WEBVTT - What are memes? 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:09.000 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technologies? With 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:17.760 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.000 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polette 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:21.520 and I am the tech editor here at how stuff 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.919 works dot Com. Sitting across from me, as he always does, 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:31.120 is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Hi, ho everyone, Hey Jonathan? Yeah, 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:33.720 you know what time it is? Is it peanut butter 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:36.400 jelly time? It is peanut butter jelly time? Where you wet? 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:39.479 Where you where you? Where you wet? Now there you go, 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:43.960 there you go. Yes, he's stuck in your head for 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:45.760 the rest of the day. I actually wrote down the 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:50.000 whole origin of that. Today. We thought we would look 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:54.320 at Internet memes. What are they? How do they get started? Uh? 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:57.080 And uh kind of give you guys the lowdown on it, 0:00:57.120 --> 0:00:58.680 because this is one of those things where it's a 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:01.080 word that's out there that you know, you see it 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:05.440 attached to stuff and then you're thinking, yeah, but ultimately, 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.640 what what is a meme? And it's actually one of 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:12.039 those words it's very kind of challenging to define, so 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:14.479 to to really get a grip on on the whole 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:16.560 meaning of meme. You have to let's just leave the 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:19.720 Internet behind for a minute here, because it's not limited 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:22.240 to the Internet. Now, the term itself comes from a 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:27.080 book written back in nineteen seventy s all the way 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:29.720 back then that was like so twenty century, yeah, as 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.839 ninety six, a year after a certain shark was terrorizing 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:36.880 the movie theaters and a year before a certain hero 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:40.200 from tattooing would blow up the Death Star. It was 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:42.959 written by Richard Dawkins, and the book was called The 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:49.240 Selfish Gene. Now, in this book he proposed a concept 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:52.760 of a meme, which is a unit of cultural transmission 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:57.880 or a unit of imitation, and then the study of 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:03.680 such a thing would be called memetics. So meme is 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:08.639 the accepted pronunciation, although some people call it mem and 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:11.880 I would figure you would assume that from memetics. I 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:15.440 haven't heard anybody call it memetics. No, but e, m E, 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:19.120 m e. You think it's either meme or mimi at 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:22.680 any rate, it's not Beaker from the Muppets. It's although 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:26.920 he isn't many different memes. Yes, So, so anyway, if 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:29.400 you're talking about a unit of cultural transmission, this could 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:34.440 really be practically anything within a culture. For example, handshakes 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:37.640 that could be a cultural meme because it's going to 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:42.280 be unique to a specific culture. And then not only 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:46.400 do you have memes propagate and spread throughout the culture, 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:49.239 but they can mutate over time and change over time 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:53.320 as people begin to alter them in little ways, whether 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:56.320 that's consciously or not. And for example, with the handshake, 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.359 you could get the things like the high five. Yes 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:01.519 you know, so that would be a good example where 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.840 the high five is really just kind of a adaptation 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:10.280 of mutation of the handshake. Well, this, this whole idea 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:14.720 of a unit of cultural transmission kind of made its 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.799 way onto the Internet pretty early on. And uh, I 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:21.240 remember the first time I ever encountered the word meme. 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:24.440 It was actually on the web. Um, I had not 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:28.560 read Dawkins book, so I was not familiar with the 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:31.760 the the his definition of what a meme was. For 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:34.559 the longest time, I thought meme was just a specific 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:38.000 term for those really annoying quizzes that people would send 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:40.720 around and be like, you know, the twenty questions about you, 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:43.000 and it's it was just a you know, a series 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:45.320 of questions that you would answer that would give people 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:47.160 who read the list a little more of an idea 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:49.440 of who you were and what makes you tick, things 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:51.800 like you know what your favorite color is and what 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:54.920 kind of foods you like, and um, have you ever 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:58.480 kissed a girl in the back of a car? Um? 