Sup nerds.

You all know I’m the memelord and the King of Memes. I wrote a book about memes, I give talks to startups about memes, hell I even became a meme!

So believe me when I tell you something.

AI can’t make memes. No good AI Meme Generator exists. I’m sorry to burst your bubble. Making memes requires a human touch. It’s one of the only human endeavors that AI can’t do. Let me explain the two reasons why:

1. AI ISN’T FUNNY.

Have you ever tried to make ChatGPT write funny content? It’s disgusting. It makes me want to barf. It sounds like how this meme sounds:

AI simply isn't funny.

Humor is a complex and subjective aspect of human nature that is impossible to replicate with LLMs. While AI can predict the next word in a sentence, that’s the opposite of what you want for humor—because the whole point of a joke is that you can’t predict the punchline. If you can predict it, that takes the fun and cleverness away from the joke. It’s just corny.

Potentially most importantly, humor is largely around NSFW topics: sex, drugs, racism, etc. But AI is like a 75-year-old nun telling jokes afraid to offend anyone. No one wants to hear that. The internet is dominated by viral 20-something memelords actin like fools. We don’t want corny ChatGPT crap, we want real raunchy, edgy humor.

While AI’s political correctness is great for boring content, memes must push boundaries. Memes, by their very nature, often thrive on irreverence and satire, poking fun at various aspects of life. AI, being bound by rules and regulations, cannot venture into this territory, resulting in memes that lack the edginess and boldness that human creators bring to the table.

2. AI DOESN’T HAVE CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE

To meme about something is to understand it so deeply you can make fun of it.

As I wrote in my book Memes Make Millions, you couldn’t pay me $10,000/hour to make memes about hockey! I know nothing about hockey.

This is why Jewish comedians make jokes about their Jewish grandmothers, Ricky Gervais worked in an office for 10 years before he wrote The Office, and Seth Rogen wrote Superbad about his high school years. You can only make a joke out of something you understand deeply.

Memes often rely on shared experiences or references that are familiar to a specific group of people. These inside jokes create a sense of community and understanding among people laughing at the meme (it’s why you often have to explain a meme to your parents or they don’t get it all—they’re not in on the joke and have no idea who the people in it are).

However, AI lacks the ability to comprehend these references or be a part of the cultural context that gives them meaning. As a result, the memes generated by AI feel disconnected and out of touch, failing to resonate with the intended audience. No AI meme generator can do that.

We live in the single-best time in history to monetize your sense of humor. With 1 meme, you can make 1 million people laugh around the world. And as any entrepreneur knows, scale means profit.

So don’t waste your time using AI to make unfunny memes. Instead, invest in improve your meme-making ability. Learn how to make memes like a pro.

Join the memelords:

Thanks for reading, nerds.

Let’s blow up the internet together.

Jason Levin