WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.720 I have to be honest with you. When I saw the 00:00:01.720 --> 00:00:03.779 stack of research you prepared for today, I checked 00:00:03.779 --> 00:00:06.759 the calendar. I thought, is this a joke? Yeah, 00:00:06.820 --> 00:00:08.599 I figured you might. Because we're usually talking 00:00:08.599 --> 00:00:11.939 about, you know, geopolitical shifts or the future 00:00:11.939 --> 00:00:14.800 of artificial intelligence or macroeconomics. 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:18.480 And today, you want to talk about pictures of 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:21.859 cats. It's not just pictures of cats. But I get 00:00:21.859 --> 00:00:25.500 the hesitation. It feels trivial, right? You're 00:00:25.500 --> 00:00:28.190 sitting there, maybe... On the bus or on your 00:00:28.190 --> 00:00:29.589 couch, you're just scrolling through your feed. 00:00:29.710 --> 00:00:34.130 You stop your thumb on an image. It is a completely 00:00:34.130 --> 00:00:37.490 distorted, low -resolution picture of a cartoon 00:00:37.490 --> 00:00:40.329 character. Maybe it's Lord Farquaad from Shrek. 00:00:40.409 --> 00:00:42.789 Maybe it's SpongeBob. And the caption is just... 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:46.000 A single letter. Right. Or a sentence that makes 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:48.520 no grammatical sense whatsoever. A nonsensical 00:00:48.520 --> 00:00:50.939 phrase that barely holds together. And yet I 00:00:50.939 --> 00:00:53.039 laugh. That's the worst part. I look at it and 00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:56.100 I laugh. You laugh. And not just a polite chuckle, 00:00:56.100 --> 00:00:59.119 but a genuine confused laugh. And then you share 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:01.780 it. And 10 minutes later, your friend shares 00:01:01.780 --> 00:01:04.680 it back. But here is the question that keeps 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:06.620 me up at night. And the reason we are doing this 00:01:06.620 --> 00:01:09.420 today. Why is that funny? And more importantly, 00:01:09.620 --> 00:01:13.079 how on earth? Did we get from a simple joke to 00:01:13.079 --> 00:01:15.719 a force that literally moves stock markets and 00:01:15.719 --> 00:01:18.060 influences presidential elections? See, that's 00:01:18.060 --> 00:01:20.569 the part I struggle with. Brain rot. That's the 00:01:20.569 --> 00:01:22.969 term my nephew uses, digital junk food. It feels 00:01:22.969 --> 00:01:26.090 so ephemeral. It feels that way. But if you look 00:01:26.090 --> 00:01:28.069 at the research, what we're actually dealing 00:01:28.069 --> 00:01:31.370 with is a highly sophisticated evolutionary unit 00:01:31.370 --> 00:01:34.709 of culture. Our mission today is to stop looking 00:01:34.709 --> 00:01:37.829 at memes as funny pictures and start looking 00:01:37.829 --> 00:01:40.250 at them the way a biologist looks at a virus. 00:01:40.510 --> 00:01:42.870 A virus. Or the way a linguist looks at a new 00:01:42.870 --> 00:01:45.189 dialect. Because whether you realize it or not, 00:01:45.409 --> 00:01:48.189 memes have become a complex language, a massive 00:01:48.189 --> 00:01:51.129 marketing tool, a political... And yes, a subject 00:01:51.129 --> 00:01:53.689 of very serious academic study. So we're treating 00:01:53.689 --> 00:01:55.590 this with the same seriousness we'd treat a deep 00:01:55.590 --> 00:01:58.170 dive on nuclear energy. We have to. We have a 00:01:58.170 --> 00:02:00.569 massive stack of sources here. We're looking 00:02:00.569 --> 00:02:02.909 at everything from evolutionary biology, actual 00:02:02.909 --> 00:02:06.090 biology to sociology, economics and the history 00:02:06.090 --> 00:02:07.750 of the Internet itself. We're going to trace 00:02:07.750 --> 00:02:10.530 the line from Richard Dawkins in the 1970s all 00:02:10.530 --> 00:02:13.469 the way to the Skibidi toilet phenomenon and 00:02:13.469 --> 00:02:17.009 the great meme reset of 2026. All right. I'm 00:02:17.009 --> 00:02:19.460 skeptical, but I'm listening. If we're going 00:02:19.460 --> 00:02:21.719 to treat this academically, we probably shouldn't 00:02:21.719 --> 00:02:24.520 start with SpongeBob. Where does the actual science 00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:27.080 begin? If we want to understand the DNA of a 00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:29.659 meme, we have to go back way before the World 00:02:29.659 --> 00:02:33.240 Wide Web. We need to go to 1976. Richard Dawkins 00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:35.740 published a book called The Selfish Gene. Okay, 00:02:35.800 --> 00:02:38.689 classic evolutionary biology. I've read it. survival 00:02:38.689 --> 00:02:41.969 of the fittest. But Dawkins deals with actual 00:02:41.969 --> 00:02:45.889 genes, DNA, proteins, physical traits. What does 00:02:45.889 --> 00:02:47.729 he have to do with Internet culture? Well, Dawkins 00:02:47.729 --> 00:02:50.419 was trying to solve a problem. He knew how biological 00:02:50.419 --> 00:02:52.879 traits spread, you know, blue eyes, tallness 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:55.460 through genes. But he needed a word, a concept, 00:02:55.539 --> 00:02:57.919 to explain how cultural information spreads. 00:02:58.180 --> 00:03:00.340 Cultural information, like stories or songs. 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:02.919 Exactly. How does a melody move from one person 00:03:02.919 --> 00:03:04.659 to another? How does the skill of building an 00:03:04.659 --> 00:03:07.180 arch survive for centuries? How do catchphrases 00:03:07.180 --> 00:03:09.580 travel across the playground? He needed a unit 00:03:09.580 --> 00:03:11.780 of cultural transmission. So he was looking for 00:03:11.780 --> 00:03:14.120 the cultural equivalent of a gene. Precisely. 00:03:14.379 --> 00:03:18.189 And he came up with the term meme. He shortened 00:03:18.189 --> 00:03:20.610 the Greek word mumim, which means that which 00:03:20.610 --> 00:03:23.789 is imitated. And it rhymes with gene. That's 00:03:23.789 --> 00:03:27.090 clever. It is. And in his original theory, a 00:03:27.090 --> 00:03:29.349 meme behaves exactly like a gene. It wants to 00:03:29.349 --> 00:03:32.469 replicate. If a song is catchy, it survives in 00:03:32.469 --> 00:03:34.930 your brain. You hum it, someone else hears it, 00:03:35.009 --> 00:03:37.289 it infects them. And if it's a terrible song... 00:03:37.289 --> 00:03:39.729 If a song is boring or an idea is too complex 00:03:39.729 --> 00:03:43.050 to remember, it dies out. It is pure, natural 00:03:43.050 --> 00:03:45.750 selection for ideas. But here's where I get stuck. 00:03:46.430 --> 00:03:49.949 In nature, evolution is random, right? A giraffe 00:03:49.949 --> 00:03:51.870 doesn't decide to have a longer neck. It just 00:03:51.870 --> 00:03:53.990 happens over millions of years of random mutation. 00:03:54.229 --> 00:03:56.509 There's no intent. That is the crucial point. 00:03:56.629 --> 00:03:58.409 You've hit the nail on the head. In biology, 00:03:58.610 --> 00:04:01.469 mutation is blind. But, and this is a massive 00:04:01.469 --> 00:04:03.689 distinction for our deep dive, Dawkins eventually 00:04:03.689 --> 00:04:05.909 had to address the internet version of his creation. 