This does raise an interesting philosophical question. Internet memes are often described as “spreading like wildfire” or “having a life of their own” – which begs the question: what does being “alive” really mean?
For example, does Harry Potter exist? He’s a fictional character, but millions of children and other people know about him – just like Jesus Christ, whose religious image is also essentially fictional. One could easily define a person’s imagination as being another dimension of reality, not far removed from spacetime (especially since that reality’s created by brain neurons & chemistry, and conforms to the Theory of Mind) which suggests that any concept created by your mind in fact exists, is alive, and everything imaginary is equally “real” whether it’s a tortilla-shaped Virgin Mary or the voices inside David Berkowitz’s head.
Been there, done that…at least I’m pretty sure I did it, just before the drugs wore off.