Jamie Wilkinson and Kenyatta Cheese at ROFLCon II

''Know Your Meme'' (''KYM'') is a website and video series which uses

wiki A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pub ...

software to document various

Internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

s and other online phenomena, such as

viral video A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander H ...

s, 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 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 s ...

, the website was acquired in March 2011 by

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

, which, in 2016, was acquired by Literally Media. Know Your Meme includes sections for confirmed, submitted, deadpooled (rejected or incompletely documented), researching, and popular memes.

Website

The Know Your Meme project started in September 2007 as a recurring segment inside of the Rocketboom video series and a wiki destination site to support the documentation of Internet memes. Created by Kenyatta Cheese, Elspeth Rountree, Jamie Wilkinson and

Andrew Baron Andrew Michael Baron (born 1970) is the creator of Rocketboom, Know Your Meme, the video aggregator site, Magma and Humanwire. Baron has taught undergraduate and graduate classes at Parsons and was teaching IDTech at M.I.T. when he came up with ...

, "meme experts" in white lab coats used a scientific laboratory metaphor for analyzing and deconstructing the top memes of the day; anyone with an account could use the website to explore and contribute to meme research. At the end of 2008, after more than a year of growth, Rocketboom released an expanded database with

Jamie Wilkinson 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 p ...

as the lead developer. As of January 2017, the database contained more than 2,700 entries of "confirmed" memes. The administrators have a say on what gets confirmed and what gets "Deadpooled" or rejected. Some of the meme entries are graphic and

Not Safe For Work Not safe for work (NSFW) is Internet slang or shorthand used to mark links to content, videos, or website pages the viewer may not wish to be seen looking at in a public, formal or controlled environment. The marked content may contain nudity, p ...

(NSFW). 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 A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in Reverse ...

, 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." 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. The Know Your Meme website and web series were acquired in March 2011 by

for an undisclosed seven-figure amount.

Doge NFT Auction

In June 2021, the original Doge meme was minted by Atsuko Sato, the meme's original creator. The NFT was sold on June 12, 2021, for 1696 ETH (US$4,100,000), making it the most valuable meme NFT to be sold to date. It is the first meme NFT to be officially authenticated and curated by Know Your Meme.

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

Season 2008

Season 2009

Season 2010

Season 2011

Beginning with the 2011 season, the cast of the episodes changed from the original cast (

Jamie Jamie is a unisex name. It is a diminutive form of James or, more rarely, other names. It is also given as a name in its own right. People Female * Jamie Anne Allman (born 1977), American actress * Jamie Babbit (born 1970), American film and t ...

Dubs, Yatta, Elspethjane, Patrick Davison and Mike Rugnetta) to Forest Gibson and Kristina Horner.

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.

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.

Special episodes

Reception

* In August 2009, ''

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' magazine selected ''Know Your Meme'' as among the 50 Best Websites of 2009. * In November 2009, ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' Lens Blog listed "Know Your Meme Autotune Episode" as a must-see video. * In November 2009,

Wired.com ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...

mentioned Know Your Meme in an article about Autotune. * In December 2009, The Winnipeg Free Press called Know Your Meme the best website of 2009. * In December 2009,

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

interviewed Kenyatta Cheese of Know Your Meme on the subject of Internet memes. * In December 2009,

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

cited Know Your Meme on the subject of Balloon Boy and called the article "meticulously recorded". * In January 2010,

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

cited Know Your Meme when discussing the trend of the Bra Color Status Updates on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

. * In April 2010, Know Your Meme won a

Streamy Award The YouTube Streamy Awards, also known as the Streamy Awards or Streamys, are presented annually by Dick Clark Productions and Tubefilter to recognize excellence in online video, including directing, acting, producing, and writing. The formal ...

in 2010 for Best Guest Star in a Web Series. * In May 2012, Know Your Meme won the People's Voice

Webby Award The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories includ ...

in Blog-Cultural category. * In June 2014, Know Your Meme was inducted into the Web Archiving Program of

American Folklife Center The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. was created by Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American Folklife". The center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, established at the library in 1928 as a repo ...

at the Library of Congress. *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''. *In June 2018, Know Your Meme was used as a source for metadata in a large-scale academic study of memes across various social networks.

References

External links

* {{Literally Media American online encyclopedias Mass media about Internet culture Internet properties established in 2007 Wiki communities Works about Internet memes