Kerouac as meme

Are you familiar with memes? Click here for the Wikipedia entry. It's missing some information, however, so click here for a bit more.

You have likely seen pictures floating around the Internet with different captions. I just learned the other day that, in current Internet culture, all of these basic picture/templates have names. For example, there's Philosoraptor, Socially Awkward Penguin, Success Kid, Conspiracy Keanu, and the list goes on. I found a Kerouac example using Hipster Ariel here.

You can make your own meme here. It's easy. Below is one I made. You will need a screen capture program (ScreenHunter is a good one) to snag any image you create, though, as right-clicking on the image at the quickmeme site is fruitless.

I labeled the Kerouac meme template above "What would Kerouac do?" Feel free to make some Kerouac memes with the image. You can do that here (click on Add Your Own Caption on the right).

I have a hard time thinking of these self-created images with captions as memes. They are more like wannabe memes. That is, just because you think of a clever caption and apply it to one of these "meme templates" doesn't mean it's going to spread virally on the Internet. Chances are it won't.

That said, if you want to spread the above Kerouac meme around, feel free. Do it quickly before the Kerouac estate tries to erase it from existence (or charge royalties for it).