We herd you like memes

April 14, 2009 6:43 AM

Know Your Meme (mlyt)

Yo Dawg, dramatic boom
fail. All Your Base are rickrolled.
Crank that.

posted by hypersloth (29 comments total)

An invaluable resource. They walk the fine line between clear explanations and pedantic squarism.
posted by DU at 6:51 AM on April 14, 2009

Mayonaise? Really, Rocketboom?

I feel their demonstration of basic fail is way off. A simple mistake or misrememberence is not fail. Fail involves complaint or blame of some other party where it is discovered the actor is entirely at fault.

Example:

"Why can't I drag this fucking window?"
"That's a taco bell bag in front of your monitor."
FAIL
posted by abulafa at 7:06 AM on April 14, 2009

Ha! In fifteen minutes I just absorbed what took you fools nearly a decade of grueling sycophantic internet immersion.

I would feel slightly more triumphant if I had actually made better use of the last few years than that.
posted by XMLicious at 7:06 AM on April 14, 2009 [2 favorites]

If I weren't lazy and lacking in videography sk1llz, I'd make a Know Your Meme: Know Your Meme tribute video. "By combining scientific-sounding verbiage with internet in-jokes, both hilarity and knowledge is transmitting."
posted by DU at 7:09 AM on April 14, 2009

Star wars kid!, Hitler!, Corey! all here in one convenient meme pie. Oh the internet, what have you done to us?

I remember a time when there was no Britney to leave alone, what sad dark days they were.
posted by mattoxic at 7:26 AM on April 14, 2009

I remember the days when "meme" meant more than just "in-joke that's been beaten to death all over the Internet." Get off my yawn.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 7:30 AM on April 14, 2009 [8 favorites]

I feel their demonstration of basic fail is way off. A simple mistake or misrememberence is not fail. Fail involves complaint or blame of some other party where it is discovered the actor is entirely at fault.

{o,o}
|)__)
-"-"-
O RLY? 

posted by uncleozzy at 7:50 AM on April 14, 2009 [11 favorites]

Yep, memes used to seem like a really neat idea, and if budding young scientists had figured out a good way to operationalize the definition, they could have merited some serious empirical investigation. Now, however, the concept has been forever tainted by stupid internet jokes. Thanks a lot, Chuck Norris.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 8:09 AM on April 14, 2009

Meme is the new meme.
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 8:23 AM on April 14, 2009

Haha, I watched their "yo dawg" video and I liked his outfit with the labcoat and clipboard. And that they put a "know your meme" in the "know your meme" so you can... well, you know.
posted by Nattie at 8:23 AM on April 14, 2009

Rocketboom is worse than Boing Boing.
posted by Damn That Television at 8:59 AM on April 14, 2009

They failed at accidentally the whole thing.
posted by klangklangston at 9:07 AM on April 14, 2009 [1 favorite]

All your meme are tired, so tired.
posted by RussHy at 9:07 AM on April 14, 2009

I for one find this helpful (if not to say relevant to my interests).

But I thought "I accidentally the whole X" originated with the Fleshlight live help chat log. Was it actually just an application of it instead? That would be somehow reassuring.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:22 AM on April 14, 2009

See, I think this is awesome. I've always been fascinated by memes, though that may have something to do with the fact that I seldom encounter them in the wild, since Metafilter is the only forum/link aggregate I really use, so I've missed many of them and the rest haven't gotten stale to me.

It's also possible that I still have the brain of a twelve year old.
posted by Caduceus at 9:30 AM on April 14, 2009

I swear I link to this every time we talk about memes but

SuperIdol by Warren Ellis.
posted by The Whelk at 9:44 AM on April 14, 2009

Dragostea Din Tei still makes me want to rip my ears out.
posted by kldickson at 9:59 AM on April 14, 2009

Metafilter: I remember the days when "meme" meant more than just "in-joke that's been beaten to death all over the Internet."
posted by PontifexPrimus at 10:11 AM on April 14, 2009 [1 favorite]

Their writeup on the "Over 9000" meme was sorely lacking. What they failed to explain is that DBZ exists solely as an ever crescendoing parade of badasses, where each Really Really Big Guy is superceded by an even bigger, eviler guy who our hero has to train up to beat. So as to prevent anything like "plot" or "character development" from getting in the way of the characters building up the next fight as "totally the biggest thing ever, just as soon as it goes down... any episode now" they assigned a "power level" to each character. These numbers were not only subject to inflation (like how you now get thousands of points for hitting a bumper in pinball, instead of just one?) but were totally and unabashedly made up (pulled out of... thin air, let's say). It's the ultimate in "telling, not showing."

So when presented with something that is SO INCREDIBLY AWESOME for reasons known only to the presenter, you can reply with the "Over 9000" meme. "Wow, your new netbook has 66 Gigaquads of ASSRAM? I have no idea what that means, but it sounds like it's over 9,000, so good for you."
posted by Eideteker at 11:57 AM on April 14, 2009 [1 favorite]

I thought it was a helpful, well-written explanation of memes - some of which I was very familiar with, and others less so.
posted by ericbop at 12:48 PM on April 14, 2009

Know Your Meme: The Game Show - Hilarious live gameshow at IgniteNYC3
posted by amuseDetachment at 1:28 PM on April 14, 2009

http://encyclopediadramatica.com does this much better in addition to having NSFW advertisements.
posted by SouthCNorthNY at 1:50 PM on April 14, 2009

SouthCNorthNY beat me to it. This site is like ED except with less lulz.
posted by champthom at 2:34 PM on April 14, 2009

0 search results for "bacon"

I'm never going to figure out how that started.
posted by niles at 2:45 PM on April 14, 2009

But I thought "I accidentally the whole X" originated with the Fleshlight live help chat log. Was it actually just an application of it instead? That would be somehow reassuring.

Good news, goodnewsfortheinsane!
posted by hypersloth at 4:21 PM on April 14, 2009

What's most important to remember is "meme" is pronounced "may-may".
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:28 PM on April 14, 2009 [1 favorite]

O thank Bejeebus for that, I knew I had accidentally the whole thing wrong.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:22 PM on April 14, 2009

Hello, my future girlfriend. Blown away by the fact that there's an interweb meme from 1998, and this 'kid' is now 21. Thinking about the ramifications of all that evidence. I mean vignettes... I don't know what I mean. Eh.
posted by quanta and qualia at 7:11 PM on April 14, 2009

He's also gay (according to his myspace). Future girlfriend? I feel so lied to.
posted by Eideteker at 4:53 AM on April 15, 2009