- To me, the most interesting part of memes is definitely their dissemination.
. . . But to me, the fascinating part is how something becomes a meme in the first place. . .
I don't understand. Isn't this a contradiction?
It's obvious that a meme can't exist in a vacuum, it needs replication to survive. This is similar to some of the street art, as newgameplus points out. Because of this, I do see a parallel between some street art a and internet memes. Both are just extensions of marketing, which imo has become the most finely tuned art form in the world. Marketing is where the most talented artists get pulled and we are left with a bunch of lazy, less ambitious "artists" creating memes and other nonsense. There was a time when an artist worked for years to hone his craft. This "time" still exists, it just migrated to Madison ave.