I noticed it with my Covington kids meme. I probably had over 20 ups and 30 or so posts in it with ups and then it got featured and only got to 2 on the hot list. Vaga also confirmed it. The points count to your score but don't count to the memes score.
Hmmmm, good question. Palringo buddies. Might have linked it. But it probably wasn't 20. But i had like 60 comments all with numerous ups. It took awhile to climb up the hot page.