A meme format is a reusable structure, usually an image or a layout plus a caption pattern, that people refill with new content while the joke’s logic stays recognizable. Lolcats from 2007 and the 2017 distracted boyfriend photo both worked this way.
The wider idea of a meme covers any spreading unit of culture, but the format is the part that makes a joke easy to copy.
What a meme format actually is
Every format has two layers: a fixed frame and a variable slot. The frame is the part everyone recognizes, such as a photograph, a panel layout or a sentence skeleton. The slot is where the poster adds a label, a caption or a new situation. Because the frame carries the meaning, a reader understands the joke almost instantly, before reading a single word of the caption.
Wikipedia’s entry on the image macro describes the oldest version of this idea. It states that “Lolcats, which are images of expressive cats coupled with texts, are considered to be the first notable occurrence of image macros.” The same entry notes that advice animal macros, also called stock-character macros, are highly associated with the image macro template. In both cases the picture stays constant and the text changes.
That split explains why formats outlast single jokes. A single joke dies when people have seen it. A format keeps producing new jokes for as long as people can find new content to put in the slot.
How formats spread from one community to the next
According to the same Wikipedia entry, beginning in 2007, lolcats and similar image macros spread beyond the initial communities that created them and became widely popular. That jump matters because a format only counts as a format once strangers can use it without an explanation. Inside a small forum, a joke can lean on shared history. Outside it, the structure has to carry itself.
The stock-character family shows how this works. Bad Luck Brian captions are used for unfortunate situations, Success Kid captions depict an everyday situation involving good luck, and Scumbag Steve captions describe an unfriendly action by somebody. A newcomer needs only one example of each to learn the rule. The face does the teaching, and the rule can be reused in any language or setting.
Spread also depends on how cheap copying is. A format that needs a drawing skill or a video editor reaches fewer people than one that needs a phone and a text box. The step-by-step side of this is covered in the guide on how to make a meme, which walks through the practical choices.
Case study: the distracted boyfriend
The distracted boyfriend shows a format forming in public between 2015 and 2017. The stock photo was taken in Girona, in Catalonia, Spain, in mid-2015 by the Barcelona photographer Antonio Guillem. Guillem told Wired that he and the models planned a session representing infidelity “in a playful and fun way”. Nothing about it was meant as a template.
The first known use as an internet meme was posted to a Turkish progressive rock Facebook group in January 2017. Social media users began using the image as a meme at the start of 2017, and it went viral in August 2017 as a way to depict different forms of disloyalty. Once a post with the man labeled “the youth” reached large audiences, one copy of the post earned more than 35,000 retweets.
Know Your Meme lists the distracted boyfriend as an example of object labeling, a style in which each figure in a picture is tagged with a concept. The slots are fixed: the boyfriend is the person tempted, the new passer-by is the tempting thing, and the girlfriend is whatever one is supposed to be committed to. The same three slots held up in a business version where the boyfriend was labeled “Renault”, the passer-by “Fiat Chrysler” and the girlfriend “Nissan”.
Common types of meme format
Wikipedia traces a chain of styles that grew out of the image macro. The entry says image macros served as the foundation for newer, more complex meme styles that emerged in the mid to late 2010s, including object labelling, blank filling, text changing and deconstruction memes. These types are a useful map.
- Image macro: a picture with top and bottom text. Lolcats and advice animals are the classic cases.
- Object labeling: text tags placed on parts of a picture, as in the distracted boyfriend.
- Blank filling: a sentence or panel with an empty slot, where each poster supplies the missing word or scenario.
- Text changing: an existing text or screenshot with the wording altered while the layout stays intact.
- Deconstruction: a format that comments on or breaks the conventions of earlier formats.
Different formats ask different things of the reader. A labeled image asks the reader to decode which label maps to which person. A blank-filling format asks them to judge whether the fill is clever. Both depend on the frame being familiar.
Format versus template
The two words are often swapped, but they point at different things. The format is the idea of how the joke works. The template is the actual blank file, such as the raw stock photo, that people download and edit. One format can have many templates, for instance when a layout is redrawn with different characters. The page on the meme template covers the file side in detail.
The distracted boyfriend itself proves the difference. Early variations used other photos from Guillem’s shoot of the same three stock characters, and later versions swapped in a painting. Each of those is a new template. All of them use the same format: a figure tempted by a new thing while ignoring an existing commitment.
Why some formats last and others fade
Durable formats share a few traits. Their slots are easy to fill, their frames are visually clear at thumbnail size, and their meaning is flexible enough to cross topics. The distracted boyfriend moved from relationships to politics to car manufacturers because the temptation structure applies to almost any choice.
Fading happens when a format becomes too specific or too worn. When a format has been used so often that the caption pattern is predictable, the surprise disappears, and communities respond by deconstructing it or moving on. That cycle, from invention to saturation to parody, is why format knowledge ages quickly, and why dated sources matter when reading about any single example.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a meme and a meme format?
A meme is any spreading idea or joke, while a meme format is the reusable structure behind a family of jokes. Lolcats, which Wikipedia calls the first notable image macros, are one format that produced countless separate memes.
When did the distracted boyfriend become popular?
The first known meme use appeared in a Turkish progressive rock Facebook group in January 2017, and it went viral on August 19, 2017, according to Wikipedia’s entry on the image.
Is every image macro a meme format?
Yes, in the sense that an image macro pairs a fixed picture with changing text. Wikipedia lists Bad Luck Brian, Success Kid and Scumbag Steve as stock-character macros that share one image while users choose different captions.
What is object labeling?
Object labeling is a style where text tags are placed on people or items in a picture. Know Your Meme classifies the distracted boyfriend as an example of it, with the boyfriend, girlfriend and passer-by each carrying a label.
