Here’s a more light hearted look at memage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8617454.stm
What I think is kinda interesting is that there’s two different views of why the Hitler meme has become so popular. One person says:
“It’s really the nature of the internet that once something reaches a critical mass it starts perpetuating itself out of its own momentum,” says creator Andy Nordvall, who uses the name Masters of Humility. “The sheer randomness and seeming arbitrary nature of what goes viral becomes part of the viral-ness itself.”
and another from the comments:
“This meme is so popular because it can be attached to so many events. The leader asks a question about progress, the supporters give him the bad news, the leader expresses concern about what he thought was happening, the supporters repeat the bad news, the leader realises that the challenge has been lost and describes all the opportunities they will now never achieve. The original happens to be about a dark period in history but the key story sequence occurs every day for all of us. I am so looking forward to a few UK Election versions.” (there’s a few similar posts after this)
So, what caused the meme to be popular? Obviously it has to be funny, or no one’s going to want to watch it, but in scenario a.) it just hits a critical mass and once it become recognized by enough people, it just takes off presumably. In the other, there’s actually some intrinsic reason in the meme itself as to why it spread. I’d tend to go with A. A lot of internet memes (cough*rickrolling*cough*) don’t actually make any sense unless you’re in on the joke, and as they become more popular, more people are in on them and they spread more and more.