I agree, mainly because they are distracting from the article content.

It reminds me of boring presentations at work where they shove in a star wars pic / reference. Everyone laughs then its back to the boring topic and everyone falls asleep again.

I hate to say it, but if it increases engagement with the article, then it won't stop. The vocal minority will always be outclassed by the majority because these sites are optimized for the majority. It would be cool if the site adapted to the current user, rather than to the average user. Presumably, that would increase engagement even more, but probably not by much, since the majority is already happy.

They're fine but they are not used correctly in this article. it comes off as very cringy

Since they are used incorrectly in a consistent way, I can again suspect it's done on purpose. Like the "Use the force, Harry" (e.g. https://me.me/i/use-the-force-harry-gandalf-8062768)

No, the author is simply unaware. Look at the comments:

Commenter: "Man, you are not using these memes correctly..."

Author: "Well, maybe. Which ones would you suggest?"

Agreed, maybe there is a generation gap for me, as I don't really understand what is so interesting about spoiling articles like that.

They should at least be used correctly.

In this particular case they’re not even used correctly...

I think it's fine, nice bit of entertainment, but perhaps it could be hidden by default with a link to show.

Meh, they are less annoying than the self-important comments that just have to let us know which minutiae they disapprove of.

I mean, there's just three whole images.