l famous memes and what they mean

Merriam-Webster defines "meme" as "an idea, behavior, way, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture" or "an amusing 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 around forever—information technology hasn't fifty-fifty been around for five years. The dictionary editors officially added the entry forth with "emoji" and "clickbait" to the formal dictionary in May 2015.

Memes take ever come up with an air of mystery, intriguing and confusing fifty-fifty the most reckoner literate. Where did they come from? More importantly, what do they hateful? Even modern scientific discipline is hopping on the meme train. A team of scientific researchers from University College London, Cyprus University of Technology, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and King's College 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 academic study also explored the influences (both positive and negative) that memes take on different communities. Some memes are created merely for fun by artistic or bored internet users, but 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'due south difficult to keep track. Just when you've grasped the meaning of one hilarious meme, it has already become old news and replaced past 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 internet resources, pop culture publications, and databases like Know Your Meme to observe 50 different memes and what they mean. While the nigh self-replicating nature of these vague symbols tin get exhausting, memes in their essence can likewise bring people closer together—as long as they take internet admission.

You might also similar: What "woke" and 50 other millennial sayings mean

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Danganronpamemer // imgflp

Expanding brain

In 2017, when a number of posters on Tumblr and 4chan started bragging about 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 phase. One 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

Dorsum in 2018 a photograph surfaced of the rappers Young Thug and Lil Durk staring at a calculator screen while working on new music in the studio. The internet rapidly 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 school games like minesweeper.

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Offset World problems

While the "Start World" terminology has been around for a while, the hashtag #firstworldproblems reached its peak in popularity on Twitter in 2011 after Buzzfeed posted a serial of memes about problems experienced past privileged people from wealthy countries. The meme almost always depicts an attractive person looking lamentable, with a caption explaining his or her First World frustrations.

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Change my mind

Afterward Steven Crowder, a bourgeois podcaster, posted a photo of himself in 2018 sitting at a desk with a sign saying "Male privilege is a myth: Change my heed," it was nearly too piece of cake for the internet to begin making fun of him with memes of their own. Memes ranged from only changing the words on the sign to elaborate photoshops.

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Drake

Drake has been the subject field of several different memes throughout his long career. His 2015 unmarried "Hotline Bling" was ane of the biggest songs of the yr, and when the music video came out featuring Drake dancing in a brightly lit cube structure the memes began to accumulate even more. Since then the internet has memed everything from his Twitter posts to schoolhouse portraits.

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Is this a...?

The "is this a pigeon" meme first rose to popularity in 2011 afterwards Tumblr posted a photo from a Japanese animated testify of an android mistaking a butterfly for a pigeon. Most of the memes derived from the photo use the subjects to express modernistic confusions or paranoia.

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Real name Google searches

"Real name Google searches" is a meme that gained popularity in 2018 using the generic google template to depict made-upwardly names for popular celebrities (normally those who go by aliases). According to Know Your Meme, it first appeared showing the rapper Lil Pump'due south name as "Lilliam Pumpernickel" and only got more ridiculous from there.

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Futurama Fry

"Futurama Fry" is ane of the nigh relatable memes on the spider web. Ane pop meme, which began in 2011, shows the character Fry from the animated show "Futurama" with eyes narrowed thinking about contradicting questions usually referring to modernistic times or sarcasm. Another is a generic photograph with the same character property greenbacks yelling "close up and take my money," used for when someone finds the description of a product on the net particularly appealing.

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Weird flex only OK

The phrase "weird flex but OK" is used when someone brags nearly something that others would observe bad-mannered or just apparently irrelevant. The phrase began showing upwardly on the internet in 2017 and has continued to be used in response to bad-mannered boasts. One of the most popular uses of the meme was during the recent Brett Kavanaugh hearings subsequently he used his high school virginity as an argument.

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Evieliam // Wikimedia Commons

This is fine

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

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Unsplash / Bence Boros and Twitter / @joshwillhall

FBI agent

Jokes nigh "big blood brother watching" are sometime, but in early 2018 the internet was more paranoid than ever before thank you to the net-fueled thought of FBI agents watching people through their webcams. The memes aren't always critical, either; most of them depict the agents either protecting or existence friendly with their subjects.

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Kermit

The iconic green boob has stolen the hearts of millions on the "Muppet Show" since the 1950s, merely the internet meme awareness didn't brainstorm until 2014. Most notable memes include Kermit sipping on some tea with passive ambitious text followed by "but that's none of my business concern," also as another with a hooded Kermit formatted to show expert vs. evil thoughts.

