Meme Creation Contest
Time for the team building activity: 10–15 minutes
Setup effort: Very easy
Estimated cost: Free
Business value: Encourages creative expression, strengthens team humor and culture, and promotes shared understanding through team building activities
What is the Meme Creation Contest?
The Meme Creation Contest is a modern team building activity where participants create humorous memes based on workplace situations. Memes combine images and short captions to communicate ideas quickly and humorously. Teams create memes about relatable moments such as meetings that could have been emails, last-minute deadlines, remote work struggles, or Monday morning energy. Because memes are simple and familiar, participants can express ideas fast, laugh about shared challenges, and strengthen team culture.
How do you play the Meme Creation Contest?
Divide participants into teams of 3 to 5 people. Provide a clear theme (for example: “Create a meme that perfectly describes a typical team meeting.”). Teams may use templates provided by the facilitator, simple drawings, or a digital meme generator. Give teams 8–10 minutes to create their meme. Then each team presents their meme. The group votes for categories like funniest, most relatable, or most creative.
Why it’s great for a team
Humor builds connection quickly, and memes make shared experience visible. Teams practice creative collaboration (brainstorming punchlines), shared culture (recognizing common moments), and communication through simplicity (compressing a message into a clear caption). The result is positive energy that can reduce tension and increase openness, especially in teams that need a quick “reset” toward warmth and connection.
How to organize it effectively
Bring a small set of well-known meme templates to remove friction and speed up creation. Set clear ground rules: keep it light, respectful, and not targeted at individuals. After the vote, share the memes in a team channel or folder so the team can reuse them as inside jokes. Debrief with: Which meme captured our shared reality best? What made it effective? How does humor influence team culture? When well facilitated, Meme Creation Contest becomes a light, engaging team building activity that strengthens culture and connection.