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.360 That kind of stuff. I mean, tons and tons of 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:03.600 list and then some people might, you know, usually at 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:04.960 the end of it, and say something like, send this 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.840 to several more people and then have them send it 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:09.800 back to you so you can learn all about everybody 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:14.200 around you and share minute details of your life. Defining 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.240 a meme, you're doing it wrong. Well, that's the thing 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:19.200 here is that for the longest time, that's what I 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:21.160 thought a meme was. It was only that, But that 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.120 that's just one kind of a meme because again it's 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:28.279 a that list was spread viral e across multiple networks 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:31.600 of friends, and then people might read that list and think, well, 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:33.880 that's kind of interesting. But I think I can think 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:36.240 of a few questions I want to have answered that 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:38.520 aren't on this list. I'm going to add them, and 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:40.520 then so the list kind of changes, and then other 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:42.360 people are like, that's kind of lame. I'm gonna make 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:46.440 a whole different list of goofy questions just as a joke. 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:51.080 And then so again, the meme continues to to evolve 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.880 and mutate over time. Yes, so basically it's it's an 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:58.560 idea that gets spread. Yes, that's and actually might The 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:01.080 first encounter I had with it was suh an article 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:03.279 in Wired magazine some time back, and it was just 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:06.320 when they did define it. And when you have the 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:10.120 opportunity to look around on the Internet and in popular culture, 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:13.080 you know, it's easy to the idea of a meme 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:16.800 is readily apparent. Once you understand the definition. You okay, yeah, 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:19.400 I totally get that. And it's it's funny because it's 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:22.200 become pretty pretty well universally adopted. I think at this 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.000 point people go, I wish I've seen Facebook posts let's 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:27.279 say things like I wish this annoying meme would quit. 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:30.599 You know, somebody stop. But I know a million people 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:34.719 who I get. Could I could get to stop this meme? Okay? 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:37.760 Maybe not? But but even so, even so, I bet 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.200 if you ask most of the people who encounter that 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:43.320 word to define it, they would have difficulty doing so. Yeah, 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:44.920 because they know what it is, but they can't say 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:46.680 what it is, right, It's kind of like art. I 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:49.360 know what it is when I see it. Yes, all right, 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:52.120 So we're going to talk about some Internet memes, kind 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:54.839 of give you a background on where they came from, 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:57.719 and um, before we really get into that, I thought 0:05:57.720 --> 0:05:59.440 I would mention one other thing that I think is 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:03.840 really interest thing about memes, which is that the most 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:07.000 successful memes, in my view, are the ones that develop 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:11.440 naturally that someone unleash is an idea that may or 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:15.920 may not be funny immediately or relevant or whatever, and 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:21.039 then over time it gets more and more uh well 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:24.720 more people notice it time and then maybe tweak it 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:27.479 and change it a little bit, and then, uh but 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.120 it all happens naturally. No one's forcing it. Now. The 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:32.680 ones where people do try to force it, and they 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:35.480 do call them force memes, they being you know, various 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:39.039 people on the Internet, um, mostly four Chan. But anyway, 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:41.920 the the birthplace of many a meme, as we will, 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:45.400 if not the birthplace, at least the place where they 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.839 start to really start to take off. Um. Yeah, So 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:52.719 a forced meme would be one where someone creates something 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.719 specifically with the intention of it going out there and 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:59.320 exploding on the Internet and getting changed around and and 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:04.000 uh and and altered and tweaked and to propagate like that. 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:07.720 And often it's either an attempt to get notoriety or 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:11.000 to maybe even do some sort of marketing. Um, those 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:13.560 don't work as well because I think a lot of 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:15.760 people pick up on that pretty quickly. If it if 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:19.000 there's not a genuine you know, just a wow, this 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:21.400 thing is pretty funny, or this thing is just crazy. 