PODCAST · society
Know Your Meme
by Know Your Meme
A deep dive into the origins, history, and evolution of memes and online culture, featuring interviews with the influencers, creators, and people behind the internet’s most iconic moments.
Episodes
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Who Is the Real Jeff the Killer?
You’ve seen this face. Pale skin, a carved smile, wide, unblinking eyes. Jeff the Killer is one of the most recognizable horror images on the internet, but nearly 20 years after it first appeared, nobody can say for sure whose face it is.WavyWebSurf guest-hosts as we trace the image from a 2005...
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Bronies: The Men Who Loved My Little Pony
On October 25, 2010, 15 days after My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic premiered, an anonymous 4chan user typed "Ponybro more like BRONY amirite" and coined one of the internet's most talked-about fandoms.How did a cartoon made for little girls end up with an audience of adult men? Why did the...
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What Is Verity? The Minecraft Horror ARG Explained
A new horror ARG is taking over the Minecraft fandom, featuring a sinister yellow smiley face known as Verity.
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Is Viral TikToker Jean Philanthrope Real or Just a Memecoin Hoax
Jean Philanthrope, also known as Jean Phil, is a French internet persona and character who emerged in mid-to-late September 2026, quickly going viral on social media and garnering a large following in just a few days. The character is known for his unique look, sporting a curled mustache and…
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MySpace's Most Famous Stranger Vanished 17 Years Ago
In August 2009, a 46-year-old man in eyeliner uploaded a few mirror selfies to MySpace under the name CrisXcruX. Within three weeks, the internet had renamed him Emo Dad. Within two years, he was one of the most recognizable faces of the image-macro era. And then the trail went cold: the profile...
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Who Is Quandale Dingle?
In September 2021, somebody took a photo of a school computer login screen, and the name on it was so strange that the internet could not leave it alone. Within six months, Quandale Dingle had a face (an edited NBA YoungBoy), a voice (a TikToker doing bizarre lore in a deep growl), a theme song…
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What Is The Gooner Timeline?
On July 30, 2025, a Twitter account called Overfit Quantitative Strategies posted a barely labeled chart of every woman the site had spent the year obsessing over, calling it the Gooner Timeline. It was engagement bait, and it worked: the chart keeps getting reposted, updated, and restyled, and...
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The Reddit Post That Ruined A Song Forever
Some Reddit posts escape their subreddits and become permanent internet vocabulary. The Lamp story. Cbat. The small cylinder. Timothy the mouse. The Carbon Monoxide post-its that saved a man's life. Meme Scientist Frankie Fey explores some of the wildest tales ever told online.Hosted by Frankie...
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You Know I Had to Do it to Em
In 2014, a 17-year-old in Tampa let his sister style an outfit and take his picture on the sidewalk outside his childhood home. He captioned it "you know I had to do it to em." Two years later, a stranger's repost turned him into the internet's default image of the privileged frat boy, and after...
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Do You Really Know John Pork?
A photorealistic pig-man started posting travel selfies from Scotland in 2018. Five years later, that same selfie was showing up on phone screens everywhere as an incoming call, and millions of people had to make a decision: answer or decline? Then came the murder lore, a mouse named Tim Cheese…
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Chestbrah Talks Zyzz's Legacy, New Documentary, The Problems With Looksmaxxing and More
We sat down with Said "Chestbrah" Shavershian, professional bodybuilder, online coach, and older brother of Zyzz, to talk about dragging his little brother off World of Warcraft and into the gym, the forum thread that named him, the birth of "aesthetics," how "we're all gonna make it" curdled…
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The Tragic Story of the Burger King Foot Lettuce Guy
In 2012, one photo of a Burger King employee standing in a bin of lettuce turned him into an internet villain overnight. Five years later, a YouTuber named Chills turned "Burger King Foot Lettuce" into one of the internet's most enduring memes. In 2024, the man behind the photo, Alex, finally…
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She Had No Idea They Was Gonna Play In Her Face
We've all had a bad day at work, but imagine if the only thing anyone remembered about you was that bad day. Meet Incidental 49A, Bikini Bottom's premier real estate agent, the ultimate victim of "Opposite Day," and the internet's favorite new girlboss. How did a nameless background fish go from...
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The Bizarre Rise of Tung Tung Tung Sahur (And the Lawsuit Nobody Expected)
Who (or should we say what) is Tung Tung Tung Sahur, and why does this AI-generated character have so much staying power in a time when memes die off quickly? It all started when an Indonesian TikToker named Noxa uploaded a 24-second AI-generated video of a wooden bat-swinging creature in…
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The Weird History of 'Backrooms'
In 2019, someone on 4chan wrote one paragraph about a yellow room and accidentally invented one of the internet's most enduring creepypastas. In 2026, it became an A24 film directed by YouTuber Kane Parsons (Did you know he's 20 years old?). This is the full history of The Backrooms, the liminal...
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Why Rage Comics Just Won't Die
The Trollface was drawn on DeviantArt in 2008, went viral, almost died, came back, almost died again, came back again. In 2026, someone ran him through an AI generator and pranked their teacher with the result, setting off the biggest Rage Comics revival in over a decade. From the original comic…
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“67 Kid” Interview: The Face Behind the Meme of the Year
The “67” meme took over the internet and ultimately earned Meme of the Year honors, but one face became inseparable from its rise. We sat down with the viral “67 Kid,” whose clips helped propel the meme from niche joke to internet phenomenon.In this interview, he talks about how the meme spread,...
