An anatomy of a YouTube meme
Abstract
Launched in 2005 as a video-sharing website, YouTube has become an emblem of participatory culture. A central feature of this website is the dazzling number of derivative videos, uploaded daily by many thousands. Using the ‘meme’ concept as an analytic tool, this article aims at uncovering the attributes common to ‘memetic videos’ – popular clips that generate extensive user engagement by way of creative derivatives. Drawing on YouTube popularity-measurements and on user-generated playlists, a corpus of 30 prominent memetic videos was assembled. A combined qualitative and quantitative analysis of these videos yielded six common features: focus on ordinary people, flawed masculinity, humor, simplicity, repetitiveness and whimsical content. Each of these attributes marks the video as incomplete or flawed, thereby invoking further creative dialogue. In its concluding section, the article addresses the skyrocketing popularity of mimicking in contemporary digital culture, linking it to economic, social and cultural logics of participation.
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Memes are continuously reworked, adopting serious, humorous, and ironic tones that engage users in complex communication.
“Memes are continuously reworked, adopting serious, humorous, and ironic tones that engage users in complex communication (Shifman, 2012).”
From Social media challenges as an intersection between Internet memes and traditional challenges: a conceptual analysis (2026) · cites this paper as Shifman, 2012
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References 50 · Cited by 477
- Authors
- Shifman, L.
- Affiliations
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem (IL)
- Corresponding author
- Shifman, Limor
- ORCID
- Shifman, Limor
- Venue
- New Media & Society
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2011-10-03
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 187-203
- ISSN
- 1461-4448 (ISSN-L)
- 1461-7315
- OpenAlex
- W2171142061
- Cited by
- 477
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 49 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 40 · 2021: 51 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 41 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 41 · 2015: 32 · 2014: 31 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 25.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- New Media & Society (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Media and Digital Communication
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Humor Studies and Applications
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Feminism, and Media
- Keywords
- YouTube, memes, participatory culture, user-generated content, popularity, humor, imitation, digital culture, user engagement
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