Behind The Meme

2016YouTube channel / meme explainer seriesdead

Behind The Meme is a YouTube channel launched in August 2016 by Kyle Bryce that produces short explainer videos on trending internet memes. It grew fast on YouTube but drew heavy criticism from meme subreddits and 4chan for allegedly killing memes by explaining them to mainstream viewers.

youtube culture memesinternet meta memesmeme explainer channelsinfluencer mockery memes2016 memes

Overview

Behind The Meme is a YouTube series run by Kyle Bryce that publishes short videos breaking down the origin and meaning of trending internet memes1. Each episode picks a single meme, walks through where it came from, and explains the joke in a plainspoken narrator voice pitched at viewers who found the meme without knowing its backstory2.

The channel is one of the more recognizable names in the meme-explainer format on YouTube, but it is a polarizing one. In dedicated meme communities the series is treated as an example of a creator who allegedly waters memes down for a mainstream audience, and Bryce himself became a target of sustained harassment from viewers who felt his videos ruined the jokes1.

How It Spread

Backlash built in parallel with the subscriber count. Meme-focused subreddits like r/dankmemes and r/MemeEconomy repeatedly mocked the channel, with r/MemeEconomy users replying "Sell!" whenever a meme was reviewed on Behind The Meme2. Urban Dictionary entries from the same period describe the channel as an "effect that can kill a meme instantly" once Bryce covers it3.

On August 5th, 2017, Bryce was doxxed by a Hollaforums user who posted his social media profiles and home address, an incident later discussed on r/OutOfTheLoop2. YouTube commentator Pyrocynical also publicly criticised the channel's aesthetic and repetitive format, and the doxxing sharpened an already hostile relationship with 4chan and the meme subreddits1.

Bryce stepped back from YouTube for roughly four months and returned in August 2018 with a video about actor Stéfan Karl Stefánsson, who had died on August 21st1. In late September 2018 he then posted four cryptic videos referencing depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, prompting Polygon to report that YouTube was looking into the community's concerns about his wellbeing1. The channel went quiet in December 2018 following those fake suicide vlogs2.

How to Use This Meme

Behind The Meme is a channel rather than a template, so there is nothing to remix. In practice people invoke it as shorthand: dropping the name in a comment section is a common way to say a meme is being explained to outsiders or is about to go mainstream, and r/MemeEconomy's "Sell!" reaction to any Behind The Meme review is the canonical usage of the reference2.

Frequently Asked Questions

Behind The Meme

2016YouTube channel / meme explainer seriesdead

Behind The Meme is a YouTube channel launched in August 2016 by Kyle Bryce that produces short explainer videos on trending internet memes. It grew fast on YouTube but drew heavy criticism from meme subreddits and 4chan for allegedly killing memes by explaining them to mainstream viewers.

youtube culture memes internet meta memes meme explainer channels influencer mockery memes 2016 memes

Overview

Behind The Meme is a YouTube series run by Kyle Bryce that publishes short videos breaking down the origin and meaning of trending internet memes1. Each episode picks a single meme, walks through where it came from, and explains the joke in a plainspoken narrator voice pitched at viewers who found the meme without knowing its backstory2.

The channel is one of the more recognizable names in the meme-explainer format on YouTube, but it is a polarizing one. In dedicated meme communities the series is treated as an example of a creator who allegedly waters memes down for a mainstream audience, and Bryce himself became a target of sustained harassment from viewers who felt his videos ruined the jokes1.

How It Spread

Backlash built in parallel with the subscriber count. Meme-focused subreddits like r/dankmemes and r/MemeEconomy repeatedly mocked the channel, with r/MemeEconomy users replying "Sell!" whenever a meme was reviewed on Behind The Meme2. Urban Dictionary entries from the same period describe the channel as an "effect that can kill a meme instantly" once Bryce covers it3.

On August 5th, 2017, Bryce was doxxed by a Hollaforums user who posted his social media profiles and home address, an incident later discussed on r/OutOfTheLoop2. YouTube commentator Pyrocynical also publicly criticised the channel's aesthetic and repetitive format, and the doxxing sharpened an already hostile relationship with 4chan and the meme subreddits1.

Bryce stepped back from YouTube for roughly four months and returned in August 2018 with a video about actor Stéfan Karl Stefánsson, who had died on August 21st1. In late September 2018 he then posted four cryptic videos referencing depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, prompting Polygon to report that YouTube was looking into the community's concerns about his wellbeing1. The channel went quiet in December 2018 following those fake suicide vlogs2.

How to Use This Meme

Behind The Meme is a channel rather than a template, so there is nothing to remix. In practice people invoke it as shorthand: dropping the name in a comment section is a common way to say a meme is being explained to outsiders or is about to go mainstream, and r/MemeEconomy's "Sell!" reaction to any Behind The Meme review is the canonical usage of the reference2.

Frequently Asked Questions