50 famous memes and what they mean

Merriam-Webster defines "meme" as "an thought, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture" or "an agreeable or interesting detail (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media." That definition hasn't been effectually forever—it hasn't even been effectually for five years. The lexicon editors officially added the entry along with "emoji" and "clickbait" to the formal lexicon in May 2015.

Memes have always come with an air of mystery, intriguing and confusing fifty-fifty the virtually computer literate. Where did they come from? More than importantly, what do they mean? Even modern science is hopping on the meme railroad train. A team of scientific researchers from Academy College London, Cyprus University of Technology, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and King'south Higher London came together in September 2018 to research the internet's most popular memes. Apart from assembling a definitive list of the globe's favorite memes, the bookish study also explored the influences (both positive and negative) that memes take on dissimilar communities. Some memes are created just for fun by creative or bored internet users, merely others are made with the explicit intention of going viral to promote political ideas.

With the infinite number of memes scattered across the internet, it'southward hard to keep runway. Only when you've grasped the meaning of one hilarious meme, it has already become old news and replaced by something equally as enigmatic. Online forums like Tumblr, Twitter, 4chan, and Reddit are responsible for a majority of meme infections, and with the abiding posting and sharing, finding the source of an original meme is easier said than done. Stacker hunted through cyberspace resources, pop civilisation publications, and databases like Know Your Meme to find 50 unlike memes and what they hateful. While the almost self-replicating nature of these vague symbols tin get exhausting, memes in their essence can also bring people closer together—equally long as they have cyberspace access.

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Danganronpamemer // imgflp

Expanding brain

In 2017, when a number of posters on Tumblr and 4chan started bragging most their brain sizes, it quickly turned into a meme. Photos of different sized brains are paired with "smart" sounding words until they expand into a fully enlightened stage. I of the kickoff manifestations of the "expanding brain" meme came from the who-whom-whomst progression of words that seemingly makes one sound smarter.

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Young Thug at computer

Back in 2018 a photo surfaced of the rappers Young Thug and Lil Durk staring at a reckoner screen while working on new music in the studio. The net quickly began finding humorous (and fabricated) explanations for what the two were so intently concentrating on, everything from the rappers planning an elaborate heist to playing old schoolhouse games like minesweeper.

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Get-go World problems

While the "First Globe" terminology has been around for a while, the hashtag #firstworldproblems reached its peak in popularity on Twitter in 2011 after Buzzfeed posted a series of memes nearly problems experienced by privileged people from wealthy countries. The meme most ever depicts an attractive person looking lamentable, with a caption explaining his or her First Globe frustrations.

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Change my mind

Subsequently Steven Crowder, a conservative podcaster, posted a photo of himself in 2018 sitting at a desk-bound with a sign saying "Male person privilege is a myth: Modify my mind," it was almost as well easy for the cyberspace to begin making fun of him with memes of their ain. Memes ranged from only changing the words on the sign to elaborate photoshops.

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Drake

Drake has been the bailiwick of several different memes throughout his long career. His 2015 unmarried "Hotline Bling" was one of the biggest songs of the year, and when the music video came out featuring Drake dancing in a brightly lit cube structure the memes began to accrue fifty-fifty more. Since then the internet has memed everything from his Twitter posts to school portraits.

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Is this a...?

The "is this a pigeon" meme beginning rose to popularity in 2011 after Tumblr posted a photo from a Japanese animated show of an android mistaking a butterfly for a pigeon. Almost of the memes derived from the photo use the subjects to express modern confusions or paranoia.

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Real proper noun Google searches

"Real name Google searches" is a meme that gained popularity in 2018 using the generic google template to depict made-up names for popular celebrities (usually those who become by aliases). According to Know Your Meme, it commencement appeared showing the rapper Lil Pump'southward proper name as "Lilliam Pumpernickel" and merely got more ridiculous from in that location.

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Futurama Fry

"Futurama Fry" is i of the about relatable memes on the web. Ane popular meme, which began in 2011, shows the graphic symbol Fry from the animated show "Futurama" with eyes narrowed thinking about contradicting questions usually referring to modern times or sarcasm. Another is a generic photo with the same graphic symbol belongings cash yelling "shut up and take my money," used for when someone finds the description of a product on the internet particularly appealing.

