It's the original meaning of "meme"

I'd characterize modern popular usage as... hmmm... "formulaic in-joke."

It took me some time to understand you meant it came from memetic

Except it's not genetic ? So I guess a cultural memory, sometimes referred to as "Memory"

It's memetic memory, also called "culture"

It isn't as reliable as something that goes generation to generation transmission, but I think some things skip every other generation; like an organised grandparent leading to a disorganised parent who never had to think about it. Then an organised child because they learned to cover for the parent.

I have a ton myself that my Dad would say but couldn't explain, so I don't use them as much.

Two notable examples... 'What do you want, a Dewey button?' as a sarcastic way of saying 'who cares.' He didn't know why. Google says it's probably related to Thomas Dewey.

'Kitty bar the door.' An expression to mean he was going to go all out. He didn't know who kitty was or why he said it. I still have no idea its real etymology.

You may not have been able to find that saying because its more-usual version is "Katy, bar the door":

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/katy-bar-the-door.html

Thanks, this completely tracks as he's infamous for mispronunciations and mixed idioms.

Sadly, even clicking both links and a cursory Google search, nobody really knows where 'Katy bar the door' came from, either.

> 'Kitty bar the door.'

It looks like Katy or Katie are the more common spellings in the Southern US, although Kitty seems to the standard when talking about hockey. The origin is disputed: https://worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kat1.htm