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:24.280 I can't believe someone did this. Uh, if it's if, 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:28.360 if there's a forced mean thing behind it, it just 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:33.120 it doesn't feel genuine, and people abandon it. No, go ahead, 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:36.720 I apologize, Um, I was going to say that. Ue. 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:42.160 And unfortunately, for some who don't intend their actions to 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:45.480 become memes, some of these things take off viral e 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:49.680 uh and uncontrollably, and it is affected many people's lives. 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:51.520 But I figure we're going to talk about a couple 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:53.320 of those people in a few minutes. Yeah. So in 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.880 some cases we're talking about people who created something without 0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:00.320 any intention of it turning into an ex loas of 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:07.040 internet hit and then having to endure some pretty heavy 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:09.400 duty teasing, I guess is the best way of putting it. 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:12.480 So we started off by talking at the very beginning 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:14.720 of this podcast. So we made a reference to peanut 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:19.000 butter Jelly Time, yes, which reference is a very specific meme. 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:21.360 If you're not familiar with it, that means you weren't 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:24.040 on the internet back in uh probably two thousand two 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:30.400 or so. Um, it's a flash animation flash animation of 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:34.120 a banana, of course, yes, because who's better prepared to 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:37.960 sing about peanut butter jelly time than banana? Um. Yeah, 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:41.360 it's a it's the Dancing Banana animated emoticon, which is 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:43.640 just this little banana that just kind of bounces back 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:46.160 and forth a little bit and has a big grin 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:51.000 and yeah, and it's set to a song called Peanut 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.440 Butter and Jelly Time by the Buckwheat Boys and uh 0:08:54.760 --> 0:09:00.120 and so it just the song is pretty repetitive and 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:07.720 pretty repetitive. It's not as repetitive as a badger Badger badger, right, 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:11.680 but or Potter Potter Potter, the the Harry Potter parody 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:15.480 of Badger, Badger Badger? Have you seen that? Showing that 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:17.640 to you after the podcast? You know what a bunch 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:19.520 of people are going to write in after they look 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:21.880 these memes up, and you know, we're gonna get lots 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:24.000 of omgs on her, Yeah, especially the people who are 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:25.400 like I had never heard of that, and now I 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:30.440 can never unhear it. So, yeah, this little flash animation 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:33.280 just showed this banana yelling out it's peanut butter jelly time. Actually, 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:35.880 the banana wasn't saying anything, just playing in the background. 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:38.959 Banana's just looking like a maniac. And then you hear 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:41.800 it's peanut butter jelly Time by the Buckweed Boys. And 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:44.800 that was created the the and the flash animation was 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:48.880 created by um a couple of guys who were posting 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:52.640 too off Topic dot com and uh and and then 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.960 that kind of got picked up later on new grounds 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:59.360 dot com and then that's another good place to find memes. Yeah, 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:04.400 and from those those boards that it's spread out, and 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:06.840 then it actually spread out so far that it affected 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:09.160 other parts of popular culture. It even appeared on an 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.599 episode of Family Guy where Brian dresses up as the 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:16.559 banana in an attempt to cheer up a very despondent Peter, 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:19.280 and it does not work, and then Brian just keeps 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:21.760 on going anyway, because you know, once you're in peanut 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:24.280 butter jelly time, you don't get out. That's pretty much it. 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:27.320 But yeah, that that's uh. And and we should also 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:29.560 add that we're getting a lot of this information from 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:32.880 a wonderful web resource. Oh yeah, this is UM by 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:37.440 the people who brought you the the uh Internet news 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:41.640 tech news podcast Rocket Boom. Yeah. So it's, you know, 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:46.320 an authoritative source. They have no your meme dot com, yes, 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:48.599 write that down, No your meme dot com yes, So 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:50.200 if you ever come across a meme, you can go 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:52.120 to know your meme dot com and do a search 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:54.240 for it, and there's a good chance they're going to 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:56.800 have an entry on there. Uh. And sometimes they do 0:10:56.880 --> 0:11:00.240 a full episode where they break down the origin of 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:04.079 a meme and it's it's really definitive and thorough work. 