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Weird flex but OK

The phrase "weird flex merely OK" is used when someone brags about something that others would find awkward or just plain irrelevant. The phrase began showing upward on the internet in 2017 and has connected to be used in response to awkward boasts. One of the most pop uses of the meme was during the recent Brett Kavanaugh hearings subsequently he used his high school virginity as an statement.

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Evieliam // Wikimedia Commons

This is fine

Taken out of a 2013 webcomic strip chosen "On Burn down," this image showing a human-like canis familiaris enjoying his coffee while his firm is burning down has seemingly become more and more relatable every year. The paradigm is rarely altered, simply attached to troubling or hard-to-grasp news.

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Unsplash / Bence Boros and Twitter / @joshwillhall

FBI amanuensis

Jokes about "big brother watching" are quondam, but in early 2018 the internet was more than paranoid than ever earlier thanks to the internet-fueled idea of FBI agents watching people through their webcams. The memes aren't always critical, either; most of them depict the agents either protecting or being friendly with their subjects.

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Kermit

The iconic green puppet has stolen the hearts of millions on the "Muppet Show" since the 1950s, but the cyberspace meme sensation didn't begin until 2014. Most notable memes include Kermit sipping on some tea with passive ambitious text followed by "but that's none of my business," every bit well as another with a hooded Kermit formatted to prove good vs. evil thoughts.

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Cats

From "I demand dis" to "Nyan Cat," there really isn't ane subject field that emcompasses the internet's love of memes better than cats. Since the early 2000s when "Keyboard Cat" first made an advent on YouTube, people accept been posting funny images of felines paired with hilarious text.

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Squinting adult female

Also known as the "squat and squint" meme, the photo showing a squinting woman staring at something in the distance actually came from an outtake of a Instagram shot that went viral in March 2018. Since so, the picture has been applied to any circumstance that the poster finds unbelievable.

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A Star is Built-in

When the first trailer for the highly predictable flick starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga came out in 2018, excited fans took screenshots and made them into memes. The most popular ones came from funny adaptations of Cooper'due south line "I merely wanted to take another expect at you" and Gaga's belted solo from the song "Shallow."

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AndreDThompson // Twitter

Angry Patrick

Likewise known as "evil Patrick" or "vicious Patrick," this meme takes a withal of the character Patrick from "Spongebob Squarepants" with a menacing wait in his eyes from a 1999 episode. Twitter got a agree of it effectually February 2018 and started using the image along with an explanation of bad beliefs or motives.

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PaulFaire/TheThings // TheThings.com

By age 35...

Following a 2018 MarketWatch article that implied an unrealistic corporeality of savings one should have in their 30s, people on Twitter began responding to the article by sharing all the other things yous should ideally take by historic period 35 (from the hilariously true to the ridiculous). Advice on avocado toast, Pokemon, and drawers full of miscellaneous chargers followed.

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Don't say it

The "don't say it" meme details the relatable conversations people take between themselves and their brains, from bringing upward awkward conversations topics to resisting "that'south what she said" jokes. The first tweet with the meme showed upward in 2010, simply afterward resurfaced in 2017 and showed an inner struggle between whether or not to beginning a conversation with a taxi driver.

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MILOSLAVvonRANDA // WW Interweb

Handshakes

The 1987 moving-picture show "Predator" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers contained within it what could be the manliest handshake of all time, and in 2007 it began gaining traction on YouTube. After multiple videos and fan art paying tribute to the handshake became popular in the following years, object labeling memes using the handshake equally a background to agreements began to arise in 2018.

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Elon Musk

There have been several memes revolving around the tech entrepreneur Elon Musk throughout the years, especially following his Twitter request for "chilly memes" in October 2018. One of the almost pop Musk memes uses an prototype of the billionaire smoking during a podcast interview.

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Mocking Spongebob

"Mocking Spongebob" uses an image from a 2012 episode of Spongebob Squarepants to make fun of another person's opinion on the internet. The earliest uses of this meme came in 2017 on Twitter, quickly gaining traction and becoming one of the nigh popular (and effective) ways to insult someone online.

