# A Brief History of Meme Narratives

Narratives in crypto move in **seasons** - and the dominant meme **animal changes** with them.

We’ve seen entire bull runs themed around animals:

### 🐶 The Dog Meta (Last Cycle)

* **Doge** went viral as a meme - a Shiba Inu with silly captions, full of internet charm.
* **Shiba Inu (SHIB)** followed as a *derivative narrative* - it didn’t copy Doge but extended its legacy, creating its own tribe and purpose.
* This worked because SHIB was a clear **evolution**, not a copy.

Then came the imitators: Baby Inu, Inu etc - all surface-level derivatives with no narrative depth.

> The dog era showed us: **narratives grow when derivatives evolve - not clone.**