What is meme

Something like Slender Man can seem scary or dangerous. Others might be bizarrely obscure, referencing a particular episode of a TV show or movie that aired decades ago.

Often the origins of such memes can be buried in context so deep that understanding their origins requires dedicated research. How important that is depends on why you want to understand the meme. If you simply want to use it yourself, picking up the rough idea of what it means from the latest usage of it is often enough to create your own and be in on the joke. Helpful resources like Know Your Meme , You Should Have Seen This , and even Wikipedia for the most well-known ones can further clarify where a meme originates and how it has developed and evolved over time.

The majority of memes are created to be funny, and their impact relies on how they are perceived and used by the people that view them. If needed, you can then specify the broader significance of what that might mean outside of the communication tools and platforms it has grown on. Another option is to start making memes of your own if you have an interest in doing that. Beats Studio Buds just got a rare price cut for Black Friday. Send us feedback.

Our team at The Usage has selected the best gaming PCs of See more words from the same year. Accessed 14 Nov. Nglish: Translation of meme for Spanish Speakers. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Log in Sign Up. Save Word. Essential Meaning of meme. Full Definition of meme. This classic meme plays on the internet's love of cats. Its format is simple: one or more cats, usually in some adorable situation, with overlaid text.

The wording is intentionally poor English that now has its own name: lolspeak. Here's one of many examples of the Advice Animals subgenre of image macros. Advice Animals refers to an image macro template that revolves around some character trait of the animal or person in the image. In this case, Condescending Wonka is exactly as it sounds.

The meme features patronizing statements from Wonka. Gangnam Style is one of the internet's best-known viral videos. It released in July and quickly spread like wildfire, racking up more than nine million views per day for two months during the height of its popularity. Everyone from mainstream news outlets to celebrities was talking about it before long.

Thousands of people created reaction videos, parodies, and more. It was the first YouTube video to hit both one billion and two billion views. In fact, it had so many views that it surpassed the memory YouTube had for its view counter at the time. And it's still one of YouTube's most-watched videos.

Gangnam Style is an unforgettable phenomenon that perfectly illustrates how quickly something can spread through the internet. Chuck Norris has been a martial artist, actor, film director, and more in his life.

But online, he's not primarily known for any of that. Instead, he's become famous for "Chuck Norris Facts," a meme that chronicles absurd feats of Norris. These facts exaggerate his toughness, claiming impossibilities such as his ability to win a game of Connect Four in three moves. Norris has stated that he finds the facts funny, and has no doubt enjoyed renewed fame from the meme. This is a quote from the space shooter game Star Fox 64 that has enjoyed a long life on the internet.

In the game, your wingmate Peppy advises you to do a barrel roll to avoid enemy fire. Due to the game's cheesy voice acting, this became an oft-repeated phrase online. When reading or creating memes, you'll want to familiarize yourself with the different types to fully understand the joke or message. As mentioned above, there are websites such as Know Your Meme where you can browse through a catalog that explains various memes. Making your own memes is surprisingly easy.

Instead of having to use photo editing software, you can use a meme generator website like Wuzu instead. With these sites, it's as easy as selecting a template, entering your text, and clicking a Create button.

From there, you can either save the image or share the link on social media.