Hey, internet. We need to talk about memes, more specifically, dank internet memes. Because there's a big difference between the dictionary definition of a meme and an actual meme. Pronounced “meem.”
Memes, as coined by Richard Dawkins in his book “The Selfish Gene,” are,
...tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation.
In layman’s terms, memes are things that stay the same despite being shared by a lot of people. Then we cut to the infancy of the web, which was defined by a senator as “a series of tubes.” A GIF was shared to the masses via e-mail. The GIF was an edited sample file for a 3d animation software called Character Studio. It was of a baby dancing to “Hooked on a Feeling” and it quickly dominated the internet.
The absurd image of a semi-realistic baby dancing like an awkward high school student at prom was jarring. It was somewhat unnerving, yet strangely fascinating. Despite being rather spooky looking, the familiar music in the background made the surreal image funny. It was a joke. A joke that only the people of the internet could understand. Only on this newfound internet could we find an animated 3d baby cutting a rug to Blue Swede.
This became one of the earliest examples of an internet meme. Many others followed it, like the hamster dance. An internet meme, in contrast to the what Dawkins defined, is a joke spread widely throughout the internet. They go through edits, are placed in different contexts, and are seen by millions of users across the globe. That dancing baby might have a hat placed on his head or be dancing to a different song, but that's still the dancing baby that took the internet by storm.
Internet memes tend to be strange and esoteric. They don't make sense to newcomers to the internet. They were a part of a new culture with an absurd sense of humor. What was the deal with this prairie dog? Nobody knew, but the fact that so many people had seen it and shared it meant that it was important. It brought people together.
An important part to internet memes is the website 4chan. What is 4chan, many of you ask? 4chan is like a diseased dog living out on the street. It eats anything it finds no matter how disgusting, vomits it up, and then eats it again. More specifically, 4chan is an image hosting site with no restrictions outside what is legally allowed to be shown. And even that line gets crossed pretty regularly. Strange people from all over the world post images of whatever they want on 4chan and people respond however they like. This is where a lot of internet memes were born. They were in-jokes from 4chan that seeped out into the internet.
Like Rickrolling. Rickrolling was an early form of trolling from 4chan. Someone posted a link to a video which they claimed was a trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV and many a fan clicked only to find themselves watching Rick Astley's “Never Gonna Give You Up” instead. The practice of baiting people with the promise of an interesting link or video and linking them to “Never Gonna Give You Up” became known as “Rickrolling” and the trend went from website to website.
LOLcats came from people constantly posting pictures of cats on 4chan. Eventually, someone had the idea of “Caturday” where everyone posted pictures of cats on a specific day of the week in accordance to a theme. This became LOLcats.
Probably one of the most influential was advice dog. Advice dog was the first instance of the popular formula of picture with words on top and words on bottom. This spawned a billion different variations until it sort of just became a standard. I think it's safe to say that most people don't even know where this formula came from. Soon, people thought that any picture with words on it could be classified as an internet meme.
Pictures like this are not internet memes.
No, that is a stupid image with words on it. Maybe a meme in the Dawkins sense, but not an internet meme. Unless it has been spread across dozens of sites and has various different versions edited by other people it isn't an internet meme. It's just a picture that you found on facebook.
And no, you can't just make a meme. Many have tried, they have all failed and it is always painful to watch. Isn't that right, Aisha Tyler?
So, let's review. Internet memes are randomly spawning stuff that spread throughout the internet with many variations. They're not stupid JPGs with ignorant political messages sprawled across them that you found and put on social media. They are not things that can be forced or created on a whim, they occur naturally on various corners of the internet.
Now you know.
