having great skills at sneaking, both as a sincere and ironic reaction to one’s elusiveness.

“Sneak 100” remains a popular meme, even a decade after the release of “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim,”  appearing on sites like  Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and  Tumblr .

What's the origin of Sneak 100 ?

The screenshots for the image macro series come from the 2011 roleplaying videogame, “ The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim,”  where players are able to invest in their character’s skills on a sky, filled with various constellations. Players have several skills they can choose from to level up, including the Sneak, Speech, One-Handed as well as Illusion skills, all of which are popular meme material online.

The first meme that involved a screenshot from the Skyrim skill tree was uploaded to Reddit by Autistic_Spinning on June 18 th , 2017.

Spread & Usage

How did Sneak 100 spread?

Following June, 2017, memes like “Sneak 100” started flooding the internet, photoshopped on to screenshots of chat conversations, news articles as well as game screenshots, frequently appearin on sites like  Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter and  Tumblr .

“Sneak 100” was first defined on Urban Dictionary in 2019, which further increased its recognition online.

As of 2023, the use of the  Skyrim skill memes has become limited, although the odd image macro still appears online every now and then.

External resources

• Fandom – The Elder Scrolls Wiki
• Urban Dictionary – Sneak 100

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The Skyrim skill tree meme is one of the oldest memes that are still being used. It can be used to express someones skill (or the lack of it) in any given area of expertise. The meme has been modified and reused in many ways.

The "Elder Scrolls" games by Bethesda have been quite popular for a while now, with the fifth game of the series, "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim", winning multiple "Game of the year" awards. It is within the 20 most sold games of all time. As such, the game has been the origin of multiple memes, the best known of which is probably the Skyrim skill tree meme.

In the game, the player has a set of skills that can be leveled up to a level of 100 and start off on 15, in addition to a bonus that is given to particular skills depending on the player's choice of race.

On June 18th in the year 2017, the user u/Autistic_Spinning posted the very first variation of this meme , containing a screenshot of a YouTube video that was titled "Prison Escapee Convinces Cop He is Actually a Jogger", combined with the "Speech 100" version of the meme.

Starting with this, the meme was used all over reddit and other platforms, with variations like replacing the "100" with a "0" or the "Speech" with any other Skyrim skill or even unrelated things. The most notable versions apart from "Speech 100" include "Sneak 100", "Restoration 100", "Illusion 100" and "Block 100".

The meme is mostly used to emphasize someones skill in a particular area, but can also be modified to show the opposite. It can serve the purpose of explaining or repeating the joke of an image that would already be funny by itself. Sometimes, the meme is used in a sarcastic way, showing how skilled people believe they are, but aren't.

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What Is a Meme? The History and Evolution Of Memes Explained

Over the past 25 years, memes have become one of the most dominant forms of not only comedy but communication online.

There's nothing you can't say with a meme, and they're used by everyone from Gen Alpha all the way to boomers , even becoming a tool for politicians and brands in the modern day. What used to be a niche internet phenomenon has now transcended, with knowledge of memes becoming absolutely necessary to successfully decipher the social media landscape.

The history of memes is long, complicated and difficult to summarize, but here's a very brief overview of how they've evolved over the past few decades, beginning with the meaning and origin behind the term itself.

What Is a Meme?

Defining a meme isn't as easy as you might think. On the most basic, structural level, some might define memes as anything that spreads virally online. This is true, but only covers the online aspect of meme culture. In reality, the term "meme" is far more broad, encompassing just about anything that spreads through human interaction whether online or not.

The term "meme," derived from the Greek word "mimema" meaning "something imitated," was coined by evolutionary biologist and author Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene , which focuses on the importance of self-replication in natural selection.

In the book, Dawkins postulated that not only does biological information undergo natural selection, but that anything capable of replicating itself would also be susceptible to selection pressures, like ideas and beliefs. This can cover anything from a theory to a slang term to a funny picture of a cat .

