Animation meme

An **animation meme** is a genre of internet animation where videos have distinctive, often simple structures which are recreated by numerous people and/or are specifically designed to be copied.

## Etymology

The name of the genre refers to the fact that animation memes are copied and spread around quickly, with numerous variations on them being created.

When animation memes got their name, the primary meaning of the word "meme" was "content or concept that is frequently copied, typically on the internet"; however, the word has gained strong connotations of comedy in years after the term was applied to formulaic animations. This linguistic shift has led to frequent confusion, with many newcomers expecting the formulaic animations to contain jokes and complaining about the large number of them that do not. These videos became more frequently referred to as **animation memes,** rather than simply **memes,** specifically to distinguish them from other types of content, such as comedy skits.

## Overview

Animation memes typically consist of minimalistic, looping animation set to music. The meme is normally under 2 minutes in length and may be made using original or pre-existing characters. Animation meme formats are deliberately created in "original meme" videos, and then copied by others. All meme formats have their own names, generally consisting of a word or short phrase relating to the music used and/or the overall theme of the format (for instance, the "Melody" meme splices together two versions of "Squid Melody" by The Living Tombstone, while the "Trauma" meme features loose references to a traumatic event in the character's life).

The communities most closely linked to the animation meme community are the furry fandom, Warrior Cats fandom, and Multi-Animator Project community. Animation memes are disproportionately popular among teenagers.

## History

Animation memes originate from sometime between 2006 and 2008; the details are unclear and depend heavily on which definition of animation meme is being used. Many of the videos which many animators copied were not designed to be copied, and some, such as Caramelldansen and Leekspin, originally utilized pre-existing imagery from video games or television shows instead of original animation before being recreated by hobbyist animators. Older memes were typically more simplistic than modern ones, often consisting of a single looping animation, and heavily used bright flashing colors. Modern memes are more likely to contain complex imagery and multiple shots, and, due to increased awareness of and concern regarding photosensitivity, are less likely to containing strobe effects.

Originally, the original creators of animation memes often either were credited using YouTube's video response function, went uncredited, or were misattributed; when the video response feature was removed from the website, this caused credits to disappear from most of the animation meme videos which had them. Modern memes either have a direct link to the original video they are based on in their main descriptions, mention the original meme's creator directly (either via plain text or a link) in the main description, show the original creator's username in the video itself, or some combination of the above; "original" memes, made to be copied rather than copying another, are stated to be such in the title, description, and/or video intro.