{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,11]],"date-time":"2026-05-11T18:37:29Z","timestamp":1778524649284,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2011,10,3]],"date-time":"2011-10-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1317600000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["New Media &amp; Society"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2012,3]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>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 \u2018meme\u2019 concept as an analytic tool, this article aims at uncovering the attributes common to \u2018memetic videos\u2019 \u2013 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.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444811412160","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2011,10,4]],"date-time":"2011-10-04T22:59:41Z","timestamp":1317769181000},"page":"187-203","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":291,"title":["An anatomy of a YouTube meme"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Limor","family":"Shifman","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2011,10,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1115\/1.800938_ch1"},{"key":"bibr2-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1367877909337857"},{"key":"bibr3-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4135\/9781446218693"},{"key":"bibr4-1461444811412160","volume-title":"The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets And Freedom","author":"Benkler Y","year":"2006"},{"key":"bibr5-1461444811412160","unstructured":"Berger J, Milkman K (2010) Social transmission, emotion, and the virality of online content. Available at: http:\/\/marketing.wharton.upenn.edu\/documents\/research\/Virality.pdf (accessed Jan 2011)."},{"key":"bibr6-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4135\/9781446211779"},{"key":"bibr7-1461444811412160","first-page":"101","volume-title":"Video Vortex Reader: Responses to YouTube","author":"Burgess J","year":"2008"},{"key":"bibr8-1461444811412160","volume-title":"YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture","author":"Burgess J","year":"2009"},{"key":"bibr9-1461444811412160","volume-title":"The Selfish Gene","author":"Dawkins R","year":"1976"},{"key":"bibr10-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444803005001902"},{"key":"bibr11-1461444811412160","volume-title":"Television Culture","author":"Fiske J","year":"1987"},{"key":"bibr12-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/10570319809374598"},{"key":"bibr13-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1367877904040610"},{"key":"bibr14-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1753-9137.2010.01084.x"},{"key":"bibr15-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1037\/0022-3514.81.6.1028"},{"key":"bibr16-1461444811412160","first-page":"48","volume-title":"Memesis: The Future of Evolution","author":"Heylighen F","year":"1996"},{"key":"bibr17-1461444811412160","volume-title":"Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture","author":"Huizinga J","year":"1949"},{"key":"bibr18-1461444811412160","first-page":"273","volume-title":"Learning, Development and Culture: Essays in Evolutionary Epistemology","author":"Hull DL","year":"1982"},{"key":"bibr19-1461444811412160","volume-title":"Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism","author":"Jameson F","year":"1991"},{"key":"bibr20-1461444811412160","volume-title":"Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture","author":"Jenkins H","year":"1992"},{"key":"bibr21-1461444811412160","volume-title":"Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide","author":"Jenkins H","year":"2006"},{"key":"bibr22-1461444811412160","volume-title":"Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century","author":"Jenkins H","year":"2007"},{"key":"bibr23-1461444811412160","unstructured":"Jenkins H, Li X, Krauskopf AD, Grean JB (2009a) If it Doesn\u2019t Spread, it\u2019s Dead (Part One): Media Viruses and Memes. Available at: http:\/\/henryjenkins.org\/2009\/02\/if_it_doesnt_spread_its_dead_p.html\/ (accessed Jan 2011)."},{"key":"bibr24-1461444811412160","unstructured":"Jenkins H, Li X, Krauskopf AD, Grean JB (2009b) If It Doesn\u2019t Spread, It\u2019s Dead (Part Seven): Aesthetic and Structural Strategies. Available at: http:\/\/henryjenkins.org\/2009\/02\/if_it_doesnt_spread_its_dead_p_6.html (accessed Jan 2011)."},{"key":"bibr25-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1353\/cj.0.0098"},{"key":"bibr26-1461444811412160","first-page":"199","volume-title":"A New Literacies Sampler","author":"Knobel M","year":"2007"},{"key":"bibr27-1461444811412160","volume-title":"The Art of Creation","author":"Koestler A","year":"1965"},{"key":"bibr28-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1364942002005004296"},{"key":"bibr29-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7592\/FEJF2003.25.humor"},{"key":"bibr30-1461444811412160","first-page":"228","volume-title":"The Youtube Reader","author":"Lange PG","year":"2009"},{"key":"bibr31-1461444811412160","volume-title":"The Economics of Attention: Style and Substance in the Age of Information","author":"Lanham RA","year":"2006"},{"key":"bibr32-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5040\/9781849662505"},{"key":"bibr33-1461444811412160","volume-title":"Qualitative Communication Research Methods","author":"Lindlof TR","year":"2002"},{"key":"bibr34-1461444811412160","volume-title":"American Masculinity under Clinton: Popular Media and the Nineties \u2018Crisis of Masculinity\u2019","author":"Malin B","year":"2005"},{"key":"bibr35-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444810365313"},{"key":"bibr36-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1057\/9780230236776_4"},{"key":"bibr37-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1108\/14601060310486244"},{"key":"bibr38-1461444811412160","first-page":"187","volume-title":"The Youtube Reader","author":"Peters K","year":"2009"},{"key":"bibr39-1461444811412160","volume-title":"Semantic Mechanisms of Humor","author":"Raskin V","year":"1985"},{"key":"bibr40-1461444811412160","volume-title":"Diffusion of Innovations","author":"Rogers EM","year":"1962"},{"key":"bibr41-1461444811412160","first-page":"187","volume":"1","author":"Shifman L","year":"2007","journal-title":"International Journal of Communication"},{"key":"bibr42-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0163443708098245"},{"key":"bibr43-1461444811412160","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wellman B, Quan-Haase A, Boase J, Chen W, Hampton K, Diaz I, Miyata K (2003) The social affordances of the internet for networked individualism. Journal of Computer-mediated Communication 8. Available at: http:\/\/jcmc.indiana.edu\/vol8\/issue3\/wellman.html (accessed June 2010).","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1083-6101.2003.tb00216.x"}],"container-title":["New Media &amp; Society"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/1461444811412160","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1177\/1461444811412160","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/1461444811412160","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,2]],"date-time":"2026-05-02T03:39:22Z","timestamp":1777693162000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/1461444811412160"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2011,10,3]]},"references-count":43,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2012,3]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1177\/1461444811412160"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/1461444811412160","relation":{},"ISSN":["1461-4448","1461-7315"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1461-4448","type":"print"},{"value":"1461-7315","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2011,10,3]]}}}