What are memes an how were they first developed?

Before I can start posting my memes (yes I actually made them) what is a meme? A "meme" is a virally transmitted cultural symbol or idea. Most memes today are photos with captioned that are intended to be funny, often as a way to publicly ridicule human behavior. Other memes may be short videos and verbal expressions. The word "meme" itself was developed by Richard Dawkins in one of his books, "The Selfish Gene" in 1976 as an attempt to explain the way cultural information spreads. The reason why they became so popular is because a picture with a caption is much easier to understand than a long video or article that you have to watch or read. They gradually began to become very popular and soon took over the Internet.