On the surface of it, memes seem like a throwaway thing. They only take a second or two to be absorbed into our eyeballs, and then we probably forget all about them for the rest of eternity — or at least, until they crop up again from the bowels of the internet when we least expect it. What we don’t tend to appreciate about many memes is the manpower it took to create them (unless they’re some kind of freakish AI generation). While it may be true that most meme makes don’t expend that much effort on putting together the meme itself, they still had to think up the concept, match it with the right picture, and go to the trouble of sharing it with the world. It takes more time than simply cracking a dumb joke, but it doesn’t always get as much appreciation. We don’t have a duty to make sure all memes get a laugh, though.