00:04:06.250 --> 00:04:07.789 What did he think of it? He pointed out that 00:04:07.789 --> 00:04:09.990 the internet meme breaks his model. He actually 00:04:09.990 --> 00:04:12.469 calls it a hijacking of the original idea. A 00:04:12.469 --> 00:04:15.270 hijacking? That sounds aggressive. It fits, though. 00:04:15.610 --> 00:04:18.089 Because with internet memes, the mutation isn't 00:04:18.089 --> 00:04:20.569 random. It involves deliberate human creativity. 00:04:21.149 --> 00:04:23.750 When you see a meme and you decide to change 00:04:23.750 --> 00:04:26.370 the caption or Photoshop a hat onto the cat, 00:04:26.589 --> 00:04:29.110 you are intelligently designing that mutation. 00:04:29.410 --> 00:04:31.949 You are the selector. I see. So the difference 00:04:31.949 --> 00:04:35.250 is intent. A gene changes by accident. A meme 00:04:35.250 --> 00:04:37.170 changes because I think it would be funnier if 00:04:37.170 --> 00:04:39.610 the cat was wearing sunglasses. Exactly. And 00:04:39.610 --> 00:04:42.410 that shift from random selection to intentional 00:04:42.410 --> 00:04:44.649 selection is what makes internet memes spread 00:04:44.649 --> 00:04:47.790 so terrifyingly fast. Lamore Schiffman, who is 00:04:47.790 --> 00:04:50.269 a key researcher in this field, argues that internet 00:04:50.269 --> 00:04:52.329 memes are unique because they leave a traceable 00:04:52.329 --> 00:04:54.069 digital footprint. What do you mean by that? 00:04:54.189 --> 00:04:56.170 You can actually see the mutation happening in 00:04:56.170 --> 00:04:58.529 real time on a message board or a social feed. 00:04:58.649 --> 00:05:00.769 You can watch the evolution from one version 00:05:00.769 --> 00:05:03.360 to the next, hour by hour. With a traditional 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:06.620 meme, like a folktale, that process takes generations 00:05:06.620 --> 00:05:09.600 and is impossible to track. So if we're going 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:11.959 to be formal about it, how do we actually define 00:05:11.959 --> 00:05:14.860 an internet meme? Because funny picture feels 00:05:14.860 --> 00:05:17.319 way too broad. Yeah, that's not going to cut 00:05:17.319 --> 00:05:21.160 it. The working definition we find in the literature 00:05:21.160 --> 00:05:25.819 is a cultural item, so an idea, a behavior, or 00:05:25.819 --> 00:05:28.439 a style that spreads via the internet, primarily 00:05:28.439 --> 00:05:30.720 through social media. Okay. But there are key 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:33.319 differences from traditional memes. Internet 00:05:33.319 --> 00:05:36.420 memes are often less abstract. They are visual, 00:05:36.519 --> 00:05:39.379 specific, and crucially, they can be much more 00:05:39.379 --> 00:05:42.079 fleeting. A traditional meme might be shaking 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:45.639 hands to say hello, which lasts centuries. An 00:05:45.639 --> 00:05:48.060 internet meme might be a specific dance on TikTok 00:05:48.060 --> 00:05:50.699 that lasts three weeks. Or three days, if we're 00:05:50.699 --> 00:05:53.779 being honest. Or three hours. But for a meme 00:05:53.779 --> 00:05:56.399 to succeed, even for three hours, it needs what 00:05:56.399 --> 00:05:59.000 researchers Nobel and Lancashire call the secret 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:01.600 sauce. They analyzed successful memes and found 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:03.959 three ingredients that map back to Dawkins, but 00:06:03.959 --> 00:06:05.660 with a digital twist. Okay, let's unpack the 00:06:05.660 --> 00:06:07.720 secret sauce. What is ingredient number one? 00:06:07.860 --> 00:06:11.040 Number one is fidelity, or replicability. Now, 00:06:11.079 --> 00:06:13.180 in the old days, fidelity meant copying something 00:06:13.180 --> 00:06:15.100 perfectly. Like, if you tell a joke, you want 00:06:15.100 --> 00:06:17.439 to tell it exactly how you heard it. Right. High 00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:20.199 fidelity means accuracy, no changes. But on the 00:06:20.199 --> 00:06:22.500 internet, fidelity means something else. It means 00:06:22.500 --> 00:06:24.930 remixability. Wait, isn't that the opposite? 00:06:25.009 --> 00:06:27.889 If I remix it, I'm changing it. I'm lowering 00:06:27.889 --> 00:06:30.730 the fidelity. You're changing the context, but 00:06:30.730 --> 00:06:32.889 you're maintaining the core message or structure. 00:06:33.470 --> 00:06:35.350 This is the hardest part to get your head around, 00:06:35.430 --> 00:06:37.310 but it's the most important. Think of the distracted 00:06:37.310 --> 00:06:39.930 boyfriend meme. You know the one? Oh, of course. 00:06:40.029 --> 00:06:42.569 The stock photo. Guy walking with his girlfriend, 00:06:42.810 --> 00:06:45.170 looks back at another woman. His girlfriend looks 00:06:45.170 --> 00:06:48.810 disgusted. It's everywhere. Right. Now, in that 00:06:48.810 --> 00:06:52.000 meme. The fidelity isn't the specific people 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:54.740 in the photo. The fidelity is the structure of 00:06:54.740 --> 00:06:58.660 the relationships. The structure is me. the thing 00:06:58.660 --> 00:07:01.220 I should be doing, and the attractive distraction. 00:07:01.660 --> 00:07:04.480 As long as you keep that emotional triangle intact, 00:07:04.720 --> 00:07:06.860 you can swap the characters for anything. You 00:07:06.860 --> 00:07:08.899 can make the boyfriend the Roman Empire, the 00:07:08.899 --> 00:07:11.379 girlfriend building a stable society, and the 00:07:11.379 --> 00:07:14.060 other woman lead pipes. I get it. So the meme 00:07:14.060 --> 00:07:16.060 is the container. It's like a cookie cutter. 00:07:16.199 --> 00:07:18.459 The dough changes, the topic changes, but the 00:07:18.459 --> 00:07:21.079 shape remains the same. The template is the high 00:07:21.079 --> 00:07:24.230 fidelity part. That is the perfect analogy. If 00:07:24.230 --> 00:07:26.410 the cookie cutter is strong and easy to use, 00:07:26.629 --> 00:07:29.689 the meme has high fidelity. If the structure 00:07:29.689 --> 00:07:32.449 is too confusing, nobody can remix it and it 00:07:32.449 --> 00:07:34.350 dies. Okay, that makes sense. What's ingredient 00:07:34.350 --> 00:07:37.029 number two? Fecundity, which is just a fancy 00:07:37.029 --> 00:07:40.050 academic word for spread or fertility. How fast 00:07:40.050 --> 00:07:42.449 can it move? This is driven by humor, of course. 00:07:42.550 --> 00:07:45.339 Think of a really old classic one like... All 00:07:45.339 --> 00:07:48.600 your base belong to us. Oh, wow. That's a throwback 00:07:48.600 --> 00:07:51.060 from the video game Zero Wing. Right. The bad 00:07:51.060 --> 00:07:53.160 translation. Exactly. It's funny because of the 00:07:53.160 --> 00:07:55.579 broken English, the sheer weirdness of the phrase 00:07:55.579 --> 00:07:58.800 made people want to share it. But spread is also 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:01.459 driven by what they call juxtaposition. There 00:08:01.459 --> 00:08:03.620 was a famous early meme called Bert is Evil. 00:08:03.860 --> 00:08:06.000 I remember that. It was Bert from Sesame Street, 00:08:06.060 --> 00:08:08.019 the innocent puppet, photoshopped into historical 00:08:08.019 --> 00:08:11.339 tragedies, like at the JFK assassination. Exactly. 00:08:11.800 --> 00:08:14.019 Placing an innocent character next to, say, a 00:08:14.019 --> 00:08:18.019 dictator or a disaster creates a jarring juxtaposition 00:08:18.019 --> 00:08:20.180 that makes people want to share it. It triggers 00:08:20.180 --> 00:08:22.240 that, I can't believe I'm seeing this reaction. 