How-to
How to make a meme that lands
Pick the right face, follow its formula, keep it short and be specific. Five rules from the millions of posts made on this site.
Anyone can put words on a picture. Making people laugh is a little harder - but the most popular posts on this site follow a handful of patterns you can learn in five minutes.
1. Pick the character first
Each meme has a personality, and readers expect it. If your story is about something going wrong, it's a Bad Luck Brian. If it's a tiny victory, it's Success Kid. If it's a complaint that only a comfortable person could have, it's First World Problems. A good joke on the wrong face falls flat.
2. Follow the formula
Most classics have a fixed shape - “not sure if… or…”, “I don't always… but when I do…”, “one does not simply…”. Don't fight it. The formula is what lets people read your meme instantly; your job is to fill it with something new.
3. Be specific
“Life is hard” isn't funny. “Clicked copy instead of paste - now I have to copy the first file again” is. Real, small, recognisable details are what make people say “that's me”.
4. Keep it short
Two lines, a handful of words each. If you need a third sentence, the joke isn't finished yet. The picture is doing half the work - let it.
5. Save the twist for the bottom
The top line sets up, the bottom line pays off. Put the surprising word as close to the end as you can. Read it aloud: if the last word is the funny one, it's ready.
Then press create, pick a meme, and try it. The picture is waiting.
More stories
- What is a meme, anyway? - A word a biologist made up in 1976 now names the internet's favourite kind of joke. How a picture and two lines of text became a language millions of people speak.
- Top text, bottom text: the grammar of a meme - White capital letters with a black outline, one line above the picture, one below. Every part of the classic meme layout is doing a job.
- Advice animals: the colour-wheel years - A dog in front of a rainbow wheel started a whole family of characters, each with one personality and one job. How Advice Dog's descendants took over the internet around 2010.
- Rage comics: when the internet drew itself in MS Paint - Wobbly lines, a handful of faces and one big feeling per panel. The crude comics that gave us Trollface, Forever Alone and Y U No.
- Meme Celebrities: the people behind the faces - A yearbook photo, a stock photo shoot, a day at the beach. Nine ordinary people who woke up one morning to find their face had become a joke the whole world knew.
- From the big screen to the top text - A line from The Lord of the Rings, a smirk from 1971, a beer advert and a squinting cartoon. How film and TV became the internet's favourite raw material.
- Beyond two lines: panels, boxes and captions - Top and bottom text is only one way to caption a picture. The newer formats put words in boxes, beside panels or above the image - and you can make all of them here.