Before Memes Had a Name, There Was a Cat

Internet memes turned 2007 into year zero — and the evidence starts with a cat, a cheeseburger, and intentionally terrible spelling. Ed Conroy connects the cultural nostalgia of Bob Barker's final Price Is Right era to the moment the internet stopped being a place you explored and became a place four corporations manage. Something Awful, Catterday, Grumpy Cat — the lineage is weirder and more deliberate than most people realize. The word meme is a shortening of a Greek word meaning "that which is imitated." A researcher in the 1970s decided it was too long and cut it. From the very beginning, the meme concept was itself a meme. Ed Conroy maps what 2007 actually was — not just a transition on daytime TV, but a hinge point in how culture travels. Topics: internet memes, early internet history, Price Is Right 2007, meme culture, retro nostalgia GUEST: Ed Conroy | http://retrontario.com Originally aired on 2026-06-04