That would be the actual definition, yes. But many if not most people who use the word “meme” to mean “funny picture and caption” don’t actually know what the word meme refers to. So they go by some definition originating from Reddit, Facebook, 4chan, etc.

I’m taking about r/antimeme type. A lot of things are accepted there, but usually, it’s just when you use a well established meme template completely differently from what is expected. Could be an anti-joke/literal usage of the meme, but not always.

Reddit license, ducking up things since forever.

Give it another year, and this sort of project will materialize directly through video AI nonsense. There won’t be a years-long journey from excited fanfiction to artistic involvement to corporate interest to maybe becoming a real thing. The original cluster of obsessives will do it themselves.

Idiot executives think generative networks mean they can type in a premise and extrude entertainment product. (They probably can, but if that’s the case, so can you. Try selling ice to someone with a fridge.) What’s going to transform the industry is scribbling a rectangle onto a landscape photo, saying “this is a Roman legion,” and having it be so. The word “transform” might be overly polite. For example, a forest is transformed by fire. We’re looking at a very near future where you can MS Paint a helmet onto a dude and have it become as photorealistic as any costume. And doing it on one frame carries across the entire shot.

It’s gonna get weird.

Honestly I feel it was way more exciting in concept than execution anyway. Hell, I think it would make a fantastic TTRPG setting, since it’s strongest in premise and has strong ludo-narrative cohesion falling between a narrative game and a wargame.