Some words and no pictures

Dipity's timeline of memes is an incomplete but useful catalogue of Internet madness. Know Your Meme is better. Encyclopaedia Dramatica is best 4chan.

Birds

I freaking love birds.

Puppies

Sometimes they come with captions:

And sometimes not:

But always, they are cute.

Asskicking

I have got to think up some sharp text for that last one (comes from the Hitchhikers Guide movie).

Happy Mothers' Day, you mothers.

Chill

Everybody just relax.

Don't hurt me no more.

Meme Evolution

A meritorious image appears:

Someone adds text:

...and the sum of image and text, deemed of interest to those first exposed to it, becomes a meme.

Some fan of the meme adapts the text to meme classic font "Impact" with black outline added via a layer style (usually "drop shadow" or "outer glow") in Photoshop:

...and exploitation and/or hybridization of the meme begins:

...and continues ad infinitum. :D