In his 1976 book “The Selfish Gene,” biologist Richard Dawkins proposed that units of culture could be replicated, passed on, and evolve as they were transmitted, similar to human genes. He called this unit a "meme," to be pronounced like "cream."
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A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51. They Can't Stop All of Us," spawning countless memes. Millions marked themselves as "going," and seven were arrested at a gate into the area. It also inspired a music festival attended by more than 7,000 people.
The genre of crowdsourced, horror folklore comes from copypasta, a term that refers to snippets of content copy-and-pasted online ad nauseam. These memes' allure stems at least partly from how they seemingly rise from nowhere, with tales crafted by many hands over many iterations.
In 2014, two teens playing in the woods at the edge of a suburban park turned on their third friend, stabbing her 19 times in an attack they claimed was compelled by Slenderman, a meme-turned-urban legend.
The character first appeared in 2005, in an online comic called "Boy's Club," inspiring countless memes in which his likeliness was used as a supportive shorthand. Then, people started pairing Pepe with hateful messages, morphing him into something his author never intended.
Peter McIndoe claims the US government killed 12 billion birds only to replace them with drones. These statements have powered protests—and McIndoe's fictional campaign that highlights how conspiracies and their theorists are treated.
When Charles Ramsey heard loud banging from his neighbor's house, he peeked outside and saw a woman trying to escape. After helping the abducted woman get free, he gave an interview that became a viral autotuned meme. This podcast explores the unintended consequences of that relationship and its racial overtones.
A San Francisco resident, Scanlon now works as a video producer for Twitch and hosts a pair of podcasts about Formula One and iconic movies. He also now using his fame to raise money for an MS charity.
Although the canned meat product Spam has been around since 1937, it was a 1970 Monty Python comedy sketch—in which a diner is overwhelmed with unwanted Spam—that inspired early internet users to call unsolicited emails "spam."
The British Ministry of Information developed the stoic phrase ahead of German attacks at the start of World War II in 1939. It was never officially released on posters and then lay dormant until 2000, when one of the remaining posters was discovered at a bookstore in the UK. It has since been adapted into countless memes.
Dogecoin has ridden a wave of enthusiasm to become one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies. Created in 2013 by software engineers as a joke, the token has become the poster child for the viral and unpredictable nature of the cryptocurrency market, and has inspired tens of thousands of imitator coins.
Art, music, sports, entertainment, movies, and many other subjects—these elements define who we are as a society and how we express ourselves as a culture. Take a deep dive into the topics shaping our shared norms, values, institutions, and more.