Shoutout to the people who think 'meme' just means any funny picture

I keep seeing folks on this sub asking to explain memes that are just random screenshots with no context or joke behind them. A meme has to have a format that gets reused and changed, not just a one-off funny image of a cat. I run a small roofing crew and even we have inside jokes that spread through the crew the same way a meme does. It's like people forget the whole point is that it's a replicable idea, not just a laugh. Why do so many posts here miss that basic part?

2 comments

2 Comments

jenniferw821mo ago

Oh come on. The worst part is when people call a single image with a caption a "meme" when it's not even part of a format. Like a dude holding a fish and the caption says "this is my catch." That's just a picture of a guy with a fish. There's no growth, no variation, no inside joke spreading through a community. A real meme would be the fish getting bigger every time someone reposts it, or the guy's face photoshopped onto different bodies. That's the whole thing. Makes the sub feel like a free-for-all instead of an actual culture thing.

dakotawood1mo ago

Three weeks back my buddy sent me a screenshot of a cat staring at a toaster with the caption "waiting for the toast." That's not a meme, that's just a picture of a cat next to a toaster. I told him and he got all defensive like I was gatekeeping or something. jenniferw82 you nailed it with the fish example, that's exactly the kind of thing that drives me nuts on here. A meme needs legs, it needs to be something people can pick up and run with and make their own version of. Otherwise it's just a funny picture and those belong on facebook not on a sub about actual memes.