this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2024
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Antique Memes Roadshow
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Giving you the backstory and appraisals of vintage memes!
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Who decides what a meme is? Consensus? The creator? A random moderator? This comment is a meme if we decide it is. Every one of these “memes “ were just random pictures with text until they went viral? Were they not memes until then?
From the dictionary:
Its exactly the part where it is copied and spread. It's just an image macro until then.
A arbitrary comment or image isn't a meme if nobody copies it and spreads it
It annoys me that they specify humorous and internet, even if neither of them is required for something to be a meme. Any idea is a meme if it proves successful in spreading among other people.
"I like Ike" was a meme from the election where Eisenhower became president.
That could be covered by the 2nd definition, I just didn't think it was relevant here:
Either everything can be a meme, or memes don’t exist.
If nothing is a meme until it is, then all original content is, by definition, not a meme. They only become “memes” when spread and repeated.
So, any original picture with text is thus, not a meme, or potentially a meme. If it is not a meme at conception, then it shouldn’t be proliferated in meme communities, because it’s not a meme.
If everything is a meme, then there is no novelty or uniqueness to the content, thus making “memes” superfluous and ubiquitous to the point of nonexistence.
So, the qualifications are arbitrary.
ok boomer
Not a meme /s
Your last two sentences is how I would describe it.
It's text on pictures until it ascends to meme-hood.
Those are just image macros. Not every image macro becomes a meme
And not every meme is in the form of an image macro