Forums / Discussion / Meme Research

Greetings fellow researchers!

If you recall about a week ago, a user named Jess asked for help in making a chart that would categorize and catalogue popular and notable memes. I volunteered to help her with research, and choosing what memes and categories should be used on the chart. The final poster will categorize about a hundred or so memes, and is meant to be fun as well as informative.

We've come up with six categories so far:

1. Rage Comics (Rage Guy, Trollface, Me Gusta)
2. Advice Dog Spinoffs/ Advice Animals (Advice Dog, Philosoraptor, Scumbag Steve)
3. Viral Videos (Rebecca Black – Friday, Double Rainbow, Jessi Slughter)
4. LOLcats (Happy Cat, Longcat, Serious Cat)
5. Exploitables (Strutting Leo, Sad Keanu, Reaction Guys / Gaijin 4Koma)
6. Internet Slang (LOLspeak, 1337 speak, Fail)

Now we need your feedback. What categories should we add/drop? What memes should we include/exclude? Keep in mind, we're looking for memes that have lasting power, so the examples should be popular, notable, and significant within the online community.

I think YTMND is a strong candidate for this list.

Youtube Poop has a giant number of memes associated with it.

This is great, thanks Jess & Doc for starting this up. As some of you're aware, we've started brainstorming a better way to categorize & link related entries and there have been other related discussions before, so it's time to put them thinking caps on.

For your references:

Link to all subculture entries: http://bit.ly/qjOUjp
Link to all parent-level entries: http://bit.ly/r2GGfY

If you look at the google results, you'll see that there is more than one method of organization in place: some entries are subbed under site of origin, others are subbed under source material, and some are subbed under broader categories like Internet slang.

Anyway, carry on with the meme chart!

If you remember the first MemeChart Project from way back when, it had a whole ton of memes and their relations to one another on it, as well as broad categories of memes. I'd use this as a tool for making your Meme Chart.

(Also, remember to include YTMNDs)

(The embed isn't working, just click the link below or above to see what was supposed to be there)

@Abra I couldn't see what was embedded, but I think I know what's supposed to be there.

@thread
Also, I think Internet catchphrases could be another category, and not under "Internet Slang". Phrases like "The cake is a lie","I've seen enough hentai to know where this is going" and "All your base are belong to us", are all widely spread, but not necessarily slang like "lolwut" or "Do not want".

EDIT: After seeing anako's post : I'm not saying "lolwut" is not widespread as "The cake is a lie", I'm saying they are used differently. For instance, lolwut can be used almost anywhere, while the cake phrase can only be used moderately and exist more as a phrase that everyone recognizes. Nevertheless it's still a widespread meme, it's just it doesn't apply to every scenario.

Let me put it this way: Slang is what can be used almost everywhere while catchphrases are seen everywhere but not used in most cases.

I agree with Mister J. Although, “All your base are belong to us” and "The cake is a lie" aren't the best examples in my opinion. Nonetheless, I get what you're saying.

A Memechart? Wish I had thought of that.

@Mister J, I agree. Perhaps combining catchphrases and snowclones? Conversely, the title for the last one could be broadened to something like Internet Language and then could contain all three.

Fail videos are INCREDIBLY popular, I think they should be included in Viral Videos.

That's virtually most of YouTube we're adding there.

Oh and I forgot to mention that I'm totally okay with the 5 other categories. Simple and clear: nice picks.

Where would things like Lolwut, handsome face, fsjal, leeroy jenkins and over 9000 go?

I guess it matters on how they are used. For example,

Person 1: How many Jelly beans are in this jar?
Person 2: Over 9,000!

…would be a "phrase." However, "Over 9,000!" could also be an exploitable.

The problem is how are we going to deal with this? Will we put them into 2 (or more) categories?

DrPirate raises a great question.
Many memes are mixes of several categories.

Lolwut is both an exploitable and an Internet Slang, Handsome Face is both an exploitable but also a reaction image, Leeroy Jenkins is both a viral video but also an Internet Slang.

As for 122, many things have changed since 2008. Reddit may have stolen the rage face, there are too many multipane comics with different faces to not have a category about it, and they named it "Rage Comics".

I heard from DrPepperFan that there may be plans to categorize the memes in multiple categories. Personally I think this would be a could time to address this further. This would be a good solution to this problem.

4chan, Operations, (Lioncash, Facebook)

Perhaps we could arrange the memes on a gradient with each end representing one category, and with each meme's position on the gradient determined by how frequently it is used as such. For example, say that Over 9000 is used as slang 60% of the time, and as an exploitable 40% of the time, then it would appear on the chart like so:

Slang – - – * – - – - – - Exploitable

Simply have several intersecting axes for each category, and plot the memes appropriately. The end result should look like this chart:

Reddit called it Rage Comics. Many are then calling it Rage Comics.
Why change it?

