I think it's also worth adding that the memes didn't even really start on 4chan. They mostly started on ytmnd and then 4chans beta site started on servers that

I think it's also worth adding that the memes didn't even really start on 4chan. They mostly started on ytmnd and then 4chans beta site started on servers that belonged to ytmnd/max. 4chan did however lower the bar to entry for sharing memes. Making gifs/mp3's for ytmnd was a put-off to many.