Pop-culture issue...

[Robelwell202]

Okay, so maybe I'm really old (41), or I'm just not up on Internet culture.  Either way, a couple of things have been popping up lately that have me a bit dumb-struck.

The first is, I've seen the phrase 'Like a Boss' floating around a lot.  Could someone please explain this?  A boss, to me, is someone I'd work for, so I can't see the relevance.

Second, what the hell is a meme?  How the hell is it pronounced, even?  Meme, in my experience, is what a little kid yells when he wants ice cream or candy, as in 'Who wants candy?'  'Oooo!  Me! Me!'

Thanks!

[Stella]

Bookmark this site! It's a great source for deciphering internet humour.

I pronounce meme as 'meem.' One syllable. Wikipedia has a pretty good definition of what a meme is exactly.

[JackWhite]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NisCkxU544c

Like a boss
Used to describe something that someone did as amazing or awesome.

http://nl.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Like%20A%20Boss

[Inkidu]

Meme pronounced meem (like cream) with memetic pronounced meh-met-ik (like rhetoric) as the adjective form. It's a concept that actually predates the internet at large. It's basically a virulent element of one culture that permeates into other separate cultures.

One does not simply X is a meme.

Or I don't always X, but when I do I Y is another

[Oniya]

Perhaps one of the earliest memes would be the 'Kilroy was here' graffiti from the 1940's.

[Inkidu]

Perhaps one of the earliest memes would be the 'Kilroy was here' graffiti from the 1940's.

Yep. Though it predates the concept by about thirty years. The cultural anthropologist who coined the term did so in the Seventies, I think.

[Oniya]

Something along those lines.  There was a lot of 'human studies' going on in the 70's, giving unfamiliar names to familiar behaviors.  ::)

[Karma]

http://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/ is a great place for asking about stuff like this, too.