A meme format is a template that already knows how to make a joke before you've typed a word into it. Drake pointing at one thing and rejecting another, a brain expanding through four stages of enlightenment, a man glancing back at someone who isn't his girlfriend: the image does half the work, and the caption only has to fill the shape it leaves. Knowing that shape is what separates a meme that lands from one that just looks like a meme.

What each entry covers

Every format is described the same way: the structure of the image, the joke that structure is built to carry, and the way people commonly get it wrong. That last part matters as much as the first two. A format used against its own logic, with the wrong panel doing the wrong job, is usually what marks a post out as made by someone who has seen the template without understanding it.

Distracted Boyfriend, Drake Hotline Bling and Expanding Brain are covered individually, each broken down this way.

Where the origin claims come from

Where a format's history can be traced to a specific post, account or thread, the entry names that source and the date it was read, so the claim can be checked. Meme origins are murky by nature. The same image often circulates for months before anyone can point to where it actually started. Where no source stands up, the entry says so and describes the format without an origin claim.