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Dat Bih Gah and Kool-Aid Pineapple Explained
The Kool-Aid pineapple trend has taken over social media, but one kid’s reaction turned it into an even bigger meme. After taste-testing a brightly colored slice of pineapple, TikToker @braydenharrelson1 said what sounded like “dat bih tuff” and “dat bih gah,” creating one of the summer’s most...
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The Classic Loss Meme Explained
In 2008, webcomic Ctrl+Alt+Del published a strip where the protagonist's girlfriend miscarried. The internet hated it so much that the strip eventually got reduced to four lines and a corner: | || || |_. That shape went on to seed an entire genre of pattern-recognition memes, and seventeen years...
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Did Harambe Split the Timeline?
Ten years ago today, May 28, 2016, a 17-year-old gorilla named Harambe was shot at the Cincinnati Zoo. One day after his birthday. He had no idea he was about to become the most famous gorilla in internet history.Here's how a tragedy became a tribute, became "dicks out for Harambe," became 11,000...
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The Doomer Girl Is Real
A creator named Mothemi is going viral after claiming she might have inspired the Doomer Girl meme, also known as Doomette. The character first appeared in early 2020 as part of the larger Wojak meme universe, representing a depressed, lonely young woman often paired with the Doomer.But Mothemi...
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How "LARP" Went From Foam Swords to the Internet's Favorite Insult
How did "larp" become an insult? A brief history.In 2003, a guy in a kilt screamed "LIGHTNING BOLT!" in the Massachusetts woods and accidentally made the most famous LARP video of all time. Two decades later, his hobby's name has become Gen Z's favorite way to call someone a fake. This is how we...
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Why 7x7=49 Is Hot
A TikTok slideshow about what women find attractive included a math equation with zero context. Now 7×7=49 is a full-blown meme, and the synesthesia explanation might actually make sense. Here's the full story of how a multiplication table became the internet's latest hear-me-out.
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THANK YOU... CHAINSAW MAN
This week on social media, the last few chapters of Chainsaw Man gave us some of the series's biggest memes, the idea of "catching print" got some dudes nervous, and why Peter Parker being sad is good. Here are four huge memes from the past week that you need to check out.
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What Is "Fruit Love Island" and Why Is it So Popular?
Fruit Love Island has taken over the internet. There's just something about AI fruit that people can't stop watching. The account behind the AI reality show was, at one point, the fastest-growing in TikTok history. The show takes the Love Island format, but instead of people, it's AI-generated...
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What's Going On With These Weird Cheating AI Fruit Videos?
AI-generated videos about anthropomorphic fruits cheating on their spouses, among other weird things, have taken over social media, gaining tens of millions of views. Here's how it started and where it's going.
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'Awkward Party Reaction' Girl Reveals the Truth Behind Her Viral Meme
The Awkward Party Reaction meme has been circulating on the internet since 2012. Avery Wagner is the woman in the front pulling focus in the photo, and for years, she wanted nothing to do with it. This is the story behind the meme.
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Why A Sad Monkey Is Tearing the Internet Apart - Punch the Monkey
Punch, a baby monkey living in a Japanese zoo, was abandoned at birth. His only friend is a stuffed animal from IKEA. Now the whole internet is fighting for him.
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Why Looksmaxxers Are Going to War (World War Mog Explained)
World War Mog has officially arrived, and the biggest names in looksmaxxing are battling it out on social media to determine the number one mogger of all time.It all started when a viral clip of Clavicular standing next to ASU frat leader Varis Gilaj went viral, with people declaring that Clav…
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Why the Internet Thinks Epstein Had a Minecraft YouTube Channel
Recent documents from the Epstein Files suggest the convicted criminal may have been active in gaming communities, including an Xbox Live ban, emails about FNAF, and an alleged Minecraft YouTube channel.
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Why Ella Purnell's Eyes Have Become An Obsession Online
We need to talk about Ella Purnell's eyes... and other memes.
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Why the Internet Can't Escape Looksmaxxing Influencer Clavicular
Clavicular, real name Braden Peters, is a Kick streamer, TikToker, and influencer best known for producing looksmaxxing and confidence-focused content. He began posting on TikTok in late 2021 before expanding into IRL livestreaming on Kick in mid-2025, where his visibility and notoriety grew...
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The Loneliest Penguin In the World
The meme known as “Penguin Walking Toward Mountain,” often called “Nihilist Penguin,” comes from Encounters at the End of the World, a documentary directed by Werner Herzog. In one memorable scene, an Adélie penguin abruptly turns away from its colony and begins walking alone toward the interior…
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She Accidentally Became a Far-Right Goth Waifu
Social media users have zeroed in on Amelia, a goth antagonist from Pathways, turning her into the center of a growing online controversy. The character appears in the game as an anti-immigration protestor and is intended to demonstrate how extremist viewpoints can take shape, but parts of the...
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Know Your Meme have?
Know Your Meme currently has 34 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Know Your Meme about?
A deep dive into the origins, history, and evolution of memes and online culture, featuring interviews with the influencers, creators, and people behind the internet’s most iconic moments.
How often does Know Your Meme release new episodes?
Know Your Meme has 34 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Know Your Meme?
You can listen to Know Your Meme on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Know Your Meme?
Know Your Meme is created and hosted by Know Your Meme.
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