The so-called lolrus was actually a southern elephant seal named Minazo. He was born in Uruguay, but spent most of his life in Japan where, measuring 4.5 meters long and weighing around two tons, he was said to be the largest seal in the country. Minazo died in October 2005 at the age of 11, and made his meme debut posthumously in June 2006 on YTMND. To this day Wikipedia considers him "one of the most famous southern elephant seals". Merzbow released a two-volume album (1, 2) in his memory.

RIP Minazo

This might be one of the first memes I ever saw on the internet. I still think it’s one of the best and simplest. The classic animal caption format feels eternal. Are there any good historical examples of this? We can’t be the first to do this.

Simpler times.

fuck this one got me, right in the feels