YouTube/Memes

YouTube, being a popular video site, is unsurprisingly rife with Memetic Mutation.

Many instances, though, are drawn from other meme sources. For example, the All Your Base Are Belong to Us video, while on the site, didn't originate there. But some did.

Video types

 * Youtube Poop. Effectively a very chaotic and strange outgrowth of people uploading their video editing practice runs. Nowadays, the cheap effects characteristics of programs like Windows Movie Maker are used for comedy. Videos are spliced, slowed down, sped up, repeated, and otherwise edited for no apparent reason. YTP is an entire set of memes itself, including:
 * Unfitting music set to a scene (subverted with "fitting music", "somewhat fitting music", and the like)
 * "X minutes of... (Repeating a scene for a length of time)".
 * People attempting to dance to some well-known dance video.
 * The WTF-bomb: a beeping noise accompanied by a voice saying ƒpo"WHAT THE F-", followed immediately by video of an atomic bomb explosion, with explosion audio overlain with a Mad Scientist's laugh. Formed from a composite of sounds from sources such as Counter-Strike and Mega 64, and widely considered to be an Overused Running Gag on places like Something Awful. The earliest instances of WTF bomb can be seen in YTMND.
 * A more recent fad is editing the jaw-droppingly famous oner from Tony Jaa's Tom Yum Goong/The Protector/Ong Bak/Warrior King with sound clips from videos games. Kajmaster Kajet (best known as the progenitor of the infamous OVER 9000!!!, "The balls are inert", and ZETA PUNCH memes) did it first with Terry Yum Goong (Fatal Fury's Terry "I'm a walking meme factory" Bogard, with voices mainly from Capcom vs. SNK 2), but there have also been versions based on Streets of Rage (Streets of Goong), God Hand (Gene Yum Goong), Team Fortress 2 (Scout Yum Goong), and Devil May Cry (Dante Yum Goong). It's baffling that there's not a Dan Yum Goong out there somewhere.
 * The "Brokeback Whatever" parodies on Youtube--from Brokeback to the Future to Star Wars: The Empire Brokeback to...well, you can look around. There's a LOT of them, and most of them are surprisingly funny.
 * The Family Guy Video meme has Peter Griffin, in a parody of The Ring watching a video cassette after being warned (the video in question is Mannequin 2, in case you were wondering). Cue a video edited by the youtuber, then cue back to Peter lying on the ground with an agonized face while the sound is still playing.
 * Numerous videos of Hitler during a certain scene in the film Downfall, (where he lays out new deployments to defend Berlin from the advancing Allies, only to be hesitantly told by his commanders that they just don't have the forces left to do it) has been changed to alternately-dubbed scenes where he conveys his hatred and distrust of everything from video game consoles to films to politicians to music, and everything in between.
 * This is possibly the best one out there.
 * There is an account devoted entirely for creating these videos.
 * A million videos featuring a particular song by Rick Astley which happen to be grossly mislabeled.
 * Videos using a feature in Microsoft Songsmith whereby the creator feeds in a vocal track and lets the computer generate music to go along with it. This doesn't go well.
 * Guile theme goes with everything.
 * Of course, this lead to one hell of a meta-meme with it was discovered that Guile Theme goes with everything... including the Guile Theme itself.
 * Alternatively, "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air [insert work name here]", which is the same as Guile Theme goes with everything, only using the theme song to The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. It turns out that the two memes are compatible, resulting in one of the greatest mash-ups in music history.
 * Lately, a similar group of videos have appeared, known as Fly Away Now goes with everything.
 * Nyan Cat, some sort of pop-tart cat that flies through space leaving a trail of rainbow while singing "Nya Nya Nya" has become popular in websites like YouTube and Deviant ART. Original Video can be found here.
 * Song Videos.
 * Just An Image And A Song: These are the type of song videos that are the most likely to be removed for copyright violations. Some don't even bother with an image, and just upload an audio-only blank video.
 * Lyrics Videos: This is another common type of song video, and are slightly more creative than those of the JAIAAS variety.
 * Photo/Video Collages: The most creative type of song videos that put together a series of images and/or video clips set to music. Some are them are even "tribute" videos. These song videos are the least likely to be removed for copyright violations.
 * Time lapse videos are popular, the most popular being one showing a girl aging from infancy to her tween years. A variant shows a specific type of change within a period of time; most commonly something related to hair, weight, or gender.
 * A fun subversion is doing the same thing but with an object, such as an action figure, that does not change in appearance over time.
 * "WASTE X SECONDS OF YOUR LIFE": A short video, usually around 3 seconds, of some pointless sound clip. What were you expecting?
 * 10 hour videos of Memes have become popular.
 * Around the start of 2012 a lot of videos parodying the AMV "When I'm Bored" started popping up.
 * "(X) In G Major". It's essentially making a normally friendly sounding thing (typically a song) into something horrifying (or an ear sore depending on who you ask) by changing the pitch and making the image of the video negative. Compare the regular Always to this G Major version.
 * The "Shit [insert gender/racial group/subculture here] Says" videos. It all started with "Shit Girls Say" and the most controversial, "Shit Black Girls Say". They usually feature somebody (usually not in the group depicted, i.e. in the original video the "woman" is clearly a man with a wig) saying things that members of that group hypothetically would say in certain situations.
 * "Shit [insert group here] Say To [insert opposing group]" here have become equally as popular.

