Know Your Meme
Know Your Meme (KYM) is a website and video series which uses wiki software to document various Internet memes and other online phenomena, such as viral videos, image macros, catchphrases, Internet celebrities and more. It also investigates new and changing memes through research, as it commercializes on the culture. Originally produced by Rocketboom, the website was acquired in March 2011 by Cheezburger Network, which, in 2016, was acquired by Literally Media.[1][2] Know Your Meme includes sections for confirmed, submitted, deadpooled (rejected or incompletely documented), researching, and popular memes.
 | |
Type of site | Encyclopedia |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | Literally Media Ltd. |
| Created by | Rocketboom |
| Editor | Don Caldwell |
| URL | knowyourmeme |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | November 25, 2007 |
| Current status | Online |
| Know Your Meme | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Internet documentary |
| Starring |
|
| Country of origin | United States of America |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 108 (as of May 18, 2017) |
| Production | |
| Running time | Varies |
| Production companies | Rocketboom (2007–2011), Cheezburger Network (2011–) |
| Release | |
| Original release | December 17, 2007 – present |
History
2007–2010: Web series origins
Know Your Meme was created in December 2007 as a series of videos which were part of the vlog Rocketboom. It was founded by employees Kenyatta Cheese, Elspeth Rountree and Jamie Wilkinson, and Rocketboom CEO Andrew Baron in their spare time, when host Joanne Colan could not finish the current season of Rocketboom.[3] They dubbed themselves the Rocketboom Entity for Internet Studies.[4] Noticing that internet memes were used by advertisers who failed to acknowledge their online origins, they found that they could trace their source by using public search tools. They also found that media coverage of memes seemed uninterested in how they began and spread.[4][5]
Each episode of Know Your Meme covered one meme in detail, exploring its history and context in internet culture. They were hosted variously by Colan, Cheese, Rountree and Wilkinson, who donned lab coats and dubbed themselves "meme experts".[5] Baron noticed that each episode attracted more views than typical Rocketboom shows.[6] According to Cheese, memes were only starting to become popular on sites such as 4chan when the series began, and Rocketboom allocated more resources as their popularity grew.[4]
Wilkinson had also been developing a personal database of internet memes.[3] It was repurposed as a companion to the videos and launched on the current website in 2008.[5] Due to the size of the task, Rocketboom decided to crowdsource and hire interns, including Amanda Brennan and future editor Brad Kim, to develop content. This was then collated by volunteer moderators and a small editorial team. By 2010, Know Your Meme had attracted a large following and was more popular than the original web series. However, it also attracted hostility from some online communities: the website suffered constant DDoS attacks and the controversial Encyclopedia Dramatica said it was "mostly safe for work, which is fucking lame".[3][5]
2011–present: Sale to Cheezburger
In January 2011, Cheese, Rountree and other employees left Know Your Meme, claiming that Baron had created an "atmosphere of paranoia and competing egos" within the company; Baron disputed this and claimed that Cheese organized a "mass exodus [out of] personal vengeance".[5] In March 2011, Baron sold Know Your Meme to Cheezburger for an undisclosed seven-figure amount.[7]
In April 2016, Cheezburger was acquired by Literally Media.[5]
In June 2021, the Doge meme was minted as an NFT by Atsuko Sato, the meme's original creator, and sold on June 12, 2021, for 1696.9 ETH (approximately 4 million USD). The NFT sale was certified by Know Your Meme.[8]
Website
At the end of 2008, after more than a year of growth, Rocketboom released an expanded database with Jamie Wilkinson as the lead developer.[9] As of January 2017, the database contained more than 2,700 entries of "confirmed" memes.[10]
The administrators have a say on what gets confirmed and what gets "Deadpooled" or rejected.[11] Some of the meme entries are graphic and Not Safe For Work (NSFW).[12] NSFW entries have warnings placed along the top of the entry and ads are usually disabled. These warnings may differ from consequences, such as bans. Know Your Meme also has a forum section, blog, and shop. Dr. Sean Rintel, who wrote The Automated Identity blog, described Know Your Meme as "lucrative, self-supporting research that blends the humorous and the serious."[13] As of March 2019, the site is maintained by seven editorial staff members (Don Caldwell, Adam Downer, Matt Schimkowitz, Briana Milman, Sophie Dickinson and Philipp Kachalin) and one developer (Mike Schwab) in conjunction with a group of dedicated moderators. Former staff researchers include Chris Menning, Amanda Brennan, Molly Horan and Ari Spool.[14]
The Know Your Meme website and web series were acquired in March 2011 by Cheezburger Network for an undisclosed seven-figure amount.[7]
Episodes
Episodes of the Know Your Meme show average a few minutes in length each. In a given episode, the KYM staff describe memes and the history behind them. New episodes appear in irregular intervals of time. Breaking meme episodes started in 2010. Separated in seasons, the videos describe the meme using handy images.