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:06.520 The one for peanut butter jelly time was excellent. Yeah, 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.080 I have to say that, yes exactly. It was a 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:12.560 very attractive young lady, one of the prisoners, addressed as 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:16.400 a banana um delivering the very serious peanut butter jelly 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:20.559 time yes derivation. Um. Yeah, so we do recommend that 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:22.720 it's it's a great source. But we thought we talked 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:25.240 a little bit about some of the other memes that 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:28.520 that uh we've encountered and some of our favorites, and 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:34.800 why don't you go ahead and hingant Uh, well, you know, 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:39.400 I actually found a list of on earl Esque, which 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:43.000 is uh one of the aol dot com sites. On 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:46.320 they posted their one hundred most iconic Internet videos and 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:49.160 wanted to see which ones that I had heard of. Uh. 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.920 Number eleven was one that went around a while ago. 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:59.880 Uh you know Newman Numa yes Numa, Numa Yesuma. I 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:02.640 actually this one was it was a not really a 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:06.040 forced meme, but it was intentionally posted by the author. 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:10.480 It was Gary Brolsma, who was singing along with a song, 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:12.400 or actually appears to be singing along with the song. 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:15.800 You actually hear the real version as the drug of 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:20.240 Steve Tindah didn't didn't, That's what it was. And uh, 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:24.240 he is, you know, basically having a good time hanging 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:29.120 out at his computer and thinking it's it's it's an 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:32.199 infectiously good time. I mean, he looks like a total 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:35.560 spaz doing this this dance and lip singing, but he 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:37.880 did it on purpose, and he did this with the 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:40.160 intention of showing it to some friends, and then his 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:42.400 friends showed it to some other people and then the 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:44.960 exploded from there did it new Grounds, which is where 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:46.719 he put it on there, and uh, you know he's 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:48.959 getting millions of views. And this is you know, pre 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:52.200 as they as they pointed out on on the website 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:56.600 there at at LASK, this was before YouTube, so it 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:58.880 was getting millions of hits, even before YouTube made it 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:02.079 really simple for people to thrust a meme out into 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:04.520 the public eye on a quick basis. Now, later on 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:07.040 he tried to recreate that success with a couple of 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:10.000 other videos that didn't have the same sort of viral 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:13.719 effect as his first one, probably because again it was 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:16.280 kind of coming across as a forced meme at that point. 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:18.679 You know, it's the first time it all. It all 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:22.080 kind of exploded naturally just as people got interested in it. 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:23.920 But no one wants to be spoon fed or force 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:28.839 fed something, so you want to I'm gonna go out 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:30.560 of the gate with my favorite one of all times, 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:36.400 Ninja's versus Pirates, and it's Pirates all the way. It 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:39.400 is Pirates all the way. There's always a bunch of 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:43.000 Ninja fans because if they do, they reveal what they are. 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:47.400 The ninjas can't write in we might get some blank 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:51.080 slips of paper written an invisible ink. But no, yeah, Ninja's, 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:52.800 if you are a real Ninja, you're not gonna write 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:56.200 in um except for asking Ninja that guy he said, 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:00.679 you can't shut him up, so um. Actually I love 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.160 that show too. But Ninja's versus pirates. So this this 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:06.160 is a weird meme in that it's kind of hard 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:09.880 to say where this one came from. As early as nine, 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:14.720 there was an Atari arcade game called Skull and Crossbones 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:17.040 where you got to play as pirates, and you normally 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.640 would fight against other pirates, but you also fought Ninja's. 