It also helps that these pictures ask almost nothing from you. Plenty of memes work like inside jokes, so you need to know the show, the game or last week's trending drama to get the punchline. A weird photo has no entry fee. A grandmother, a teenager and a stranger on a train can all look at a goose wearing a raincoat and instantly understand the assignment. There is no language barrier either, and a single glance takes about two seconds, which makes the format perfect for the endless scroll.
And then there is the imagination factor. Without a caption, your mind gets to write the story, and your version is almost always better than the real one. The real explanation for a pigeon in a tiny hat is probably something like a photographer with extra time and a very patient bird. Left unexplained, though, that pigeon could be a retired spy or the mayor of the park. Mystery keeps the magic alive, which is why some of us would rather never learn the answer.
If you ever want to fall deeper down the rabbit hole, Know Your Meme runs a collection of simply odd images with no explanations built on a similar idea, that some photos have so much going on they somehow explain themselves in their own strange way. Just remember the golden rule of the genre. Resist the urge to search for the real story. Half the fun is staying confused together.