Memes go through a process of "memetic evolution" through which they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures. This process is arguably the most visible online, where we've seen memes evolve and mutate countless times. However, it's important to keep in mind that memes are not an online-only phenomenon, with some of the earliest memes far-predating the internet.

Even the word "meme" has gone through memetic evolution over the past few decades. Now, it's common to see it used as a verb with terms like " get memed on ," " well memed " and " memeing " becoming increasingly prevalent in online discourse.

People who make or share memes might consider themselves "memers" and those who have mastered the craft might call themselves " memelords ." We've even seen the rise of meme sub-categories and terms, like " dank memes ," " deep-fried memes, " "moldy memes" and " wholesome memes ."

This evolution of the term was not only essential as memes rose to prominence online but also necessary and unavoidable. It acts as a perfect example of how anything and everything can succumb to memetic evolution. So, what are some of the earliest examples of memes?

What Are Considered Some Of The Earliest Memes? (1920s—1990s)

Many consider Kilroy Was Here , a graffiti doodle drawn in various locations by U.S. soldiers during WWII , a prime example of a pre-internet meme that resembles what we see on social media today.

Through natural memetic evolution, soldiers saw and perhaps discussed the Kilroy drawing and chose to replicate it to spread its reach, turning it into a well-known symbol of WWII all these years later. As old as the meme is, it fits the mold of what makes a "modern internet meme" almost perfectly.

This same practice is done every day online: A meme page, community or creator sees a funny meme, they repost it, it gains visibility and this inevitably leads to further reposts and mutations.

Another interesting example is a 1921 comic strip comedically comparing someone's expectations after taking a photograph, to the reality of the photograph, as an early example of a meme format. This one's a little more debatable, though, as the image never gained significant spread until it was rediscovered by the internet.

In the same vein as Kilroy, the graffiti Frodo Lives similarly spread as a meme in the '60s following the paperback release of the Lord of the Rings novels. The phrase could be seen on bumper stickers, buttons, spray painted on walls, you name it.

"Frodo Lives" is largely considered a part of hippie counterculture, with Lord of the Rings being much less popular back then until the paperback was released. Kilroy and Frodo Lives are only two of many memes that have spread like this, with another prominent, more modern example being " The Manny Will Be Televised ."

Even with this knowledge of early memes and memetic evolution, it's extremely difficult to nail down the first true meme. With the internet being a more contained realm than the entirety of human history, you might think it's easier to find the first internet meme, but unfortunately, that's not the case.

While much of the early internet has been archived in some way or another, a much larger portion has been lost to time. Memes can start in the most unexpected of places, from niche forums to chat rooms to long-forgotten websites. We do, however, have a good idea of some of the earliest internet memes.

When it comes to the internet, there are two memes that are widely cited as the first-ever, but lots of people argue over this. The first is Godwin's Law , an adage positing that the longer a conversation goes online, the more probable it becomes that Hitler or Nazis will be brought into the discussion.

Originally, the law pertained to Usenet threads and first appeared in 1990, but it gained widespread notoriety throughout the mid-to-late 1990s.

ASCII art and emoticons might be considered another early internet meme. As a concept, ASCII art, the practice of making images out of letters and numbers, has existed since the late 1800s when people began making images using typewriters. In the '90s, this concept gained further memetic spread online, remaining a prevalent practice today.

The abbreviation " LOL " has purportedly existed in its current form (standing for "laugh out loud") since the mid-1980s, when it was coined on a bulletin board system, a primitive method of communicating online, in Alberta, Canada.

The '80s iteration was actually a memetic evolution from the days of letter writing when LOL stood for "lots of love" or "lots of luck." Since then it's gone through a similar memetic evolution as "meme," seeing use as a verb with terms like "I lol'd."

In 1996, the " Dancing Baby " became one of the first widespread, mainstream memes, based on a widely spread animation of a diaper-wearing baby twirling around. The meme spread through email chains and became so popular that it was even referenced in an episode of The Simpsons in 2000.

In 1998, All Your Base became one of the first widespread gaming memes, with the Hampster Dance becoming another dominant meme in 1999.