Season 2007
| Episode | Meme Covered | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | One Take | December 17, 2007 |
| 2 | Rickrolling | December 18, 2007 |
| 3 | I Like Turtles | December 19, 2007 |
| 4 | Miss Teen South Carolina | December 20, 2007 |
| 5 | LOLCats | December 21, 2007 |
| 6 | Technoviking | December 24, 2007 |
| 7 | Dramatic Chipmunk | December 26, 2007 |
| 8 | Reaction Videos & Piggyback Memes | December 27, 2007 |
| 9 | Chocolate Rain | December 28, 2007 |
| 10 | Crank That (Soulja Boy) | December 31, 2007 |
Season 2008
| Episode | Meme Covered | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cory's Sunglasses | February 6, 2008 |
| 2 | tinaecmusic | August 1, 2008 |
| 3 | All your base are belong to us | August 15, 2008 |
| 4 | Édgar's fall | September 5, 2008 |
| 5 | O RLY? | September 10, 2008 |
| 6 | FAIL | September 24, 2008 |
| 7 | Boom goes the dynamite | December 22, 2008 |
| 8 | Bush shoeing incident | December 23, 2008 |
| 9 | Magibon | December 24, 2008 |
| 10 | The Lipdub | December 26, 2008 |
| 11 | Disaster Girl | December 29, 2008 |
| 12 | Political Memes of 2008 | December 30, 2008 |
| 13 | Project Chanology | December 31, 2008 |
| 14 | Shiba Inu Puppy Cam | December 31, 2008 |
Season 2009
| Episode | Meme Covered | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Star Wars Kid | January 2, 2009 |
| 2 | Boxxy | March 10, 2009 |
| 3 | Numa Numa | March 31, 2009 |
| 4 | Yo Dawg | April 13, 2009 |
| 5 | Christian Bale Rant | April 16, 2009 |
| 6 | Single Serving Sites | April 23, 2009 |
| 7 | Peanut Butter Jelly Time | May 8, 2009 |
| 8 | Creepy Chan | May 28, 2009 |
| 9 | Keyboard Cat | July 7, 2009 |
| 10 | Three Wolf Moon | July 30, 2009 |
| 11 | Weegee | August 7, 2009 |
| 12 | Bubb Rubb | August 17, 2009 |
| 13 | David After Dentist | September 2, 2009 |
| 14 | Geddan / Get Down | October 1, 2009 |
| 15 | Where the Hell is Matt? | October 8, 2009 |
| 16 | Auto Tune (with special guest "Weird Al" Yankovic) | November 10, 2009 |
| 17 | Balloon Boy | November 18, 2009 |
| 18 | Om Nom Nom | December 18, 2009 |
Season 2010
| Episode | Subject | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Advice Dog | January 29, 2010 |
| 2 | Phonetic Translations | March 4, 2010 |
| 3 | Epic Beard Man | April 6, 2010 |
| 4 | Joseph Ducreux / Archaic Rap | April 13, 2010 |
| 5 | Breaking Meme: Standing Cat | April 23, 2010 |
| 6 | Breaking Meme: The Downfall of Downfall? | April 29, 2010 |
| 7 | My New Haircut | May 25, 2010 |
| 8 | Magnets, How Do They Work? | June 12, 2010 |
| 9 | Troll Bait | July 1, 2010 |
| 10 | Double Rainbow | July 9, 2010 |
| 11 | Lying Down Game / Playing Dead | August 3, 2010 |
| 12 | Antoine Dodson (Bed Intruder) | August 27, 2010 |
| 13 | Leeroy Jenkins | September 2, 2010 |
| 14 | It's Over 9000! | October 1, 2010 |
| 15 | Brother Sharp | October 12, 2010 |
| 16 | Creepypasta | October 29, 2010 |
| 17 | Tenso | November 16, 2010 |
| 18 | GI Joe PSAs | November 23, 2010 |
Season 2011
Beginning with the 2011 season, the cast of the episodes changed from the original cast (Jamie Dubs, Yatta, Elspethjane, Patrick Davison and Mike Rugnetta) to Forest Gibson and Kristina Horner.
