Part of what sets us human beings apart from other living things on this planet is our numerous and sophisticated methods of communication. In this modern age, we can send a message with everything from a specific kinds of eye contact to an ungodly, AI-generated TikTok brainrot meme, and that is kind of beautiful. 

While there are strong arguments to be had that there are more serious and heralded examples of the written and spoken word that best showcase the pinnacle of our communication skills, memes, when done well, have to be up there fighting their case. The amount of humor, references, and technical knowledge that can be packed into some of them is nothing short of impressive. Many more of them are extremely dumb, of course, but that doesn’t take away from their power to deliver a message. It is one of the reasons that we keep coming back to them again and again.