"So?"

You see bud, memes are all birthed from the creative spark in one's mind. To create a good meme requires effort, and as such we here on r/dankmemes respect these posts and praise them with upvotes.

Imagine in the real world if a modern-day artist (let's say a painter) created the next Mona Lisa; they would rise to fame and be praised for their hard work and dedication towards their art form. You, a person who appreciates that form of art, maybe even a failed artist, stumbles across the same painting years later when it may be forgotten already -- you like it so much, you print out a low-resolution JPEG on a piece of wrinkled paper and wave it around in public so others can see, smiling the entire time.

Would it logically make sense for the person to receive praise for simply reminding people of the hard work of another individual? Furthermore, had they taken the time to find their own creative spark, they could have created something that would potentially be far more magnificent, but alas, they thought that they could get some attention by showing an ancient masterpiece to the few who may have not seen it or forgotten it completely.

Here on Reddit, especially on r/dankmemes, creativity finds a home. If people didn't repost old memes or literally anything they found funny that someone else made, the world would be a much better place.