| “ | Hello internet, and welcome to Behind the Meme! Today we're gonna look at [meme name]! | ” |
―Behind The Meme's Intro | ||
Kyle "Ky" Bryce (born January 2, 1998), better known online as Behind The Meme, is an American YouTuber who is notably known for documenting the history of internet memes. The premise of Behind The Meme’s channel is to explain the origins of popular memes and trends.
With steady growth of the channel, his channel has faced criticism, from YouTubers such as theneedledrop, EmpLemon, Pyrocynical, and Memetastic, and has been loathed in certain meme communities for having poor, bland content, and the conception that he is obsoleting internet memes.
History[]
Beginnings[]
Behind The Meme started uploading content the same day it was created and in less than a month, the channel already had about 50,000 subscribers. Even to this day, he still uses the same formula for each video.
Popularity[]
The reason for his rapid subscriber growth during the first year of his channel is because the videos were created at the right place and at the right time, as memes in 2016 were more popular than ever and the topic was too interesting to not show. Eventually, in less than a year he gained about 700,000 subscribers.
Return[]
On August 18, 2018, Behind the Meme uploaded a video titled "What happened to Behind The Meme? Note To Self" after 5-month hiatus. After 4 days, he also made another video expressing his grief over the death of Stefan Karl.
Subsequently, he began to upload venting videos. In these videos, he explains his psychological suffering and visible mental breakdowns, due to excessive harassment and vitriol. There are outlets expressing sympathy and support, while others were skeptical and claimed the videos were intended to be manipulative.
The first video was uploaded on September 20, 2018, titled "1. The Beginning". The setting of the video is Ky is seen walking to a supermarket, picking up a bottle of Smirnoff vodka. The video features no dialogue, while the description reads "Behind The Meme picks up an old friend that will help him get through his feelings...or so he thinks." The video is meant to imply that he has fallen into alcoholism. The second video, titled "2. The Future" was uploaded on September 22, 2018. Ky is expressing that he has fallen into a severe depression. In the end, Ky takes his car keys out of his dresser. Multiple things are seen, including a snub nose revolver.
The third video, titled "3. The Middle" was uploaded on September 24, 2018. Ky is seen drunk driving while musing about the factors of life. Although many users seemed concerned for Bryce's health, some also theorized that this was a skit, due to the videos being automatically uploaded at exactly the same time every two days. The fourth video, titled "4. The Past", was uploaded on September 26, 2018. Ky reveals that he is indebted to an unnamed landlord and is depressed. He is later seen consuming more vodka while musing and sobbing about his channel has brought him joy and sadness. He later states "Hey, let's play a game! Everyone likes games!".
In the fifth video, called “5. The End” uploaded a day later. He is seen grabbing the revolver from the second video before shooting himself. It later cuts to an image of a faded skull, with text reading "Behind The Meme is dead, kinda.", with Crab Rave playing in the background, Crab Rave involves footage of CGI crabs dancing in celebration, while unsettling or unrelated news appears over the screen. The video was removed due to violating YouTube's terms of service, for violence.
The following day, Mr. Bryce uploaded a video explaining the series, stating that the series was meant to raise awareness about suicide and cyberbullying, as well as announce his departure from the channel, and separate himself from Behind The Meme. The reaction was mixed about this, with some condemning Mr. Bryce for misusing the topic of suicide, and some seemingly random.
Disappearance[]
On December 15, 2018, Ky released his last video titled "I got my 86 year old grandma an adult toy for her bday". After vanishing for years after this video, this resulted in an uprise of concerns from outlets. Ultimately, he has concurrently vanished from the rest of social media platforms and YouTube. His availability of uploading videos has been disabled due to the violation of the second community guideline strike and also he is losing subscribers.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, many of his videos were partially removed due to copyright infringement such as D*cksOutForHarambe being removed by a copyright claim of ViralHog, the videos about Beginning, Future, Middle, Past, and The End has been removed due to a violation of community guidelines. Behind The Meme has been encountered the third and final strike and he will be terminated in the future.
On November 18, 2022, Behind The Meme officially returned after nearly 4 years, with a video explaining the Spiderman Pointing Meme. Behind The Meme also uploaded a video explaining what happened to him, and discussing his disappearance in recent years.
On December 3, 2022, Behind The Meme uploaded a video explaining the Florida Man meme and went on another hiatus, although he quickly returned again in February 2023 to continue making new videos. In 2023, Behind The Meme uploaded a video explaining the BORG meme and went on departure.