Comments
"Mom: TURN THAT SHIT DOWN! Me: But it's [Artist here]! Mom: TURN THAT SHIT UP!"
 * SUMBITCH, EXAMPLES!!
 * X, Imma let you finish but Y had one of the best Z of all time!
 * "Did [item] die?", where the video depicts some disastrous result, not necessarily affecting said item. Usually funnier if the item is not affected at all--such as a cable spool rolling down an escalator and people asking if the spool or the escalator died. Very common on Fail Blog videos.
 * Since it was possible to like/dislike videos, commenters have gotten to saying "[x] people missed the like button" or "[x] people [do the opposite to something in the video]", such as one from a video of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall" saying "[x] people can't have any pudding".
 * or "[Bad guy] made X duplicate accounts so he/she could hit the dislike button X times", or "X people are (the villains or victims of the video)".
 * or like on this video, "542 people must have goten [sic] a boot to the head".
 * Except on the Justin Bieber videos, where more people dislike than like them, given that it has become somewhat of a very annoying mini-meme to bash him in random music videos by completely different bands, sometimes in completely different styles. Usually the comment is "Better than Justin Bieber".
 * Recent one - "[x] people thought the button for dislike meant dis i like"
 * The same people, for that matter, who might use that influence and enthusiasm that made Bieber a YouTube sensation and celebrity in the first place, will negatively compare him to Freddie Mercury underneath Queen video comment sections, rather than use it to find the next Freddie Mercury or Queen.
 * Also, if a video has a large and equal (or almost equal) number of likes and dislikes, expect comments about "keeping/breaking/restoring the balance".
 * Another one - A youtuber sees the number of dislikes a video that they like has and says "X (number of) dislikes?" *loads shotgun* Or how a youtuber talks about how they want to kill the people that disliked the video that they liked.
 * When the Like/Dislike bar has a vast majority of one or the other, people may comment that it looks like a Light Saber.
 * Everybody hates 009 Sound System!
 * There is also a trend where people say which part of the video they liked the best but these are:
 * The timespan of the whole or the majority of the video. For an example, "I like the part where he sings." when a character is singing throughout the whole video.
 * A single timespan of the video which is identical to other parts. For an example, commenting how they liked 0:50 the best on the video where a 3-second clip is repeated for 4 minutes.
 * The timepoint where the video ends is hated.
 * Or a particular enjoyment is mentioned of a part after the video ends.
 * The recent thumbs up/thumbs down feature has resulted in a lot of people looking for cheap ways to get the rated comment. This typically results in lots and lots of "Thumbs up if you agree" posts.
 * Alternatively, there are those who state something along the lines of "This comment will randomly/magically get thumbs up." Guess what? They do.
 * Or things barely related to the video at all, like thumbs up if you are watching this video or are sitting in a chair.
 * "Thumbs up if you're watching this in 201X" has been making its rounds.
 * And those comments are followed by joke ones which involve saying you're watching the video in the future or in the past.
 * In order to promote their careers, many people are now posting comments on popular videos (often music and viral videos) along the lines of "I am an aspiring (insert entertainment industry career here) and it's my dream to (get a record deal, go to filming school, etc). I have seen a lot of hate on YouTube in the past but I think that (insert the name of whoever is credited for the video being spammed) fans have a more caring heart. I have (integer from 1-5) thousand viewers but no one will notice me with such a small following. Please like this comment so everyone can see it and subscribe to make my dreams come true. Thank you." Top comment every time.
