Why Knights Fought Snails in Medieval Art

Scribes decorated medieval manuscripts with all kinds of weird thing, like rabbits, cats, Star Wars characters, and lots of snails. Snails very often appear to be doing battles with knights -or, more accurately, the knight is attempting to do battle with the snail. Vox takes a closer look at this phenomena.

(YouTube link)

It could have been a political insult at the beginning, which turned into an inside joke over time. A medieval meme, as it were.