Know Your Meme

Last updated

Know Your Meme
KnowYourMeme.png
Type of site
Encyclopedia
Available inEnglish
OwnerLiterally Media Ltd.
Created by Rocketboom
EditorDon Caldwell
URL knowyourmeme.com
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedNovember 25, 2007;17 years ago (2007-11-25)
Current statusOnline

Know Your Meme (KYM) is a website and video series that uses wiki software to document various Internet memes and other online phenomena, such as viral videos, image macros, catchphrases and Internet celebrities. 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, in turn acquired in 2016 by Literally Media. [1] [2] Know Your Meme includes sections for confirmed, submitted, deadpooled (rejected or incompletely documented), researching, and popular memes.

Contents

History

20072010: Web series origins

Jamie Wilkinson (right) and Kenyatta Cheese at ROFLCon II, 2010 Jamie Wilkinson and Kenyatta Cheese at ROFLCon II.jpg
Jamie Wilkinson (right) and Kenyatta Cheese at ROFLCon II, 2010

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 the Know Your Meme website and web series to Cheezburger Network 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] The database includes entries for memes, trends and events, along with people and other aspects of subculture (such as films, video games, animated series and anime). Each entry has its own photo and GIF gallery; a video gallery was added in November 2010. 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]

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]

See also

Related Research Articles

eBaum's World is an entertainment website owned by Literally Media. The site was founded in 2001 and features comedy content such as memes, viral videos, images, and other forms of Internet culture. Content is primarily user submitted in exchange for points through a monetary point system "eBones."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet meme</span> Cultural item spread via the Internet

An Internet meme, or meme, is a cultural item that spreads across the Internet, primarily through social media platforms. Internet memes manifest in a variety of formats, including images, videos, GIFs, and other viral content. Key characteristics of memes include their tendency to be parodied, their use of intertextuality, their viral dissemination, and their continual evolution. The term "meme" was originally introduced by Richard Dawkins in 1972 to describe the concept of cultural transmission.

Rocketboom was a daily vlog produced by Andrew Baron in the format of a newscast with a comedic slant. Since 2004 Rocketboom has presented oddities, vlog excerpts, social and political commentary. The Rocketboom weblog and Apollo Pony featured supplemental material unfit for the vlog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amanda Congdon</span> American former video blogger

Amanda Thornton Congdon is an American former video blogger. She began her on-screen career as the first anchor of the online daily news show Rocketboom which she hosted and produced until June 23, 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Baron</span> American vlogger

Andrew Michael Baron is the founder of Rocketboom, video aggregator Magma, the non-profit Humanwire, and the co-founder of Know Your Meme. Baron has taught undergraduate and graduate classes at Parsons School of Design and was teaching IDTech at M.I.T. when he came up with the idea for Rocketboom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joanne Colan</span>

Joanne Colan is the former VJ for MTV Europe and former anchor of the vlog Rocketboom. She is an actress, known for Know Your Logic (2012), Any Given Latitude (2005), and Themes from a Rosary (2012). She was on Discovery's show Dean of Invention alongside Dean Kamen as a correspondent. She also hosted a travel adventure series and she was senior vice president and senior content strategist at Edelman New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lolcat</span> Image combining a photograph of a cat with text intended to contribute humour

A lolcat, or LOLcat, is an image macro of one or more cats. Lolcat images' idiosyncratic and intentionally grammatically incorrect text is known as lolspeak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caitlin Hill</span> Australian blogger (born 1988)

Caitlin Alexandra Hill is an Australian YouTube personality under the name TheHill88. She produces, edits and uploads her videos from her home in Brisbane, and since 2008 from New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I Can Has Cheezburger?</span> American blog and meme website

I Can Has Cheezburger? is a blog-format website featuring videos and image macros. It was created in 2007 by Eric Nakagawa (Cheezburger), from Hawaii, and his friend Kari Unebasami (Tofuburger). The website was one of the most popular Internet sites of its kind receiving as many as 1,500,000 hits per day at its peak in May 2007. ICHC was instrumental in bringing animal-based image macros and lolspeak into mainstream usage and making Internet memes profitable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Huh</span> South Korean-American businessman

Ben Huh is a South Korean-American internet entrepreneur and the former CEO of The Cheezburger Network, which at its peak in 2010 received 375 million views a month across its 50 sites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie Bit My Finger</span> 2007 Internet viral video

"Charlie bit my finger – again!", more simply known as "Charlie Bit My Finger" or "Charlie Bit Me", is a 2007 internet viral video famous for being at the time the most viewed YouTube video. As of October 2022, the video received over 897 million views. In May 2021, the video was sold as an NFT at auction for over $700,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jamie Wilkinson</span> Internet researcher

