Life may be like a box of chocolates, but memes are equivalent to a pot of gumbo. Helped along by a few crucial base ingredients, they get anything and everything thrown into them to produce a flavorful mixture which may be the sum of its parts, but the parts are not as easy to distinguish when they’re all stirred up together. 

When seasoned meme enjoyers look at a meme, they usually know what kind of thing to expect. There are only so many factors that can go into one piece of media, after all. At the same time, though, in memes that range from mediocre to truly great, these things come together in a way that it isn’t always easy to put your finger on. This delicate balance is a big part of the reason that we keep coming back for more, and why no one is going to stop making them any time soon.