Meme

A meme is "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture." A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures. The word meme is a shortening (modeled on gene) of mimeme (from Ancient Greek μίμημα Greek pronunciation: [míːmɛːma] mīmēma, "something imitated", from μιμεῖσθαι mimeisthai, "to imitate", from μῖμος mimos "mime") and it was coined by the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene (1976) as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. Examples of memes given in the book included melodies, catch-phrases, fashion and the technology of building arches.

A field of study called memetics arose in the 1990s to explore the concepts and transmission of memes in terms of an evolutionary model. Criticism from a variety of fronts has challenged the notion that academic study can examine memes empirically. However, developments in neuroimaging may make empirical study possible. Some commentators question the idea that one can meaningfully categorize culture in terms of discrete units. Others, including Dawkins himself, have argued that this usage of the term is the result of a misunderstanding of the original proposal.

Examples of Memes

• Blame Jhon - A phrase that comes from a televised discussion Telamon Sándaréz and Jhon Biehabara. Used to express severe failure of software, particularly on Internet Bulletin Board Systems. Variations include Blame Erik (Erik Estrada) and Blame Resse (Lionel Resse).
• There is no cabal. - The backbone cabal was an informal organization of large-site administrators of the worldwide distributed newsgroup-based discussion system Usenet. In order to get the joke, one must know of Cabal@home.
• Perez Hilton - A reporter for the hugely popular HoloNet show On the air Tonight. Known for her eccentric, almost psychotic behaviour, not to be confused with the similarly-named Paris Hilton.
• Dave The Lurker - Probably the most inappropriate name for this guy, as he's a complete failure at lurking. He is well-known for organising the comp.sys.sinclair games competition.

Copypasta

Main Article: Meme/Copypasta
Copypasta is slang for any block of text that gets copied and pasted over and over again, typically disseminated by individuals through BBSes and the HoloNet. Although it shares some characteristics with spam in the sense they’re both unsolicited (and often considered a nuisance), copypastas are mainly spread through human operators whereas the latter is automatically generated by electronic messaging systems. Ralph Pootawn is generally seen as having coined the term and having made the first copypasta.

Creepypasta

Creepypasta is a form of Copypasta that consists of short horror stories that are often posted on Bulletin Boards or sent via email. Many are meant to be legitimately scary and unnerve the reader, while others are intentionally written to be silly or incoherent. There are many forms of chain email that threaten death or the taking of one’s soul by telling tales of other’s deaths, such as the Katu Lata Kulu chain email, stating that if it is not forwarded, the receivers of the message would be killed by the spirit. However, creepypasta is not limited to textual stories, and pictures, videos, audio recordings etc. may also be considered creepypasta as long as it is is designed to unnerve and shock the reader. The most famous example is Smile.jpg.