Know Your Meme



Know Your Meme is an internet series created by the Rocketboom Institute for Internet Studies, in which resident scientists Kenyatta Cheese (aka Yatta), Elspeth Jane (aka Ellie Rountree), and now-retired Jamie Wilkinson (aka Jamie Dubs) tackle on to provide general history of internet memes as well as to try and explain what exactly makes them memetic.

Older episodes were made Just for Fun and all the research was done by the KYM staff themselves. But over time, the Know Your Meme website was created and most of the research is now done there. On the site, anyone can submit a basic meme article (akin to That Other Wiki), which, if the subject is deemed notable, is subsequently researched and expanded.

The website is over here.

Confirmed memes on Know Your Meme that also have a TV Tropes Page:

 * And the Fandom Rejoiced: "Reaction Guys / Gaijin 4Koma"
 * Attack Its Weak Point / For Massive Damage / Giant Enemy Crab / Real Time Weapon Change : "E3 Sony 2006/Giant enemy crab".
 * Big Word Shout: "WRONG!/ Lex Luthor YTMNDs".
 * Candle Jack: "Candlejack".
 * Caramelldan: "Caramelldansen".
 * Fauxtivational Poster: "Demotivational Posters".
 * Forced Meme: "Forced Meme" and "X is Now a Meme".
 * Immortal: "Immortal".
 * In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You: "In Soviet Russia...".
 * LOLcats: "LOLcats".
 * No, You: "NO U".
 * The Oner: "One Take".
 * Red Zone Remix Vid: "RED_ZONE".
 * Rick Roll: "Rickroll".
 * There Are No Girls On the Internet: "There are No Girls on the Internet".
 * Wall of Text: "tl;dr".

Know Your Meme Provides examples of:

 * Berserk Button: Never try to force a meme on Know Your Meme.
 * The Cameo: Weird Al appears in one episode to explain how auto-tune gained memetic status.
 * Forced Meme: As with above, you get these every now and then.
 * For Science!: The Numa Numa Dance episode starts with one of the researchers saying this
 * Hot (Internet) Scientist: If the comments section of the videos is to be believed, Elspeth Jane fits this trope.
 * Internet Counterattack: The site ended up getting embroiled in one when Hot Topic decided to start selling Rage Guy shirts. /b/tards quickly came up with the very politically incorrect "Race Guy" and made a page for it trying to paint Hot Topic themselves as racist. The page has since been cleaned up, though you'll still see Trolls in the comments claiming that "Race Guy isn't a spin off, Rage Guy was racist to begin with, and the people at Hot Topic are sickos for making money off of racism!"
 * Kangaroo Court: The journey to getting a meme confirmed can go from smooth to very skewed. For example, the Nope! Chuck Testa page has gotten boatloads of research, over 1,000,000 views, 10,000,000 views for the commercial itself on Youtube, and its own video from the site admins, but went unconfirmed for three months anyway because of its recent release.
 * Memetic Mutation: The website helps people know their memes. That should be quite obvious. (There are lots of other places where people can go to know their memes, but this is one of the few SFW ones.)
 * Self-Demonstrating Article: Many of the videos about Meme would also demonstrate the meme in question.
 * Serious Business: Memes. Especially Internet memes. Because Internet is Serious Business.
 * Shown Their Work: As the result of trope above, Memes are RESEARCHED AND CATEGORIZED!
 * The Grand List of Forum and Community Laws: The community-based Know Your Meme RPG (still in development).