00:08:22.459 --> 00:08:24.379 It's the shock value. It's pure shock value. 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:26.949 And the third ingredient is longevity. Longevity 00:08:26.949 --> 00:08:29.089 seems like the hardest one to achieve these days. 00:08:29.209 --> 00:08:31.790 Things burn out so fast. It is. We're going to 00:08:31.790 --> 00:08:33.889 talk a lot more about longevity later because 00:08:33.889 --> 00:08:36.509 the lifespan of memes is compressing dramatically. 00:08:36.990 --> 00:08:38.990 But before we get there, I want to touch on two 00:08:38.990 --> 00:08:41.529 terms I saw in the research that define how we 00:08:41.529 --> 00:08:45.590 make these things. Mimicry and remix. Are those 00:08:45.590 --> 00:08:47.269 not the same thing? They sound very similar. 00:08:47.450 --> 00:08:50.970 Not quite. They're related but distinct. Mimicry 00:08:50.970 --> 00:08:54.470 is recreating a setting physically in the real 00:08:54.470 --> 00:08:57.110 world. Do you remember? Charlie bit my finger? 00:08:57.210 --> 00:09:00.129 Oh, absolutely. The British baby biting his brother's 00:09:00.129 --> 00:09:03.250 finger. Ouch, Charlie. Ouch. That really hurt. 00:09:03.350 --> 00:09:05.909 It was one of the first truly huge YouTube videos. 00:09:06.210 --> 00:09:08.509 Right. Mimicry is when you film yourself and 00:09:08.509 --> 00:09:11.289 your friend acting that out. You aren't changing 00:09:11.289 --> 00:09:13.450 the original media. You are reenacting the event 00:09:13.450 --> 00:09:16.169 in the real world. The Harlem Shake was all mimicry. 00:09:16.250 --> 00:09:18.070 Everyone did their own version of the dance in 00:09:18.070 --> 00:09:20.470 their own office or dorm room. Okay. So mimicry 00:09:20.470 --> 00:09:23.710 is performance -based. And remix? Remix involves 00:09:23.710 --> 00:09:26.509 technological manipulation. This is where Photoshop 00:09:26.509 --> 00:09:28.870 and video editing software come in. You take 00:09:28.870 --> 00:09:31.610 the original image, the original artifact, and 00:09:31.610 --> 00:09:34.070 physically alter the pixels to add a hat or change 00:09:34.070 --> 00:09:37.230 the background or add text. You are modifying 00:09:37.230 --> 00:09:39.830 the source material itself. And that leads to 00:09:39.830 --> 00:09:41.970 this concept of intertextuality, which sounds 00:09:41.970 --> 00:09:44.570 incredibly academic for something so silly. It 00:09:44.570 --> 00:09:47.190 does, doesn't it? But intertextuality is just 00:09:47.190 --> 00:09:49.190 the blending of different contexts to create 00:09:49.190 --> 00:09:51.889 new meaning. It's when a meme references another 00:09:51.889 --> 00:09:55.710 meme or a movie or a political event. The research 00:09:55.710 --> 00:09:58.370 highlights a perfect example from 2012. Remember 00:09:58.370 --> 00:10:00.929 Mitt Romney's binders full of women comment? 00:10:01.210 --> 00:10:03.210 Vaguely, yes. It was from the presidential debates. 00:10:03.330 --> 00:10:05.350 It was a weird phrase that stuck out. A very 00:10:05.350 --> 00:10:07.370 weird phrase. And do you remember Gangnam Style 00:10:07.370 --> 00:10:11.309 by Psy? Unfortunately, yes. I can still do the 00:10:11.309 --> 00:10:13.769 dance. I think we all can. Well, the internet 00:10:13.769 --> 00:10:16.279 combined them. Someone created an image of Mitt 00:10:16.279 --> 00:10:18.879 Romney doing the Gangnam Style horse dance with 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:21.340 the caption, My binders full of women exploded. 00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:25.379 That is pure intertextuality. Right. Because 00:10:25.379 --> 00:10:27.759 you cannot understand the joke unless you know 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:30.639 both the U .S. political landscape of 2012 and 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:33.379 the K -pop charts of 2012. You have to have both 00:10:33.379 --> 00:10:35.960 pieces of information. Exactly. It's like a Venn 00:10:35.960 --> 00:10:38.220 diagram. If you aren't in the overlapping section, 00:10:38.440 --> 00:10:40.960 it just looks like nonsense. This is how memes 00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:43.899 build community. They're in jokes. If you get 00:10:43.899 --> 00:10:46.340 it, you belong to the tribe. You feel smart. 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:49.389 But if you don't get it, it's just noise. Which 00:10:49.389 --> 00:10:51.429 is a perfect transition to the history of this 00:10:51.429 --> 00:10:54.110 stuff. Because if you weren't there for the paleo 00:10:54.110 --> 00:10:56.269 meme era, you might not realize how different 00:10:56.269 --> 00:10:59.710 the vibe was. We're talking pre -2005. The internet 00:10:59.710 --> 00:11:02.730 was a smaller, weirder, and much, much slower 00:11:02.730 --> 00:11:05.309 place. We call this the pre -academic phase because 00:11:05.309 --> 00:11:07.570 nobody was studying it yet. It was still seen 00:11:07.570 --> 00:11:09.970 as a niche hobby. This was the mid to late 90s. 00:11:09.990 --> 00:11:12.110 The distribution wasn't Facebook or Twitter or 00:11:12.110 --> 00:11:14.870 TikTok. It was message boards, Usenet groups. 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:18.940 and email chains. Forwarding emails. FWD, FWD, 00:11:19.019 --> 00:11:21.139 FWD. Check this out. You'd get it from your aunt 00:11:21.139 --> 00:11:23.980 three weeks after it started. Exactly. And because 00:11:23.980 --> 00:11:26.100 the transmission was slower, email to email, 00:11:26.220 --> 00:11:28.240 person to person, these early meetings lasted 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:31.200 a long, long time. The dancing baby is the classic 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:35.460 example. Oh, the creepy 3D baby. It was just 00:11:35.460 --> 00:11:38.240 a 3D render of a baby cha -cha dancing. It's 00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:40.559 one of the first things to go truly viral online. 00:11:40.820 --> 00:11:43.259 It even appeared on the TV show Ally McBeal. 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:45.559 It was everywhere for years. I think my dad had 00:11:45.559 --> 00:11:48.120 that as a screensaver. It was hypnotic. And we 00:11:48.120 --> 00:11:51.059 can't forget the hamster dance. Rows and rows 00:11:51.059 --> 00:11:54.440 of animated GIFs of hamsters dancing to a sped 00:11:54.440 --> 00:11:56.460 up Roger Miller song. That song is stuck in my 00:11:56.460 --> 00:12:00.100 head right now, just from you saying that. Sorry 00:12:00.100 --> 00:12:03.190 about that. The research mentioned something 00:12:03.190 --> 00:12:06.289 even earlier, the grandfather of all visual Internet 00:12:06.289 --> 00:12:10.570 language, the emoticon. The smiley face, the 00:12:10.570 --> 00:12:13.309 simple colon dash parenthesis. We have to give 00:12:13.309 --> 00:12:15.889 credit to Scott Fallman. In 1982, I mean, think 00:12:15.889 --> 00:12:18.450 about that, 1982, he was on a university message 00:12:18.450 --> 00:12:20.830 board at Carnegie Mellon, and people were arguing 00:12:20.830 --> 00:12:22.610 because they couldn't tell when someone was joking 00:12:22.610 --> 00:12:25.129 in text. There was no tone. A problem we still 00:12:25.129 --> 00:12:27.570 have today. A huge problem. He suggested using 00:12:27.570 --> 00:12:30.450 a colon, a dash, and a parenthesis to mark a 00:12:30.450 --> 00:12:33.529 joke. That sequence of characters changed how 00:12:33.529 --> 00:12:36.250 we interpret text tone forever. It was the first 00:12:36.250 --> 00:12:38.750 digital representation of emotion. So that's 00:12:38.750 --> 00:12:42.389 the paleo era. Slow, long -lasting, spread by 00:12:42.389 --> 00:12:45.649 email. Then we hit the mid -2000s and things 00:12:45.649 --> 00:12:49.490 start to accelerate. The image macro, boom. This 00:12:49.490 --> 00:12:51.009 is what most people think of when they hear the 00:12:51.009 --> 00:12:53.950 word meme. Visually, it's very specific. The 00:12:53.950 --> 00:12:58.330 impact font. Big, bold, white text with a black 00:12:58.330 --> 00:13:02.000 outline. Top text setup. Bottom text punchline. 