Last Time The Cubs Won the World Series

2016catchphraseclassic

Published September 5, 2026

Before November 2nd, 2016, the Chicago Cubs had gone 108 years without a World Series title, the longest championship drought in baseball history. During Game 7 that night, Neil deGrasse Tyson began tweeting historical facts about 1908, sparking a viral Twitter joke format where users mocked his pedantry with absurd fake 'facts' about the last time the Cubs won.

baseball memestwitter memessnowclone memespedantry memes2016 memes

Overview

The joke format takes the shape of a fake historical fact prefaced by some version of 'The last time the Cubs won the World Series...' followed by something absurd, anachronistic, or laughably trivial about 19081. It parodies the earnest listicles and TV graphics that news outlets and Fox Sports Network rolled out to contextualize the Cubs' 108-year drought2.

The format works because the setup writes itself. 1908 was so long ago that almost any modern reference point produces a joke, so tweeters piled on with absurd fake trivia and pointedly irrelevant historical asides3. The tone is dry mock-pedantry, aimed less at the Cubs themselves than at pundits like Neil deGrasse Tyson who filled Game 7 with actually-1908-was-the-year-that tweets1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter
Creator
Unknown
Date
2016

The Chicago Cubs' championship drought was the longest in Major League Baseball history, stretching from 1908 to 2016, and had inspired self-deprecating jokes from fans for decades. Cubs announcer Jack Brickhouse, who called games on WGN-TV from 1948 to 1981, famously shrugged off the losing with the line 'Anyone can have a bad century' in 19771.

The modern Twitter meme crystallized on November 2nd, 2016, during Game 7 of the World Series between the Cubs and the Cleveland Indians. As the Cubs jumped to an early lead, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson started posting a run of tweets from @neiltyson noting what had and hadn't yet happened in 1908, the last year Chicago had won3. Twitter users, led by accounts like @pourmecoffee, treated the tweets as a pedantic buzzkill and started replying with their own deliberately absurd 1908 'facts' as parody1.

How It Spread

Interest in the drought had spiked before 2016. Fans revisited the topic in 2008 for the 100-year anniversary of the 1908 title, and again in 2015 when the Cubs lost the National League Championship Series to the New York Mets2. Pix11 covered fans mocking the century-long drought with memes during that 2015 run4.

With the Cubs favored to win it all in 2016, publishers leaned hard into the format weeks before Game 7. Heavy.com ran a piece on things that didn't exist the last time the Cubs went to the World Series5, and Business Insider published its own 'the world has changed a lot' rundown6. Those listicles primed the joke, so when Tyson's tweets arrived mid-game, the parody format was already loaded and fired within minutes3.

After the Cubs beat Cleveland in extra innings to end the drought, the joke kept a long tail as a nostalgic reference point about the pre-2016 team. It still shows up whenever a long championship drought ends in another sport, or when a pundit gets too earnest about historical context1.

How to Use This Meme

The typical setup is 'The last time the Cubs won the World Series...' followed by a made-up or intentionally trivial 1908 fact, the more banal the better. A common convention is to mimic the cadence of Tyson's original tweets or a Fox Sports graphic, then undercut it with something absurd, oddly specific, or utterly pointless1.

Frequently Asked Questions

Last Time The Cubs Won the World Series

2016catchphraseclassic

Published September 5, 2026

Before November 2nd, 2016, the Chicago Cubs had gone 108 years without a World Series title, the longest championship drought in baseball history. During Game 7 that night, Neil deGrasse Tyson began tweeting historical facts about 1908, sparking a viral Twitter joke format where users mocked his pedantry with absurd fake 'facts' about the last time the Cubs won.

baseball memes twitter memes snowclone memes pedantry memes 2016 memes

Overview

The joke format takes the shape of a fake historical fact prefaced by some version of 'The last time the Cubs won the World Series...' followed by something absurd, anachronistic, or laughably trivial about 19081. It parodies the earnest listicles and TV graphics that news outlets and Fox Sports Network rolled out to contextualize the Cubs' 108-year drought2.

The format works because the setup writes itself. 1908 was so long ago that almost any modern reference point produces a joke, so tweeters piled on with absurd fake trivia and pointedly irrelevant historical asides3. The tone is dry mock-pedantry, aimed less at the Cubs themselves than at pundits like Neil deGrasse Tyson who filled Game 7 with actually-1908-was-the-year-that tweets1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter
Creator
Unknown
Date
2016

The Chicago Cubs' championship drought was the longest in Major League Baseball history, stretching from 1908 to 2016, and had inspired self-deprecating jokes from fans for decades. Cubs announcer Jack Brickhouse, who called games on WGN-TV from 1948 to 1981, famously shrugged off the losing with the line 'Anyone can have a bad century' in 19771.

The modern Twitter meme crystallized on November 2nd, 2016, during Game 7 of the World Series between the Cubs and the Cleveland Indians. As the Cubs jumped to an early lead, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson started posting a run of tweets from @neiltyson noting what had and hadn't yet happened in 1908, the last year Chicago had won3. Twitter users, led by accounts like @pourmecoffee, treated the tweets as a pedantic buzzkill and started replying with their own deliberately absurd 1908 'facts' as parody1.

How It Spread

Interest in the drought had spiked before 2016. Fans revisited the topic in 2008 for the 100-year anniversary of the 1908 title, and again in 2015 when the Cubs lost the National League Championship Series to the New York Mets2. Pix11 covered fans mocking the century-long drought with memes during that 2015 run4.

With the Cubs favored to win it all in 2016, publishers leaned hard into the format weeks before Game 7. Heavy.com ran a piece on things that didn't exist the last time the Cubs went to the World Series5, and Business Insider published its own 'the world has changed a lot' rundown6. Those listicles primed the joke, so when Tyson's tweets arrived mid-game, the parody format was already loaded and fired within minutes3.

After the Cubs beat Cleveland in extra innings to end the drought, the joke kept a long tail as a nostalgic reference point about the pre-2016 team. It still shows up whenever a long championship drought ends in another sport, or when a pundit gets too earnest about historical context1.

How to Use This Meme

The typical setup is 'The last time the Cubs won the World Series...' followed by a made-up or intentionally trivial 1908 fact, the more banal the better. A common convention is to mimic the cadence of Tyson's original tweets or a Fox Sports graphic, then undercut it with something absurd, oddly specific, or utterly pointless1.

Frequently Asked Questions