Meming almost died.

Meming almost died.

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The Day Meming Almost Died: A Eulogy (and Resurrection) for Internet Culture

It was a dark time for anyone who found joy in the absurd, the relatable, or the deeply niche corners of the internet. A period when the very essence of online humor seemed to teeter on the brink of extinction. Yes, believe it or not, there was a moment when it felt like meming almost died.

For the uninitiated, a “meme” (pronounced “meem”) is more than just a funny picture with text. It’s a unit of culture, a piece of digital shorthand that replicates and spreads quickly, often conveying complex ideas or emotions with surprising efficiency. From the earlydays of “Dancing Baby” and “All Your Base Are Belong To Us” to the golden age of “Rage Comics,” “Advice Animals,” and “Doge,” memes have served as the internet’s constantly evolving lingua franca.

But then, something went wrong.

The Warning Signs: Corporate Co-option and Dilution

The first nail in the coffin was arguably corporate co-option. As brands and marketing departments caught wind of the power of memes, they began to force their way into the conversation with all the grace of a bull in a china shop. Remember those painfully awkward attempts by large companies to use “fellow kids” language, often misusing formats or being wildly out of touch? These “brand memes” didn’t just fall flat; they actively drained the joy and authenticity from the art form. When every company from fast food chains to insurance providers was trying to “go viral,” the organic, grassroots nature of memes began to feel manufactured and cynical. The spontaneity was gone, replaced by calculated marketing strategies.

The Saturation Point: Too Many, Too Fast, Too Similar

Simultaneously, the sheer volume of memes exploded. What was once a relatively curated stream of genuinely creative content became a firehose of rehashed jokes, derivative formats, and uninspired takes. Platforms optimized for endless scrolling meant that a meme’s lifecycle, once days or even weeks, shrank to mere hours. Jokes were beaten to death before they even had a chance to breathe. The “Distracted Boyfriend” meme, for example, excellent in its original context, was applied to so many mundane scenarios that it became utterly stale. The constant demand for new content led to a recycling of old ideas, a desperate search for the lowest common denominator, and a general feeling of creative fatigue among both creators and consumers.

The Algorithm’s Grip and the Loss of Niche

As social media algorithms became more dominant, they often prioritized content that generated high engagement, which frequently meant broadly appealing, inoffensive, and often repetitive memes. Niche, absurdist, or more creatively challenging memes struggled to gain traction outside of very specific communities. The democratic, chaotic nature of early meme culture—where truly bizarre and original ideas could bubble up from anywhere—was stifled by platforms that preferred easily digestible, predictable content. Memes became less about genuine expression and more about playing to the algorithm.

The Resurrection: Niche, Absurdity, and the Meta-Meme

Yet, like a digital phoenix rising from the ashes of corporate cringe and oversaturation, meming found a way to be reborn. The key was a shift from broad appeal to an embrace of the niche, the absurd, and the deeply ironic.

1. Niche Communities: People retreated to smaller, more insulated online spaces – specific subreddits, Discord servers, and private groups. Here, memes could evolve without fear of corporate appropriation or mainstream dilution. The inside jokes became deeper, the humor more layered, and the formats more experimental.
2. Absurdist and Surreal Humor: In response to the generic, easily digestible memes, a new wave of “surreal memes” emerged. These often defied logic, featuring bizarre characters, non-sequiturs, and heavily distorted imagery (“deep-fried memes”). This was humor that could not be easily co-opted or understood by outsiders, creating a natural barrier against corporate intrusion.
3. The Meta-Meme: Memes started to become self-aware. They were memes about memes, about internet culture itself, about the struggle to create original content in a saturated world. This meta-commentary added a new layer of sophistication and intellectual playfulness.
4. TikTok’s Influence: The rise of TikTok, with its emphasis on short-form video, audio snippets, and easily replicable formats, democratized meme creation in a new way. Trends could explode and evolve rapidly, with millions of users putting their own spin on a soundbite or visual gag. While some might argue this amplified the burnout cycle, it also injected a fresh burst of creativity and accessibility.

Today, meming is alive and well, albeit in a more fragmented, diverse, and often more perplexing form. It has learned to adapt, to shed its skins, and to embrace its own inherent ephemerality. The threat of “death” forced it to evolve, to dig deeper into its roots of genuine, user-generated creativity and to eschew the pressures of mainstream appeal.

So, while there was a scary period where the spirit of meming seemed to falter, it managed to pull through, proving its resilience as one of the most dynamic and enduring forms of communication in the digital age. Long live the meme.