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In essence, a meme is a running joke carried out not by a solitary comedian, but by the collective online community. Memes are very impermanent, rarely lasting more than three to six months (with a handful of notable exceptions which have lasted for several years), both due to the susceptibility of any joke to be worn out, and due to the rapid communication present on the worldwide web. Many advertising companies and media outlets misconstrue this quite severely, however. (In more recent years, dead memes have been resurrected and used ironically, likely fueling the confusion.)
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