Meaning
What does Yee mean?
The meme Yee refers to a popular meme series, which has its roots in a video showcasing animated dinosaurs.
In this particular clip, an Ankylosaurus is belting out a tune when he’s rudely interrupted by the Tyrannosaurus rex-like Oro shouting “Yee”.
The dino duo goes by Peek and Oro respectively, with the latter becoming synonymous with the viral sensation due to his jarring sound effects and lackluster animation quality.
Origin
What's the origin of Yee?
In 2010, an individual decided to grace YouTube with a video showcasing an Italian rendition of Dingo Pictures‘ dinosaur escapade – a cheap imitation of the beloved animated classic “The Land Before Time” from 1988.
Fast-forward to early 2012 and another user crafted a satirical spin on this initial upload. Little did they know that their creation would evolve into what we now recognize as one hilarious meme.
Spread & Usage
How did Yee spread?
Following its initial emergence, “Yee” began to proliferate across image sharing and message board platforms such as Tumblr and Reddit. Users quickly adopted it for the purpose of lampooning other YouTube phenomena – one notable example being a Toy Story parody that repurposed the song “You Got A Friend In Me”, renaming it simply as “You Got A Friend In Yee”.
As time went on, these parodists became increasingly creative with their use of face-swapping technology; they even inserted swapped faces into videos in order to further propagate this viral sensation throughout cyberspace.