| Episode | Subject | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rage Comics | June 14, 2011 |
| 2 | Philosoraptor | July 6, 2011 |
| 3 | My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | August 10, 2011 |
| 4 | Breaking Meme: Chuck Testa | September 29, 2011 |
| 5 | Hipster Memes | October 11, 2011 |
| 6 | Occupy Wall Street | October 18, 2011 |
| 7 | Minecraft | November 2, 2011 |
| 8 | 60's Spider-man | November 15, 2011 |
| 9 | Pedobear | November 22, 2011 |
| 10 | Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop | October 18, 2011 |
| 11 | Skyrim Catchphrases | December 15, 2011 |
| 12 | First World Problems | December 22, 2011 |
Season 2012
Kristina Horner left the show in early 2012 and starting with the Ermahgerd episode in August 2012, the cast of internet scientists expanded to Forest Gibson, Sarah Hiraki, Alison Luhrs and Rob Whitehead.
| Episode | Subject | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Supercuts | January 12, 2012 |
| 2 | Protest PIPA/SOPA | January 18, 2012 |
| 3 | Friend zone | January 26, 2012 |
| 4 | Shit People Say | February 3, 2012 |
| 5 | Guile's Theme Goes With Everything | February 10, 2012 |
| 6 | Cinnamon challenge | February 17, 2012 |
| 7 | What People Think I Do | March 12, 2012 |
| 8 | Derp | March 19, 2012 |
| 9 | Slender Man | March 27, 2012 |
| 10 | Nyan Cat | April 3, 2012 |
| 11 | Ancient Aliens | April 10, 2012 |
| 12 | Socially Awkward Penguin | April 17, 2012 |
| 13 | Ridiculously Photogenic Guy | April 28, 2012 |
| 14 | Scumbag Steve | May 10, 2012 |
| 15 | Dolan | May 29, 2012 |
| 16 | Ermahgerd | August 9, 2012 |
| 17 | Girl's Guide to the Internet | August 17, 2012 |
| 18 | Futurama | August 23, 2012 |
| 19 | Homestuck | September 7, 2012 |
| 20 | That Really Rustled My Jimmies | September 14, 2012 |
| 21 | Fan fiction | September 22, 2012 |
| 22 | Troll Science | September 28, 2012 |
| 23 | Intro to Pokémon Memes (Part I) | October 10, 2012 |
| 24 | Intro to Pokémon Memes (Part II) | October 24, 2012 |
Season 2017
In 2017, a new season that was renamed "Know Your Meme 101" began airing. Many episodes star two hosts being two of these four: Brian Colbert Kennedy, Katie Molinaro, Eric Bellows, and Jon Allen. All episodes narrated by Tucker Maloney, written by William Applegate Jr. The pilot up to episode 7 edited by Lindsay Penn, while episode 8 gave the edit credit to Connel Post Production.
