Spicy Meme is a popular variation used as the comparative form of the term "dank meme." The adjective "spicy" has been used as a descriptor for memes since as early as 2014. On September 5th, 2014, the "Spicy Memes" Facebook page was created. On November 15th, the /r/spicymemes subreddit was launched. On February 10th, 2015, Yahoo Answers user Shift posted a question titled "My son is addicted to spicy memes?" On March 22nd, Someecard user Shoemcgoo submitted an ecard with the caption "I'm about to show you a whole new world of spicy as ♥♥♥♥ memes, kiddo." Throughout 2015, "spicy meme" entered widespread usage on multiple media-sharing platforms, including Facebook, Reddit and Tumblr, which is further evidenced by the exponential increase in search interest for the term during that year.

On March 15th, 2016, Urban Dictionary user Xheese juce created the first entry for "spicy meme," defined as:

Memes that are more than dank. They are the dankest of the dankest. They are so good that the burn your tongue. It's spicy.:vaultkey::Burn: