Why don’t we have animal movie stars anymore? That might sound like a joke question, but I’m being serious here! Sure, maybe the 20th century only had Lassie, but Lassie will literally live on forever, no matter how many times he gets mysteriously replaced! Even movies starring non-dog, non-star animals are scarce these days. There used to be kids’ movies about a horse that could play football, and we’ve got nothing of the sort anymore. In the 21st century, animals can only hope to get cast in an animated movie about them to get some representation. Or, they’ll be in some horrible February release about a dog who followed people doing a cross-country triathlon. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the meme world is the only place for an animal to become a bonafide superstar. They’ve been doing it since the beginning, and these animal memes make animal stardom look easy as pie.