Jamie Wilkinson is an internet culture researcher and software engineer. Wilkinson started Know Your Meme, a database of viral internet memes whilst working at Rocketboom in New York City. Wilkinson also co-founded VHX, a digital distribution platform targeting independent filmmakers, which was acquired by Vimeo in May 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rage comic</span> Internet meme

A rage comic is a short cartoon strip using a growing set of pre-made cartoon faces, or rage faces, which usually express rage or some other simple emotion or activity. They are usually crudely drawn in Microsoft Paint or other simple drawing programs, and were most popular in the early 2010s. These webcomics have spread much in the same way that Internet memes do, and several memes have originated in this medium. They have been characterized by Ars Technica as an "accepted and standardized form of online communication." The popularity of rage comics has been attributed to their use as vehicles for humorizing shared experiences.

Rule 34 is an Internet meme which claims that Internet pornography exists concerning every possible topic. The concept is commonly depicted as fan art of normally non-erotic subjects engaging in sexual activity. It can also include writings, animations, images, GIFs and any other form of media to which the internet provides opportunities for proliferation and redistribution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doge (meme)</span> Internet meme

Doge is an Internet meme that became popular in 2013. The meme consists of a picture of a Shiba Inu dog, accompanied by multicolored text in Comic Sans font in the foreground. The text, representing a kind of internal monologue, is deliberately written in a form of broken English. The meme originally and most frequently uses an image of a Shiba Inu named Kabosu, though versions with other Shiba Inus are also popular.

Neetzan Zimmerman is an American journalist and blogger. He gained attention for his tireless aggregation of Internet ephemera at his blog The Daily What, which Cheezburger acquired in 2010, and Gawker. In 2023, The New York Times described him as a "a well-known digital traffic maven".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cats and the Internet</span> Popular part of Internet culture

Images and videos of domestic cats make up some of the most viewed content on the World Wide Web. ThoughtCatalog has described cats as the "unofficial mascot of the Internet".

<i>Shrek</i> fandom Fandom of the Shrek franchise

DreamWorks Animation's Shrek franchise, based on William Steig's book of the same name, has an underground Internet fandom that started around 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dat Boi</span> Meme of a frog riding a unicycle

Dat Boi is an Internet meme originating from the clip art website Animation Factory. It depicts a frog riding a unicycle. The meme garnered popularity on Tumblr in 2015 before gaining more recognition through Twitter in 2016. It is usually accompanied by a person saying "here come dat boi".

References

  1. "Literally Media Buys Cheezburger To Reach Millennials". www.mediapost.com. Retrieved June 13, 2019.
  2. "Cheezburger's new owner is Israeli digital-media company". The Seattle Times. April 21, 2016. Retrieved June 13, 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 4 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.
  4. 1 2 3 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.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tiffany, Kaitlyn (March 6, 2018). "The story of the internet, as told by Know Your Meme". The Verge . Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  6. Gannes, Liz (April 6, 2009). "Intel Sponsors Rocketboom". The New York Times .
  7. 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.
  8. Rosenblatt, Kalhan (June 11, 2021). "Iconic 'Doge' meme NFT breaks record, selling for $4 million". NBCNews.com . Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  9. "The History of Know Your Meme". Dembot. December 6, 2012. Archived from the original on October 20, 2013. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
  10. "Confirmed Entries". Know Your Meme. Archived from the original on September 15, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
  11. "Deadpooled Entries". Know Your Meme. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
  12. "NSFW". Know Your Meme. June 17, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
  13. Rintel, Sean (September 24, 2011). "Know Your Meme "Sean Rintel". Seanrintel.com. Archived from the original on October 22, 2013. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
  14. "About". Know Your Meme. Retrieved August 11, 2015.
  15. 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.
  16. Sonnad, Nikhil. "Finally, a scientific list of the most popular memes on the internet". Quartz. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
  17. Winkie, Luke (January 5, 2023). "Behind the Scenes at the Encyclopedia Britannica of Memes" . The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved March 15, 2023.
  18. Fisher, Adam (August 24, 2009). "Know Your Meme". Time . Archived from the original on August 27, 2009. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
  19. Paul, Sonia (May 1, 2012). "16th Annual Webby Award Winners: The Complete List". Mashable.
  20. "Getting serious about collecting and preserving digital culture | Folklife Today". blogs.loc.gov. June 5, 2014. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
  21. "WATCH: 'Insiders' Had To Explain 'Dank Memes' To Boomers, RIP The Internet". Pedestrian.tv. May 22, 2016. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
  22. 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.