There are lots of even older memes that were fully self-referential. For example, if a forum question got in response an ascii-art homage to the goatse shock si

There are lots of even older memes that were fully self-referential. For example, if a forum question got in response an ascii-art homage to the goatse shock site, I would also label that as absurdist/wacky subculture self-reference meme, and that predates the lolcat/Scumbag Steve memes by something like 10+ years.