Know Your Meme
Know Your Meme 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. Know Your Meme includes sections for confirmed, submitted, deadpooled, 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, "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 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. 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." As of March 2019, the site is maintained by seven editorial staff members and one developer 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 Cheezburger Network for an undisclosed seven-figure amount.
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 to Forest Gibson and Kristina Horner.| Episode | Subject | Airdate |
| 1 | Rage Comics | June 14, 2011 |
| 2 | Philosoraptor | July 6, 2011 |
| 3 | 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 | 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 | October 10, 2012 |
| 24 | Intro to Pokémon Memes | 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 | May 31, 2017 |
| 8 | Foodom | June 14, 2017 |
Special episodes
Reception
- In August 2009, TIME magazine selected Know Your Meme as among the 50 Best Websites of 2009.
- In November 2009, New York Times Lens Blog listed "Know Your Meme Autotune Episode" as a must-see video.
- In November 2009, Wired.com 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 interviewed Kenyatta Cheese of Know Your Meme on the subject of Internet memes.
- In December 2009, MSNBC cited Know Your Meme on the subject of Balloon Boy and called the article "meticulously recorded".
- In January 2010, The Wall Street Journal cited Know Your Meme when discussing the trend of the Bra Color Status Updates on Facebook.
- In April 2010, Know Your Meme won a Streamy Award in 2010 for Best Guest Star in a Web Series.
- In May 2012, Know Your Meme won the People's Voice Webby Award in Blog-Cultural category.
- In June 2014, Know Your Meme was inducted into the Web Archiving Program of American Folklife Center 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.