The thing is, he's a /b/tard. He won't except the evolution of "Rage Comics." He's taking the "Rage" in "Rage Comic(s)" too literally. The variations of "Rage Comics" are similar in style to "Rage Guy/Ffffffffuuuuuuu-" and serve the same purpose; to express reactions and they are no doubt derived from "Rage Guy/Ffffffffuuuuuuu-."

Anyway, we aren't supposed to be arguing here.

They're called rage comics because that's just what people call them. We don't name memes here, we call them what they're usually referred to. Youtube Poop has nothing to do with poop. Facebook isn't a book. "Why Wub Woo" was never actually said in the show. And yet, people call them those things anyway.

maybe categorize by website too.

4chan, youtube, reddit,

The thing about 4chan is that it's not a type of meme, but rather, an orgin. 4chan spawns so many different types of memes, most that would better fall into one of the previously listed categories.

Good point. I think people generally agree that scale of spread is a determining factor in slang vs. catchphrases. I would also add something else in the spectrum: Utility.

To take "Over 9000!" for example, it's a phrase that was first heard in a popular YouTube video, repeated in reference to DBZ episode (What's the scouter say? "It's over 9000!") and now colloquially used to describe greatness in scale or quality ("over 9000 sausages!").

Urban Dictionary definitions also shows a similar change in about a year:

• Nov 21st, 2006: What the scouter says about Goku's power level (#1 voted out of #13)
• Oct 25, 2007: A phrase that people use for something of impressive power, skill or just general fun. (#2 voted)

So if a meme's "primary medium" is a transient value that keeps changing over time, it could be better represented as a sequence (video => catchphrase => slang).

This would be great, I remember jamiedubs also mentioning a similar idea… If there was a handy and reliable method to accurately keep track of changing values in percentage, it'd be even more awesome.

ae memes like over 9000 puddi desu leek spin considered expolidables or viral videos? If not there should be a section for memes like that…. but im not what to call them though.

So, I understand that Exploitables also covers many kind of photoshopping, including Disaster Girl, Tenso, and the like.

Where would Demotivational posters be categorized? Exploitables too?

Do you intend to include huge subcultures, such as… Ponies?

@Doc, It might be helpful going forward to know how you came up with the original 6 categories in the first place. Why these? Were they the first 6 that came to mind, or was there some sort of negotiation that led to them? If there's a a transcript you can boil down for us, that might help quite a bit.

what about songs?
like chocolate rain, never gonna give you up, what what, etc. are these viral videos or yt?
what about dances?
nyan nyan, hampster dance, dancing stormtrooper, get down
and video games memes?
zerg rush, aybabtu, giant enemy crab, etc

@boogie woogie influenza
I think most of the things you mentioned would fall into viral videos.
Also, that's an awesome username.

Media: As in MLP, Portal, Ghost Trollings, Minecraft, The cake is a lie etc.

{onies need to have one. I can't find a website without a brony on it. Sadly, it would mean more ponies. Why do we need to have so many ponies? You guys are just ruining the internet for me. I don't have to be a brony, so shut up. but sadly EVERY SINGLE BRONY just tries force me to become a brony so much it becomes cyberbullying. Is it really that big of a deal I am not a brony? I WAS neutral until you guys started using force. Now I am a hater, and you guys made me one. You messed up.

3. Viral Videos (Rebecca Black – Friday, Double Rainbow, Jessi Slughter)
Fictional People (Nyan-Nyan, Po Pi Po, Paffendorf Dance)
Celebrity [Music] (Friday, Rick Roll, Chocolate Rain)
People (Zangief Kid, Green Man, Interior Semiotics)
YTPMV (Boink, Mayim-Mayim, Can-Can)
Animal (Honey Badger, Nyan Cat, Keyboard Cat)
Creepy (Slenderman, Squidward’s Suicide, Suicide Mouse)
VideoGame (Nope.avi, Herobrine, Automatic Mario)
Youtube Poop (Insane Edition, Mama Luigi, Subliminal Messages)

I think I got most of the meme that would fit in all the sub-category. You guys can help improve it if you want. :3

i feel like there should be a category for japanese memes, like caramelldansen and leek spin etc

I'm not sure that's a good idea. Classification by country is irrelevant on the International Network. Would PUDDI PUDDI fall in your category? And Yaranaika / kuso miso tekkuniku? And DESU? Etc.

What about reviewers on the internet? Like the AVGN, NC, CGR, etc.