These memes were inarguably much simpler than the memes we see going viral in the 2020s, but they set the stage for what comedy and communication look like on the internet today. It was a time of experimentation and learning and many of the elements that made these memes prevalent online remain visible in today's most iconic formats.

How Have Memes Evolved In The 2000s?

Memes changed a lot in the first decade of the 2000s, which is when many people's ideas of the "internet meme" as a concept originated. Coming out of the '90s, we saw the language of the internet develop through acronyms like "ROFL" and "LOL" with trends like LOL ASCII spawning memes such as the ROFLcopter .

Celebrities and pop culture icons also started to become the subject of memes, from more absurd examples like Bert is Evil to legendary actors like Chuck Norris .

Viral videos also started to take over as some of the most dominant memes, especially after YouTube launched in December 2005, bringing us rapid-fire meme hits at a pace never seen before. Between 2004 and 2009, we were blessed with classic hits like Chocolate Rain, Numa Numa, Salad Fingers, Charlie Bit My Finger , Keyboard Cat and the still beloved trend of Rickrolling thanks to the increasing prevalence of videos on the internet.

During this era, memes started to seep outside of the internet to more mainstream audiences more than ever, particularly the ones born from viral videos. We even saw mainstream celebrities, including talk show hosts like Ellen Degeneres, reacting to memes on TV, displaying early signs of their growing importance in mainstream discourse.

Of course, image macro formats still had their place on sites like 4chan , with memes like LOLcats becoming incredibly prominent around 2005, but there was no escaping the hold that viral videos had on internet users during this time.

Then, in the late 2000s, Advice Animal and Rage Comic formats brought image macros to new heights of popularity, paving the way for some of the most influential meme formats of the next decade. We also saw the rise of memetic characters such as Slender Man , ushering in a new era of creepypastas .

Loss is also worth mentioning as one of the most continually powerful memes to this day. The meme is one of the earliest viral examples of a meme that became so ingrained in internet culture that just the vague shape of its panels became a recognizable meme in and of itself .

For the chronically online, the shape of Loss became the ultimate test of whether or not you got memes, leading the way for still far-off formats like " things that look like Among Us ."

By 2010, memes were solidified as one of the most popular forms of comedy and communication on the internet, at least for those who understood them. Doge, who remains one of the most legendary memes to this day, burst onto the scene in late 2010 and shook up the entire landscape, going on to inspire Doge comics and Dogelore as it became one of the most well-known icons on the web.

Rage Comics continued to dominate the online landscape early on during this era, bringing people comparably iconic images like the Trollface . Between 2010 and 2014, we notably saw memes like Bad Luck Brian and Scumbag Steve become online cultural icons, solidifying the idea (along with Rage Comics) that relatable=success when it comes to memes.

Then, sometime around 2013, memes started to take a dank , ironic and edgy turn.

Pepe the Frog , who had been around mostly as the " Feels Bad Man " format since 2009, started to become a widely used meme to convey more abstract ideas, with celebrities like Nicki Minaj , Katy Perry and even Donald Trump using it in the mid-2010s. Pepe also saw his fair share of controversy, getting embroiled in meme warfare with accusations of being a tool of the far-right.

Memes in the latter half of the 2010s became more absurd, relying on shock value along with nonsensical imagery and elements for humor.

Nostalgic animated films like Shrek and Bee Movie were turned into meme legends, Doge became a comic star, the most common elements of MLG edits became ironic meme fodder and, in 2016, Harambe the Gorilla was killed, leaving a permanent scar on social media.

It wasn't long after Harambe's death that Donald Trump became the President, coinciding with an increase in anti-SJW memes, cringe compilations and Karen content. There were a lot more memes and meme formats going viral faster and harder than ever before, and fewer and fewer of them made any real sense to those outside of the know.

This all led to what many consider the " surreal era " of memes between 2017 and 2020, denoted by formats like Lord Marquaad E, Ugandan Knuckles , the B emoji and deep-fried memes .

