i think i compulsively “remix” things. not in a musical sense, but in a conversational one. it doesn’t feel to me like it’s enough to just react: if i send a meme to a friend, they will usually respond with an emoji, but when they send something to me i feel this… pull to continue the conversation. the original joke is not enough, it needs to be riffed on. if i can’t think of a witty comment for the thing, i often do not respond at all until i’ve thought of something.
what’s more, when i meet someone in real life whose response to a thing is just confirming the meme/reference out loud, i get annoyed. i’m fine with it in text form (it’s always fun to imagine someone chuckling looking at their phone), but when i make an allusion to a reference and someone goes “ah, <reference>” i feel like the conversation has just stalled. it makes me feel like i’m in the big bang theory and i have to pause for the laugh track. for some reason band kids do this a lot, don’t ask me why.
is this… weird? i feel like it’s weird.
Not all IRL conversations are like online threads that continue with jokes until the thread becomes its own thing. Also context…? Memes and references are ok but it’s more a reflection of your brain and memory and how you are interpreting the information in front of you. Not all people hear something and return the most relevant reference, they might care more about person experiences or stories that are OC and not copy pasta they have seen before, hence the “I see what you did there” responses you get.
that’s a fair take. it could be learned behaviour from uni, where every sentence was a joke.
it could also stem from an unwillingness to share personal stuff, i guess.