Sharing memes is often a form of identity signaling, Alex Borgella — who has done extensive research on intergroup humor — tells Bored Panda.
“When someone shares a meme that ‘perfectly’ describes their procrastination habits, sleep schedule, or personality quirks, they are communicating something about themselves without having to say it directly. Humor becomes a shorthand for self-expression.”
The word “meme” was actually coined way back in 1976 by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. He was trying to explain how ideas spread from person to person, kind of like how genes spread in your body.
He took the word from Greek because it meant “something that gets copied.”
Today, memes are pictures, phrases, videos or other artifacts that get shared and remixed on social media.
They basically compete, reproduce and evolve just as genes do, and only the strongest survive.
It’s not a terribly strict definition either; it depends on who you’re asking. For some, screenshots of texts can be memes if they are funny or relatable enough to be shared. For others, even a random photo of a cat doing something weird can be used as a meme.
But many experts agree that a single image cannot be a meme — it has to be copied and spread with variations to the original image.
One of the first memes to gain attention in the internet age was the Dancing Baby — a little 3D animation of a baby doing a cha‑cha that spread everywhere through email and message boards.
Media artist xtine burrough, a professor at the University of Texas in Dallas, says the Dancing Baby did exactly what it was supposed to — spark creativity.
“It was released as something that was welcomed to be remixed. And we saw the results of that, and we are still seeing the results of that. And that really gives people the freedom to take the image and allow it to meet the context of today.”
Some of the most talked‑about relatable memes in recent times go way beyond cute babies or cats — they’ve become part of how we all joke about being human.
A wild moment at a Coldplay concert in 2025, featuring a couple reacting to being on the jumbotron, led to countless memes that were remixed endlessly.
Another trend that took off last year was the “Gen Z stare,” where a totally blank, unbothered face became the go‑to reaction for everything from awkward moments to chaotic vibes.
And then there are memes that have stuck around longer because they’re basically a perfect way to show everyday struggles — like the Vanya and Five meme from The Umbrella Academy, where two characters drive past each other in separate cars with shocked expressions. This one’s been ruling the internet since it first blew up in 2019.
Now that we’ve looked at which memes are funny and constantly captivating popular imagination, let’s try to find out why we like them in the first place. And why can’t we get enough of them?
On the surface, memes are a source of light entertainment, a way for people to express themselves through text, images and videos.
They also give us a few minutes of idle and amusing fodder for procrastination in the middle of a busy day.
But if we dig deeper, we will find that we don’t just laugh at memes… we see ourselves in them.
Studies show that when you share a meme that captures a mood or situation you’ve felt yourself but can’t quite put into words, it gives you a sense of connection and even relieves stress.
Relatability also matters because humor is deeply social.
"When people encounter a meme that reflects a common experience, they immediately recognize that others must have gone through the same thing. That recognition creates a moment of shared perspective," says Borgella.
He explains that in psychological terms, humor often functions as a social signal that says, “We see the world the same way.”
"Research on humor styles and social bonding has consistently found that affiliative humor, humor that highlights shared experiences or brings people together, tends to spread widely. In other words, memes about everyday struggles transform mundane frustrations into collective inside jokes."
Research shows that memes are like their own kind of language that can cross cultures and bring people together.
These shareable images and jokes can help people express themselves, connect with others, influence opinions, and even make a point about politics or society.
Internet memes are a “sort of a ready-made language with many kinds of stereotypes, symbols, situations. A palette that people can use, much like emojis, in a way, to convey a certain content,” says Paolo Gerbaudo, director of the Centre for Digital Culture at King's College London.
They are one of the clearest manifestations of the fact that there is such a thing as digital culture, he adds.
Borgella believes memes tap into widely shared scripts for daily life.
"People have mental models of common experiences, workplace awkwardness, group chats gone wrong, late-night overthinking, and so on. When a meme captures one of these scripts with surprising accuracy, it creates a small moment of recognition."
He says relatable memes tend to feel like they come from "someone like me."
"They reflect experiences within a shared cultural or generational context, which increases the sense that the humor is coming from inside the group rather than outside it."
A study found that people who looked at memes — especially ones tied to stressful topics like COVID‑19 — felt more positive emotions afterward. It also helped them feel more confident in coping with stress.
Another study found that people with anxiety often find memes helpful for coping.
Those dealing with depression also find memes about depression way funnier and more relatable than people who aren’t going through it.
Dark humor memes, which might seem edgy or even a little messed up, actually help people deal with tough stuff without feeling totally overwhelmed. They give a kind of safe space to joke about things that are normally hard to talk about face-to-face.
