Funny memes make our day. These mini works of art, in a million categories from #PSAT memes to Pepe to moths and made by taking bits and pieces of our culture (mostly screenshots of copyrighted stuff) and slapping the perfect caption on them, capture how we feel about life at any given moment better than just about any other form of communication. Funny memes are also big business, with many meme account admins on Instagram and Twitter making decent livings by promoting brands alongside their viral posts.
We wanted to find out what makes a meme account tick, so we reached out to a rising Instagram funny memes account owner about how she got started and some tricks of the trade. Meet Caissy, a 16-year-old highschooler who runs the @caissyspams account on Instagram.
Hi Caissy! Nice to e-meet you! We literally wanted to interview you simply because we follow your account and you got good taste in memes. So with that out of the way, tell us a little bit about yourself.
My name is Caissy Chase. I’ll be sixteen in a few days and I’m from Florida.
Why did you start the @CaissySpams account?
I started my account three years ago because all of my friends had a spam account and I felt the need to make one as well. That’s where I got the username from because it was originally a spam account that then turned into a meme page.
Your main account has about 1,000 followers…yet your meme acct has almost 17,000. How did you grow your followers—or did it just kind happen? (like did you use hashtags strategically or anything like that?)
It honestly kind of just happened. I never used hashtags and the only people I asked for shoutouts were my friends when I was first starting the transition into a meme page. I haven’t spent money on the account to grow it, it’s just posting the right stuff at the right time and hoping they do well.
Do you ever create your own funny memes, or do you always post from other sites?
I usually just repost from other accounts because I’m not the most creative person and I don’t have the time unless an idea pops in my head and I’ll make it into a meme.
What is your personal favorite meme you have posted ever?
My personal favorite meme at the moment is probably the moth meme. I don’t really have a reason I just find them funny.
Do a lot of people at your school follow you? (on Instagram, I don’t mean around the hall or down the street)
A lot of people from school do follow me, that’s basically how the account started.
Which meme on your acct has gone the most viral/most likes, and why do you think so?
The meme that went the most viral was the one linked below. It reached over a million people with almost 90,000 likes, 720 comments and 27,500 saves.
Have you ever had to remove a post because somebody got offended or complained?
When someone does get offended, depending on how bad of a backlash I get or how much it offends them, I will usually just turn off the comments but I have had incidents where I’ve taken stuff down. Once, out of the three years of having this account, a post has been reported and taken down.
You post a lot…how much time would you say you spend doing this on a daily basis?
I do post a lot, I have a friend who helps me by sending me memes every day which is @crispy.riley. I feel like she deserves some credit too because it’s not just me making it happen. I would say that I do spend 2+ hours a day going through posts, posting, reading comments and such.
Are you looking to turn this into a business, or do you just do it for fun?
As of right now it’s just for fun, but I would like to start promotions for small businesses in the future.
What are your long term goals for the account?
My long term goals for the account are to keep it how it is and never change how it’s ran. I would also like to have 50K followers but that’s a lot to ask so we will just see what the future holds.
If you had to break it down, what do you think is the trick for a good meme? Like does including a cat make it funnier…or what’s the secret sauce?
In my opinion the trick for a good meme that will do well when you post it, is to post what’s popular. See what everyone else is posting but also post what you think is funny because there’s no fun in just posting what everyone else is. Uniqueness is always a good quality to have when posting or making memes.
What do you do besides share funny memes…any other talents? : )
I don’t really have any talents but I do show and work with pigs from September to January and then the rest of the year is school and running the account.
What other accounts do you recommend people follow for good memes?
@pablopiqasso
@memezar
@deadroses.spam
@puncrastination
Caissy rarely shows her face on her funny memes account, but here she is!
