/Interview/ The brains behind: Know Your Meme
08/01/2010 | Filed under Discover > Interview
Tongue in cheek web series and online database Know Your Meme dissects internet culture one meme at a time. We talk to its creator, Rocketboom’s lead R&D Jamie Wilkinson
.net: How did you come up with the idea for Know Your Meme?
JW: The first Know Your Meme episodes were shot as ‘evergreen’ content that we could air during our two-week Rocketboom Christmas break in 2007. We spend a lot of time studying the latest content and trends spreading across the interwebs, so it was a natural choice to present the history of our favourite internet memes and viral videos like modern new-media anthropology. We wanted to be as objective as possible (and grew up with Bill Nye), so we set the scene in ‘the lab’ and got ourselves embroidered lab coats... instant credibility!
As the site has become more popular we’ve ironically grown into something very much resembling the research lab we were trying to portray: we have a team of researchers, our own suite of research tools, and standardised evaluation criteria for newly discovered phenomena. I suppose the next step is academic journals and meme research grants!
.net: How did you build the Know Your Meme site and database?
JW: I’m a heavy user of internet culture documentation sites like Macrochan, Encyclopedia Dramatica and the YTMND Wiki, but always wanted something that was more thorough and objective. Just the facts ma’am, some images, popularity graphs, and every remix video you can find.
I threw together the first version of the Meme Database (MemeDB) in about two weeks in December 2008, using jQuery-flavoured Ruby on Rails. It featured simple meme entries, photo uploading, account registration and a forum. The success of the show helped drive people to the website, and I started focusing on more people-centric features: profiles, walls, private messaging, a better forum, allowing users to submit entries. Come for the memes, stay for the community!
The episodes have helped us set the editorial tone and a standard of quality for what we expect from contributions. This episodic series and community website model is something we’re excited to replicate with future shows.
Our lead designer Greg Leuch, whom we hired in January 09, helped redesign the site and really flesh out the brand identity. He’s has been invaluable in building it out since.
.net: How popular is Know Your Meme? Is it really bigger than Rocketboom itself?
JW: knowyourmeme.com now receives more than a quarter million page views daily. It has 30-40,000 unique visitors, and about a five-minute average time-on-site. The videos consistently break 100,000 views on YouTube. Our Auto-Tune episode with Weird Al was our first episode to break one million views (Achievement Unlocked!). The site is very search-engine friendly, and the community focus and ‘database’ nature of the website lends itself really well to the obsessive nature of nerds, myself included.
The Know Your Meme episodes and the MemeDB website have also formed an interesting symbiotic relationship. In the beginning, people found the Know Your Meme videos on Rocketboom or YouTube, which is what initially drove traffic to the website. Now the KYM website has become one of the primary generators of views on our episodes.
All our stats are publicly available on www.quantcast.com/knowyourmeme.com. Also, Twitter.
.net: How many people work on Know Your Meme?
JW: Ellie Rountree, Kenyatta Cheese, and I write scripts, are the primary producers on the show, and host the episodes. Greg Leuch and I built and maintain the site. Chris Menning, Brad Kim and Mike Rugnetta do scriptwriting and editorial/community management. There are also about a half-dozen other people who are involved in producing and editing the episodes including Andrew Baron (EP), Leah D’Emilio (producer) and Barry Pousman (lead editor). And, of course, the thousands of dedicated community members who submit and evaluate entries on the site!
.net: How many memes are in the database already, and how do you decide what gets accepted?
JW: Confirming memes is a fairly rigorous process. We currently have 460 confirmed meme entries and 300 serious submissions, and more than 26,000 unique uploaded images. In evaluating a meme we typically look primarily at its age, viral spread, the number of derivatives and mutations, and where and how it originated: ie an organic, grassroots meme vs a joke from a major television show vs something being actively ‘forced’ by a company or group.
We’ve found Google search trending to be a great indicator of the global interest in a meme over time, helping us compare strong, long-lived memes vs a flash-in-the-pan fads of the now.
.net: How much research goes into each “analysis”, and how long does it take to make a new episode?
JW: Each episode is typically the culmination of months of research by our staff and members of the community on the Meme Database, which is then synthesised into a three-page script in about a week. Of the information in the script, roughly 50 per cent of the data collected doesn’t make it into the script but will show up in the site entry. Usually three or four people will collaborate on the script to ensure accuracy.
We shoot the episodes in an hour or two, provided I can nail my lines (I’m a programmer, not an actor!) then spend two to three days editing. Once the episode goes live, we’ll often spend about half a day collectively promoting it when we launch the episode as well.
.net: What kind of equipment do you use to record the videos?
JW: We film using a Canon XH-A1 with Sennheisser wireless mics, and edit using Final Cut Pro.
.net: How much use could you make of the seven-figure distribution deal Rocketboom signed with Sony Pictures Television in August 08 so far?
JW: You’ll notice a distinct jump in the production quality of KYM episodes between 2007 and 2008! Our licensing deal with Sony allowed us to expand and start producing segments beyond the Rocketboom daily news as well, including Know Your Meme, Rocketboom Tech, and a human-interest series called Humanwire.
.net: What was your favourite meme of 2009 and why?
JW: The ‘Woll Smoth’ image macro is a favourite. Simple, clever, easy to replicate... great at parties!!!.
The Japanese meme ‘Get Down’ (or ‘Geddan’) is a few years old but I just learned about it this year thanks to a MemeDB contributor. It’s from a glitch in the classic N64 game Goldeneye 007 that makes all the characters spaz out, and people in Japan started replicating it in real life.
I’ve been getting really into international memes lately, particularly Japan, Mexico, and Korea. it’s fascinating how much language and local culture influences humour and the kinds of things that people are willing to do!
.net: You also teach the Internet Famous Class at Parsons The New School for Design. What’s it all about and how do you spread your work to the widest possible audience online?
JW: Internet Famous Class is the first algorithmically graded class in the history of academics. There’s no quizzes, no homework: students’ grades are entirely a function of how much website traffic and social media buzz they can generate.
Famo class provided a great opportunity to experiment with alternative models of publishing, which is what internet memes are all about – creating and spreading your content without using television, advertising, or other ageing communication systems. And when your grade is on the line, students certainly try some interesting and provocative projects!
.net: What’s planned next for Know Your Meme?
JW: We’re hard at work on new episodes, and are working on ways to cover ‘fresh’ memes that haven’t been totally confirmed yet. The mainstream media’s newfound love of the internet is propelling memes from larval stage to old age in no time at all, like with the Christian Bale Rant and the Kanye interruption meme. We’ve started calling it the ‘Benjamin Button Effect’.
On the MemeDB website we’re focusing on adding more rating and filtering options, allowing the community to sift the ‘best’ memes to the top. We’re also building a reputation system that grants our senior community members more editorial and moderation privileges, and badges to show off what they’ve accomplished! I recently broke 1000 ‘contribs’.
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Comments
DrFishcake / 08/01/2010 / 17:57
I'm a huge fan of KYM (and Rocketboom in general). Long may it continue. In fact, may it continue long enough for the DB to be...OVER 9000!
(Sorry. Couldn't resist.)
