The Origin of "Pics"

Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator
We've all seen it, someone will post some status update and there they are.
pics.png

It's become one of many forum memes, so much so a question was raised.

we must find.png

So I did,
The forum has this handy search feature. Type in a user/ phrase/ word, and it will search the forum for it.

The first use of "pics" was by user @Lolligirl on June 21, 2016 in the gmc scrapbook topic

However The earliest use of "pics" in a status post was on July 12, 2016
from user @orange451 on a profile post by user @Misty

BUT more notable for its other responses, is a response on a status post of user @Roa by user @Kepons on Aug 13, 2016
whats notable about this is user @Cantavanda 's response "pics or it didnt happen"
why is this notable? because their is a period of time where "pics" wasnt used and instead "pics or it didnt happen" was the more common phrase

But the first origins of the member @BattleRifle BR55 using the term "pics" as meme is on Jan 21, 2017
on user @Ehsan status post.

Note that this use is with out quotation marks, not a reference but maybe the result of an influence.

ever since the occasional "pics" has been a meme on the status updates.


Either way, this topic is probably going to get locked by @TsukaYuriko
people will make the joke that I'm not Cantavanda
This post wasn't meant to be a sh!t post but it sure seems that way.

Oh well, a little forum history.


Addendum:
The actual first use of the word pics was by user @Aleksandar Gavrilovic on June 20, 2016
But this is used as the literal sense of the word "pictures" and probably does not relate "pics" to the meme.

also the search only goes for what's on the current forum, the original original "pics" could be lost to time as the forum has shifted hands, and location.
 

Gamer (ex-Cantavanda)

〜Flower Prince〜
Since the 1880s, pic has been short for picture in art and photography. In the 1910s, the pics referred to motion pictures. But, with the rise of the internet and cell-phone cameras in the 2000s, pics soon became slang for photographs taken and sent in text/instant messages or posted in online forums or on social media.

The slang pics became very widespread in the 2010s. It appears in everyday speech and online writing. Celebrity magazine Us Weekly, for instance, has a column designated to celebrity photos called Hot Pics. Articles frequently use pics as a handy shortening in their headlines.

In the late 2010s, pics has become increasingly shorted to pix sometimes used in the singular.

But pics does have another meaning on here: Platform for Internet Content Selection. Yes, when someone comments "pics" anywhere here, the mods get an alert that they have to check out that content, and monitor it.
It's actually a report function disguised as a funny meme.
Be careful.
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
not sure if this is legal but....



perhaps this game has a deeper meaning. but speculation is against the forum rules, so i'll cut this theory short.

The next question could be, is this a n*ts goner?

 
Last edited by a moderator:

TheSnidr

Heavy metal viking dentist
GMC Elder
Oh this definitely goes much further back than 2016. That's just when the old forum was retired.
I have no data to back this up, but I've seen @BattleRifle BR55 comment it since at least 2012 when I joined a GameMaker IRC-channel. The channel's been long abandoned, but @Lolligirl used to be an admin. Perhaps she has a log of an earlier occurence of "pics"?
 

FoxyOfJungle

Kazan Games
In fact, the first pics belong to:

 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
Ask and you shall receive
View attachment 42905
i interpret this ancient artistry to either be a depiction of Judas about to kiss Jesus on the lips directly before the crucifiction, or, Jesus healing the ear that Peter just cut off.

In either case, they got what they asked for. Jesus was obedient to the Father and allowed himself to be betrayed to the death, and the guy who got his ear cut off was probably very pissed and wanted his ear back.
 

Changgi

Member
I'm not sure how "pics" is a meme. "Pics or it didn't happen" as a phrase sure is, but the way I see it, "pics" itself just asks the poster to post a picture of what they're claiming.

A: "I got some new CDs today!"
B: "pics please!"

I don't see that as a meme. And like Cantavanda pointed out, pic didn't originate in 2016 from the GMC, it had long been a general term.
 
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