How to make your own internet meme

Every now and then, some pointless phrase or webpage will infect an innocent web surfer and start to replicate across the net, jumping from one mailbox to another and mutating in the process. Based on Susan Blackmore's theory of memetics, these have been dubbed Internet memes. New ones spring up every day and most die a fast, well-deserved death soon afterwards, but a rare few still elicit groans even years after their birth...

Why do we pass memes on? Because we get bored. And they're funny!

The real kudos is in starting your own meme, which hopefully will get sent back to your mailbox from a Zimbabwe email address one summer day in 2015. Mookychick shows you how!

1) Use photoshop to make a fake event look real

Now post it to as many people as you can saying it's true and you got it from somewhere else, you didn't create it yourself, honest.

Examples of this are the see-thru skirts from Japan. Apparently there are these skirts all the Japanese girls are wearing that are spray-painted at the back to look like your pants are showing through. But no japanese stores have admitted selling them, it's a bit weird how all the 'fake bottoms' match the angle of the photographer's point of view... and best of all you can see the signs of photoshopping on the pics, too.

2) Create a meme so weird and great everyone wants some

The dancing baby was a good example of this. But does anyone else think those cheeping birds on teevee ads for mobile ring tones are actually weird and cool, or just annoying?

3) Start a chain letter

It doesn't matter what's in the chain letter. It could be nice or nasty, funny or crap. What matters is that at the bottom of the chain letter you say the receiver has to pass the letter on to get a wish / avoid have their home ripped up in a freak tornado of death.

For good measure, add a message to say that the more people the chain letter is passed on to, the more your wish comes true (which is weird. After all, a wish either comes true or it doesn't, right?). You can also say that the fewer people the letter is passed on to, the more the tornado will really mess you up.

4) Come up with something that almost no-one understands

Here are two examples so you get the idea:

"AYBABTU"
("All Your Base Are Belong To Us", a funny but awful bit of English translation from a very old Japanese computer game - now found everywhere from T-shirts to the bridge as you come into Brighton on the train).

"GOURANGA"
(a buddhist phrase meaning "be happy". There is a mighty fine chance this is a profesh viral marketing campaign for Grand Theft Auto. But it could also be some tek-savvy buddhists spreading the lurve...)

Now post this phrase all over the internet. Anyone who gets it will realise they're part of a really small group who gets it, and will feel hot about themselves. Anyone who doesn't get it will want to get it. Eventually, we guess, the group of people who gets it will grow to include everyone - so it can't really be called a cult anymore. But people will still think it is! Hooray!

5) Everyone loves talking about themselves - and being nosy

If you want to create a meme, you can't go wrong with a questionnaire. You know, "Thunder - cool or scary?", "What's your favourite smell?" "When's the last time you yelled at someone?" ... That kind of thing seems to work well. You spend far too long filling in your answers really carefully, and send it to everyone you know. And they'll be so stoked because they always thought your favourite smell was dried ancient poo, but it turns out it's fresh bread and newly-washed kittens, huzzah!

6) Embarrass yourself

Say something so terrible and embarrassing in an email or blog that everyone will want the whole world to know. An example of this is the poor girl a couple of years back who thought her boyfriend's, ahem, rude juice was rather yummy, and when the newspapers got hold of it she had to emigrate to Australia. This sort of meme is difficult because you can't guarantee the papers will get involved enough for you to have to move away from home and hide... it's just luck of the draw, really. But go on! Give it a try!

7) Make fun of men / women in some way

This is easy to do. Just come up with something about the size of their brains, the size of their shoes etc. Then send it round. There is a high probability that everyone you send the email to is either male or female and will be sufficiently amused / annoyed to pass it on to someone else.

The Mookymeme

Memes are great because everyone forgets about them. Then when you get a chainletter that started in 2001 you think it's really fresh and funny - and send it on to as many people as you can! Because even though it's old it feels new! Internet memes, mookychick salutes you!

If you thought this article was really useful you may want to pass it on. Because, of course, if you send it to ten million people, you get a wish...