As simple as they might look, there are a lot of “secret ingredients” to what makes a good meme. After all, new meme formats are “made” every single day, yet the vast majority of them simply do not last. Ultimately, memes need to have a few key components to actually stand the test of time.

First and foremost, memes need to be actually legible. The imagery and ideas have to make sense to a lot of people and they need to be universal enough to be applied to other things. Memes spread because various people see the template and add their own ideas to it.

Almost like pictographs or hieroglyphs, memes “transmit” ideas incredibly quickly. A key part of a meme is that you are not reading paragraph after paragraph of text, although some folks insist on making memes of that sort. Ultimately, a meme lives or dies on just how quickly people can grasp its core concept and iterate on it.

This is also why many movements, including political movements, use memes to organize action and spread awareness. Like political slogans or posters of old, a meme is quick, easy to understand. Really anything can be “memeified,” from common human experiences to very specific parts of a subgroup.