Around this timeframe, many meme lovers seemingly abandoned all sense and strived to create the most outlandish formats possible, perhaps in an effort to reclaim the "inside joke" feeling of early memes.

Some consider the early 2020s to be the " post-ironic " meme era. Many of the most well-known memes from the past four or five years, whether it's Wojak Comics, Trollface Incidents or Chad vs. Virgins , have a more cynical and reflective tone to them.

They borrow from tried-and-true meme tactics, such as relatability, recognizable iconography and even absurdity, but many have abandoned surrealism to focus more on cultural criticism as online culture wars have become increasingly popularized.

Depression has been a topic of memes throughout the 2010s, but it's never been so outwardly present in memes as it is in the 2020s. More often than ever, memes are being used to make legitimate cultural critiques in a humorous or inflammatory way. Of course, surreal and absurd memes still exist in their own circles, they're just not as desirable as those that take a stance among many these days.

One of the most notable formats of the 2020s was Among Us . The game was released in 2020 and became a smash hit thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic , reaching a level of oversaturation so mighty that it became one of the biggest post-ironic memes of all time. The memes were absurd and far-reaching, used to both make fun of those addicted to the game while also helping keep the game relevant.

This trend repeated itself with films like Morbius , which memers wouldn't let rest as a simply bad movie, instead turning it into more of a meme than a film. The popularity of social media and memes in general allowed both criticism and rampant embracement of these properties to reach new heights for better and for worse.

Conversely, beloved shows like Breaking Bad and The Sopranos became ironic meme hits as ways to celebrate them long after their finales.

Now, we're seeing the rise of artificial intelligence and what that does to the meme landscape.

Largely, people are revolting against it as it gets better every single month. Still, AI has resulted in some of the biggest memes of the 2020s and has become one of the most widely used tools to create memes as of late.

We're also really starting to see Gen Z and Gen Alpha's take on meme culture thanks to sites like TikTok becoming increasingly dominant in the digital landscape, which has made the rate at which memes come and go faster than ever before.

Memes are more varied than ever in the 2020s, and no matter what fandom you're in or what meme genre you're into, you can find exactly what you're looking for with just a little digging.

There's no telling what the next decade might bring in terms of memes, but one thing seems sure — memes will remain the primary form of online discourse for a long time to come.

For the full history of memes, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.

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The Kamala Harris coconut tree meme, explained as best we can

Lexie Schapitl

Rachel Treisman

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to members of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center on July 10 in Dallas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images hide caption

For more on Biden's decision and the now open 2024 race, head to the NPR Network's live updates page .

In the weeks before President Biden announced he would not be seeking reelection , some Democrats online rallied behind Vice President Kamala Harris to become the party’s new nominee. And their symbol became the coconut tree.

Not long after Biden announced on Sunday he was dropping out of the race, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis tweeted out just three emojis : a coconut, a palm tree and an American flag. EMILYs LIST, the PAC focused on electing Democratic women, explicitly endorsed Harris in a tweet and, in a more subtle show of support, also added the tree and the coconut to its username. And Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii posted a picture of himself climbing up a coconut tree , adding, "Madam Vice President, we are ready to help."

🥥 🌴 🇺🇸 — Jared Polis (@jaredpolis) July 21, 2024

So how did the coconut tree emerge as the emblem of Harris' most devoted, or at least most-online followers? It's a story more than a year in the making.

Why are we even talking about coconut trees?

The “coconut tree” meme originates from a May 2023 speech Harris gave at a White House event for advancing opportunities for Hispanic Americans.

At one point near the end of her remarks, Harris talked about how the initiative's work would be focused on young people, but it should also take into account the needs of their families, teachers and communities, "because none of us just live in a silo."

We’re proud to endorse @kamalaharris as the next president of the United States because we know she is a qualified accomplished leader. She is the only candidate positioned to win against Trump in November, and the best voice to define the stakes in this election! #allinforkamala pic.twitter.com/CmdgImMaDz — EMILYs List 🥥🌴 (@emilyslist) July 21, 2024

"Everything is in context," Harris said, before launching into the now-famous anecdote.

