Meme Of The Week 10-7

This week’s meme is Domo Kun

The Back Story: Domo is a classic example of a meme turned mainstream. Domo Kun is the official mascot of Japan’s NHK television station who began appearing in stop motion animations used for station identifications around 1998. He had some popularity in Japan for many years but did not get recognized in the U.S. until a Photoshop contest on Fark.com in 2002. The theme of the contest was “Photoshop a porn addiction “Get Well” card” in which one of the users came up with this PSA announcement:

From there Domo took off and the PSA image spread across the net with huge popularity. NHK stopped using Domo in 2004 and it’s likeness and name were picked up by Nickelodeon in 2006. Nick planned a series around Domo with a release in 2008. This was fueled by Target Stores using Domo for their signs in the fall of 2008 along with merchandising and even 7-Eleven jumping on the band waggon with Domo Kun collector cups and other merchandise. Another market that wanted to cash in on this was the Video game market. To date, Domo has 5 video games on the DSIware on the DSI Shop application for the Nintendo DSi.
So this meme has gone full life cycle. From an animated creature for a local news station, to an internet masturbatory joke, to stuffed animals and an image children wear on their clothing.

The set up: Domo is taking over!


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Meme Of The Week 9-30

This week’s meme is Sad Keanu

The Back Story: In June of 2010 a paparazzi image set surfaced showing a melancholy Keanu sitting on a bench eating a sandwich:

After the initial popularity of the image meme, a site called SadKeanu.com popped up to try and showcase the images. Shortly after they were served with a DMCA by Splash News (the company that took the photo) and were forced to shut it down. The meme continues to be popular and shows up on message boards and forums from time to time.

The set up: Photoshop Keanu into a picture or scene


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Meme Of The Week 9-16

This week’s meme is Annoying Old Lady

The Back Story: This meme started popping up on forums and message boards around the summer of 2010 and quickly gained popularity because a lot of people know or have known an older/elderly woman in their lives who was frankly, annoying.

The set up: Using the base image of the old lady, add text of something you would expect her to say


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Meme Of The Week 9-9

This week’s meme is Sleeveface

The Back Story: Sleeveface (aka “LP Portraits”) is a participatory/DIY internet meme similar to money face. The meme became popular in early 2008 after a group of Welsh DJs and vinyl collectors uploaded a “how-to make a sleeveface” video on YouTube:

Although the how to video sparked the internet trend, the Welsh DJs are not credited for creation of the concept as images of people doing this date back to the 60s. The DJs are only credited for the resurgence of the style.

The set up: Take the sleeve of a record and hold it up trying to line up the body parts then snap the pic.


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