From Wikipedia: An Internet meme is an idea that is propagated through the World Wide Web. The idea may take the form of a hyperlink, video, picture, website, hashtag, or just a word or phrase, such as intentionally misspelling the word "more" as "moar" or "the" as "teh". The meme may spread from person to person via social networks, blogs, direct email, news sources, or other web-based services. An Internet meme may stay the same or may evolve over time, by chance or through commentary, imitations, parody, or by incorporating news accounts about itself. Internet memes can evolve and spread extremely rapidly, sometimes reaching world-wide popularity within a few days. Internet memes usually are formed from some social interaction (Rage comic or reaction faces), pop culture reference (Xzibit in "Yo Dawg" or Bear Grylls in "Better drink my own piss"), or situation people often find themselves in (Socially Awkward Penguin or Futurama Fry / Not Sure If X). Many memes also come from video games (such as the "arrow in the knee" from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim). For researchers it's hard to track down the birthplace of memes due to their viral nature, as well as the high chance of the meme spreading to the major websites nearly instantly.
Their rapid growth and impact has caught the attention of both researchers and industry. Academically, researchers model how they evolve and predict which memes will survive and spread throughout the Web. Commercially, they are used in viral marketing where they are an inexpensive form of mass advertising.
Okay so now you know what a meme is. There is a Ryan Gosling 'Hey Girl' meme that started in 2009, at one point it reached such popularity that Mr Gosling himself read and acted out some of them.
There are so many out there now (seriously, do a google image search), people have started creating their own, some are way better than others, but here a few of my favorites:
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