Meme

Back in my day these were called Image Macros

Viral redirects here, for viraL, see Ryan

BREAKING NEWS!!
The word "meme" has itself become a meme. We have come full circle with the utter retardation of the internet. There is no God. Might as well kill yourself now.

The first pictorial meme to reach the moronic masses.

A meme is anything with an amusing or lulzy characteristic that is spread on the internet. They come in many forms, usually as an image, gif, video, or even just words. The term "meme" was coined by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene, shortened from mimeme. But it was originally used then to describe the spreading of a cultural or genetic phenomena through means of imitation between one and another. No one uses it that way anymore, except elderly sociology majors.

Before meme was used, it was referred to as an "internet phenomena" or simply an "idea". But now, even your grandma will know it. In short, memes are a way for even friendless losers to have unfunny inside jokes on the internet.

Sometimes bloggers refer to memes as a word game or short quiz taken and posted as comment bait. The more comments a user receives about their results, the higher the chances are of that thing spreading.

You can bet your life that every meme you know hasn't been funny since about 20 seconds after its inception, which was approximately one billion years ago for all memes.

“	Throughout at least 100% of its history, homosapiens lived in small bands as nomadic hunter-gatherers. As language became more complex, the ability to remember and transmit information resulted in a new sort of replicator: the meme.	„
—TOW, On the dawn of civilization

“	It's not possible to understand it, and when you do understand it, then it's even worse.	„
—Tom Green, On memes

“	In the dawn of the new age of the aftermath of the second war of faggatorys,this will spark more lulz.	„
—Michael Jackson, On lulz

Creation

A useful diagram illustrating how new memes are created.

A meme cannot be created by any one person. Every noob tries this over 9000 times. A meme, like the Herpes or AIDS, is a gift to be shared, something to be cherished, but not some lame token of glory for some basement dwelling no life fag. A meme is created by the reaction to, not the invention of, a subject (typically an image). In fact, the best memes are created by accident and are the result of a particularly lulzworthy image being seen by the right people at the right time.

However, IF YOU MUST try to create a meme, try sharing something unique on /b/ instead of gay ass advice dog knockoffs.

Lifespan

The meme is the final stage in the life of a butterfly.

A meme is created via a complex system of pulleys and levers.

Memes are like bacteria or fungi. Some are benign, some are symbiotic helpers, some are the plague. This general outline describes the life stages of a meme.

Memeception / Larval: A meme is born in a niche sub-community, sometimes starting as an in-joke, and gestates there until it matures. Some memes get an assist by being based on IRL events and go directly to stage 3. Forced memes go directly to stage 6.
Maturation: The meme integrates across the community local to where it was born, settling into a stable reproductive form.
Cross Pollination: The meme begins spreading, reaching many different corners of the internet, where it is either rejected as toxic, or accepted and allowed to breed within those cultures.
Mimicry: The frothy byproducts of meme reproduction surface IRL and are mistaken for original content by normies that have no connection to the communities. This may lead directly to stage 6.
Mutation: Memes that successfully replicate and adapt live on. Fluke offshoots are culled. The meme survives in the wild, with a natural cycle of activity and dormancy. Over time it can bear little to no resemblance to the original, but generally retains its prominent feature/s. A meme may survive here indefinitely.
Artificial Selection: It makes its way to old media, becoming dumbed down for a mass audience and put on Snorg Tees and Facebook bumper stickers. Those that gave birth to the meme are filled with regret. Cancer sets in.
Extinction: The meme can no longer reproduce or mutate due to its new environment removing those requirements. Its ability to survive is eradicated through litigation. The meme becomes calcified, leaving only fossils behind.

Successful Replicators

A short list of forms that survive in multiple environments.

Forced Meme

A forced meme is one that is not created by a community, but is instead created by a single person or company in its "final form". They are mostly slogans, catchphrases, and hashtags, made by advertising campaigns trying to astroturf something. They do not succeed in becoming real internet phenomena unless it's through mockery of the original. They can occur naturally, rarely, but those have very short lifespans.

Pronunciation

Perhaps one the most interesting aspects of the topic of memes is the pronunciation of the word itself. Since the word meme is used primarily OTI in modern day, it's usually not spoken aloud. Thus, a great deal of confusion has formed amongst the retarded masses of the Internets. Very few people seem to know how it's properly pronounced, and idiots still argue (and probably always will) over how exactly one says the word meme. Some possibilities:

MEEM (think of, cream)
MEE·MEE (pee pee)
MAYM (same)
MAY·MAY (baby)
MEM (them)
MEH·MEH (yeah yeah)
MEH·MAY (memé by the faux-posh)
And any additional combination of the above sounds

Naturally, only one of these can be correct. Of course, anybody with a handful of brain cells can come to the conclusion that all but one of them sound fucking retarded. If you still can't figure out how it's pronounced, its the first one. Now that you know you should probably get back to being a loser and fapping at pictures of your 13 year old cousin, or what ever else it is you should be doing.

TL;DR: Anyone kewl enough to try and say this shit IRL is fucking retarded. This includes Justin Bieber, nobros, your dad, anyone currently reading this and faggots in general.

Gallery

Meme-opoly
variant
Meme-based desktop wallpaper
Cutting the life short.
Ah fuck, I can't believe you've done this.
Dawkins being a newfag
A Popular Movie where Our Hero comes to save the day
Meme flowchart is a pretty cool guy. eh teaches the internet and doesn't afraid of anything.
Meme man?
Godwin's Law was the first meme recognized as such on the Internet.
Spitting truth!