monke.
what do you even say to this? there's nothing you can do except jump on the laughter bandwagon, even if you don't find it all that funny. as long as there's even one fiber in your body that finds a shred of amusement in this sort of trend, you'll have to laugh. even if you snicker once then go on your way, you'll have spent time and energy laughing at something that you -- or at least some part of you -- thinks isn't really laughable or entertaining.
you think back to the first laugh you had. you think back to the time when all of this was something you genuinely didn't expect to see, yet did. you never expected to find anything in it, yet you found something. you found entertainment. you found joy. no matter how small or fleeting that joy was, it was -- is -- joy. you think back on what you felt back then, and compare it now, where you've seen the same thing run it's course over, and over, and over, and over again. sometimes it's different enough that it feels like a whole new experience, good OR bad. but most of the time you can't have that. most of the time there's at best one or two minor cosmetic differences that don't do much. to say nothing of reposts.
the you then and the you now are two very different people. sometimes change happens so fast you hardly recognize the change happened at all. without realizing, what you once thought was new evolved into something (almost comically) normal. it's always been there, always just a Thing that you've dealt with.
always been something you've wanted to ignore.
but the you back then hasn't felt that yet. they wouldn't have felt the same exhaustion you do, looking at this. instead, they'll have another rush of happiness spring forth inside of them, letting the joy wash over them and color their perception. without thinking, they'll have spread it as best they can to their (your? yet, they are not you and you are not them.) friends, wanting to share the smile put on their face by the piece of art in front of them. the same piece of art you're sick and tired of looking at because it serves as a reminder of humanity's (or at least the internet's) greatest failure: its shortage of collective imagination. once something has been brought to the forefront, copies, knockoffs, duplicates start pouring in en masse, hoping to elicit the same reaction the original work did. it results in a massive surge, then a fading, receding interest as people come to realize, they've seen this before and would like not to see it again, please and thank you. at least, until the next Big ThingTM comes and throws everyone back into a frenzy again.
it's a cycle. vicious? hardly. you cannot fault a person for wanting to spread what they feel brings happiness, not unless it directly harms anyone. and trends like these are hardly the case. that is what we have been taught to do, right from the very beginning. way back when our ancestors lived in caves and threw stones to hunt, he who found meat shared with the clan. everyone is stronger together -- a full, not-starving clan means surviving, happy clansmen. this has always been the case and it will not stop being the case now. you know this deep down. yet, as is normal for a person, you cannot let go of the irritation you feel seeing another one of these. the two war inside your head, and in your attempts to quell them both, you come to an ultimatum. your compromise lands at writing some sort of half-witty commentary, utilizing trends you haven't quite gotten tired of yet and intending to invoke a feeling of cleverness in your readers. you hope that maybe if anyone reads what you've sent, they walk away a little more... well, a little more Something.
it could be anything.
true, you could have just walked away and gone on with your daily life, as the greater part of you suggests. yet, in deference to the first laugh, the pure feeling of unbridled joy you first remembered, you decide to leave your mark in the hope that one day, someone else decides to leave theirs because of you. because we're all family here. the happiness of one is eventually, the happiness of all.
thanks for coming to my ted talk. stay warm out there, gamers.