WHY DO MEMES EXIST? HOW DO MEMES BECOME SO POPULAR?if you can read this, you lost the game btw

Long ago, there was a planet called Quixo. On Quixo, there was an alien species called Bogos. Now, the Bogos were very self-sufficient, independent aliens; each one functioned as its own country and government, as if each Bogos lived on its own deserted island. As a result, Bogos rarely ever talked to each other. They felt there was no need as they could do everything on their own. But one day, a Bogos known as Patr noticed something was terribly wrong with Quixo. As Patr was patrolling around his land, naturally alone, he noticed that everything around him was slowly decaying. With each Bogos using as many resources as they wanted, Quixo could no longer support them. Even worse, as Patr looked through a telescope to devise a solution to this problem, he saw that a massive meteor was heading straight for Quixo. He ran to other Bogos and attempted to tell them what he noticed, but almost none of them cared to listen to what he had to say. It didn’t help that Patr rarely talked to his neighbors and didn’t know what to say. Fortunately, three other Bogos realized that Patr was right, Quixo was in danger! 

With heavy hearts, Patr and the three Bogos boarded a spaceship and left Quixo for their survival, knowing they had done all they could think of to warn the other Bogos. They were all that was left of Quixo. Among the survivors on the ship other than Patr were Vis, Ver, and Mu. While space-traveling, the four rarely talked to one another and communicated with simple head nods, feeling awkward from the sudden change to their previously isolating lifestyle. Suddenly, they crash-landed on a planet called Earth. 

Earth was a puzzling planet dominated by an intelligent species called “Humans.” As the four Bogos explored this new planet, they observed these interesting Humans and their culture. They grew enamored with human life, technology, and how similar human civilization was to their home planet, with one main exception. Humans were very social creatures. Humans would “hang out”, “date”, and talk about meaningless things all day. They had friends, lovers, coworkers, acquaintances, and families. It was rare to see a human be completely alone unless they were going somewhere that had more humans! Even more, humans would use technology to keep talking to other humans on “phones” and “computers”. Even though the Bogos observed fights and human conflicts and even relationships breaking apart during their stay on Earth, they noticed how happy humans seemed to be just by being around the ones they loved, something completely alien to the Bogos. It took great effort for Patr, Mu, Ver, and Vis to try to be around each other as the humans did, with varying degrees of success for each Bogos, but they became close and happier together as well.

The Bogos loved humans as humans love their animal companions, and wanted to protect these fascinating creatures who were so similar yet so different from them. For as much as they desired to be like the humans, they refused to completely assimilate with human culture, due to how different they looked, and in fear of scaring the humans, in combination with their leftover guilt of leaving behind their own kind. So, they simply observed the humans as one observes fish in an aquarium, with tender curiosity and a clear boundary. 

Over time, however, Vis noticed a loneliness epidemic spreading through human society. Vis made the connection that, despite humans being social creatures, the generations known as “Millennials” and “Generation Zed” were, in fact, naturally lonely beings who struggled to make deep connections and relationships (it must had been a genetic mutation). These generations seemed unusually awkward and hesitant in regard to socializing compared to their older counterparts due to several factors. Though the four aliens had observed human society for a while at this point, they had never seen this low a level of socializing from humans before. At the same time, the human planet Earth seemed to be dying as every part of its nature was polluted.

 Mu had a theory: what if human connection is what keeps the planet alive, as the earth and human society’s decline seemed to correlate with the decline of natural social interactions. The Bogos agreed, with Ver adding that Mu’s theory must be why Quixo had a similar fate when Bogos never talked to one another. The four decided that they must intervene to save the humanity that they had grown attached to before Earth met the same fate as Quixo. Thus, they formed the Masterminds of Engaging, Meaningful, Entertainment for Socialization (M.E.M.E.S), a conservation organization. Humans seemed to connect most when they had something in common and when they were happy. So, the Bogos reasoned that all they had to do was to mass-create unique symbols for humans to recognize and share with one another in a humorous way. 

Vis was the first to create what he called “memory symbols”, which humans know today as meme templates, and he used the internet to spread his symbols with various relatable texts and human loveable images. Think of cat memes, dog memes, doge, and troll faces. Vis tried his hardest to make as many templates as possible, and humans loved it. The other three Bogos had their own ideas of memes to create that matched each of their strengths and interests. Ver, loving how humans communicated in real life, created verbal memes such as 21, 67, Sheesh, Sus, Gen-alpha slang, and other repeatable phrases for humans to connect instantly just by saying them in public or to their friends. Mu used resources such as TikTok and Instagram to make certain songs become popular and associated with memes. Think of how rare it is to find a TikTok or reel that doesn’t have any music or sound effects; that is Mu’s job. Patr, on the other hand, decided that they needed to be strategic with their memes to ensure that they created long-lasting, household name memes for generations of humans to enjoy and share with others. He decided to be a logician, keeping track of what humans loved or what they are currently interested in to help others make memes that were relevant and useful for human connection. 

Every day, the Bogos work hard to ensure that humans love their memes and, even better, will share memes with other people, forming connections and saving their planet slowly but surely. So whenever you go on Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, TikTok, or even Facebook and laugh at a meme or press share, be sure to remember the hard work the Bogos put in to keep you happy and connected with other people. Every time the Bogos hear someone say “6 7” and see others cringe, it is a sign that they are doing their job well. Every time a human is humming a song that’s popular on TikTok or shows something funny to their friends, the Bogos celebrate and are motivated to keep going. The Bogos would do anything to ensure that humans can stay socialized and happy, to save their world. Out of respect and honor to Quixo, and to save the future of humans and Earth.

P.S. The Bogos had to work OVERTIME to keep humans socialized and connected during Covid. Why else do you think there were so many memes back then, and TikTok became so popular during that time? Thank the Bogos!