This is one of the few times I felt it nessisary to explain a tag on my blog. In this case, the tag is called "meme." But first, a little bit of Lewis Carroll to set the mood:
Alice was walking beside the White Knight in Looking Glass Land.
"You are sad." the Knight said in an anxious tone: "let me sing you a song to comfort you."
"Is it very long?" Alice asked, for she had heard a good deal of poetry that day.
"It's long." said the Knight, "but it's very, very beautiful. Everybody that hears me sing it - either it brings tears to their eyes, or else -"
"Or else what?" said Alice, for the Knight had made a sudden pause.
"Or else it doesn't, you know. The name of the song is called 'Haddocks' Eyes.'"
"Oh, that's the name of the song, is it?" Alice said, trying to feel interested.
"No, you don't understand," the Knight said, looking a little vexed. "That's what the name is called. The name really is 'The Aged, Aged Man.'"
"Then I ought to have said 'That's what the song is called'?" Alice corrected herself.
"No you oughtn't: that's another thing. The song is called 'Ways and Means' but that's only what it's called, you know!"
"Well, what is the song then?" said Alice, who was by this time completely bewildered.
"I was coming to that," the Knight said. "The song really is 'A-sitting On a Gate': and the tune's my own invention."
"You are sad." the Knight said in an anxious tone: "let me sing you a song to comfort you."
"Is it very long?" Alice asked, for she had heard a good deal of poetry that day.
"It's long." said the Knight, "but it's very, very beautiful. Everybody that hears me sing it - either it brings tears to their eyes, or else -"
"Or else what?" said Alice, for the Knight had made a sudden pause.
"Or else it doesn't, you know. The name of the song is called 'Haddocks' Eyes.'"
"Oh, that's the name of the song, is it?" Alice said, trying to feel interested.
"No, you don't understand," the Knight said, looking a little vexed. "That's what the name is called. The name really is 'The Aged, Aged Man.'"
"Then I ought to have said 'That's what the song is called'?" Alice corrected herself.
"No you oughtn't: that's another thing. The song is called 'Ways and Means' but that's only what it's called, you know!"
"Well, what is the song then?" said Alice, who was by this time completely bewildered.
"I was coming to that," the Knight said. "The song really is 'A-sitting On a Gate': and the tune's my own invention."
The word "meme" is pronounced like the word "team," not "me-me." An example of a meme is any well known catch-phrase. If you've heard the phrase, "Give a hoot, don't pollute," and you thought of Hootie the Owl, that's a successful meme. If you had not heard that phrase before, now you have. A meme is successful if it propigates widely.
There is the Wikipedia article, but it's a little academic.
Basically, a meme is a popular thought. An Internet meme is a meme that propagates primarily over the Internet. I think calling it an Internet meme is unnecessary. An Internet meme is really just a meme. Calling it an Internet meme is like calling a fish a water fish. Sure, in theory there might be other kinds of fish, but usually, just saying fish if you mean water fish is quite sufficient.
It's also like saying "computer illiterate." Pretty soon, one will just assume a person who is referred to as illiterate is computer illiterate.
This post is not a meme even though it was originally tagged with meme. If this post were to become popular for some reason (unlikely), it might become a meme, which would in turn make it a meta-meme. A meta-meme is a rare meme about meme. One example of an existing meta-meme is: meme itself. It's the idea of ideas and it got popular mention back in 2004, from what I can tell.
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