Yeah, thinking about it more, the similarities are kind of narrow.
You could make a better comparison with a regular crowd, but then it wouldn't feel like much of a showerthought at that point because it's just observing that the crowd has moved online.
Laugh tracks might be used to improve there ratings of a show, but with memes there's not really a show and no one's forcing a laugh
I think the essence of what I was thinking of though is that just like a regular crowd, an online crowd can still influence you to think something is funnier or better than you would alone (at least for me)