| Episode | Subject | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot | Increasingly Verbose Memes | April 2, 2017 |
| 1 | The Mandela Effect | April 5, 2017 |
| 2 | Rule 34 | April 12, 2017 |
| 3 | Cash Me Ousside | April 27, 2017 |
| 4 | Shooting Stars | May 3, 2017 |
| 5 | Who Would Win? | May 10, 2017 |
| 6 | Pepsi United Spicer | May 18, 2017 |
| 7 | Foodom (Part I) | May 31, 2017 |
| 8 | Foodom (Part II) | June 12, 2017 |
Season 2018
| Episode | Subject | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | To Be Fair, You Have to Have a Very High IQ to Understand Rick and Morty | February 3, 2018 |
Season 2023
| Episode | Subject | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | How Donald Trump Getting 'Arrested' Became A Prevalent Meme Thanks To AI-Generated Images | March 28, 2023 |
Special episodes
| Episode | Subject | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| N/A | The Game Show! Pwn, Win, or Fail! | March 25, 2009 |
| N/A | KYM Meme Week: Geddan / Get Down | December 21, 2009 |
| N/A | KYM Meme Week: Yo Dawg | December 22, 2009 |
| N/A | KYM Meme Week: Auto Tune | December 23, 2009 |
| N/A | KYM Meme Week: Boxxy | December 24, 2009 |
| N/A | KYM Meme Week: Keyboard Cat | December 26, 2009 |
Reception
Know Your Meme has been praised by numerous publications. Its entries are frequently cited in both journalism and scholarly works covering internet memes.[15][16] The Daily Dot and The Wall Street Journal described the site as "the Encyclopedia Britannica" of memes and internet culture.[3][17] Time included Know Your Meme on its list of the "50 Best Websites 2009" for the web series.[18]
Know Your Meme won a Streamy Award in 2010 for Best Guest Star in a Web Series. It won the People's Voice Webby Award in the Blog-Cultural category in 2012.[19] In June 2014, Know Your Meme was inducted into the Web Archiving Program of American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.[20] In May 2016, the website was cited as a source for explaining the concept of "dank memes" in regards to the political campaigning in the Australian federal election during a discussion on the ABC television programme Insiders.[21][22]
References
- "Literally Media Buys Cheezburger To Reach Millennials". www.mediapost.com. Retrieved June 13, 2019.
- "Cheezburger's new owner is Israeli digital-media company". The Seattle Times. April 21, 2016. Retrieved June 13, 2019.
- Morris, Kevin (November 30, 2012). "A day in the office with Know Your Meme—the Web's "Britannica"". The Daily Dot. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
- Conti, Allie (May 26, 2016). "A Co-Creator of Know Your Meme Explains What the Hell a Meme Actually Is". Vice. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
- Tiffany, Kaitlyn (March 6, 2018). "The story of the internet, as told by Know Your Meme". The Verge. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
- Gannes, Liz (April 6, 2009). "Intel Sponsors Rocketboom". Gigaom. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
- Hustvedt, Marc (March 28, 2011). "'Know Your Meme' Acquired By Cheezburger in Seven-Figure Deal". Tubefilter. Archived from the original on August 14, 2012. Retrieved March 28, 2011.
- Rosenblatt, Kalhan (June 11, 2021). "Iconic 'Doge' meme NFT breaks record, selling for $4 million". NBCNews.com. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
- "The History of Know Your Meme". Dembot. December 6, 2012. Archived from the original on October 20, 2013. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
- "Confirmed Entries". Know Your Meme. Archived from the original on September 15, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
- "Deadpooled Entries". Know Your Meme. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
- "NSFW". Know Your Meme. June 17, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
- Rintel, Sean (September 24, 2011). "Know Your Meme "Sean Rintel". Seanrintel.com. Archived from the original on October 22, 2013. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
- "About". Know Your Meme. Retrieved August 11, 2015.
- Pettis, Ben T. (2022). "Know Your Meme and the Homogenization of Web History". Internet Histories. 6 (3): 263–279. doi:10.1080/24701475.2021.1968657. S2CID 238660211.
- Sonnad, Nikhil. "Finally, a scientific list of the most popular memes on the internet". Quartz. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
- Winkie, Luke (January 5, 2023). "Behind the Scenes at the Encyclopedia Britannica of Memes". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 15, 2023.
- Fisher, Adam (August 24, 2009). "Know Your Meme". Time. Archived from the original on August 27, 2009. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
- Paul, Sonia (May 1, 2012). "16th Annual Webby Award Winners: The Complete List". Mashable.
- "Getting serious about collecting and preserving digital culture | Folklife Today". blogs.loc.gov. June 5, 2014. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
- "WATCH: 'Insiders' Had To Explain 'Dank Memes' To Boomers, RIP The Internet". Pedestrian.tv. May 22, 2016. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
- Atkins, Denis (May 22, 2016). "Cool kids bring dank memes into the election campaign but only for a nanosecond". The Courier Mail. Retrieved February 13, 2018.