00:13:02.100 --> 00:13:04.960 The classic format. This era was defined by the 00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:07.360 rise of 4chan. This is where we got lolcats. 00:13:07.659 --> 00:13:11.080 I can has cheeseburger. Precisely. That was the 00:13:11.080 --> 00:13:13.419 phrase that launched a thousand ships. Lolcats 00:13:13.419 --> 00:13:15.039 were the prototype. You take a picture of a cat. 00:13:15.139 --> 00:13:18.299 You add broken lolspeak. deliberately bad grammar 00:13:18.299 --> 00:13:20.940 and you have a format that is infinitely replicable. 00:13:21.080 --> 00:13:23.379 And from there we got things like the demotivators. 00:13:23.500 --> 00:13:25.860 Yes. Those black bordered parodies of motivational 00:13:25.860 --> 00:13:27.480 posters. You'd have a beautiful picture of a 00:13:27.480 --> 00:13:29.860 mountain with a caption like mediocrity. It takes 00:13:29.860 --> 00:13:32.100 a lot less effort. And rage comics which were 00:13:32.100 --> 00:13:34.480 those crudely drawn stick figures faces like 00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:37.320 troll face or forever alone. Those were everywhere. 00:13:37.500 --> 00:13:39.320 They were ugly though. They're so ugly. Just 00:13:39.320 --> 00:13:41.620 black and white made in MS paint. They were. 00:13:42.200 --> 00:13:44.360 But the ugliness was part of the charm. It was 00:13:44.360 --> 00:13:47.299 democratic. It meant anyone could make one. You 00:13:47.299 --> 00:13:49.720 didn't need Photoshop skills. It lowered the 00:13:49.720 --> 00:13:52.220 barrier to entry for creation. And at the same 00:13:52.220 --> 00:13:54.500 time, YouTube was starting to blow up too, right? 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:57.679 That started in 2005. So video becomes a huge 00:13:57.679 --> 00:13:59.879 part of the equation. You get Rickrolling, which 00:13:59.879 --> 00:14:02.419 is a classic bait -and -switch. You click a link 00:14:02.419 --> 00:14:05.019 expecting a movie trailer, and you get Rick Astley's 00:14:05.019 --> 00:14:06.980 Never Gonna Give You Up. Still happens today. 00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:09.860 A timeless classic. And you get the Harlem Shake. 00:14:10.409 --> 00:14:13.470 which was a massive participatory trend. But 00:14:13.470 --> 00:14:17.190 then, something shifted. Around 2014, things 00:14:17.190 --> 00:14:19.370 got weird. We entered what the sources call the 00:14:19.370 --> 00:14:21.710 modern era, and we have to talk about dank memes. 00:14:22.029 --> 00:14:23.950 Dank! I remember when that word just meant a 00:14:23.950 --> 00:14:26.330 wet basement. Or, you know, high -quality marijuana. 00:14:26.710 --> 00:14:28.669 Yeah. But in meme culture, it evolved to mean 00:14:28.669 --> 00:14:33.340 zany. odd, or oversaturated. It refers to memes 00:14:33.340 --> 00:14:36.019 that are so overused, so cliche, that they become 00:14:36.019 --> 00:14:38.179 funny again through layers of irony. It's that 00:14:38.179 --> 00:14:41.220 paradox of being so stale it's fresh. Exactly. 00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:44.259 A meme becomes dank when it's self -aware of 00:14:44.259 --> 00:14:47.679 its own memetic status. And this era birthed 00:14:47.679 --> 00:14:52.080 the meme economy. There's a subreddit, rMemeEconomy, 00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:54.980 where people literally treat memes like stocks. 00:14:55.720 --> 00:14:58.419 I've seen that. It's bizarre. Satire, but it's 00:14:58.419 --> 00:15:00.820 brilliant satire. Yeah. People post a new meme 00:15:00.820 --> 00:15:03.919 format and say, invest, buy now before it goes 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:08.340 mainstream, or sell. This meme has been spotted 00:15:08.340 --> 00:15:10.960 on Facebook. The value is about to crash. It 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:14.019 mimics real market speculation perfectly. And 00:15:14.019 --> 00:15:16.179 visually, things got messy. We saw the rise of 00:15:16.179 --> 00:15:18.820 deep fried memes. Right. This is an aesthetic 00:15:18.820 --> 00:15:20.600 choice. It's where you take an image and you 00:15:20.600 --> 00:15:23.080 deliberately ruin it. You run it through so many 00:15:23.080 --> 00:15:25.120 filters and compression layers that it looks 00:15:25.120 --> 00:15:27.340 pixelated, yellow, washed out and distorted. 00:15:27.850 --> 00:15:29.870 It's visual noise. It looks like a corrupted 00:15:29.870 --> 00:15:32.830 JPEG file from 1998. The example in the notes 00:15:32.830 --> 00:15:35.529 is the E meme. And I have to try to explain this 00:15:35.529 --> 00:15:36.990 to visualize it for the listener because it's 00:15:36.990 --> 00:15:39.970 pure chaos. It's the YouTuber Markiplier's face 00:15:39.970 --> 00:15:43.250 photoshopped onto the head of Lord Farquaad from 00:15:43.250 --> 00:15:45.909 the movie Shrek, who is then photoshopped into 00:15:45.909 --> 00:15:47.909 Mark Zuckerberg's congressional hearing suit. 00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:50.480 And the caption, the entire punchline is just 00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:53.240 the letter E. It is absolute absurdity. It makes 00:15:53.240 --> 00:15:56.019 no sense. There is no logic to decode. Why? Why 00:15:56.019 --> 00:15:58.039 was that funny? What is the joke? Because it 00:15:58.039 --> 00:16:00.799 rejects meaning. It's a digital update to surrealism. 00:16:01.100 --> 00:16:04.100 It's daddyism for the 21st century. The world 00:16:04.100 --> 00:16:06.539 felt chaotic and nonsensical, so the humor became 00:16:06.539 --> 00:16:09.120 chaotic and nonsensical. They did surgery on 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:10.980 a grape is another one. I remember that one. 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:13.840 Just a statement. But that nonsense provides 00:16:13.840 --> 00:16:16.960 a weird kind of escapism. It's a vacation from 00:16:16.960 --> 00:16:19.860 logic. And then came the short form video revolution. 00:16:20.320 --> 00:16:23.139 Vine gave us so many classics. What's 9 plus 00:16:23.139 --> 00:16:27.340 10? 21. You know it. And when Vine died, TikTok 00:16:27.340 --> 00:16:30.879 took the throne. Which brings us to the brain 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:33.740 rot phenomenon. The outline mentions this covering 00:16:33.740 --> 00:16:38.179 2022 to 2026. This is Gen Alpha slang. This is 00:16:38.179 --> 00:16:40.740 where the generational divide really opens up 00:16:40.740 --> 00:16:42.960 into a chasm. We're seeing terms like skibidi, 00:16:43.179 --> 00:16:47.610 riz, got. Sigma Phantom Tax. Okay, I'm going 00:16:47.610 --> 00:16:49.289 to need you to translate those. For the record, 00:16:49.389 --> 00:16:51.350 for those of us who are not 14, just laughs. 