Why Are Relatable Memes So Hugely Popular These Days?

From the 'Everything is fine' meme to the 'Distracted boyfriend' one - which at one point in 2018 got banned from use in an advert by a recruitment company in Sweden - we can pretty much agree that memes have successfully woven themselves into our cultural fabric. According to one 2019 study, 75% of 13 to 36-year-olds today share funny relatable memes with their peers and loved ones.

Thanks to the advent of social media and its easily meme-able tycoons like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, memes have emerged as a highly favored mode of expression. Also, a lucrative one. In 2020, the worldwide meme industry achieved a valuation of $2.3 billion, and projections indicated a substantial growth to $6.1 billion by 2025. If you told us that in the 2010s when Doge was just a meme and not a billion-dollar-making crypto coin, we'd probably tell you that you'd lost your marbles. But in the post-pandemic reality of metaverses, there are only a few things that can surprise us anymore, and the least of them is the popularity of relatable memes about life.

Jamie Cohen, a digital media culture expert who's currently working on a book about "virality and violence and the kinetic energy of memes," was kind enough to speak with Bored Panda about the relatable memes. "Memes only work because of relatability and, like fortune cookies, have to feel personal and engaging but also general enough to be shared," he explained in an email.

Cohen explains that most memes don't have a long lifespan because they're competing with trendier memes that are relatable. Remember Bernie Sanders' mittens meme? It was hot while the change in the presidency was undergoing but quickly fanned out afterward because it wasn't universal enough for all kinds of everyday situations, like the infamous Pepe the Frog. "[It] was so universal and long-lasting because the image meant different things to different people."

According to Ari Spool of Know Your Meme, the longevity and popularity of a relatable meme "often involves absurdity, and it also requires a certain inside-joke quality. If you're in America and you see a Choppergate meme without knowing the backstory, you might still think the image is funny, but you won't know exactly how funny it is to someone in Australia who understands the background," Spool explained to VICE in 2015, when Drake's "Hotline Bling" memes were incredibly popular, even surpassing the fame of the rapper himself.

Of course, with great power comes great responsibility - even if you're not aware of it. Something that happened to cartoonist Matt Furie, the creator of Pepe the Frog, which took a life of its own after the internet turned it into one of the most relatable memes, then a hate-symbol. "Some saw it as a sign of emotional good - 'Feels good man' - and others saw ways of using Pepe to become a mascot for their ideology - like some of the darker, more racist uses. Pepe is a meme for everything that contains emotion," Cohen explained.

While it's difficult to grasp why some people would splash millions on funny relatable memes, the fact is that many choose to do so. A notable example occurred in 2021 when Doge was sold as a nonfungible token (or NFT) for an eye-watering $4 million, making it the most valuable meme ever sold.

The appeal of sharing relatable memes about life as a means of communication may be challenging to comprehend, but according to Patricia Prijatel, the E.T. Meredith Distinguished Professor Emerita at Drake University, it ultimately boils down to their simplicity. "Memes are seductive. They lure us with their slick and often caustic humor. Right now, we’re all a mix of frustration, anger, fear, and anxiety, and memes let us blow off some steam quickly and easily," she wrote in her blog.