I think what really grabbed people’s attention is that he kept refusing to explain why he wanted to do that.
Whatever his reason was, it was such a stupid thing to be memeing about that I felt at home here right away. Edit: this was a while back now, during the first big migration from reddit after the API change protests.
Beans were a good nonsensical way to show people how this whole federation thing works, and to start something rolling. Other memes haven’t quite hit the same mark, as they’re trying to redo something already done. The moth thing though, I’ve seen some pretty good ones among the expected. One doesn’t create a great meme, it comes to life on its own, often after a lot of misses.