00:16:51.590 --> 00:16:54.929 All right. Riz is short for charisma. Your ability 00:16:54.929 --> 00:16:58.309 to attract a romantic partner. Guyette is an 00:16:58.309 --> 00:17:00.909 exclamation, usually referring to someone's physical 00:17:00.909 --> 00:17:04.509 attractiveness, specifically. Well, their posterior 00:17:04.509 --> 00:17:08.769 curves. Okay, got it. Phantom Tax refers to playfully 00:17:08.769 --> 00:17:10.990 stealing a bit of your friend's food, and it's 00:17:10.990 --> 00:17:12.829 named after a streamer named Phantom who would 00:17:12.829 --> 00:17:16.980 do that to his friends. And Skibidi. Well, that 00:17:16.980 --> 00:17:19.220 comes from the Skibidi toilet series on YouTube. 00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:21.519 Don't tell me. It's a surreal animation series 00:17:21.519 --> 00:17:23.960 about singing heads that pop out of toilets and 00:17:23.960 --> 00:17:26.140 fight against people with cameras and speakers 00:17:26.140 --> 00:17:28.099 for heads. To an outsider, this looks like a 00:17:28.099 --> 00:17:29.900 complete breakdown of language. That's why it's 00:17:29.900 --> 00:17:32.420 called brain rot, I assume. The term reflects 00:17:32.420 --> 00:17:35.559 a fear of low -quality overstimulating content. 00:17:36.380 --> 00:17:38.279 It's usually attached to those TikTok videos 00:17:38.279 --> 00:17:40.880 with split screens. You've got Subway Surfers 00:17:40.880 --> 00:17:43.299 gameplay on the bottom, a Family Guy clip on 00:17:43.299 --> 00:17:46.480 top, flashing subtitles, and an AI voice reading 00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:48.940 a Reddit post. It is maximum stimulation designed 00:17:48.940 --> 00:17:51.880 to hold your attention for 15 seconds. But is 00:17:51.880 --> 00:17:54.599 it actually rotting brains? Or is it just what 00:17:54.599 --> 00:17:56.220 old people have always said about new things? 00:17:56.460 --> 00:17:58.519 The research suggests it might be shortening 00:17:58.519 --> 00:18:01.619 attention spans. But sociologically, it's just 00:18:01.619 --> 00:18:05.059 the next evolution of in -group slang. Every 00:18:05.059 --> 00:18:07.240 generation has its nonsense words that confuse 00:18:07.240 --> 00:18:11.019 their parents. However, as of early 2026, we 00:18:11.019 --> 00:18:13.220 are seeing a backlash. The sources mentioned 00:18:13.220 --> 00:18:16.579 a meme drought in 2025. A drought, like we ran 00:18:16.579 --> 00:18:20.180 out. A feeling of creative stagnation. A reaction 00:18:20.180 --> 00:18:22.839 against Slime Talk, those weird non -interactive 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:26.259 live streams. And a general distrust of AI -generated 00:18:26.259 --> 00:18:28.400 content. People felt like the internet was getting 00:18:28.400 --> 00:18:30.200 too weird and too corporate. And that led to 00:18:30.200 --> 00:18:33.740 the great meme reset. Yes. a grassroots movement. 00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:36.440 The call was to return to the classics. Starting 00:18:36.440 --> 00:18:39.359 January 1st, 2026, there was a huge movement 00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:42.920 to bring back the 2010s memes, 9cat, Big Chungus, 00:18:43.059 --> 00:18:45.200 Trollface, the original image macros. People 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:47.720 are nostalgic for... Six years ago. It's the 00:18:47.720 --> 00:18:49.799 digital nostalgia cycle, and it's happening faster 00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:51.599 than ever before. We used to get nostalgic for 00:18:51.599 --> 00:18:53.039 things from 20 years ago. Now we're nostalgic 00:18:53.039 --> 00:18:55.099 for things from the pre -COVID era. The speed 00:18:55.099 --> 00:18:57.160 of culture is accelerating so much that history 00:18:57.160 --> 00:18:59.890 is last week. It's moving so fast, and that speed 00:18:59.890 --> 00:19:02.410 isn't random. You're saying there is math behind 00:19:02.410 --> 00:19:04.809 this. Let's talk about the viral math. How do 00:19:04.809 --> 00:19:07.390 these things actually spread? Yeah, this is fascinating. 00:19:08.589 --> 00:19:10.650 Epidemiologists, the people who study the spread 00:19:10.650 --> 00:19:13.150 of diseases, have actually applied their models 00:19:13.150 --> 00:19:15.890 to memes. They use what's called the SR model, 00:19:16.150 --> 00:19:19.509 S -I -R. Susceptible, infectious, recovered. 00:19:19.789 --> 00:19:21.430 I remember this from health class. Right, so 00:19:21.430 --> 00:19:24.450 imagine a meme is the flu. Susceptible. You haven't 00:19:24.450 --> 00:19:27.029 seen the meme yet. You are a blank slate. You 00:19:27.029 --> 00:19:29.670 are vulnerable to infection. Okay. Infectious. 00:19:29.670 --> 00:19:32.869 You see it, you laugh, and you hit share or retweet. 00:19:33.210 --> 00:19:35.289 You are now actively spreading the virus to your 00:19:35.289 --> 00:19:38.809 followers. And pretty. Recovered. We've seen 00:19:38.809 --> 00:19:41.529 it 10 times, 20 times. It's annoying now. You 00:19:41.529 --> 00:19:43.829 stop sharing. You might even block it. You are 00:19:43.829 --> 00:19:45.769 immune. And once everyone in the population is 00:19:45.769 --> 00:19:49.319 recovered. The meme dies. The data shows a very 00:19:49.319 --> 00:19:51.519 specific pattern that looks exactly like a disease 00:19:51.519 --> 00:19:54.240 outbreak. A massive sharp spike in popularity, 00:19:54.460 --> 00:19:57.019 followed by an equally sharp taper down to obscurity. 00:19:57.119 --> 00:19:59.400 It acts exactly like a new strain of the flu 00:19:59.400 --> 00:20:01.660 sweeping through a community. But there's competition, 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:04.819 right? My feed is only so long. I can't be infected 00:20:04.819 --> 00:20:07.380 by everything. There are hundreds of new memes 00:20:07.380 --> 00:20:11.000 every day. That's the attention economy. Research 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:14.359 by a scientist named Koshia at MIT showed that 00:20:14.359 --> 00:20:17.000 memes compete for survival in a limited ecosystem, 00:20:17.420 --> 00:20:20.539 your attention span. And here's the counterintuitive 00:20:20.539 --> 00:20:23.500 finding. Survival of the fittest doesn't always 00:20:23.500 --> 00:20:26.759 mean the biggest, most explosive spike. Really? 00:20:26.839 --> 00:20:29.380 I would assume the biggest viral hit is the winner, 00:20:29.519 --> 00:20:32.000 the one that breaks the internet. Not necessarily 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:35.769 for longevity. A meme with a massive vertical 00:20:35.769 --> 00:20:38.190 spike, something everyone is talking about on 00:20:38.190 --> 00:20:41.150 Monday, usually dies young. It burns through 00:20:41.150 --> 00:20:43.670 the susceptible population too fast. Everyone 00:20:43.670 --> 00:20:45.950 gets sick of it at the same time. Exactly. It's 00:20:45.950 --> 00:20:47.750 a flash in the pan. Everyone sees it. Everyone 00:20:47.750 --> 00:20:50.130 shares it. And then by Tuesday, everyone is recovered 00:20:50.130 --> 00:20:53.009 and immune. The memes that live the longest, 00:20:53.170 --> 00:20:54.869 the ones that stick around for months or even 00:20:54.869 --> 00:20:57.630 years as usable formats, are the ones that coexist 00:20:57.630 --> 00:20:59.769 with others without dominating the conversation 00:20:59.769 --> 00:21:03.589 completely. They're the slow burns. They mutate 00:21:03.589 --> 00:21:05.569 just enough to stay relevant without overwhelming 00:21:05.569 --> 00:21:08.329 you. That makes sense. The brightest flame burns 00:21:08.329 --> 00:21:10.569 half as long. And we also have to talk about 00:21:10.569 --> 00:21:13.069 how communities affect this lifespan. There's 00:21:13.069 --> 00:21:16.390 a fantastic study by Kate Miltner on the lolcats 00:21:16.390 --> 00:21:19.549 we mentioned earlier. It started as a 4chan in 00:21:19.549 --> 00:21:22.410 -joke. It was edgy. It was weird. It was there. 