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Roll Condom

In 2016 a British mockumentary starring actor Kayode Ewumi chosen "Hood Documentary" was uploaded onto YouTube by BBC. Presently after, people on the internet began using a screen-grabbed image of Ewumi pointing to his temple like he had a good idea to reversely joke almost bad decisions and poor thinking.

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Kyle MacLachlan // Twitter

Thank u, side by side

When Ariana Grande released her unmarried "Thank U, Side by side" about her ex-boyfriends in early 2019, fans quickly began creating memes out of the lyrics. Aside from just using the title phrase to demonstrate existence over something and moving on, the internet too used the lyrics to compare three things that taught them love, patience, and pain to mimic the chorus.

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Let's go this bread

People on the internet apply the "Let's get this bread" meme ironically (usually information technology is slang for earning coin) to brand fun of people or themselves for trying likewise difficult to earn money. In 2018 the meme exploded into everything from mockeries of the gluten-intolerant to references to Olive Garden.

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Surprised pikachu

A screen-grabbed image of Pikachu looking surprised from an episode of "Pokemon" caught the attention of Twitter in belatedly 2018. For the next few months, the epitome blew upwards when people started using it as a meme for doing something with an obvious consequence.

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Warren Baker // The Blogging Baker

Condescending Willy Wonka

The meme uses an image of Gene Wilder's 1971 Willy Wonka graphic symbol to say something patronizing or mock someone. First used on Gizmodo and Tumblr every bit early as 2011, the image has go a common condescending response online.

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Pink Diamond // Pinterest

Jason Momoa sneaking up on Henry Cavill

Jason Momoa and Henry Cavill began a friendship while filming "Justice League" in 2016, and when a photo was taken of Momoa sneaking up on Cavill on the red carpet the aforementioned year, it quickly went viral. On the last day of 2017, a Facebook account posted a meme using the image, labeling Momoa every bit "2018." The meme gained popularity throughout the following months equally people labeled the ii as different things creeping up on each other.

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Exhausted Spongebob

In yet another Spongebob Squarepants meme, "wearied Spongebob" uses an image from a 1999 episode where the graphic symbol is leaning against a stone, naked and out of breath. Twitter began using the screengrab as an attachment to tweets around March 2018 nearly being tired.

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Classical art memes

In that location is a lot of unique classical art out there, and so of course the cyberspace has to detect the most hilarious and wacky pieces to turn into memes. While art-related videos and other online art parodies can exist traced dorsum to 2004, the more recognizable memes gained popularity starting in 2013.

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World'due south most interesting man

Well-nigh people will recognize the "world'south most interesting human being" (played by actor Jonathan Goldsmith) from the Dos Equis beer commercials that began in 2008. The meme usually uses the paradigm of Goldsmith as a well-dressed gentleman with an adaptation of his catchphrase "I don't e'er X, merely when I do, I Y" and began to gain popularity as early as 2010.

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Guy blinking nervously

One of the most popular memes of 2017, "guy blinking nervously" is usually used in GIF form to demonstrate bafflement and beingness caught unaware. The GIF initially came from a clip of a video producer when his co-worker said something inappropriate accidentally.

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Hard to eat pills

The "hard to swallow pills" meme uses 2 stock photos from WikiHow that were outset posted to the internet in Baronial 2017. Information technology didn't accept long for a Redditor to photoshop the image of the pill bottle to read "hard to swallow pills" and use it as a meme to illustrate a difficult truth.

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Who would win?

The internet has taken the childhood game of "who would win" to a whole new level with this meme. Used to pose hypothetical battles between two opposing subjects, the "who would win" meme is said to accept begun in 2014 when a 4chan user posted the meme using 2 video games as opponents.

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How I sleep knowing...

The classic rhetorical question "How do you sleep at night?" was the inspiration for this meme. The more modernistic rendition shows a motion-picture show of a person or animal sleeping soundly with dissimilar versions of the words: "How I sleep knowing..." This normally refers to something that most people feel guilty well-nigh or worry nigh (and therefore lose sleep over).

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Kardashians

Ever since the evidence "Keeping Upward with the Kardashians" first aired in 2007, people fell in dear with watching the family unit'south antics. They take all been the subject of a huge number of memes, with some of the most popular ones using screen shots from the show (usually of a meltdown or overreaction).

