Out of our darkest and most cringeworthy moments, the South African meme is born. If not for memes including favourites - the photograph of an octogenarian captioned "Victor Matfield, I dated him in high school" and a prayer: "Dear God please don't let the Japs discover cricket" - many rugby fans would have cried themselves to sleep more than a week ago.Technology market research firm World Wide Worx founder Arthur Goldstuck believes memes partly unite their audiences but also provide a form of healing."Humour is a great healer especially after something as painful as the rugby loss. That is definitely a classic example of humour being used to relieve pain," he said referring to South Africa's loss to Japan a week ago.The popularity of memes grows during sporting or political events."Among the most popular in South Africa were memes about Nkandla and the fake interpreter. And then the constant will always be the Eskom meme. The most popular being just a black square captioned: 'Shot over the city at night'," Goldstuck said.Once a meme is out there, it appeals to everyone."You see people of every age group passing it on.The older people tend to get it later so that tends it give it a longer life," Goldstuck said.But not everyone loves memes."A lot of people are offended by memes especially if they feel they are the butt of the joke. For example, senior ANC members would not have appreciated any of the Nkandla memes. If you associate or empathise too closely with whoever is the butt of the joke, you are likely to be offended," Goldstuck explained.For a few reasons university students are most likely to be meme creators."They tend to have the most time and the right attitude for coming up with witty content but as they get older, their sense of humour starts getting blunted. Those younger [than student age], tend to lack the sophistication for it."He also said creators tend to disavow their work."Very seldom do people take credit for creating a meme because they are aware that offence might be taken," Goldstuck said...