Colorado Christian University student Haley Littleton notes a Winston Churchill quote, “a joke is a very serious thing.”

In an essay for The College Fix, Littleton goes on to describe the power of humor to win the votes of Young Americans:

When Republican activist Caleb Bonham wanted to spread the news about an upcoming conservative conference in Colorado, he headed to CU Boulder with a pen, poster board and video camera and convinced many students to sign a big (and fake) thank you card to President Obama for targeting conservatives through the IRS.

The video of that undertaking – which included references to the Western Conservative Summit conference he aimed to promote – quickly went viral, garnering tens of thousands of views online within a few short days.

What Bonham understood was that reaching the hearts and minds of young people isn’t about talking at them, it’s about making them chuckle – and think – all at the same time.

Enter the Internet meme, the way many twenty-somethings spread messages and debate politics nowadays. Whether memes change hearts and minds, however, is up for debate.

Internet memes can be videos, pictures, cartoons, hashtags or similar platforms. They begin small and grow through social media networks, blogs, emails and news sites, and can ultimately go viral, reaching a large and diverse audience.

Bonham emphasized their usefulness as agents of reinforcement.

“I do believe memes are effective in reaffirming the beliefs of those on either side of the isle,” Bonham said. “If one is prone to change their ideology based on some snarky comment placed on a grumpy cat photo, then that person really needs to explore their political stance further.”

…The best part about a meme is – anyone can create one. All they need is photoshop and a witty or snarky comment. The hope is that viewers would look up the issue the meme aims to tackle and become more informed. It’s a sneaky, guerilla method of teaching the general public: no one wants to be left out of a joke.

According to an NPR report, the memes are working.

…Bonham said he sees the branding power behind the political humor.

“I believe political cartoons do have the power to advance a narrative,” he said. “For instance, when late night comedians used one-liners to advance the myth that the Ivy League graduate, George W. Bush, was a buffoon, it connected.”

Thus, the saying could go: Meme or be meme’d.