"My mother ... would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, 'I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?' " Harris said with a laugh. "You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you."

The moment was first meme’d in earnest in February of this year, when for a period of time, one could not open X, formerly known as Twitter, without seeing clips of or oblique references to those remarks.

this video is literally like medicine to me. i watch it once every week or two and every time i do i get an enduring hit of light euphoria for the next 45 minutes pic.twitter.com/eIF6Rwiir0 — charlie squire (@evil_female) February 9, 2024

But the meme took on new life this summer , after President Biden’s disastrous debate performance fueled speculation that he might step aside as the Democratic nominee. Harris’ supporters, also known as the KHive, were waiting in the wings.

Since then, the moment has been remixed into Charli XCX’s “ Von Dutch ” and Britney Spears’ " Gimme More ." Democratic operatives have spoken of being “ coconut-pilled .” The meme flourished into 2028 debate fan fiction . Google searches for "coconut tree" started climbing in the U.S. in early July.

Like all of us, the coconut tree moment exists in the context of all in which it lives and what came before it. Which is to say, it’s part of a larger set of memes surrounding Kamala Harris’ political persona. Harris has been spawning memes longer than she’s been vice president. We Did It, Joe , is likely the most well-known. But her laugh , her bus , her dance moves and her love of Venn diagrams have all become social media fodder.

We did it, @JoeBiden . pic.twitter.com/oCgeylsjB4 — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 7, 2020

So why did the coconut tree break through?

It's impossible to say why any particular meme — political or otherwise — catches fire over another. But part of Harris’ persona as portrayed on the internet is just that she   brings an energy that’s in stark contrast to President Biden and former President Donald Trump.

“We want something to laugh at and laugh with. And that's what Kamala does. And I think the coconut tree clip is a perfect example of that,” said Rebecca Jennings, a senior correspondent at Vox covering internet culture. 

Put another way, Harris — even being 59 and the incumbent vice president —represented something new in a campaign defined by old. And that stoked some enthusiasm among voters who were very unenthused.

“There's a sense of, like, nihilism that's like – OK, we have to do this again , and we have to do Trump and Biden again ,” Jennings said. “And so when you see clips of Kamala, it's like, well, at least that's fun to watch. At least it's, you know, not the same thing we've been seeing on screens for 10 years. It's a break in the just the drudgery of what what everyone thought this election was going to be.”

Young Democrats — among the most dissatisfied with Biden as a candidate, and the most online — also helped fuel the movement. As Washington Post internet culture reporter Taylor Lorenz wrote : "Harris’s new online prominence could help give the Democratic Party new prominence with young people — including major content creators — who are hesitant to vote for Biden again due to his climate policies, support of Israel’s war in Gaza, mishandling of the ongoing pandemic, and signing a bill that could ban TikTok."

One man's gaffe is another man's meme

From the coconut trees to the Venn diagrams, the Harris memes embrace what detractors might consider a gaffe. Trump, for instance, has dubbed Harris " laughing Kamala ," saying the laugh makes her seem "crazy."

Take another example, which grew out of one of Harris' go-to lines dating back to her 2020 presidential run: “I can imagine what can be, unburdened by what has been.”

The RNC compiled a supercut of Harris being "unburdened" and shared it on social media, arguing that it shows she is “unoriginal, annoying, and highly incompetent.” But the attacks aren’t sticking, as her supporters have taken ownership of the line and the laughter.

Jennings said it’s reminiscent of the critiques hurled at Trump throughout his political career, only to be welcomed by his base.

“People like the fact that he was saying offensive things,” Jennings said. "And I think it's strange for Republicans to kind of now be on the other end of that – which is making all these, you know, memes and videos of Kamala being goofy and quirky and the left being like, “Hell, yeah, brother.”

• election 2024
• Kamala Harris
• internet memes

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Memes! A way of describing cultural information being shared. An element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.

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