What is meme? And some popular meme now

You've probably heard the term meme on the Internet. But if you are not familiar with Internet culture, it is difficult to explain clearly, what exactly meme is.

Read this article to understand what meme is, discover how to use it, and some examples of classic meme as well as popular memes today.

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What is meme?

You will be surprised to learn that the term meme does not originate from online. In fact, author Richard Dawkins first used the word in his 1976 The Selfish Gene. The book uses meme to describe ideas or behaviors spread throughout a cultural community.

Today when someone says meme they are probably referring to the Internet meme. Here we will discuss this common usage and based on the use of Dawkins terminology.

The basic meme definition is as follows: Meme is part of the media, often humorous and spreads rapidly through the Internet.

With social networks like Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram and other similar services, it's no surprise that memes spread so quickly.

Usually, meme experiences small changes like phone games. Sometimes memes even generate new memes. What's interesting about the nature of online meme is that we can track their origins, development, evolution and changes in popularity.

Here are some meme to help you better understand its origin and spread speed.

Meme and Macro images

Before going into a specific example, we will explain through a confusing concept. Many people use meme terms to refer to images that are inserted text on it.

For example, here is a picture of a guy using a computer with the words on it.

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The proper term for these images is a macro image, not a meme. Because this image doesn't spread on the Internet, it's just a random image created by someone. If you post this image online, no one will recognize it.

However, some macro images can also be meme but not all meme are macro images. And someone who creates a macro image and shares it doesn't make it a meme.

The classic meme

Let's see some famous meme from previous years.

1. LOLcats

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This classic meme only pictures of one or more cats performing lovely actions with funny quotes.

2. Condescending Wonka

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Condescending Wonka is a meme that uses Gene Wilder's image as Willy Wonka from the Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory film in 1971.

3. Gangnam Style

Gangnam Style is one of the most popular viral videos on the Internet. It was released in July 2012 and quickly attracted more than nine million views a day within two months of its heyday. People are constantly talking about it for a long time.

Thousands of people have created reactive, parody videos and other follow-up videos. This is the first YouTube video to reach two billion views. In fact, it has so many views that it surpassed the YouTube counter that could count at that time. And this is still one of the most watched videos on YouTube.

Gangnam Style is an unforgettable phenomenon, perfect illustration for something that can spread quickly over the Internet.

4. Chuck Norris Facts

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Chuck Norris is a boxer, actor, film director and many other professions in his life. But online, he doesn't know it. Instead, Chuck Norris became famous for the Chuck Norris Facts, a meme that recorded Norris' unreasonable victories.

These facts exaggerated his ability, declaring the impossible so he could cover the sky with one hand.

5. Do a Barrel Roll

This is a quote from the 1997 space shooting game Star Fox 64 that has a long life on the Internet. In the game, your companion Peppy advises you to perform a gun movement to avoid enemy fire.

Due to the bullshit voice acting of the game, this has become a repeating phrase online. This is just one of many meme games that become a trend. In fact, try searching for Do a Barrel Roll on Google and see what happens.

Recently famous meme

Here are some of the most popular meme in 2017 and 2018.

6. Distracted Boyfriend

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This is one of the top meme of 2017. The original image is a guy who is glancing at another girl while walking with his girlfriend.

When inserting citations for objects, other woman images represent something attractive, while girlfriends represent what you have to do. There are many variations from this image, making it a popular online hit.

7. Who Killed Hannibal?

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This is one of the most popular meme of 2018 and illustrates some pretty good meme principles. It comes from an old, easy-to-edit video clip and continues the trend of recent labeling.

The original clip came from the "The Eric Andre Show" TV show, quoting Andre shooting at Hannibal and then asking who killed him. It becomes a meme for people to show why X does this.

8. Elf on the Shelf

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Elf on the shelf is a Christmas book for children, accompanied by an Elf doll. This doll is used with many variations but the recent meme has silly rhymes.

Meme Elf on the shelf includes a caption "You have heard of Elf on the Shelf, now get ready for" on the edited image. The two words efl and shelf in pictures have rhymes with each other.

9. Shooting Stars

This is a meme taken from the 2008 song of the artist Bag Raiders. Years later, the song began to appear in silly YouTube videos and became more popular.

In 2017, Shooting Stars took off thanks to video footage of a big fat man diving. The clip is edited so that this man is flying in space, perfectly matching the song.

10. By Age 35

Many recent meme are often macro images, but this meme is not. This is the result of Twitter users responding to articles on Market.

"According to retired experts, at the age of 35 you should have double your saved savings."

Many people find this ridiculous advice that most people have no hope of achieving. Therefore, it becomes a meme about things that are not achieved. For example at age 35, you should collect all Chaos Emeralds from Sonic game.