Sociopolitical memes are fast establishing themselves as a new currency in graphical news commentary, as are infographics, although the latter tend to be more factual than opinionated.

While memes are not in the same genre as editorial cartoons (especially since they are usually void of any cartoon illustration), the two mediums share many of the same qualities: They both attempt to convey a sociopolitical message as economically as possible in graphic form, often with a dose of humour.

And, as the victorious digital revolution settles in to govern us all into the foreseeable future, these two art forms find themselves competing in the same space for peoples' fast evaporating attention spans, with their success being measured by numbers of likes, shares, favourites, retweets and comments.

Indeed, there is often a blurring of the lines, with some cartoons referencing memes, and others becoming memes unto themselves. Memes are typically quick to get, piggy backing as they do on pop culture elements and commonly held ideas. They also tend to me more populist in their messaging than the often more intellectually inclined editorial cartoon.

Popular memes that have inspired political cartoons go back to the wartime 'I Want You' and "Keep Calm' posters (and 'Wanted' posters before them), to more recent inspirations such as 'That Awkward Moment When...'.

By their nature, memes are anonymous, and the original date of their creation or first publication is unknown. They often employ images and elements without acquiring copyright permissions or acknowledging the source and, similarly, neither do they demand any such permissions or acknowledgements of people who wish to further circulate them or create derivatives. And so they proliferate virally, and their future is guaranteed.

We've created this space for Sociopolitical Memes that have caught our eye which focus on the same issues (and people) covered by the political cartoons on this site. Please feel free to bring any others that you feel should be here to our attention.

To see our complete selection of memes, and cartoons inspired by memes, go HERE