Does “meme” rhyme with “Mimi”? Or is it like “mem” in “memory”? Well, it turns out, it has a silent “k” in front, as in “Know Your Meme“.
I’m very happy to announce that Cheezburger has acquired Know Your Meme. In addition to acquiring the popular site and video series, we have opened a new office in Manhattan and expect to add staff at Cheezburger East, as we call it.
We’ve been on the entertainment side of the meme and viral world for more than 3 years, but we’ve always felt that providing context and research to the public about how memes and viral phenomena come about was an important aspect that we lacked. So in January, I reached out to Andrew Baron, the CEO and Founder of Rocketboom, who ran Know Your Meme.
We’ve been very impressed with the success and quality of work by the Know Your Meme community and its researchers and editors. We plan on adding more resources to improve the site and quality of research.
As always, our open positions are listed at jobs.cheezburger.com.
Press release below.
P.S. “Meme” rhymes with “team”
Cheezburger Acquires Know Your Meme
Seattle, WA, March 28, 2011 – Cheezburger (www.cheezburger.com), the Internet publisher best known for popularizing LOLcats, FAILS, and other Internet memes, today announced it has acquired Know Your Meme, the most authoritative site that researches and documents the history and origins of Internet memes and viral phenomena. Created by Rocketboom, a leading Internet video network founded by Andrew Baron, Know Your Meme is dedicated to giving people an accurate inside look at up-and-coming as well as already viral Internet memes. The research by Know Your Meme includes current trending topics like “Rebecca Black – Friday”, an amateur “musician” who soared into the Internet’s eye for her music video “Friday”, and “Zangief Kid”, a video clip and remixes of a fight in school where a boy being bullied unleashes a video-game style smackdown on the bully.
“I’m excited to see the Know Your Meme community joining the Cheezburger community,” said Ben Huh, CEO and founder of Cheezburger. “Since Cheezburger is the playground of choice for millions of Internet culture fans, this acquisition is a natural compliment for our community. Now, in addition to delivering 5 minutes of happiness through I Can Has Cheezburger?, FAIL Blog, Memebase, and The Daily What, we can help the public understand the origins of memes and how content goes viral on the Web.”
“Thanks to the amazing community, Know Your Meme has become the Internet’s go-to resource for understanding meme culture,” said Andrew Baron, founder of Rocketboom. “The academic rigor and unique tool set provides a foundation which people really respond to. ”
Internet Memes versus Viral Content
An Internet meme is a piece of content or an idea that’s passed from person to person, changing and evolving along the way. A piece of content that is passed from person to person, but does not evolve or change during the transmission process is considered viral content.
About Rocketboom
Rocketboom is a daily international news and entertainment network of online programming based in New York City. The company covers and creates a wide range of information and commentary from top news stories to contemporary internet culture.
About Cheezburger
Cheezburger, the company which publishes popular sites such as I Can Has Cheezburger?, FAIL Blog, Memebase, and The Daily What, is one of the largest online humor publishers in the world where millions of people come every month to get their 5-minutes of happiness. Cheezburger counts a passionate fan base of 17.5 million people who upload more than 500,000 pictures and videos as well as view 400 million pages and 110 million videos each month. The company has been profitable since its inception with revenue from advertising, traditional media publishing including books, and merchandising.
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Cheezburger, I Can Has Cheezburger?, FAIL Blog, Know Your Meme, Memebase, The Daily What and their respective logos are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of Cheezburger, Inc. Other products and company names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective owners.
O noes? I haz a first? Itz scawy! BEN & TEAM: This acquisition must have been on the “Inevitable” list the Universe keeps. I love “KYM” & this appears to be a marriage made in heb…heavu…that place opposite the hot smelly realm. Good luck! You all rock & this site gets ever more full of WIN! Best!!!!UNO!!! BGC (The Smurf artist who visited you in ’09)
LOL. Thanks bgcmeowrrrr and congrats on the nawt sekund!
Mexicans pronounce it “meh-meh”
lol im mexican, i pronounce it that way xD
Cheezburger EAST: WOW! So happy to hear this. Where is your NYC office located? How many on staff there? Can I stop in & bring cookies or something for everyone? U r the catnip in my life.
OMG! I has a giant excited for Cheezburger! MEGA CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU! Awesome news.
Check into Richard Dawkins.
Purchase price was $1.5 million, according to source PrivCo (private comapny financial data & deals site):
http://www.privco.com/private-company/cheezburger-network
Meme is pronounced like ‘mem’ in memory.
All pronunciation rules would indicate so. Do you say Meega or Meemory? Nawt.
Actually, it’s pronnounced “meem”, and it rhymes with extreme, team, gene, scheme etc.
It originates from the greek word μίμησις (mimisis), which is pronnounced “mee-mee-sees” and literally means “to mimic”. Keep in mind that it’s not pronnounced mee-mee, simply because of the fact it is not the same as saying 2 times the word “me” and that the last e is silent. Most english words like that are pronnounced this way, and don’t try to use the word cafe (the one with the accent on the e) as an example. That e is not silent because it’s accented, and the word is not english to begin with.
So yes, you should look into things before trying to prove something which is wrong. I hope you won’t make the same mistake again, have a nice day.
regarding gene, I didn’t mean that it actually rhymes, but that the pronounciation rules for it work the same as they do for the work meme.
Another note, most enlgish words like that*, referring to the words with consonants like m. n, c, s, which can turn the 2nd syllable’s vowel to a silent one. Just like game, face, theme, scene, phase, etc.
Cool story, bro.
Nice..
I’ve always pronounced it as May-May. This guy at my school pronounced meme as “meem” and I was like “WTF is he talking about?”
Me to. may may
I thought it was “mehm” like the French word “meme” as in “c’est la meme chose.”
I’ve always thought that as well – and I’m going to continue to think that until I find out precisely where this bastard of a word came from.
I always said “mehm-eee” I don’t really like the sound of “meem”
i used to pronounce it meh-may O_o
Pronoucing it to match rhymes with “extreme” is weird.
Then I should be spelled “meem.”
I still will pronounce it meh-may.
It seems more fittin no matter how rage inducing.
That’s how I’ll always pronounce it! It sounds so much nicer to say
everything besides “meem” sounds retarded. im not even a native english speaker and i figured out that “meem” sounds right.
Cool story, bro.
It’s meh may …no matter how you try to make the word into an ugly word I refuse to say it. “Meem” is ugly. Meh may is class-ay. Toodles!