The mechanic is simple. Any post can be reframed as a stale, unoriginal meme by writing 'nice meme' beneath it, and the more effortful or earnest the target, the sharper the sarcasm reads5. A dorito-face emoticon often trails the phrase, and reply-guys pair it with fedoras, Doritos, and Mountain Dew, the neckbeard signifiers the joke pretends to look down on2.

Urban Dictionary submissions from the era rhyme the phrase with 'be glad if I stole that,' hinting at the copy-paste tone that made the joke ideal for spam raids6. The audio clip of a voice drawling 'niiice meme' from the Flappy Fedora parody provided the joke's audio hook, later hosted on the single-serving website Niceme.me for one-click delivery4.

Reply with the words 'nice meme' beneath any post you want to write off as unoriginal, overplayed, or too earnest, typically inside 4chan, Reddit circlejerk, or ironic Discord threads. Common convention pairs the phrase with a dorito-face emoticon, a fedora reference, or a link to Niceme.me so the target hears the audio clip4. The tone is fake-polite sarcasm, so the reply lands hardest when the target post is fresh content that clearly is not a meme.