memeitis

The condition or behaviour of abusing memes through gratuitous use out of context, often out of desperation to feel inclusive in a community. The original meme loses its humour and value, and risks subsequently being abandoned in disgust by its originating community. Symptoms of memeitis include:- 1. The used meme not being self-explanatory to the recipient community, i.e. used out of context and requiring research or defining for understanding 2. Theft from and loss of appreciation of the original source of creativity that produced the meme, thereby cheaply and shamefully appealing to the lowest common denominator without contributing any real creativity for the benefit of others 3. The meme being assimilated by content aggregators such as 9gag, Reddit, or Facebook meme pages, and used with reckless abandon