Defined as “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture,” meme lookups skyrocketed after presidential candidate Mitt Romney brought up Big Bird and “whole binders full of women” in debate performances, inspiring a range of online parodies that installed “binders” as the Internet meme of the moment. “With Facebook, Twitter and other social media, online response to news events has become simultaneous commentary – and parody,” said Sokolowski. “The word meme now sometimes serves as the noun form of the adjective viral.”
