It's meme time, it's meme time;
gather all your friends, it's meme time;
it's meme time, it's meme time;
the only cure for sadness! [clap clap] ^note Full version.◊

Sociology notwithstanding, on The Internet, a "meme" (rhymes with "cream") is usually described as a catchy derivative of some aspect of pop culture parodied and repeated over and over, essentially being a cross between a catchphrase and an inside joke. If not used carefully, it can get to the point that its origins and original meaning become muddled and completely mutilated beyond any point of recognition or humor.

Which means we don't want them in TV Tropes articles. Because we are not interested in being muddled, dated, and beyond humor.

Fandom being what it is, this also applies to characters. Fandoms are liable to spread a "meme" version of a character which is totally (oftentimes deliberately) at odds with the original depiction, such as a cheerful version of a dark or scary character, a sexy version of a character featured in a Jekyll & Hyde episode, or an unlucky-yet-annoyingly-optimistic version of a normally depressed, tragic character.

Another quirk of memes depends on where they're initially propagated. Memes often spread regardless of content, taste or sensibilities, while the original source may be the only ones who know enough about the source material to use it ironically. Furthermore, some memes reference something common, but become catchy enough to be associated with only a single new thing.

Depending on how strongly the production company is tied with fandom, sometimes a meme can escape the space it originally spread in and get referenced in the medium it parodied through Bonus Material or Popularity Power. When this is the case you get an Ascended Meme. Some forgotten or Discredited Memes are even resurrected thanks to the Popularity Polynomial.

It can be an instance of The Catchphrase Catches On, which is when a phrase or saying from fiction becomes popular as an expression used in Real Life. However, certain memes are only popular with a certain group. It's also very similar to Breakaway Advertisement.

For in-universe examples, see Instant Web Hit.

If you'd like to keep up with the memes of the day, go to Know Your Meme, or Teh Meme Wiki on Fandom, or The LURKMORE Wiki (NSFW), or the fine folks at Encyclopedia Dramatica (even more NSFW). These are all examples of great resources for the memes themselves and the enigmatic culture around them, but beware the interstitials. You Have Been Warned. On the other hand, if you just want to learn who starts many of these, see Fountain of Memes. These are probably the most common source of Surreal Humor.

The Trope Namer (for the word meme) is Richard Dawkins, who suggested a Mind Virus-like model of society: that cultural information is inherited and reproduced, occasionally with minor mutations, in a similar way to genetic information. It's explained in detail, in plain language, in Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash.

Note that Memetic Mutation cannot be played with e.g. played straight, exaggerated, downplayed, justified, because it never "gets played" intentionally to begin with, just like other Audience Reactions.^note Unless, if the authors are deliberately trying to invoke it...

When adding to one of the subpages, please write the meme, then add the explanation of the meme inside a labelnote titled "Explanation." ^ExplanationThis is just the example. Follow it this way.

Memes by memedium:

• Advertising
• Anime & Manga
• Arts
• Asian Animation
• Comic Books
• Comic Strips
• Fan Works
• Films — Animation
• Films — Live-Action
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
• Music
• Pinball
• Professional Wrestling
• Radio
• Tabletop Games
• Theatre
• Toys
• Video Games (includes Visual Novels)
  • Video Games 0 to J
  • Video Games K to Z
• Web Animation
• Webcomics
• Web Original
• Western Animation
• Real Life

Related articles:

• Creator-Acknowledged Meme: When the creator of a work references a meme based on their work.
  • Ascended Meme: When a meme is directly referenced in the work or series it is derived from.
• Discredited Meme: A meme which has become dated or overused, making it unfunny and cringeworthy.
• Forced Meme: An obvious attempt to create a new meme backfires or falls flat.
• Fountain of Memes: A character who tends to inspire memes.
• Interrupting Meme: Memes which are invoked in the middle of something e- Aha! You activated my trap card!
• Meme Role Reprise: An actor unofficially reprises a role for the sake of a meme.
• Memetic Bystander: A minor background character becomes unexpectedly popular among a work's fandom.
• Memetic Hair: A specific hairstyle that's memetically associated with a fictional character or celebrity.
• Memetic Personality Change: Fanon alterations to a character's personality.
  • Memetic Badass: A fictional character (or a real person) is made out to be way more awesome than they actually are.
  • Memetic Bigot: A fictional character gains a reputation for discriminating against marginalized groups, regardless of how the character is portrayed in canon.
  • Memetic Loser: A fictional character is made out to be more pathetic than they actually are, usually due to a humiliating defeat.
  • Memetic Molester: A fictional character is interpreted on the Internet as some kind of sexual predator due to statements, mannerisms, and actions that can be seen as creepy and perverse.
  • Memetic Psychopath: A nice character or ineffectual villain is interpreted on the Internet as an insanely violent jerk due to a Jerkass Ball moment.
  • Memetic Troll: A fictional character gains an either undeserved or highly exaggerated reputation for screwing with and playing pranks on others.
• Play-Along Meme: Fans jokingly play along with an in-universe narrative or lie.
• Watch It for the Meme: Interest is generated in a work due to the memes originating from it.

Pages for specific memes and other meme-related tropes:

• Bowsette: A combination of Bowser and Princess Peach from Super Mario Bros., and one of the most infamous Recurring Fanon Characters on the internet.
• Candle Jack: A meme in which anyone who says the name of a particular Freakazoid! villain gets abducted mid-sentence.
• Caramelldansen Vid: A phenomenon involving characters from different works being animated performing a dance (bobbing up and down while flapping their hands) to a song by the Swedish Europop group Caramell
• Catchphrase: A quotation that a fictional character or group is famous for frequently saying.
• The Catchphrase Catches On: When a famous catchphrase or other quote gets repeated outside its original context.
• Confucian Confusion: When a character falsely attributes words of "wisdom" to Confucius.
• Creepypasta: Horror fiction stories circulating on the Internet, frequently told in a first-person perspective as if reporting events that really happened.
• Fan Nickname: A moniker that fans of a work give to one of the characters or the work itself.
• Fanon: Fan assumptions or theories which are widely taken to be true by other fans of the same work.
• Fauxtivational Poster: A parody of a motivational poster, featuring pictures or captions that aren't really inspirational, commonly used as a meme.
• Godwin's Law: An internet aphorism providing that long-winded online debates have a tendency to devolve into calling the other side Nazis.
• Good Bad Bugs: Videogame bugs and glitches that are beloved for being entertaining or helpful.
• Good Bad Translation: A translation of a work with errors that provoke enough amusement that it is accepted in its own right.
• Iconic Outfit: An outfit or accessories which are inexorably associated with a certain character.
• Image Macro: Stock pictures with humorous captions, once a very common format for memes.
• Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: A character gets humiliated from an embarrassing video of them getting posted online.
• The Internet Is for Cats: Cute and funny photos or videos of cats (or other animals).
• The Internet Is for Porn: All kinds of erotic content can be found online.
• J'accuse!
• Obnoxious Entitled Housewife: From the late 2010s and onward, the term "Karen" has become commonly used to refer to annoying women (or occasionally men) who behave like this stereotype.
• Only in Florida: The "Florida Man" meme comes from a lot of weird news stories concerning the crazy criminal antics of local people from Florida.
• Rickroll: The music video for Rick Astley's song "Never Gonna Give You Up" was often used to troll people through misleading links.
• Recurring Fanon Character: An Original Character who gains enough of a following to be referenced or depicted by other fans of the same work.
• Rules of the Internet: A list of Internet customs originating from 4chan.
  • Rule 34: There is online porn based on just about anything imaginable.
  • Rule 50: There is Crossover fanfiction between any two different works of fiction.
  • Rule 63: There are Gender Flipped versions of all fictional characters.
• Scandalgate: Following the Watergate scandal, major scandals will often be dubbed "Something-gate".
• Signature Scene
• Signature Transition
• Sinking Town Cardboard Puppet Show
• Sparta Remix
• Statler and Waldorf: The Greek Chorus from The Muppet Show — two old men who heckle and make sarcastic quips from their balcony — who have made their way across the internet.
• That Russian Squat Dance: Hopak dances, which involve squatting, kicking and hopping, are memetically associated with Glorious Mother Russia.
• There Are No Girls on the Internet: The assumption that all women on the Internet are just men pretending to be women.
• Troll Fic: A fanfic which is made to be as deliberately bad or offensive as possible, the most infamous of which often become memetic.
• Voice Clip Song
• Wrongfully Attributed: A popular misquote which distorts what the original person/character actually stated.
  • Beam Me Up, Scotty!
• X Called; They Want Their Y Back
• YouTube Poop: YouTube videos consisting of random clips, images and audio edited together to create all sorts of bizarre scenes.

