YTMND Launches

2001

Date: 11 March 2001 (site live in current form May 2004) · Place: ytmnd.com · Figures: Max Goldberg (maxgoldberg), founder, 19 · Tags: Audio Loop, Single-Serving Site 01. You're the Man Now, Dog Max Goldberg, a 19-year-old in Vancouver, sees Sean Connery in Finding Forrester (2000) say YOU'RE THE MAN NOW DOG. In March 2001 he registers yourethemannowdog.com: a single page with the still image, the line in caps, and the audio looping. The site goes viral as the first single-serving site joke. In May 2004 Goldberg reopens it as ytmnd.com, a platform where any user can create their own page in the same format: one image, one looping audio clip, one block of caps text. The unit becomes a verb. 02. A Whole Genre in Three Inputs YTMND pages multiply into thousands: Lindsay Lohan Likes Milk, NEDM (Not Even Doom Music), Brian Peppers, Conan O'Brian Reaches For Something, Picard Song. The format's constraints (looping audio, fixed image, big caps) become a discipline, and the discipline becomes its own taste community. YTMND is the first platform whose entire value proposition is a meme format. The site never figures out how to monetise. Goldberg shutters it in 2019, then revives it intermittently. Sources • Max Goldberg interview, Vice (2008) • KnowYourMeme, YTMND • Wayback Machine, yourethemannowdog.com 2001