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The Hampster Dance [sic] is one of the first widely distributed Internet memes and illustrates the characteristic silliness of much of the genre.

The term Internet meme (IPA: /ˈɪntərˌnɛt mi:m/) is a neologism used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads in a faddish way from person to person via the Internet.^[1] The term is a reference to the concept of memes, but is used loosely to refer to things that are not necessarily memes in a technical sense, although the facts that when they start replicating themselves as jokes they become memes themselves.

At its most basic, an Internet meme is simply the propagation of a digital file or hyperlink from one person to others using methods available through the Internet (for example, email, blogs, social networking sites, instant messaging, etc.). The content often consists of a saying or joke, a rumor, an altered or original image, a complete website, a video clip or animation, or an offbeat news story, among many other possibilities. An Internet meme may stay the same or may evolve over time, by chance or through commentary, imitations, and parody versions, or even by collecting news accounts about itself. Internet memes have a tendency to evolve and spread extremely quickly, sometimes going in and out of popularity in a matter of days. It is spread organically and voluntarily on a peer-to-peer basis rather than by trickery, compulsion, predetermined path, or completely automated means.^[2]

The term may refer to the content that spreads from user to user, the idea behind the content, or the phenomenon of its spread. Internet memes have been seen as a form of art.^[3] There exist websites that collect and popularize Internet memes as well as sites devoted to the spread of specific Internet memes. The term is generally not applied to content or web services that are seen as legitimate, useful, and non-faddish, or that spread through organized publishing and distribution channels. Thus, serious news stories, videogames, web services, songs by established musical groups, or the like, are usually not called Internet memes.

One common form of Internet meme is created when a person, company, product, musical group, or the like, is promoted on the Internet for its pop culture value. Vanity sites, for example, are among the first recognized Internet memes.^[2] In extraordinary cases where an otherwise non-noteworthy person or incident gains great popularity this way it is often considered an Internet meme.

Often, a person or company becomes infamous by virtue of an embarrassing video, email, or other act. These arise, for example, in the context of dating and relationships, job applications, security cameras and other hidden videos, or collections of bizarre news stories. Famous examples include the Star Wars Kid and Leeroy Jenkins.

Many Internet memes are urban rumors, fraud schemes, slander, or false news stories that are either planted deliberately to become an Internet meme, evolve by mistake or rumor, or that jump from an offline source to the Internet. It is common to create fake "for sale" listings on sites like Craigslist or eBay for no other reason than to amuse people.^[1] Some web services like snopes.com collect lists of such hoaxes or offer services by which users can fact-check popular claims they find on the Internet in order to determine their source and whether or not they are true. Sites like urban dictionary collect user-generated information about rumors, neologisms, and other popular culture phenomena, many of which could be considered Internet memes.

Public relations, advertising, and marketing professionals have embraced Internet memes as a form of viral marketing to create marketing "buzz" for their product or service.^[4] Internet memes are seen as cost-effective, and because of their (sometimes self-conscious) faddishness, a way to create an image of cleverness or trendiness. Marketers, for example, use Internet memes to create interest in films that would otherwise not generate positive publicity among critics.^[5] Political operatives use online slogans, character assassination, revelations of scandal, and other Internet memes to shape public opinion.^{[citation needed]} Used in the context of public relations, the term would be more of an advertising buzzword than a proper Internet meme, although there is still an implication that the interest in the content is for purposes of trivia, ephemera, or frivolity rather than straightforward advertising and news.

One popular trend is to remix videos in many ways. Sometimes this involves dissecting and rearranging clips to get a dubious sentence, or slowing or speeding some parts up. This is somewhat inspired by Cartoon Network's Cultoons, which mashed up classic cartoons. Since YouTube allows the submitting of videos, a lot of people have taken up this trend, giving it the name "Youtube Poop". The most common videos used in these videos have been shows such as Super Mario World, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Ed, Edd and Eddy as well as cutscenes from the Legend of Zelda games for the CD-i, Hotel Mario, and a cartoon sponsored by Colgate called "Dr. Rabbit's World Tour".

• List of Internet phenomena
• Meme - A unit of cultural information that propagates from one mind to another as a theoretical unit of cultural evolution and diffusion.

• Gary Marshall, The Internet and Memetics - academic article about Internet memes
• ultimatememedatabase - Website about Internet memes.
• Meme Vote - Website that allows users to vote on and discover Internet memes.