memes

Ok so we all know about memes. Memes are very important in the evolution of ideas and behaviours, evolution it should be noted is not always positive, like a massive game of chinese whispers, the memes can mutate into something that might not seem related to or as beneficial as the original meme.

The characters display a basic principle of memes using the me me's routine. This is a meme of  monkey see monkey do. A subject close to one characters heart might be taken up and used by another character, albeit in a different context. By using feedback, the character can mutate an idea. A thesaurus definition of a subject is used to give another (related) word to work from, A product on amazon might be decided on by searching one product and looking what other customers bought, or by looking up other products of the same weight. the effect is to give the characters a related, shared system of archetypal words, even though to the characters these might have little meaning, the words develop meaning through association.

Here is a bit more about em ,reprinted from wiki.

A meme is a unit of cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes, in that they self-replicate and respond to selective pressures.
The British scientist Richard Dawkins coined the word "meme" in The Selfish Gene (1976) as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. Examples of memes given in the book included melodies, catch-phrases, beliefs (notably religious beliefs), clothing fashion, and the technology of building arches.[
Meme-theorists contend that memes evolve by natural selection (in a manner analogous to that of biological evolution) through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance influencing an individual meme's reproductive success. Memes spread through the behaviors that they generate in their hosts. Memes that propagate less prolifically may become extinct, while others may survive, spread, and (for better or for worse) mutate. Theorists point out that memes which replicate the most effectively spread best, and some memes may replicate effectively even when they prove detrimental to the welfare of their hosts.
A field of study called memeticsarose in the 1990s to explore the concepts and transmission of memes in terms of an evolutionary model. Criticism from a variety of fronts has challenged the notion that scholarship can examine memes empirically. Some commentators question the idea that one can meaningfully categorize culture in terms of discrete units.


Here is an example of a meme map, tracing the history of the idea of organic farming. The mid point is when the meme cross's over into mainstream society. A simular technique can be used to show how the characters (such as Mr Akers grenade-type personality) develope an dislike for a subject. the croos over point being the point other characters start using and associating the term.