Chances are you’re familiar with memes, in fact I’d surprised if you didn't. If you have an internet connection and have visited any website in the past five years then you know what I’m talking about, lolcats, an arrow to the knee, socially awkward penguin, the list goes on. They are all over the internet and can be found everywhere you go just like your shadow. They have even managed to escape the internet and infect the world behind the screen. Internet memes have also reduced the creativity, independent thought and the cognitive function in general of anyone who hears them.
Much like puns, creating memes requires the brain of a kindergartner. Also they get spreaded around the internet like cooties on a playground. However internet memes require even less effort and creativity than puns. In fact it’s a simple matter of copying and pasting something off the internet and spreading to all four corners of the world. Memes aren't necessarily unfunny, comedy is subjective. They’re not much different from other forms of comedy. Including the fact that jokes are never as funny as the first time you hear them. This wouldn't be a problem normally but with the insane viral factor of memes, you’re bound to run into the same meme time after time again. Because of this, there’s a higher chance that someone is more familiar with a meme than front page news.
Imagine this scenario for second. A friends comes up to you and says, “A priest, a rabbi and a minister walk into a bar-”
“Wait,” you say while holding up your hand, “I've heard this one before.”
But for some reason when this takes place online you give it a closed fist and the wrong finger, a thumb. Then you copy and paste it all over your favorite websites for the rest of the world to see for the five hundredth time. Now let me ask you this, have you ever laughed at the same joke twice, how about ten times, or how about sixty. The thing with memes is that the get perpetuated around the internet over and over again. They are the determined zombie of the comedy world, no matter how hard you try they just won’t stay down. We expect people to laugh when they see them when they've already see them twenty times before. I don’t see why people expect anything more than blank stares and awkward silence when they see a meme nowadays. Didn't Albert Einstein say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results?
Memes took a look at the time consuming process of comedy and decided to replace it with CTRL+C CTRL+V. Instead of coming up with something new people simply repeat the “tried and true. It’s a classic example of “If it’s not broken don’t fix it”, except that it is totally broken and is long overdue for repair.