 * Bonus points if the person begins with something along the lines of "I don't really like thumbs up comments..." yet they have spammed 10 other videos as well.
 * Requests for lyrics in videos that either have no lyrics or just repeat the same ones over and over.
 * Among the Fighting Game community, "fuck wrong with that nigga hitbox?"
 * This one is thanks to the long-running "homo-genius: a history of gay inventors", a series of videos showing infamous examples of fighting game stupidity and disjointed hitboxes (you can see the first volume, featuring Alex literally curbstomping Urien to death, here). In particular, the line above comes from Vol. #54, featuring a match from The King of Fighters 2002, where Ryo Sakazaki magically reels in Billy Kane with his Zanretsuken from halfway across the screen by miraculously snagging the very end of his bo. The phrase pops up frequently on many more videos from the same series in some way or another.
 * There was also a habit of Tubers posting "That's me, I'm [x]", usually referring to themselves as a background character or (stranger still) backdrop scenery. It quickly became something of a Forced Meme though.
 * The "You say Artist X, I say Artist Y" meme, with Artist X being a band/group/artist that the commenter regards as "bad", and Artist Y being a band/group/artist that the commenter regards as "good". Can also come with an optional addendum of: "(something greater than 50%) of teens/people have turned to (hated genres here). If you're one of the (remaining percentage) who still listens to real music, copy to X number of music videos."
 * This isn't limited to music. For example, it's become trendy to bash Family Guy on The Simpsons, South Park, or King of the Hill videos.
 * "I'm only (any age under 18), and I like this artist/movie/show/etc" to videos of such that are at least five years old. Bonus points for additional complaint that nobody else/very few kids at commenter's school like it.
 * For any age, comments on the gender/age of the people who watch the video, usually making a remark indicating surprise at some of the people watching the video. (Especially relates to subjects with incongruous Periphery Demographics, such as My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic.)
 * This comment has been making rounds in the comment section of modern songs: "When Kesha went to Take It Off, Bruno Mars threw a Grenade which made Katy Perry a Firework. That made Usher say OMG and then he exploded too. Fortunately Taylor Swift rode away on a White Horse. Unfortunately Rihanna killed her while she was running away! So Rihanna became the Only Girl In The World. The loneliness caused that Rihanna became a retard, so she don't no her name. Now she keeps saying Oh na na What's My Name? Nelly soon woke up saying it was Just a Dream!"
 * Similar comments have popped up. It's also become popular to use titles from a certain band in such ways.
 * Recently, people have been putting these "Press *insert number from 1 through 9* for some funny thing" on these YouTube videos. Basically, it involves the user clicking on the video while it's being played and the user's supposed to click on any number from 1 through 9 over and over again for what's basically considered a funny scene or noise.
 * The common "Thumbs up if you came here from (insert website here)" comment. TV Tropes is mentioned at times, particularly with the phrase "Featured on TV Tropes!" when a video receives linkage on here.
 * Recently, people have been posting "co za asy" (Polish for "What aces!") after the comment was sarcastically posted on a video later reviewed on Equals Three.
 * On videos with religious music, there will be a lot of comments that say "I'm an atheist, but this stuff is just beautiful" or some variant. These comments will often be in the highest rated section.
 * Similarly, this happens with ethnic music too, where someone from a rival country will put their Misplaced Nationalism aside and comment something like "I'm *insert nationality here* and I still love this music", or they'll leave their nationality for the end of the comment as The Stinger (Greetings from *insert country here*)
 * Scripts:

"Kid: Mom, I'm going out. Mother: What are you going to do? Kid: I'm going to kill (X number of people who disliked this video). Mother: You're going alone? Kid: No, I have (X number of people who liked the video) helping me. Mother: Have fun!"
 * A variant of the following conversation (which has also faced Hype Backlash):

"I switched to porn when my mom walked into the room; it was easier to explain."
 * One m00:00re time!
 * On sexually-charged music videos; "This porn has good music."
 * Someone stating they paused their porn videos to listen to the video.
 * There is one brilliant inversion on a Weird Al Yankovic video (not the top comment anymore, though) that goes something like

"I heard (insert name of whatever artist he's parodying) made a cover of this."
 * People "raping" the replay button, and sometimes getting sued.
 * In a similar vein, commentators asking why they can't "like" a video more than once, or lamenting the lack of buttons like "This is fucking awesome".
 * Commentators are starting to say "I find this hard to masturbate to" a lot.
 * X faved/liked this!
 * This extends to notable web personalities on other sites who review corny, lesser-known or just plain bad works. Their fans will often flood every video they can find related to the work in question and spam it with "X brought me here" responses or parrot the most memorable moments and quotes of the personality's review of the work.
 * Now people claim "I liked/faved this before (famous person) did."
 * This one is exclusive to "Weird Al" Yankovic, but this meme is rising in popularity:

""I heard (artist) made a parody of this video with different lyrics.""
 * Comments to the same effect are now appearing on Bad Lip Reading videos.

"Youtuber: 911 we have a problem. Someone disliked a video. 911 Operator: Why should we care? Youtuber: Because its (insert popular video here)! 911 Operator: Oh my god we are on our way!"
 * SHUT　UP　AND　ENJOY　THE　MUSIC! ╭∩╮(︶︿︶)╭∩╮
 * The really good ones will often draw a "it only shows my total views".
 * Here's a funny dislike reaction:

"[X]: (Memorable moment from video.) Me: ROFL! LMAO!"
 * A common way to get likes on a comment is to quote a funny or cool moment in the video. Adding your own reaction or twist on the event is optional.


 * On Videos of The Simpsons posted on Youtube you will come across at least one comment describing an action that happened in the video followed by the phrase That's a Paddlin
 * "If I get [x] likes I'll sing this song at my school's talent show!"/"If I get [x] likes I'll sing this song to my [boyfriend/girlfriend]!"
 * Both the top comments on "School's Out" by Alice Cooper state that if they get (very large number of likes) they'll blow up/burn down their schools.
 * Or "I will tell my secret crush I love them if I get (X) likes." on sappy videos
 * "Did anyone notice that n:(m-1) is missing?" or variations thereof, where n:m is the full duration of the video (minutes:seconds) - a recurring comment, usually on short videos where it's more noticeable, regarding a persistent glitch in the current video player, where the display never shows the second to last second (if the video is 5 minutes and 23 seconds long, the timer will jump from 21 to 23 at the end, even though the video plays normally).
 * "Transcribe the audio"
 * Saying "I'm On The Weird Part Of Youtube" when you see an odd video has become popular.
 * http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9YhZSsA9fs
 * Complaining when a video is 240P instead of a higher quality.
 * On the flip side, videos with annotations or uploader comments saying "WATCH IN HD!!!!" are getting very common, even for videos that aren't improved much by high-def. Most viewers will use the highest setting their connection can handle anyway, so posters probably only add these recommendations because everyone else is doing it.
 * Howcast videos are made fun of a lot in the comment section of their videos. Often the comment makes fun of the video by giving steps that are easier to do than what the video does and then ending it with the "Did You Know" section by giving a completely obvious fact.
 * Better love story/story than "Twilight''.
 * Youtubers commenting, upon seeing a bad quality video, "Was this recorded with a X?"
 * Most commonly: "Did you record this with a potato?"
 * "I have the strangest boner right now."
 * "I find this easy/difficult to masturbate to."
 * "Click 240P for HD" on videos of 8-bit music.
 * I was going to make a gay joke. Butt fuck it.
 * Cum on guys. Gay jokes aren't funny.