00:21:22.490 --> 00:21:25.500 Subculture. Then it blew up. It became mainstream 00:21:25.500 --> 00:21:28.559 emotional support humor. Your grandma was sharing 00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:30.880 locats on Facebook. It was on coffee mugs and 00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:32.720 calendars. And as soon as grandma shares it, 00:21:32.740 --> 00:21:34.660 it's over for the cool kids. It's not cool anymore. 00:21:34.859 --> 00:21:37.539 Exactly. The original creators, the 4chan community, 00:21:37.900 --> 00:21:40.700 abandoned it. They actively started to mock it 00:21:40.700 --> 00:21:43.000 because it became too mainstream. It lost its 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:46.180 subcultural value. This is the life cycle. Creation 00:21:46.180 --> 00:21:48.640 in the underground, explosion into the mainstream, 00:21:48.880 --> 00:21:51.480 abandonment by the creators, and eventually... 00:21:51.660 --> 00:21:54.099 Death, or as you said. Zombie life on Facebook. 00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:56.700 Zombie life on Facebook. That is a terrifyingly 00:21:56.700 --> 00:21:59.039 accurate description. So we've covered the history 00:21:59.039 --> 00:22:01.259 and the math, but memes aren't just staying on 00:22:01.259 --> 00:22:03.460 the internet. They are leaking into the real 00:22:03.460 --> 00:22:06.359 world in a big way. Let's look at memes in the 00:22:06.359 --> 00:22:09.599 wild. This is where it gets really serious. Let's 00:22:09.599 --> 00:22:12.799 start with marketing. Brands are absolutely desperate 00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:15.000 to be part of the conversation. They call it 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:18.079 memetic marketing. It's the how do you do fellow 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:21.549 kids meme. Come to life, usually. Often, yes. 00:22:22.410 --> 00:22:24.750 The cringe factor can be very high. It feels 00:22:24.750 --> 00:22:28.029 forced. But when it works, it works beautifully. 00:22:28.329 --> 00:22:30.529 Look at the movie Snakes on a Plane. A Samuel 00:22:30.529 --> 00:22:33.470 L. Jackson. An absolute classic of the genre. 00:22:33.670 --> 00:22:36.009 That film became a cult classic before it was 00:22:36.009 --> 00:22:38.410 even released, purely because the internet decided 00:22:38.410 --> 00:22:41.470 the title was hilarious. The studio didn't start 00:22:41.470 --> 00:22:44.940 that. The fans did. The fans made posters, songs, 00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:47.380 trailers. They were creating the hype themselves. 00:22:47.799 --> 00:22:50.000 The studio just had to sit back and ride the 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:51.859 wave. So the best marketing is when you don't 00:22:51.859 --> 00:22:53.900 even have to do it yourself. It's the holy grail. 00:22:53.920 --> 00:22:55.799 And then you have high fashion brands like Gucci. 00:22:56.019 --> 00:22:58.380 That seemed like an odd fit. You'd think so. 00:22:58.440 --> 00:23:01.339 But they actually commissioned artists to reimagine 00:23:01.339 --> 00:23:03.779 famous memes for their watch advertisements. 00:23:04.599 --> 00:23:06.960 They leaned into the aesthetic. It was polished. 00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:09.240 It was high art. But it understood the language. 00:23:09.690 --> 00:23:11.089 It didn't feel like they were trying to trick 00:23:11.089 --> 00:23:13.150 you. It felt like they were in on the joke. But 00:23:13.150 --> 00:23:15.150 there's a massive risk, right? The Wendy's story 00:23:15.150 --> 00:23:17.430 comes to mind immediately. Wendy's is the ultimate 00:23:17.430 --> 00:23:20.390 cautionary tale. They built this brand persona 00:23:20.390 --> 00:23:24.309 on Twitter of being sassy, roasting people, roasting 00:23:24.309 --> 00:23:26.730 their competitors. And it worked initially. Their 00:23:26.730 --> 00:23:28.789 profits went up 50 % that year. They were the 00:23:28.789 --> 00:23:31.069 cool brand online. I remember that. Their Twitter 00:23:31.069 --> 00:23:33.819 account was genuinely funny. It was. But then, 00:23:33.980 --> 00:23:36.660 in a reply to someone, they tweeted a meme of 00:23:36.660 --> 00:23:39.519 Pepe the Frog, styled to look like their mascot, 00:23:39.720 --> 00:23:42.740 Wendy. Oof. Yeah, we need to talk about Pepe. 00:23:42.759 --> 00:23:45.440 That's a complicated one. At that specific moment 00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:48.380 in time, in the U .S., Pepe had been heavily 00:23:48.380 --> 00:23:50.779 co -opted by white nationalists and alt -right 00:23:50.779 --> 00:23:53.819 groups. Wendy's social media manager might have 00:23:53.819 --> 00:23:56.160 just seen a funny frog meme, but the context 00:23:56.160 --> 00:23:58.910 had shifted dramatically. The backlash was immediate 00:23:58.910 --> 00:24:01.289 and fierce. They deleted it pretty fast, as I 00:24:01.289 --> 00:24:03.569 recall. Within minutes, the damage was done. 00:24:03.730 --> 00:24:06.029 It shows that memes are volatile. Their meaning 00:24:06.029 --> 00:24:08.549 can change overnight. If a brand doesn't do its 00:24:08.549 --> 00:24:10.730 homework on the current meaning of a meme, it 00:24:10.730 --> 00:24:13.089 can blow up in their face spectacularly. Speaking 00:24:13.089 --> 00:24:15.230 of blowing up, let's talk about money. Real money. 00:24:15.589 --> 00:24:18.329 Meme stocks. This is a phenomenon that really 00:24:18.329 --> 00:24:20.849 took off in the early 2020s, especially during 00:24:20.849 --> 00:24:24.930 the pandemic lockdowns. A meme stock is when 00:24:24.930 --> 00:24:28.029 a company's stock value is driven almost entirely 00:24:28.029 --> 00:24:31.710 by online hype and social media attention, not 00:24:31.710 --> 00:24:34.789 by its business fundamentals. GameStop is the 00:24:34.789 --> 00:24:37.130 patient zero here. Power to the players. I remember 00:24:37.130 --> 00:24:39.670 this vividly. It was absolute chaos on Wall Street. 00:24:39.829 --> 00:24:42.109 It was driven by the subreddit, our Wall Street 00:24:42.109 --> 00:24:45.029 bets, and commission -free trading platforms 00:24:45.029 --> 00:24:47.390 like Robinhood. You had a new class of retail 00:24:47.390 --> 00:24:49.349 investors. They call themselves YOLO investors. 00:24:49.630 --> 00:24:52.670 You only live once. Right. They weren't looking 00:24:52.670 --> 00:24:54.849 at price -to -earnings ratios. They were looking 00:24:54.849 --> 00:24:57.630 at vibes. And they were looking at sticking it 00:24:57.630 --> 00:24:59.410 to the hedge funds. That was the core of it, 00:24:59.430 --> 00:25:01.390 wasn't it? It was a populist movement. Exactly. 