Works which are memes, derived from memes, or otherwise inherently memetic:

• A.I. Brainrot Animals, a.k.a. Italian Brainrot.
• Angry Marine's Ruby Quest:
• Atheist Professor Copypasta: A copypasta meme concerning an Urban Legend about a Straw Atheist college professor.
• Bad Mario GIF
• Bee Movie: A 2007 DreamWorks Animation family movie which was mostly forgotten for its truly bizarre premise, only to gain a large ironic fanbase in The New '10s after it became a massive Fountain of Memes.
• Chuck Norris Facts: Jokes about Chuck Norris, the codifying Memetic Badass, being an unstoppable mighty being.
• Creamsicle
• Dogelore
• Fluffy Pony
• Heavy is Dead
• Hitler Rants: Parody videos consisting of edited clips with fake subtitles from the German World War II film Downfall (2004), featuring Adolf Hitler (played by Bruno Ganz) furiously complaining about various weird subjects (often highly anachronistic to the original movie's historical setting), or getting into all kinds of absurdly ridiculous and random situations.
• Inglip
• Inspector Spacetime: An Affectionate Parody of Doctor Who originating as a Show Within a Show on Community.
• Jeff the Killer: A wide-eyed, pale-faced Serial Killer who was a fairly notorious Creepypasta character.
• Know Your Meme: A site which acts as a meme wiki, providing information about different memes and Internet culture.
• LOLCats: Image Macro memes of cats with captions written in broken English.
• The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
• Morbius: The third instalment of Sony's Spider-Man Universe, which flopped financially but became infamous due to a multitude of memes springing up around the movie, causing it to be released a second time and lose even more money.
• Navy Seal Copypasta: A copypasta meme associated with "Internet Tough Guys" trying to make up badass credentials.
• Polandball: A satirical web-comic about nations personified as spherical characters, starting a trend for similar works.
• Pootis Engage
• The Principal Saga
• Sans Gaming
• SCP Foundation: A site which evolved from a single 4chan Creepypasta into an expansive fictional universe, centered around a top-secret organization which captures paranormal beings and objects.
• The Slender Man Mythos: Probably the most famous of all Creepypasta characters, Slender Man is a sharply-dressed Humanoid Abomination who inspired numerous different adaptations and imitators.
• SpongeBob Edited: Videos where the original audio is replaced with sound bytes of swearing or other expletives for comedic effect.
• Surreal Memes
• Tendies Stories
• The Ugly Barnacle: A monumental work of literary genius written by Patrick Star.
• Virgin vs. Chad: A comparison meme in which two characters, the "Virgin" (a pathetic wimp) is contrasted with the "Chad" (a cool badass), with the Virgin and Chad being used to represent many different kinds of people or concepts.
• Vive Sin Drogas: An advertising campaign with a rapping flower telling you not to use drugs. The rapping flower gets a lot of memes out of it in the advertising campaign's native Mexico.
• Zalgo: An Eldritch Abomination entity originating from a Creepypasta which corrupts other characters and written text on the Internet.

Memes specific to This Very Wiki:

• Ad of Win and Ad of Lose
• Avatar and the Airbending Fellowship of Vampire Slayers
• Report Siht
• Tropers Do It Without Notability
• TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life
• Trope-tan: The Moe Anthropomorphic personification of TV Tropes.