this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
777 points (92.5% liked)
memes
18832 readers
2004 users here now
Community rules
1. Be civil
No trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour
2. No politics
This is non-politics community. For political memes please go to !politicalmemes@lemmy.world
3. No recent reposts
Check for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month
4. No bots
No bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins
5. No Spam/Ads/AI Slop
No advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live. We also consider AI slop to be spam in this community and is subject to removal.
A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment
Sister communities
- !tenforward@lemmy.world : Star Trek memes, chat and shitposts
- !lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world : Lemmy Shitposts, anything and everything goes.
- !linuxmemes@lemmy.world : Linux themed memes
- !comicstrips@lemmy.world : for those who love comic stories.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Anything humans spread around and share other than our DNA is a meme. The definition of a meme is "non-genetic information shared by any means."
Behold, a meme:
And a tomato is a fruit. It would be stupid to pretend it should be utilised by its definition.
A tomato is a fruit. And all fruit are vegetables, but not all vegetables are fruit.
Sounds like you should crack open a dictionary.
Yeah, I know. I said that.
Never said it wasn't.
So you weren't being sarcastic?
No? Have you never heard the analogy: "intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad." ?
Experience tells me cherry tomatoes are great in a fruit salad.
the word meme gained a second definition on the internet, which is similar to the first but focused on specifically things intended to be funny. because context is a part of language whether you like it or not, that meaning is the one that is being used any time you see the word on the internet unless otherwise specified or unless the context in which you're seeing it is one where the other is more appropriate (like a discussion about linguistics or the spread of ideas).
I would argue that memes aren't necessarily meant to be funny. I think the most important component of a meme is its composition, which is usually a square image with optional text. But yeah, I completely agree with your broader points.
there are also memes (meaning the kind intended to be funny on the internet in this case) which dont use images at all but are just a recurring reference or something like that. it is largely the same idea as the original meaning of the term but on the internet it generally refers to things that are intended to be funny (in recent years, usually through self-reference as a result of algorithm-based social media).
That's fair, but I was thinking in the context of meme communities like this one in which nearly all of the posts are images.
Thats an image macro which is a specific type of Internet meme. Although I’ve never heard of someone suggesting they must be square; that seems very odd. Are the meme police checking height:width ratios now?
There is no meme police and nobody uses the term image macro.
Oh they’re real all right.
People holding onto the idea that memes should be defined by their original context are using the same rhetoric as those who insist it's okay to call cigarettes "fags"
The irony of this reasoning is that the things spread as memes you do not think should be called memes because they are not "intended to be funny" are called memes by a vast majority of people on the internet. Making them memes, whether you like it or not.
You're presuming most people regard text on a selfie as a meme.
I'm convinced the majority of people think a meme is a recurring image format with humerous intent (more or less).
For what its worth, I'm of the opinion that words are not prescribed, words are defined by their use.
This may seem contradictory, until you realise that you can't just let every definition of a word be equal and valid.
If my definition of a meme was a blue towel, which was shared by ten other people, then asking you to fetch my meme (blue towel) is moronic.
if you actually read the comment, I didnt say that anything was not a meme. what I said was that the person I was replying to was ignoring the other meaning of the word which, because of context, is clearly the relevant meaning in this case.