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:25.080 But in two thousand three you had Robert Hamburger parodying 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:30.400 Ninja's in a series of UH posts on Real Ultimate 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:35.560 Power UM where he would give he would give synopsis 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:39.160 of movies that movie ideas he had for Ninja's and 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:41.720 the UH and several of them, Ninja's would fight pirates 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:45.080 and the Ninja is always one. Actually Ninja, I should say, 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:47.840 because that's the plural. Now I'm gonna have to do 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.720 this s connected dy shuffle. You don't get that unless 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:55.360 you listen to stuff. You should know enough of a 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:57.800 plug for them. But I would I would point out 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:00.800 to that. It's gone so far as I've seen a 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:04.640 we video game called Ninja's Versus Pirates Dodgeball, yes, and 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:07.400 maybe backwards Pirates. I don't know. Actually there there's a 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:09.760 game in which Ninja's and pirates fight each other in 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:12.800 dodge I have a friend who on his birthday had 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:18.120 a Ninja versus Pirate Dodgeball tournament. I was unable to attend. 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:21.360 I did get to see the bruises later. But yeah, 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:25.120 so that's that's one of those means that the origin 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:28.600 is kind of, you know, foggy. We're not really sure 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:32.760 where how they took off, but it really has taken off. Um, 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:34.560 It's probably not as popular now as it used to be, 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.440 but you can still find plenty of sites dedicated to 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:42.360 the whole Ninja pirate animosity. I once created a similar 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:47.440 rivalry between conquistadors and YETI, but that hasn't really taken off. 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:50.320 And I have seen people try to insert zombies into 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:53.280 the equation to make it sort of a three way battle, 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:55.800 but you know, nobody has done it so much so 0:15:55.880 --> 0:16:03.840 that the Ninja versus Pirate Yeah, now next zombies. Okay, um, 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:08.320 let's go with a quite persistent meme LOLd cats. Ah, yes, 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:10.920 now this is another one. We can thank sites like 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.920 four chan. Four yes, this is uh we we'd love 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:15.560 to tell you exactly who it was that came up 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:17.240 with this idea, but I, as far as I know, 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:23.680 it was posted anonymously to four chan, and uh, nobody knows. Well, 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.880 somebody knows exactly who it was that decided to put 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:29.240 a picture of a cat, take a picture of a 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:32.760 cat and put some silly caption over it in a 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:37.360 sort of pigeon English, and uh what yes, yes, so 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:39.760 it's evolved now to the point where you can have 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:42.760 whole conversations in it, and and low cats may have 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:48.320 actually evolved from an earlier uh captioned animal photo, the 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:51.400 oh really owl. Oh yes, I love the old really owl. 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:53.600 So the this is the this is a snow owl 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:56.360 that looks surprised because it's it's beak is open and 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:58.480 its eyes are wide open, so it looks like it's 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:03.240 oh really. That's it's spelled oh r l y, which 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:05.800 is sort of a text you know, text messaging shorthand, 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:08.200 and it's kind of a way of of trolling a site, 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.119 like someone says something whether or not it's surprising or not. Actually, 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:14.040 more often it's when it's not surprising. Someone says something 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:16.560 that's really obvious, and then in response, someone posts the 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:18.600 photo of the owl that says oh really on it. 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:21.919 The proper response to that, by the way, is yeah really, 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:25.239 which is a barn owl that looks really angry, and 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:29.560 then the uh. The third response would be no way, 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:31.879 which is ah, I think it's a hawk with its 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:35.439 mouth white or being wide open um no way spelled 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:39.560 in O w A I uh. And that that started. 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:44.240 The earliest usage of that came from the something Awful forums. Again, 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.439 this isn't a breeding ground for things such as this 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:51.600 and usually quite funny, right and then uh, but four 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:53.400 chan picked it up and ran with it. And then 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:56.480 that's probably where the loll cats thing kind of because 0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:59.119 you know that that's sort of served as the foundation 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.480 for things like all cats and the the bucket walrus 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:06.040 the loris which actually was not a walrus. It wasn't 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:12.600 It was a seal. Yeah two years ago, sad. Yeah. Man, 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:16.000 Now he's in bucket heaven. He's got all the buckets 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:18.840 he could want. Now. This is where memes get to 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:24.440 be big business. Because an entrepreneur named Ben Huh actually 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:29.240 purchased a website called I Can has Cheeseburger dot com 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:33.280 and has made a business off of uh some people. 