Unveiling the Ultimate Meme Recipe: Image Embeddings for Identifying Top Meme Templates from r/Memes
Meme analysis, particularly identifying top meme templates, is crucial for understanding digital culture, communication trends, and the spread of online humor, as memes serve as units of cultural transmission that shape public discourse. Tracking popular templates enables researchers to examine thei...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2025-04-01
|
| Series: | Journal of Imaging |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2313-433X/11/5/132 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1850126393692651520 |
|---|---|
| author | Jan Sawicki |
| author_facet | Jan Sawicki |
| author_sort | Jan Sawicki |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Meme analysis, particularly identifying top meme templates, is crucial for understanding digital culture, communication trends, and the spread of online humor, as memes serve as units of cultural transmission that shape public discourse. Tracking popular templates enables researchers to examine their role in social engagement, ideological framing, and viral dynamics within digital ecosystems. This study explored the viral nature of memes by analyzing a large dataset of over 1.5 million meme submissions from Reddit’s r/memes subreddit, spanning from January 2021 to July 2024. The focus was on uncovering the most popular meme templates by applying advanced image processing techniques. Apart from building an overall understanding of the memesphere, the main contribution was a selection of top meme templates providing a recipe for the best meme template for the meme creators (memesters). Using Vision Transformer (ViT) models, visual features of memes were analyzed without the influence of text, and memes were grouped into 1000 clusters that represented distinct templates. By combining image captioning and keyword extraction methods, key characteristics of the templates were identified, highlighting those with the most visual consistency. A deeper examination of the most popular memes revealed that factors like timing, cultural relevance, and references to current events played a significant role in their virality. Although user identity had limited influence on meme success, a closer look at contributors revealed an interesting pattern of a bot account and two prominent users. Ultimately, the study pinpointed the ten most popular meme templates, many of which were based on pop culture, offering insights into what makes a meme likely to go viral in today’s digital culture. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2dbd17823673496b9747c18e34c876a8 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2313-433X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Imaging |
| spelling | doaj-art-2dbd17823673496b9747c18e34c876a82025-08-20T02:33:57ZengMDPI AGJournal of Imaging2313-433X2025-04-0111513210.3390/jimaging11050132Unveiling the Ultimate Meme Recipe: Image Embeddings for Identifying Top Meme Templates from r/MemesJan Sawicki0Faculty of Mathematics and Information Science, Warsaw University of Technology, ul. Koszykowa 75, 00-662 Warszawa, PolandMeme analysis, particularly identifying top meme templates, is crucial for understanding digital culture, communication trends, and the spread of online humor, as memes serve as units of cultural transmission that shape public discourse. Tracking popular templates enables researchers to examine their role in social engagement, ideological framing, and viral dynamics within digital ecosystems. This study explored the viral nature of memes by analyzing a large dataset of over 1.5 million meme submissions from Reddit’s r/memes subreddit, spanning from January 2021 to July 2024. The focus was on uncovering the most popular meme templates by applying advanced image processing techniques. Apart from building an overall understanding of the memesphere, the main contribution was a selection of top meme templates providing a recipe for the best meme template for the meme creators (memesters). Using Vision Transformer (ViT) models, visual features of memes were analyzed without the influence of text, and memes were grouped into 1000 clusters that represented distinct templates. By combining image captioning and keyword extraction methods, key characteristics of the templates were identified, highlighting those with the most visual consistency. A deeper examination of the most popular memes revealed that factors like timing, cultural relevance, and references to current events played a significant role in their virality. Although user identity had limited influence on meme success, a closer look at contributors revealed an interesting pattern of a bot account and two prominent users. Ultimately, the study pinpointed the ten most popular meme templates, many of which were based on pop culture, offering insights into what makes a meme likely to go viral in today’s digital culture.https://www.mdpi.com/2313-433X/11/5/132memesRedditimage embeddingnatural language processingclusteringimage captioning |
| spellingShingle | Jan Sawicki Unveiling the Ultimate Meme Recipe: Image Embeddings for Identifying Top Meme Templates from r/Memes Journal of Imaging memes image embedding natural language processing clustering image captioning |
| title | Unveiling the Ultimate Meme Recipe: Image Embeddings for Identifying Top Meme Templates from r/Memes |
| title_full | Unveiling the Ultimate Meme Recipe: Image Embeddings for Identifying Top Meme Templates from r/Memes |
| title_fullStr | Unveiling the Ultimate Meme Recipe: Image Embeddings for Identifying Top Meme Templates from r/Memes |
| title_full_unstemmed | Unveiling the Ultimate Meme Recipe: Image Embeddings for Identifying Top Meme Templates from r/Memes |
| title_short | Unveiling the Ultimate Meme Recipe: Image Embeddings for Identifying Top Meme Templates from r/Memes |
| title_sort | unveiling the ultimate meme recipe image embeddings for identifying top meme templates from r memes |
| topic | memes image embedding natural language processing clustering image captioning |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2313-433X/11/5/132 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jansawicki unveilingtheultimatememerecipeimageembeddingsforidentifyingtopmemetemplatesfromrmemes |