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"Today" days old

"Today days old" is used every bit a response to whatsoever random realization. It kickoff came from posts asking "How old were you when you realized X?" with someone responding: "I was today years old." This can exist a fact both well-known or more obscure.

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Pepe

Pepe the frog is a fictional grapheme that first appeared in a 2005 comic, and has gone through multiple transformations since then. Starting out as a positive meme known every bit "feel good frog" in 2008, Pepe was edited into a more than sad or aroused meme a few years later on. By 2015, what was initially intended to symbolize a peaceful way of life past the artist became twisted by several hate groups causing the epitome to be added to the Anti-Defamation League's database of hate symbols in 2016.

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Crying Michael Jordan

Taken from an epitome of the famous athlete's emotional speech during his 2009 induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame, this meme is usually used to convey a fan's thwarting when his particular squad loses or performs poorly. The meme has been around since first appearing on MemeCrunch in 2012 and gained an official fan page on Tumblr in 2015. Jordan has reportedly found the entire fad pretty funny.

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*Slaps roof of car*

"Slaps roof of car" can be traced back to a 2014 tweet of a ridiculous motorcar salesmen conversation overheard and started blowing up in 2018 after beingness paired with an illustrated stock image of a machine salesman showing off a car. The meme has seen many photoshopped variations, but normally utilizes the phrase "This bad boy tin can fit then much X in information technology."

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Awkward little girl

Also known equally "Side Eyeing Chloe," this meme can exist used in pretty much whatsoever bad-mannered state of affairs. The original photo came from a video of a piffling girl giving an unimpressed and hesitant look after beingness told about a surprise trip to Disneyland in 2013.

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Krusty Krab vs. Chum Bucket

Just about every "Spongebob Squarepants" fan knows virtually the intense rivalry between the Krusty Krab and the Chum Saucepan restaurants, but the sometime usually reigns supreme. The meme uses photoshopped images of both cartoon restaurants in order to project two rivals, such as sports teams and TV shows.

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Havokimin // Higher Humor

Elf on the shelf rhyming

The "Elf on the Shelf" tradition began when parents would put an elf doll in the mantle during the vacation season and tell their children that it was watching them exist naughty or nice. Toward the terminate of 2017, information technology became pop to mail images of funny things that rhyme sitting on pinnacle of other things that rhyme using the phrase "You've heard of elf on the shelf, at present become ready for 10."

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One does not simply...

Fans of "Lord of the Rings" won't need an caption for this meme. Actor Sean Bean played Boromir in the movies, and one of his famous lines, "One does not just walk into Mordor," became the inspiration for a meme that plays on the phrase. Bean himself even admitted to seeing a big influx of the memes online during a 2015 interview.

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I am a human being/adult female looking for....

After a 2017 tweet that posed a questionnaire using the classic dating template "I am a man/woman looking for a man/woman" about Carly Rae Jepsen, a meme was built-in. Since and then, it has become pop to employ the format to make funny declarations.

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Success kid

1 of the most popular memes of all fourth dimension, "success kid" uses a 2007 photograph taken of a little boy with a clenched fist and determined expression. It is well-nigh always used to display small successful moments or "wins" that happen to someone throughout a normal day like getting an actress chicken nugget in a fast-nutrient meal.

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OverlyAttachedGirlfriend.com

Overly attached girlfriend

"Overly attached girlfriend" began in 2012 when a Redditor took a screenshot of an image he found comical from a video of a daughter singing a rendition of Justin Bieber'southward vocal "Swain." It quickly began making its rounds on the internet, using captions portraying her every bit a stereotypical overly attached girlfriend.

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Donald Trump yelling at lawnmower male child

The internet just couldn't assist itself afterwards images surfaced of a little boy mowing the lawn at the White Business firm completely ignoring Trump. The child was apparently so focused on the chore that he didn't find Trump when he came out to greet him, forcing Trump to yell loudly over the sound of the lawnmower and making for some great meme fuel.

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Left exit 12

The "Left exit 12" meme uses a series of screen grabs from a 2013 YouTube video showing a motorcar drifting dangerously into an leave ramp. People began photoshopping the exit sign (exit 12) to say comical things that one might swerve off the highway in order to get to.

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