Memes are an art GENRE. That means certain conventions are followed.
Classical music doesn't use electric guitars, pedal steel guitars, saxophones, xylophones, etc. Why? Because the classical music GENRE ... doesn't use those instruments.
Why don't LOVE POEMS use words like "situational", "relativistic", "perceptual", etc? They wouldn't fit the GENRE.
If you're making an Impressionist painting, why would you not paint realistic images that look almost like a photo? Because realism is contrary to the Impressionist GENRE.
Generally, some of the "attributes" of the meme GENRE are:
1) Each TEMPLATE has a SPECIFIC THEME associated with it. If you pick a popular template, stick with the theme. Don't use it just because the picture happens to relevant.
2) If there IS a POPULAR TEMPLATE with a specific theme, DON'T try to create an alternate--it won't catch on. For instance, someone tried to create a BAD LUCK HANNAH female version of BAD LUCK BRIAN--with an average-looking young woman.
... dead meme .... Same thing with the nitwit who changed the colors of BAD LUCK BRIAN from red to green and tries to push it as GOOD LUCK BRIAN ....
3) Standard layout for a single-image meme is a short "setup" at the top and a "punchline" (or insightful observation) at the bottom.
4) With a 3-image meme, the layout is one text line per image OR one line each for the top and middle and the bottom is a "reaction" image, generally for a pun.
5) Generally only certain colors are used for the fonts. Usually don't use purple, violet (not the same--one is equal parts Red and Blue and the other is 2 parts Red and 1 Blue), orange, gray, red, brown, tan, pink, lavender, dark blue, medium blue, dark green, medium-dark green.
White is by far the most common, medium-light green, medium-light yellow, are next, then light blue.
6) Standard FONT for the meme GENRE is IMPACT. One reason for that is many fonts are NOT particularly legible on top of photos.
SOMETIMES Microsoft's Comic Sans is used--that generally comes across as highly exaggerated slapstick (see image). Unless the intent is slapstick, Comic Sans generally DETRACTS from the impression of the meme (which is usually to be funny but not slapstick.)
By the way, with IMPACT it's best to use TWO SPACES between words and SHADOW of 2 OR 3, and one space between a letter and a period, ? or ! and don't use more than 2 ?? or !!
The extra space make the text MUCH more readable.
And also, it's a lot more common to use ALL CAPITALS. Usually, only use Mixed Case if there is a LOT of text, because all capitals is harder to read.
(Actually, studies have shown that when reading, people don't read just the letters, the SHAPE of the word helps with recognizing the word. With ALL CAPS there is no combination of "low and high", which makes it slightly more difficult. It's not a problem with short text but it is with longer text.)