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:36.240 Some people are angry at him for you know, somebody 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:37.960 else who started the site and he purchased the site 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:40.639 along with some other ones. There's a there's one about 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:46.040 about dogs and failed dogs. No, it's not failed dogs, uh. 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:48.439 It I has a hot dog dot com and there 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:52.080 are pictures of dogs with similar captions, dogs doing funny 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:54.400 things and you know, even funnier now that you've put 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:57.160 a caption over it. Uh. And they these sites allow 0:18:57.320 --> 0:19:00.239 you to uh to submit your own photos. You can 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:03.639 even use the generator to take a an existing photo 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:06.000 and put a different caption on there and submitted, which 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:08.080 is really where we're coming through the whole meme thing 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:10.600 in the first place. Like if if all this was 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:13.000 was just a photo of a particular cat, like the 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:15.960 hanging their baby cat, and that's all it was, was 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:17.640 just a hang in their baby cat, and no one 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:20.119 ever altered it, or it didn't really spread beyond that, 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.040 it wouldn't be a meme. But because it's taken on 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:26.520 a life of its own, where now you see a 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:28.440 picture of a cat with some funny text and you think, oh, 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:30.760 it's a little cat, you know, And then you could 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:33.480 actually take that same photo and put different text on it, 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.760 and then you've you've just you know, made that meme 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:39.960 go a little bit further. Um, and then you know 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.440 it's spawned sub memes like a ceiling cat and basement cat, 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:46.919 the you know got in the devil as Cats, a 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:49.760 white cat in a a black cat, and uh, all 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:52.720 sorts of other little sub memes from there. The ety 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:56.800 Bitty Kitty Committee. Well, speaking of cats, Yes, in six 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:58.880 a special video was taken. Do you know where I'm 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:01.679 going with this? Yeah? I think its a video of 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:06.320 a cat named fat So. Owner Charlie Schmitz creates a 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:10.080 video where he manipulates his cat, fat So, wearing a 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:15.679 little onesie playing a keyboard. And that video was, like 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:18.280 I said back in okay, So let's skip forward to 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:21.560 two seven. Some friends uploaded or he actually I guess 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:24.560 uploaded it to YouTube, just a video of his cat. 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:27.680 The scoofy video of a cat playing a keyboard. Um. 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:32.120 Enter Brad O'Farrell, yes, who then asks permission to use 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:36.639 this video to play to play off another video of 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:38.879 a guy strapped to a I think it was an 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:42.560 office chair falling down an escalator. Yes, yeah, it looks 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:44.359 really painful. And then at the end of it it 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:46.840 cuts to the keyboard Cat playing the keyboard where the 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:51.119 key the cat is playing off the guy falling down 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:54.440 the escalator. The idea being that it's like from Vaudeville 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.760 Day's when your act starts to totally tank and the 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:00.320 giant hook comes from off stage and hooks you and 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:04.760 then pulls you off stage. Same idea keyboard Cat is 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:09.320 to to essentially say that was a complete failure. You 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:13.520 are done now, and uh so keyboard Cat. Yeah, it's 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:16.000 become That was a big meme probably lot. I would 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.240 say last year was really when when it kind of 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:22.280 peaked and then started to go away. There's another great 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:25.159 YouTube video that was also a huge meme for a 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:28.439 while until it died on Thanksgiving. Okay, do you know 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:31.000 what I'm going with this? I don't know that intro. 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:33.400 You must have given me up, you must have let 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:36.920 me down. Now you're running around and hurting me. Yeah, 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:40.919 I'm talking about Rick rolling, buddy, Yeah, I forgot about that. 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:43.879 How could you forget about Rick Rolling? I had tried 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:45.800 very hard to put it out of my mind. I 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:48.000 didn't even write it down on purpose. You're a greater 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:51.520 man than I. Gungadine. Um So Rick Rolling, Yeah, the 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:54.520 Rick Astley never Gonna Give You Up video. This was 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:56.560 sort of a do it yourself meme because a lot 0:21:56.560 --> 0:21:59.560 of people went to a great effort to disguise the 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:04.879 deo of Rick Astley's song as something else so that 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:08.640