It’s fun sitting down with a meme just past the expiration date, right at that moment when it’s gone from being a hilarious in-joke you’re sharing with the Internet to a tired and overplayed gag. That’s right — we’re going to talk about Kanye.

The recap, for the sake of those in caves or posterity: At the VMAs this Sunday, Kanye West interrupted country singer Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech for best female video, telling the world that Beyonce was the one who deserved it. Despite immediately releasing an apology on his web site and again apologizing on Jay Leno the following day, he has become the brunt of harsh criticism and Internet tomfoolery.

At its core, the Kanye meme is similar to Keyboard Cat, but in reverse — when Kanye interrupts, he is wrong to do so. This article from The Daily Mail is a pretty thorough archive of the photo and video reactions: events Kanye’s interrupted include the Hindenberg crash, the moon landing, and Facebook.

You can now Kanye-ize your web site, though personally I take offense at the fact that the graphic is misspelled: The accepted nomenclature here is “I’mma gonna let you…”, not “I’m gonna let you…” For Beyonce’s sake, are we totally without standards? Read more of this story

I take online video very seriously as a medium and as an art form. But that doesn’t mean I’m above enjoying some of its cruder pleasures, such as the antics of adorable felines, a phenomenon which has evolved to the point where subgenres like “cats playing the piano” now exist. And I’m prepared to say that’s a good thing. Why?

1. Let’s start with Keyboard Cat, because you know I’m going to. Much has already been discussed about the coolest cat on the Internet, though the most coherent breakdown of the phenomenon is definitely the Rocketboom team’s Know Your Meme installment (which has been useful in explaining the phenomenon for everyone from MSNBC’s David Schuster to my boyfriend).
   
   But what Know Your Meme points out succinctly is that what Keyboard Cat brings to online video is a tres cute way of saying “Fail,” which is something that this occasionally harsh world desperately needs. Please note for the future: If someone is going to point out to me that I’ve screwed up, I’d prefer the news come from a tabby in a blue onesie.

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Totally Sketch, a weekly series of comedy videos running on YouTube, lives by one creed: making comedy that’s funny. Which honestly is a tall order for a series producing a new sketch weekly — after all, it’s hard enough to make one good sketch, let alone one good sketch every seven days. But executive producer and Mahalo Daily alumni Michael Gallagher may have struck the winning combination, consistently hitting that sweet spot of topical relevance, professional execution and borderline offensiveness with each piece.

While there’s no real unifying element to each video (even the cast features a lot of turnover), the bulk of their product is tightly edited and perfectly targeted to appeal to online viewers. Sometimes this is because the series focuses on Internet memes like Keyboard Cat, and sometimes this is because the series makes crude jokes about abortion. Many of these sketches aren’t exactly ground-breaking in their originality (they’ve done the often-used retro 50s sketch, not to mention mocking the perhaps over-mocked Sham-Wow infomercial. But their takes on these concepts are fresh, and executed perfectly for web audiences.

They’ve even branched out into creating interactive games using YouTube’s annotations feature — including an an Interactive Dad piece intended for orphans on Father’s Day, which is well-executed and pretty funny…until, that is, you think about what it’s actually like to be without a father on Father’s Day. And let’s not mention the fact that as clever as the E! True Hollywood Story take on Keyboard Cat is, it takes on a tragic dimension when you consider that Fatso, the kitty merrily tickling the ivories, did actually pass away recently. DON’T YOU HAVE ANY FEELINGS, TOTALLY SKETCH? OR IS THERE ONLY A GOOGLE TEXT AD WHERE YOUR HEART SHOULD BE? Read more of this story

Just when you think the Keyboard Cat meme is played out — someone goes and adds Helen Hunt crazy on drugs (from an old movie) and Hall and Oates. Is there anything better? Nope.

As profiled in The New York Times, the producers of MTV’s new show It’s On With Alexa Chung appear to be TERRIFIED of being compared to Total Request Live, better known as TRL, the music video/chat show that dominated the after-school plans of cool teenagers (and wannabes) from 1998 to 2008. (From the article: “According to the network the only thing the two shows have in common is the studio location.”)

Well, no worries, guys, because there’s no chance of confusion. It’s On is essentially the adolescent version of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, pop-culture-heavy, Internet-savvy and (given the fact it airs at 12 p.m. EDT/PDT) not really meant for anyone with a steady day job and/or over the legal drinking age. And while the show may not have worked out all the kinks yet, it definitely knows its audience and how to appeal to them.

Today’s episode of It’s On opened with a jarring attempt to be “in” with the kids and their scene, enlisting Ryan Brockington from the New York Post (whose necktie, rumpled button-down, and waistcoat make him eligible for a Look at This F—ing Hipster post) to provide commentary on the stories currently circulating through the blogosphere. Brockington takes credit for coining the expression “to Boyle out” when referring to Taylor Swift’s love for her cat — he’s, of course, referencing Susan Boyle’s obsession with her own feline. He then says “you Lohaned me” (referring to Lindsay Lohan’s recent acts of petty theft) when Chung steals his pen. Brockington, to quote Mean Girls, stop trying to make “fetch” happen. It is not going to happen. Read more of this story