Take a look at Old Spice commercials and that's all you'll need to know. Commercials these days heavily use absurdity to remain in the mind of consumers. 

It's not just commercials though: Napoleon Dynamite, Family Guy, and Adventure Time all make use of the type of humor that gives pause and the question: "What?"

My questions include: where and when did this start? What has driven its growth this whole time? What happens when this technique's life cycle peters out?

 The sign from world war times has resurfaced in recent times and is being edited to fit current issues. What makes this particular poster so popular? 

whenever something goes viral, what is average time that it will stay in the surface, and what are the factors that determine its lifespan?

does it require a new viral in order to wipe the previous one out?

How did it become such an obsession on Duke's campus? Picture messaging has existed in the past but Snapchat's popularity demonstrates a new attraction for students. The idea of sending nonpermanent picture messages to friends   allows students to chronicle special events, funny sightings, or simply moods and emotions in a novel way. Hooray Snapchat! 

 The Duke Chronicle publishes a paper daily filled with world news, campus happenings, and sports updates. Typically, articles are casually read with not much thought given. But every so often, an article will come along that ignites intense debate and goes viral across campus (and sometimes even nationally), why?

 What makes a youtube video go viral?