What medium is this going to be presented in? A giant single image? That's going to be ridiculously difficult to pull off and even tougher to maintain. Believe me, I tried. Go with a flowchart of some sort. I did the first Memechart on Pearltrees, and I think that's your best bet. If you'd like, I can give whoever's working on this editorship of Memechart The First.

I like Jack Candle's idea… A flowchart would be awesome… I think we (by 'we' I mean you) could branch off into the different categories, like

Sections list,
\/
Viral Videos,
\/
YouTube, Nico Nico, etc,
\/
Which each branch into a separate list, or links to another page with lists of memes associated. I know that'd be huge (and difficult to pull off), but in the end, I think that'd be the easiest way to navigate it.

I think you should include subcultures as well…
Anonymous, Otaku, Steampunk, etc…

Ponies. Can't forget the ponies.

Hi, I'm just going to apologize ahead of time if I repeat something somebody else has said; I'm on a really lousy connection, and everything is taking way too long to load, so I'm not reading the thread first.

First of all, these are pretty good categories, and cover a lot of ground. While there are inevitably memes that won't fit into one of these categories, adding more categories may not end up being the key to fixing it. Some memes are simply unique.

I think that a more vital thing to note is that many memes exist across several of these categories. The Y U NO guy is considered by many to be a "Rage Comic" variant, but while he does appear in such, I've seen him appear more often in an "Advice Dog Spinoff" sort of usage. On top of that, although far less common, the phrase Y U NO has definitely become a part of Internet slang.

One thing that you might want to consider is the creation of subcategories. For instance, "Exploitables" come in at least two main types: photo comics (like Inception, Gaijin 4Koma, and the Batman/Joker 4-pane) and photoshopping fads (like Sad Keanu, Snookishopping, and Prancing Cera); one-panel re-captionables like X ALL the Y may also properly belong as a subcategory of "Exploitables", although they bear some resemblance to "Advice Dog Spinoffs".

Just in general, I guess I'm saying I approve of trying to find categorization methods, but no categorization method is going to be perfect, so allow some fluidity.

Okay, I read through the thread finally, and while it seems that a lot of what I said was already stated by others, there were some other things brought up. Rather than address each and every one of the ideas in the thread, I'd like to say that whoever is working on this project needs to think about whether the suggestion fits with the overall concept. Yes, it's nice to know where a meme came from, but I don't see how that relates to the sort of categorization you've begun to outline here; that's a separate (although in many ways no less important) aspect of memes.

One thing I did want to address is the point brought up and dismissed by "122". While he may have been a bit of a jerk about it, I think there is still some value to what he's said. Yeah, a lot of people call them "Rage Comics" even when the "FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU-" guy isn't in the thing, but just because people call something by a certain name doesn't mean that's what it is. There's a middle ground between accuracy and popularity that may be useful in many more cases than this one, but I think you could please everyone by changing the category to "Rage Comic Variants".

Similarly, I wonder if someone could come up with a better name than "Advice Animals"; Scumbag Steve and Joseph Ducreux are definitely in this category, but they are not animals (other than the fact that humans are technically animals, I know) and they don't give advice! "Advice Dog Spinoffs" still seems alright, but it would be nice to have a more generalized term; maybe "Image Macros"?

I like the idea of "Rage Comic Variants" and I think it could help answering your other question. "Advice Dog Variants" can summarize everything about it. Or, maybe, we can talk about haiku but we may lose the macro's initial essence with it.

Thank you, former Ash-bot. I have no problem admitting I sounded (perhaps more than a bit) like a jerk – I tend to forget what the word "diplomacy" even means – too much nights spent on 4chan maybe. The thing is, you heard my message right, and got my point. I'm okay with "Rage Comic Variants", I actually think that's the best compromise we can ever reach and I am truly happy with this.

For the "Advice Animals", I agree we could proceed the same way and re-name it "Advice Dog Variants" (had the same idea before reading Tomberry's message). Or be a little bold and name them "Meme Generator Characters", even if it sounds a little confusing on a few levels. "Image Macros" makes me think about LOLcats and maybe demotivators, not foul bachelor frogs that accidentally the universe by blasting it with piss. And I also think "Y U NO" would fall the best in this aforementioned category ("Advice Dog Variants" or whatever).

@Efrain : No. Hell no.

@Hackenbacker : I think you mean "Pop Culture". This could include things like "It's not Lupus" from House M.D., "1. X 2. Y 3. Z 4. ???? 5. PROFIT!" from South Park, "THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST…" from the Foo Fighters' song, "The cake is a lie" from Portal, etc. Not sure that's a good idea but it sounds somehow relevant.

And finally I couldn't agree more with the idea of the flowchart. Flowcharts are AWESOME. Period.