00:25:01.569 --> 00:25:04.269 The hedge funds had bet that GameStop, a brick 00:25:04.269 --> 00:25:07.289 -and -mortar video game store, would fail. They 00:25:07.289 --> 00:25:10.029 shorted the stock. The internet realized that 00:25:10.029 --> 00:25:11.930 if they all banded together and bought the stock, 00:25:12.150 --> 00:25:14.450 the price would go up, and the hedge funds would 00:25:14.450 --> 00:25:16.829 be forced to buy it back at a higher price, losing 00:25:16.829 --> 00:25:19.009 billions of dollars. It was financial warfare 00:25:19.009 --> 00:25:22.200 disguised as a joke. And it worked. I mean, for 00:25:22.200 --> 00:25:24.440 a time, the stock price went to the moon. It 00:25:24.440 --> 00:25:26.299 was completely disconnected from the company's 00:25:26.299 --> 00:25:29.420 actual value, but it didn't matter. It blurred 00:25:29.420 --> 00:25:31.660 the line between a meme and a financial instrument. 00:25:31.799 --> 00:25:34.099 And nowhere is that blurrier than in crypto. 00:25:35.359 --> 00:25:40.500 Dogecoin? The Shiba Inu dog. Wow. Such currency. 00:25:40.799 --> 00:25:42.920 It started as a literal joke. It was created 00:25:42.920 --> 00:25:45.440 to mock cryptocurrency. The creator said, this 00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:47.900 is silly. We made this in a few hours. And yet 00:25:47.900 --> 00:25:50.829 at its peak. Fueled by tweets from figures like 00:25:50.829 --> 00:25:53.690 Elon Musk, it had a market capitalization in 00:25:53.690 --> 00:25:56.230 the tens of billions of dollars. People became 00:25:56.230 --> 00:25:58.690 millionaires off a meme coin. What does that 00:25:58.690 --> 00:26:01.309 say about our concept of value? It challenges 00:26:01.309 --> 00:26:03.730 our fundamental understanding of economics. It 00:26:03.730 --> 00:26:05.369 suggests that if enough people believe a joke 00:26:05.369 --> 00:26:09.190 is worth money, then it is. Value is just a shared 00:26:09.190 --> 00:26:12.509 belief system. Memes coordinate that belief faster 00:26:12.509 --> 00:26:14.609 and more powerfully than anything else in history. 00:26:14.769 --> 00:26:16.869 That is mind -bending. But if memes can move 00:26:16.869 --> 00:26:19.700 money... They can definitely move votes. Let's 00:26:19.700 --> 00:26:22.019 talk politics. Memes are the modern political 00:26:22.019 --> 00:26:25.900 cartoon. They have democratized propaganda. In 00:26:25.900 --> 00:26:28.059 the past, you needed a printing press or a TV 00:26:28.059 --> 00:26:30.779 advertising slot to smear your opponent. Now 00:26:30.779 --> 00:26:33.059 you just need a laptop and a dark sense of humor. 00:26:33.299 --> 00:26:37.000 I remember the Dean scream. Howard Dean back 00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:40.200 in 2004. That was an early example. An awkward, 00:26:40.299 --> 00:26:43.089 enthusiastic moment caught on... Mike Yeehaw 00:26:43.089 --> 00:26:46.890 that got remixed and replayed until it completely 00:26:46.890 --> 00:26:49.470 destroyed his image of presidential composure. 00:26:49.529 --> 00:26:52.829 It killed his momentum. But by 2016, it was fully 00:26:52.829 --> 00:26:55.430 weaponized. The Ted Cruz is the Zodiac killer 00:26:55.430 --> 00:26:58.250 meme. It sounds ridiculous to say it out loud. 00:26:58.309 --> 00:27:00.809 It does. It's objectively false. But. That meme 00:27:00.809 --> 00:27:03.269 persisted for months. It didn't matter that it 00:27:03.269 --> 00:27:05.750 was factually impossible. Cruz was a child when 00:27:05.750 --> 00:27:07.529 the Zodiac killings happened. The facts were 00:27:07.529 --> 00:27:10.269 irrelevant. The meme painted him as creepy, secretive 00:27:10.269 --> 00:27:12.890 and untrustworthy. It damaged his campaign because 00:27:12.890 --> 00:27:14.930 it's stuck in people's minds. You can't fact 00:27:14.930 --> 00:27:16.990 check a vibe. You can't debunk a joke. And then 00:27:16.990 --> 00:27:18.529 you have politicians trying to get in on it, 00:27:18.569 --> 00:27:21.430 like Michael Bloomberg trying to buy memes. Yeah, 00:27:21.509 --> 00:27:24.470 that was a fascinating and largely failed experiment. 00:27:24.890 --> 00:27:28.269 In 2020, the Bloomberg campaign sponsored huge 00:27:28.269 --> 00:27:32.660 Instagram accounts. with 60 million collective 00:27:32.660 --> 00:27:35.180 followers to post memes about him. How did that 00:27:35.180 --> 00:27:37.680 go over? It felt transactional. It felt like 00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:41.220 big money trying to buy cool. And the internet 00:27:41.220 --> 00:27:43.279 generally rejects that. You can't buy authenticity. 00:27:43.519 --> 00:27:46.319 You can't buy dankness. It has to emerge organically. 00:27:46.500 --> 00:27:48.920 Now, we touched on Pepe the Frog earlier with 00:27:48.920 --> 00:27:51.539 the Wendy's incident, but... The Pepe story is 00:27:51.539 --> 00:27:53.339 actually much more fascinating because of how 00:27:53.339 --> 00:27:55.759 split it is globally. It is the perfect example 00:27:55.759 --> 00:27:58.200 of the dual nature of symbols. We have to be 00:27:58.200 --> 00:28:00.079 neutral here and just report on how it was used. 00:28:00.299 --> 00:28:03.140 In the U .S., during the 2016 election cycle, 00:28:03.440 --> 00:28:05.980 Pepe became a symbol heavily associated with 00:28:05.980 --> 00:28:08.259 the alt -right. The Anti -Defamation League even 00:28:08.259 --> 00:28:10.140 listed him as a hate symbol in that context. 00:28:10.259 --> 00:28:12.180 Right. It became very toxic in the U .S. But 00:28:12.180 --> 00:28:14.500 simultaneously, he was being used on the other 00:28:14.500 --> 00:28:16.279 side of the world for a completely different 00:28:16.279 --> 00:28:19.289 purpose. This part of the research blew my mind. 00:28:19.410 --> 00:28:22.490 In 2019 and 2020, Pepe was used as a pro -democracy 00:28:22.490 --> 00:28:24.910 symbol by protesters in Hong Kong. Wait, really? 00:28:25.049 --> 00:28:30.869 The same frog? The very same frog. In Hong Kong, 00:28:31.049 --> 00:28:33.690 he was seen as representing the everyman, the 00:28:33.690 --> 00:28:36.230 sad, downtrodden youth fighting against an authoritarian 00:28:36.230 --> 00:28:39.549 system. Protesters held signs of Pepe crying. 00:28:39.890 --> 00:28:42.890 They drew him wearing a yellow construction helmet. 00:28:43.240 --> 00:28:45.940 the uniform of the protests. It proves that a 00:28:45.940 --> 00:28:49.640 meme has no inherent fixed meaning, is an empty 00:28:49.640 --> 00:28:51.559 vessel that different communities fill with their 00:28:51.559 --> 00:28:54.420 own intent. That is a powerful idea. It's not 00:28:54.420 --> 00:28:56.319 just jokes and politics, though. The research 00:28:56.319 --> 00:28:58.000 points out that memes have actually done some 00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:00.339 real good for the world, right? Absolutely. Think 00:29:00.339 --> 00:29:02.680 of the ice bucket challenge. Oh, yeah. I did 00:29:02.680 --> 00:29:04.559 that. I got a bucket of ice water dumped on my 00:29:04.559 --> 00:29:07.180 head. And you probably donated, or at least you 00:29:07.180 --> 00:29:10.180 learned about ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. That 00:29:10.180 --> 00:29:12.460 was a meme. It was a viral challenge that raised 00:29:12.460 --> 00:29:14.980 over $100 million for medical research. It had 00:29:14.980 --> 00:29:17.619 a tangible, positive impact. And the It Gets 00:29:17.619 --> 00:29:20.299 Better project. A hugely important movement for 00:29:20.299 --> 00:29:23.900 LGBTQ plus empowerment, using video testimonials 00:29:23.900 --> 00:29:26.480 to spread a message of hope. And the notes also 00:29:26.480 --> 00:29:29.500 mentioned COVID -19 awareness in Nigeria. How 00:29:29.500 --> 00:29:31.740 did they use memes for that? While parts of the 00:29:31.740 --> 00:29:34.099 West were sometimes struggling with complex scientific 00:29:34.099 --> 00:29:36.940 messaging and misinformation, public health care 00:29:36.940 --> 00:29:39.980 professionals in Nigeria used popular local meme 00:29:39.980 --> 00:29:43.599 formats to explain infection prevention, handwashing, 00:29:43.599 --> 00:29:46.539 and vaccine information. They used the language 00:29:46.539 --> 00:29:48.220 people were already speaking on their phones 00:29:48.220 --> 00:29:51.279 to save lives. It shows that this virus of the 00:29:51.279 --> 00:29:54.900 mind can actually carry a cure. So we've established 00:29:54.900 --> 00:29:57.740 that memes are powerful, profitable, and pervasive. 