Verbal memes are not the same as slang, although slang (as do many components of language, even language itself) can be a meme.
For example, using the word "dude" is slang. (Except perhaps in its original meaning, a "dandy" or "fop"--an effeminately dressed man, as a guest at a western "Dude Ranch").
Contemporary use of "dude" as a spacer or place holder in a sentence, or as a generic term for a person, as in, "Dude, where's my car?" Is definitely slang.
"Dude" has been around as slang at least since I was in college. In fact, its been around so long it may actually be a part of Standard English by now. Fortunately, other slang of that era has long vanished. Nobody misses "groovy".
However, if you deliberately use it as a means of poking fun at people who talk like that, then it becomes a verbal meme as I described. Follow that?
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OK, I know who Green Day is, but I never heard of The Game. What kind of dude does that make me?
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Re: Meme generation survey
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- Meme generation survey