Meme Documentation

Submission 26,065

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About

Meme Documentation is an internet meme research blog that explains the meaning behind various memes circulating Tumblr and curates notable examples of such memes for archival purposes. While its objective is comparable to other meme research collectives like Know Your Meme and Encyclopedia Dramatica, the site specifically focuses on covering viral media and memes that have originated from the microblogging community since its foundation in January 2015.

History

On January 1st, 2015, the Meme Documentation Tumblr^[1] was launched, which initially highlighted posts celebrating the new year while referencing the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion.

In addition to documenting and curating Tumblr-specific memes, the blog regularly engages with its readers and answers questions using the "Ask" function of the platform. As of July 2015, the blog is run by three researchers: Mod Virgo, who writes most of the explanation posts and answers most of the question, Mod Sagittarius (a.k.a Mod Sag), who occasionally contributes to meme research, and Mod Fish, a self-described expert of Pepe the Frog.

On February 11, 2016, Meme Documentation made its final post after effectively documenting as much memes as possible in the year 2015.^[7] The founders of the blog linked to an audio story in the site Now Here This bidding farewell.^[8] The blog returned in 2017 and documented that year's memes.

Retirement

On November 28th, 2017, moderators Justin and Nick of Meme Documentation published a blog post for Tumblr's fandometrics^[9] blog reviewing the memes of 2017. In the post, they announced that they would retire the blog at midnight on December 31st, 2017. For the following month, the blog updated regularly with both current Tumblr meme explanations and explanations for memes they had missed earlier in the year. On December 31st, they wrote a farewell post encouraging others to do similar work,^[10] and wrote a parody of the "Do Not Fall In Love With People Like Me" poem by Caitlin Stiehl (shown below).

Highlights

The blog has documented the origin and spread of many notable viral 2015 phenomenon on Tumblr, while giving succinct explanations of each and archiving notable instances using the site's reblogging feature.

Breadsticks

Breadsticks is a series of mock dinner date conversations in which a person abruptly leaves the table while stuffing complimentary breadsticks into their purse after hearing their date say something undesirable or offensive. In June 2015, Meme Documentation^[2] published an explanation of the breadstick meme and began reblogging notable examples.^[3]

Sneople

Sneople, a portmanteau of the words “snake” and “people”, refers to a race of reptilian humanoids mentioned in an episode of the animated television series Steven Universe. In April 2015, the term was popularized on Tumblr along with other portmanteaus, including “snurch” (snake + church), sneeple (snail + people) and sneme (snail + meme). On April 22nd, Meme Documentation published a post titled “Explained: sneme,” which described the origins of the “sneople” and “sneeple” portmanteaus (shown below).^[4]

"We Get It, You Smoke Weed"

We Get It, You Smoke Weed is an expression used to mock those who outwardly identify themselves as stoners by sporting cannabis-patterned clothes and accessories. On Tumblr and Twitter, the phrase is usually prefaced by the remark “I hate people who dress like this…” and accompanied by various images of people or fictional characters dressed in green for ironic humor. On June 16th, Meme Documentation^[6] published an explanation of the meme’s recent popularity on Tumblr and Twitter (shown below).

Yarn Man

Yarn Man is the nickname for Coldwood Interactive creative director Martin Sahlin, who was widely celebrated on Tumblr following his presentation for the game "Unravel": at the 2015 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in June 2015. On June 15th, Meme Documentation^[5] posted an explanation of Sahlin's recent popularity on the site (shown below).