00:29:57.960 --> 00:30:01.430 But who owns them? If I make a meme and it goes 00:30:01.430 --> 00:30:04.210 viral and ends up on a t -shirt, do I get paid? 00:30:04.630 --> 00:30:07.029 Ah, the copyright dilemma. This is the wild west 00:30:07.029 --> 00:30:09.069 of legal theory. It's a huge mess. Because memes 00:30:09.069 --> 00:30:11.069 rely on stealing, right? I take a screenshot 00:30:11.069 --> 00:30:13.210 of a movie, I add text, I don't own the rights 00:30:13.210 --> 00:30:15.609 to that movie. The legal term is appropriation, 00:30:15.609 --> 00:30:17.930 and the primary defense, in the U .S. at least, 00:30:17.990 --> 00:30:20.950 is fair use. Which is a very fuzzy concept. Very 00:30:20.950 --> 00:30:24.690 fuzzy. Fair use depends on four factors. First, 00:30:24.849 --> 00:30:28.809 the purpose. Is it transformative? Memes usually 00:30:28.809 --> 00:30:31.569 are you're creating a new meaning, a common area 00:30:31.569 --> 00:30:34.369 of parody. Second, the nature of the original 00:30:34.369 --> 00:30:38.230 work. Third, the amount you used. Memes usually 00:30:38.230 --> 00:30:40.369 use just a single frame or a short clip. And 00:30:40.369 --> 00:30:42.150 fourth, the effect on the market for the original. 00:30:42.349 --> 00:30:44.970 Meaning, does my meme of a scene from The Avengers 00:30:44.970 --> 00:30:47.230 stop people from buying tickets to see the movie? 00:30:47.289 --> 00:30:50.140 Exactly. And usually the answer is no. In fact, 00:30:50.140 --> 00:30:51.700 it might be the opposite. It's free advertising. 00:30:51.920 --> 00:30:54.279 So generally, non -commercial memes are protected. 00:30:54.500 --> 00:30:56.980 But not always. There was a case where Getty 00:30:56.980 --> 00:31:00.019 Images, the stock photo company, demanded payment 00:31:00.019 --> 00:31:02.400 from a blog for using this socially awkward penguin 00:31:02.400 --> 00:31:04.900 meme. Because the original penguin photo belonged 00:31:04.900 --> 00:31:07.420 to a National Geographic photographer and Getty 00:31:07.420 --> 00:31:09.420 managed the rights? Correct. The photographer 00:31:09.420 --> 00:31:11.539 didn't care that it was a meme. They saw a copyright 00:31:11.539 --> 00:31:14.500 violation. But more recently, we've seen a fascinating 00:31:14.500 --> 00:31:17.440 shift where the subjects of memes are reclaiming 00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:20.289 ownership through NFTs. Non -fungible tokens. 00:31:20.450 --> 00:31:23.450 The disaster girl story is just wild. It's incredible. 00:31:23.910 --> 00:31:27.049 Zoe Roth. She was a little girl with a devilish 00:31:27.049 --> 00:31:29.029 smile standing in front of a real house fire 00:31:29.029 --> 00:31:31.890 back in 2005. Her dad took the photo. And it 00:31:31.890 --> 00:31:35.250 became the face of... Of enjoying chaos. Exactly. 00:31:35.269 --> 00:31:37.890 The face of schadenfreude. That photo was used 00:31:37.890 --> 00:31:41.630 millions of times globally. She never saw a dime. 00:31:41.769 --> 00:31:44.069 She was just this face that everyone knew. Until 00:31:44.069 --> 00:31:47.529 the NFT. Right. In 2021, she and her father sold 00:31:47.529 --> 00:31:50.210 the original digital file as an NFT for nearly 00:31:50.210 --> 00:31:54.289 $540 ,000 to a collector. It was a way to finally 00:31:54.289 --> 00:31:57.130 take control of the narrative and monetize her 00:31:57.130 --> 00:32:00.289 own viral fame. It sets a precedent that maybe, 00:32:00.410 --> 00:32:03.190 just maybe, you can own a moment in Internet 00:32:03.190 --> 00:32:05.369 culture. Okay, let's try to unpack this whole 00:32:05.369 --> 00:32:07.410 journey. We started with a distorted cartoon, 00:32:07.670 --> 00:32:10.049 and we ended up with half -million -dollar tokens 00:32:10.049 --> 00:32:12.849 and Nigerian public health campaigns. It is a 00:32:12.849 --> 00:32:14.970 lot to take in. Yeah. But if I had to synthesize 00:32:14.970 --> 00:32:17.049 it all, I'd say this. Memes are the vernacular 00:32:17.049 --> 00:32:19.410 of the digital age. They are how we process reality 00:32:19.410 --> 00:32:21.890 now. When something terrible happens in the world, 00:32:21.990 --> 00:32:23.769 the first thing we do is make memes to cope. 00:32:24.059 --> 00:32:26.400 When something great happens, we make memes to 00:32:26.400 --> 00:32:28.220 celebrate. They're our collective emotional response 00:32:28.220 --> 00:32:31.059 system. They are the artifacts of our collective 00:32:31.059 --> 00:32:33.720 consciousness, recorded in real time. They are 00:32:33.720 --> 00:32:36.119 more than just digital junk. They are a financial 00:32:36.119 --> 00:32:39.279 instrument, a political tool, and a complex form 00:32:39.279 --> 00:32:41.460 of communication. Exactly. And they are evolving 00:32:41.460 --> 00:32:44.440 faster than we can study them. The moment an 00:32:44.440 --> 00:32:47.019 academic paper on a meme is published, it's already 00:32:47.019 --> 00:32:50.220 ancient history. So here's the question for you, 00:32:50.220 --> 00:32:52.759 the listener. The next time you are scrolling 00:32:52.759 --> 00:32:55.700 and you see that distorted image and you laugh 00:32:55.700 --> 00:32:59.099 and you hit share, ask yourself, are you just 00:32:59.099 --> 00:33:02.339 sharing a joke? Or are you participating in a 00:33:02.339 --> 00:33:04.599 global experiment in cultural evolution? You 00:33:04.599 --> 00:33:06.400 are a carrier. You are part of the transmission 00:33:06.400 --> 00:33:08.539 chain, whether you like it or not. And I want 00:33:08.539 --> 00:33:10.579 to leave you with one final, slightly provocative 00:33:10.579 --> 00:33:13.009 thought. based on what we've discussed we mentioned 00:33:13.009 --> 00:33:17.210 the meme drought and the great reset of 2026 00:33:17.210 --> 00:33:20.130 this idea that we are just recycling 2010's memes 00:33:20.130 --> 00:33:23.589 because modern culture is brain rot it raises 00:33:23.589 --> 00:33:26.130 a pretty profound question have we reached peak 00:33:26.130 --> 00:33:29.829 meme exactly are we running out of new cultural 00:33:29.829 --> 00:33:33.549 genes and if we are just remixing the remixes 00:33:33.549 --> 00:33:37.190 of the remixes what does that say about our creativity 00:33:37.190 --> 00:33:40.170 as a species? Are we innovating or are we just 00:33:40.170 --> 00:33:42.230 stuck in a cultural loop feeding on our own past? 00:33:42.529 --> 00:33:45.210 That is a thought worth chewing on. On that note, 00:33:45.269 --> 00:33:46.869 thanks for diving deep with us. We'll catch you 00:33:46.869 --> 00:33:48.430 in the next feed. Keep scrolling.