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Cats

From "I need dis" to "Nyan Cat," there actually isn't one subject that emcompasses the net'due south love of memes ameliorate than cats. Since the early on 2000s when "Keyboard Cat" first made an appearance on YouTube, people have been posting funny images of felines paired with hilarious text.

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Squinting woman

Too known as the "squat and squint" meme, the photo showing a squinting adult female staring at something in the distance actually came from an outtake of a Instagram shot that went viral in March 2018. Since then, the pic has been practical to any circumstance that the affiche finds unbelievable.

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A Star is Born

When the outset trailer for the highly anticipated movie 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's line "I merely wanted to take another look at you" and Gaga's belted solo from the song "Shallow."

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AndreDThompson // Twitter

Aroused Patrick

Also known as "evil Patrick" or "savage Patrick," this meme takes a still of the graphic symbol Patrick from "Spongebob Squarepants" with a menacing look in his optics from a 1999 episode. Twitter got a hold of information technology around February 2018 and started using the prototype along with an caption of bad behavior or motives.

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PaulFaire/TheThings // TheThings.com

By age 35...

Following a 2018 MarketWatch article that implied an unrealistic amount of savings ane should have in their 30s, people on Twitter began responding to the article by sharing all the other things you should ideally have by age 35 (from the hilariously true to the ridiculous). Communication on avocado toast, Pokemon, and drawers total of miscellaneous chargers followed.

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Don't say it

The "don't say information technology" meme details the relatable conversations people have betwixt themselves and their brains, from bringing upward bad-mannered conversations topics to resisting "that's what she said" jokes. The first tweet with the meme showed up in 2010, but later resurfaced in 2017 and showed an inner struggle between whether or non to starting time a conversation with a taxi driver.

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MILOSLAVvonRANDA // WW Interweb

Handshakes

The 1987 motion-picture show "Predator" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers contained within it what could be the manliest handshake of all time, and in 2007 information technology began gaining traction on YouTube. After multiple videos and fan art paying tribute to the handshake became pop in the post-obit years, object labeling memes using the handshake as 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, peculiarly following his Twitter asking for "dank memes" in October 2018. 1 of the most pop Musk memes uses an epitome 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'southward opinion on the internet. The primeval uses of this meme came in 2017 on Twitter, quickly gaining traction and becoming one of the most popular (and constructive) means to insult someone online.

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Scroll Rubber

In 2016 a British mockumentary starring role player Kayode Ewumi called "Hood Documentary" was uploaded onto YouTube by BBC. Soon after, people on the internet began using a screen-grabbed paradigm of Ewumi pointing to his temple like he had a good thought to reversely joke about bad decisions and poor thinking.

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Kyle MacLachlan // Twitter

Thank u, next

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

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Let'due south become this breadstuff

People on the internet use the "Allow's get this staff of life" meme ironically (usually it is slang for earning money) to make fun of people or themselves for trying too hard 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 attending of Twitter in late 2018. For the next few months, the image blew up when people started using it as a meme for doing something with an obvious outcome.

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Warren Baker // The Blogging Baker

Cavalier Willy Wonka

The meme uses an paradigm of Gene Wilder'due south 1971 Willy Wonka character to say something patronizing or mock someone. Commencement used on Gizmodo and Tumblr as early on equally 2011, the image has get 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 carpeting the aforementioned twelvemonth, information technology quickly went viral. On the concluding solar day of 2017, a Facebook account posted a meme using the image, labeling Momoa as "2018." The meme gained popularity throughout the following months as people labeled the two as unlike things creeping up on each other.

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Exhausted Spongebob

In however another Spongebob Squarepants meme, "exhausted Spongebob" uses an image from a 1999 episode where the character is leaning confronting a rock, naked and out of jiff. Twitter began using the screengrab equally an attachment to tweets around March 2018 near being tired.

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Classical art memes

At that place is a lot of unique classical art out in that location, and so of course the cyberspace has to detect the almost hilarious and wacky pieces to plough into memes. While fine art-related videos and other online fine art parodies can be traced back to 2004, the more recognizable memes gained popularity starting in 2013.

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World'southward nearly interesting homo

Most people will recognize the "globe's most interesting homo" (played past histrion Jonathan Goldsmith) from the Dos Equis beer commercials that began in 2008. The meme normally uses the image of Goldsmith as a well-dressed gentleman with an adaptation of his catchphrase "I don't always X, but when I do, I Y" and began to gain popularity as early as 2010.

