3256: Nostalgia Content

2026-06-26T14:17:13Z

2603:8080:F901:8A9D:4441:4C19:2D91:4F34:

{{comic
| number = 3256
| date = June 8, 2026
| title = Nostalgia Content
| image = nostalgia_content_2x.png
| imagesize = 276x404px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Gen-Z got a chunk of the Carboniferous, and now all their memes are about how pathetic and small today's dragonflies are.
}}

==Explanation==
Nostalgia memes are a common form of internet content referring back time-specific cultural references such as toy fads or media releases. Because people of different ages have different cultural touchpoints, different nostalgia content will resonate with them. In the example in the comic, {{w|Pogs}} (a collectable game that became a fad in the early 1990s) and {{w|Tamagotchi}}s (an electronic pet that came into production in 1996, and previously the subject of [[1546|another comic]]) had their heydays at around the same time, so content including these would both appeal to people who were children around that time.

This comic suggests that this content is controlled by some kind of central database, rather than the memories of random internet posters. Due to an error, this particular grouping now also erroneously contains the {{w|Prototaxites}} and armoured fish ({{w|Placodermi}}) of the {{w|Devonian}} period. The Devonian ended 359 million years ago, long before humans existed, so there is no obvious reason to include them in a nostalgia meme database, since no-one would ever have had the opportunity to be nostalgic about them, and even if anyone had, they would be long dead by now.

Prototaxites (in the original comic, "Parataxites"; see "Trivia", below) were huge fungus-like organisms. Placoderms, which appeared during the {{w|Silurian}} and Devonian periods, were among the first jawed fish, and the first fish clade to have pectoral fins. Devonian placoderms include Dunkleosteus, Titanichthys, Bothriolepis, and Rhamphodopsis. Silurian placoderms include Xiushanosteus, Entelognathus and Qilinyu. There was also Sacabambaspis from the {{w|Ordovician}}, although that was an earlier jawless fish which also had armour.

The title text essentially repeats the joke, with Gen Z getting a chunk of the {{w|Carboniferous}} mixed up in their nostalgia memes. During the Late Carboniferous, {{w|griffinflies}}, such as those placed in the genus {{w|Meganeura}}, were prolific. Meganeura species resembled today's dragonflies, with the notable difference of having wingspans of up to 65 cm long, which would obviously dwarf modern dragonflies. However, this change happened over millions of years (with the even larger {{w|Meganeuropsis}} living about 290 million years ago, which was solidly in the Permian), and in Gen Z's time the dragonflies are as small as ever, hence the ridicule. This may be referencing a particular class of nostalgia meme complaining about how {{w|Wagon_Wheels#Production_and_size|product ''x''}} was bigger back when a particular generation were children. In some cases this reflects a geniune phenomenon due to {{w|shrinkflation}}; in others it is a form of {{w|rosy retrospection}}.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Cueball is standing, with his arms out, in front of a Prototaxite structure towering over a mossy landscape. To his right, a Tamagotchi (bottom-left) and bottle-cap-like Pogs (top-left) appear. The three pogs that can be seen show a skull with a snake through its eyeball, a figure 8 and a star (three more pogs are also shown, but have obscured pictures).]
:Cueball: Who else remembers pogs? Tamagotchis? Vast forests of Prototaxites towering over the mossy landscape as armored fish stir in the deep?
:[Caption below the panel:]
:Due to a database error, millennial nostalgia now includes a portion of the early Devonian.

==Trivia==
Cueball had originally incorrectly refered to the huge fungus-like organisms as "Parataxites", but the text in the comic was later corrected to read Prototaxites. "Parataxites" might be an accidental pun/thinko on {{w|parataxis}}, of which Cueball's speech is an example.

As revealed in the {{w|Prototaxites|Wikipedia article}}, the taxonomy and ecology of Prototaxites remain in dispute. Prototaxites might have been related to fungi, to algae, or to a lineage of eukaryotic organisms that is no longer extant, and its 8-meter length might have been erect ("tree-like") or prostrate on the ground (or in the water).

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]
[[Category:Comics edited after their publication]]

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3256: Nostalgia Content