10 Billion Memes later....
Gregory Alan Bolcer stashed this in But is it Art?
Stashed in: Memes!, History of Tech!, Yo Dawg, Spongebob!, Turtles all the way down
A meme is the simplest or smallest concept or idea that can be communicated between two people.
Wait, what we call "memes" now (aka "image macros") emerged 10 years after you wrote that.
One piece of advice I've learned the hard way: DON'T CROSS THE MEMES.
Funny, I actually found this: http://io9.com/5976662/10-decent-movies-that-were-doomed-by-unfair-memes
I loved Serenity and I didn't watch all of the episodes before I watched the movie. In fact, it was the movie that got me interested in the series in the first place. Scott Pilgrim is still one of my favorites too.
Yeah, I don't think those movies were doomed by their memes.
I think the memes make the movies more popular in pop culture. Scott Pilgrim is awesome!
On the other hand, NEVER CONFESS TO MURDER BY MEME:
That's just wrong.
Jeremy Liew calls this the "LOLcatification of the Internet":
http://pandawhale.com/post/18758/whisper-images-text-the-lolcatization-of-the-internet
I attribute pictures-with-words to icanhascheezburger.com which started January 11, 2007:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10023722-52.html
That's right, 106 Miles started on January 11, 2005.
And PandaWhale started on January 11, 2011.
Something about the date January 11.
2:24 PM Apr 09 2013