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Guy blinking nervously

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

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Difficult to swallow pills

The "hard to swallow pills" meme uses two stock photos from WikiHow that were first posted to the internet in August 2017. Information technology didn't take long for a Redditor to photoshop the prototype 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 net has taken the childhood game of "who would win" to a whole new level with this meme. Used to pose hypothetical battles between 2 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 equally opponents.

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How I sleep knowing...

The classic rhetorical question "How practise you slumber at night?" was the inspiration for this meme. The more than modern rendition shows a picture of a person or animal sleeping soundly with unlike versions of the words: "How I sleep knowing..." This usually refers to something that most people feel guilty about or worry about (and therefore lose sleep over).

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Kardashians

Ever since the show "Keeping Upwardly with the Kardashians" outset aired in 2007, people fell in love with watching the family'southward antics. They take all been the subject of a huge number of memes, with some of the about popular ones using screen shots from the evidence (usually of a meltdown or overreaction).

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"Today" days former

"Today days sometime" is used as a response to whatever random realization. It first came from posts asking "How old were you when you realized 10?" with someone responding: "I was today years erstwhile." This can be a fact both well-known or more obscure.

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Pepe

Pepe the frog is a fictional character that first appeared in a 2005 comic, and has gone through multiple transformations since then. Starting out equally a positive meme known equally "feel good frog" in 2008, Pepe was edited into a more pitiful or angry meme a few years subsequently. Past 2015, what was initially intended to symbolize a peaceful way of life past the artist became twisted by several hate groups causing the image 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 image of the famous athlete's emotional speech communication during his 2009 consecration into the Basketball Hall of Fame, this meme is unremarkably used to convey a fan'due south disappointment when his detail squad loses or performs poorly. The meme has been effectually since first appearing on MemeCrunch in 2012 and gained an official fan page on Tumblr in 2015. Jordan has reportedly found the unabridged fad pretty funny.

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*Slaps roof of automobile*

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

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Awkward little daughter

Also known equally "Side Eyeing Chloe," this meme can be used in pretty much any awkward situation. The original photo came from a video of a trivial girl giving an unimpressed and hesitant look after being told near a surprise trip to Disneyland in 2013.

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Krusty Krab vs. Chum Saucepan

Simply about every "Spongebob Squarepants" fan knows almost the intense rivalry between the Krusty Krab and the Chum Bucket restaurants, but the former usually reigns supreme. The meme uses photoshopped images of both drawing restaurants in guild to project 2 rivals, such as sports teams and Television receiver shows.

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Havokimin // College Humour

Elf on the shelf rhyming

The "Elf on the Shelf" tradition began when parents would put an elf doll in the pall during the holiday season and tell their children that information technology was watching them be naughty or squeamish. Toward the terminate of 2017, it became popular to post images of funny things that rhyme sitting on top of other things that rhyme using the phrase "You've heard of elf on the shelf, now get ready for X."

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One does not only...

Fans of "Lord of the Rings" won't need an caption for this meme. Actor Sean Edible bean played Boromir in the movies, and one of his famous lines, "One does not simply 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/woman looking for....

After a 2017 tweet that posed a questionnaire using the classic dating template "I am a man/adult female looking for a homo/adult female" well-nigh Carly Rae Jepsen, a meme was born. Since so, it has become popular to use the format to brand funny declarations.

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Success kid

One of the most pop memes of all time, "success child" uses a 2007 photograph taken of a little boy with a clenched fist and determined expression. It is virtually always used to display minor successful moments or "wins" that happen to someone throughout a normal 24-hour interval like getting an actress chicken nugget in a fast-food meal.

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OverlyAttachedGirlfriend.com

Overly fastened girlfriend

"Overly attached girlfriend" began in 2012 when a Redditor took a screenshot of an epitome he plant comical from a video of a girl singing a rendition of Justin Bieber'due south song "Young man." It speedily began making its rounds on the internet, using captions portraying her equally a stereotypical overly attached girlfriend.

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Donald Trump yelling at lawnmower boy

The internet just couldn't help itself afterwards images surfaced of a picayune boy mowing the lawn at the White House completely ignoring Trump. The kid was patently so focused on the job that he didn't notice Trump when he came out to greet him, forcing Trump to yell loudly over the audio of the lawnmower and making for some nifty 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 auto drifting dangerously into an exit ramp. People began photoshopping the get out sign (go out 12) to say comical things that one might swerve off the highway in order to get to.

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