The 'Colorized History' meme format parodies the sincere trend of restoring and adding color to old black-and-white archival photographs. Instead of actual historical significance, these memes pair modern, often absurd or low-quality images with captions that claim they are rare historical snapshots, typically ending with the phrase '(Colorized)'. It gained significant traction in the mid-2010s across Reddit and Twitter as a way to mock pop culture events or internet subcultures by framing them through a pseudo-academic lens. The humor stems from the jarring contrast between the mundane or chaotic modern subject and the formal, archival tone of the description.