A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.

One of the earliest internet memes was just to photoshop "All Your Base Is Belong To Us" on everything.

4chan used to be the internet meme factory where ideas were copied and mutated before they broke out to the wider internet to go viral.

[–] jcg@halubilo.social 4 points 1 year ago

So that means technically, the idea that people shouldn't be posting screenshots of tweets and calling them memes is a meme.

[–] Walop@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

Demotivational posters and rage comics were varied from get go and didn't have a single viral hit sparking them.

[–] solstice@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

that spreads by means of imitation

Spreading is in the definition. A comic can become a meme, but not until it has spread.

[–] Walop@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

Once an idea is passed to event a single other person it has spread.