Meme Review

About

Meme Review is a YouTube series hosted by Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg in which the YouTuber reviews and rates trending internet memes. Launched in November 2017, the series gained a significant following and spawned a number of in-jokes, including Bonus Meme and *clap* *clap*.

History

Anthony Fantano's "Meme Review" Series

On May 25th, 2016, Anthony Fantano uploaded the first episode of his "Meme Review" series to his second channel "thatistheplan", in which he discussed the Chewbacca Mom. On August 22th, 2017, Fantano uploaded the last episode of his series, in which he discussed Deep Fried Memes. On October 3rd, 2017, his second channel was removed.

PewDiePie's "Meme Review" Series

On November 23rd, 2017, YouTuber PewDiePie^[1] launched a new video series titled Meme Review. In each episode of the show, PewDiePie reviewed three or more trending internet memes, looking through several variations of each, providing a humorous analysis and assigning an individual rating. As of January 28th, 2019, the show includes a total of 46 episodes, with the most viewed episode "DO U KNO DA WEI? [MEME REVIEW] 👏 👏 #6" accumulating over 13.5 million views in one year.

Special Hosts

Through the run of Meme Review, the fans of the show have repeatedly proposed inviting various personalities to host the show, including YouTubers MrBeast and Jaiden Animations and entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Ben Shapiro

On November 2nd, 2018, conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro hosted a segment of Meme Review^[2], reviewing and rating several memes about himself.

Elon Musk

On January 27th, 2019, Elon Musk tweeted^[3] a picture of himself holding a two-handed device with a caption "Host meme review?". On the same day, PewDiePie^[4] extended an invitation to host the show.

On February 11th, Musk replied to PewDiePie's tweet with an apology, stating that he "had a vital mission in Norway" but that he had returned. The same day, PewDiePie replied "Slightly suspicious But granted 😤" (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweets garnered upwards of 103,000 and 64,000 likes respectively.

On February 22nd, PewDiePie uploaded a video titled "Will Smith hosts Meme Review," in which Elon Musk and Justin Roiland appear as special guests and provide commentary and ratings for various memes (shown below).

That day, YouTuber Grandayy tweeted^[6] a screenshot of Musk in the episode, along with the message "on this exact moment humanity official reached its peak" (shown below).

After Meme Review's episode featuring Elon Musk and Justin Roiland, there was a surge of memes based on the episode, mostly based on a part in which it can be seen Elon Musk Laughing at Dead Deer lying at the bottom of a pool appearing in a meme.

MrBeast

On March 5th, 2019, PewDiePie uploaded a video titled "Mr Beasts hosts Meme Review? (he maybe does)", in which YouTuber MrBeast appears as a special guest with his friends Chris and Chandler, reviewing and providing commentary in memes about MrBeast himself, memes about PewDiePie, and also some other memes (shown below).

Dr. Phil

On August 15th, 2019, PewDiePie uploaded a video titled "Dr Phil hosts Meme Review," in which TV host Dr. Phil appeared as a special guest.^[7] In the video, Dr. Phil reviews a number of memes about himself, including the Dr. Phil M&M and Send Her to Ranch.

Yeah, whoever patched this together is definitely going to the ranch.

In the following days, multiple memes based on Dr. Phil's quotes from the video were posted online, primarily in /r/PewdiepieSubmissions subreddit.

Fandom

Since their launch, the series spawned several in-jokes and memes popular among PewDiePie's audience.

Bonus Meme

Bonus Meme is a once-recurring segment of the Meme Review series in which an extra meme would be added to help the video exceed ten minutes in length. On December 23rd, 2017, the first instance of "Bonus Meme" appeared in the fourth Meme Review video^[5].

The segment gained popularity among the PewDiePie's fanbase, who have created jokes in various formats regarding the Bonus Meme.

PewDiePie Is Killing Memes / *clap* *clap*

PewDiePie Is Killing Memes is a popular in-joke which refers to an idea that memes featured in Meme Review video have already peaked in popularity and are reaching the end of their "lifespan". The trope is associated with the double hand clap performed by PewDiePie in his videos, with the implied meaning that PewDiePie is killing memes by clapping his hands. In some jokes, saying the words "meme review" is presented as a reflex reaction to a person clapping their hands twice.

On May 2nd, 2018, YouTuber Grandayy posted a video in which he applied Disintegration Effect to various memes previously reviewed by PewDiePie, referring to the trope (shown below, left). On May 30th, 2018, Grandayy posted a mock-up musical intro for the show.

Search Interest

External References