l famous memes and what they mean

Merriam-Webster defines "meme" every bit "an idea, behavior, way, or usage that spreads from person to person inside a culture" or "an amusing or interesting particular (such as a captioned film or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online specially through social media." That definition hasn't been around forever—it hasn't even been around for v years. The dictionary editors officially added the entry along with "emoji" and "clickbait" to the formal dictionary in May 2015.

Memes have ever come up with an air of mystery, intriguing and confusing even the nigh computer literate. Where did they come from? More importantly, what exercise they mean? Even modern science 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 Male monarch's College London came together in September 2022 to research the internet'southward nigh popular memes. Autonomously from assembling a definitive listing of the earth's favorite memes, the academic study also explored the influences (both positive and negative) that memes take on unlike communities. Some memes are created merely for fun by creative 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's hard to proceed track. Just when you've grasped the meaning of 1 hilarious meme, it has already get old news and replaced by something equally equally enigmatic. Online forums similar Tumblr, Twitter, 4chan, and Reddit are responsible for a majority of meme infections, and with the constant posting and sharing, finding the source of an original meme is easier said than done. Stacker hunted through internet resources, pop civilization publications, and databases like Know Your Meme to discover 50 different memes and what they mean. While the well-nigh self-replicating nature of these vague symbols tin can go exhausting, memes in their essence can too bring people closer together—equally long equally they have internet access.

You might too like: 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 most their brain sizes, it chop-chop turned into a meme. Photos of different sized brains are paired with "smart" sounding words until they expand into a fully enlightened stage. One of the first manifestations of the "expanding encephalon" meme came from the who-whom-whomst progression of words that seemingly makes one audio smarter.

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Young Thug at calculator

Back in 2022 a photograph surfaced of the rappers Young Thug and Lil Durk staring at a computer screen while working on new music in the studio. The internet quickly began finding humorous (and fabricated) explanations for what the two were and so intently concentrating on, everything from the rappers planning an elaborate heist to playing onetime school games like minesweeper.

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Beginning World bug

While the "First World" terminology has been around for a while, the hashtag #firstworldproblems reached its superlative in popularity on Twitter in 2011 afterward Buzzfeed posted a serial of memes about problems experienced by privileged people from wealthy countries. The meme nigh always depicts an attractive person looking sad, with a caption explaining his or her Get-go Earth frustrations.

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Change my mind

Subsequently Steven Crowder, a conservative podcaster, posted a photograph of himself in 2022 sitting at a desk with a sign saying "Male privilege is a myth: Modify my listen," it was nearly also easy for the internet to begin making fun of him with memes of their ain. Memes ranged from simply changing the words on the sign to elaborate photoshops.

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Drake

Drake has been the subject of several different memes throughout his long career. His 2022 single "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 even more. Since and 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 first rose to popularity in 2011 afterwards Tumblr posted a photograph from a Japanese animated show of an android mistaking a butterfly for a pigeon. Most of the memes derived from the photo utilise 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 2022 using the generic google template to draw made-upward names for popular celebrities (usually those who go by aliases). According to Know Your Meme, information technology get-go appeared showing the rapper Lil Pump's proper noun as "Lilliam Pumpernickel" and only got more ridiculous from there.

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Futurama Fry

"Futurama Fry" is one of the nearly relatable memes on the web. One popular meme, which began in 2011, shows the character Fry from the blithe show "Futurama" with eyes narrowed thinking nearly contradicting questions usually referring to modernistic times or sarcasm. Another is a generic photo with the same grapheme holding cash yelling "shut upwardly and take my money," used for when someone finds the description of a product on the internet particularly highly-seasoned.

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Weird flex but OK

The phrase "weird flex simply OK" is used when someone brags well-nigh something that others would detect awkward or merely plain irrelevant. The phrase began showing up on the cyberspace in 2022 and has continued to be used in response to awkward boasts. One of the most popular uses of the meme was during the contempo Brett Kavanaugh hearings after 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 being-like dog enjoying his coffee while his firm is burning down has seemingly become more and more than relatable every yr. The image is rarely altered, simply fastened to troubling or hard-to-grasp news.

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Unsplash / Bence Boros and Twitter / @joshwillhall

FBI agent

Jokes nigh "big brother watching" are old, but in early on 2022 the cyberspace was more paranoid than ever earlier thanks to the net-fueled idea of FBI agents watching people through their webcams. The memes aren't always critical, either; nearly of them depict the agents either protecting or beingness 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 internet meme awareness didn't begin until 2014. Most notable memes include Kermit sipping on some tea with passive aggressive text followed by "but that'southward none of my concern," also every bit another with a hooded Kermit formatted to testify good vs. evil thoughts.

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Cats

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

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Squinting adult female

As well known every bit 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 affiche finds unbelievable.

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A Star is Born

When the get-go trailer for the highly predictable movie starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga came out in 2018, excited fans took screenshots and made them into memes. The nigh popular ones came from funny adaptations of Cooper'due south line "I just wanted to have another look at you" and Gaga's belted solo from the song "Shallow."

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AndreDThompson // Twitter

Angry Patrick

Also known as "evil Patrick" or "savage Patrick," this meme takes a still of the character Patrick from "Spongebob Squarepants" with a menacing await in his eyes from a 1999 episode. Twitter got a agree of it effectually February 2022 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...

Post-obit a 2022 MarketWatch commodity that implied an unrealistic amount of savings one should take in their 30s, people on Twitter began responding to the article by sharing all the other things you should ideally have past age 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 accept between themselves and their brains, from bringing up awkward conversations topics to resisting "that'due south what she said" jokes. The get-go tweet with the meme showed upwardly in 2010, simply subsequently resurfaced in 2022 and showed an inner struggle between whether or non to start a conversation with a taxi driver.

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MILOSLAVvonRANDA // WW Interweb

Handshakes

The 1987 pic "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 fine art paying tribute to the handshake became popular in the following years, object labeling memes using the handshake every bit a background to agreements began to arise in 2018.

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Elon Musk

There take been several memes revolving around the tech entrepreneur Elon Musk throughout the years, peculiarly following his Twitter request for "dank memes" in October 2018. Ane of the most popular Musk memes uses an image 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 brand fun of another person's opinion on the internet. The primeval uses of this meme came in 2022 on Twitter, apace gaining traction and condign one of the virtually popular (and effective) means to insult someone online.

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Whorl Safety

In 2022 a British mockumentary starring histrion Kayode Ewumi called "Hood Documentary" was uploaded onto YouTube by BBC. Soon after, people on the net began using a screen-grabbed prototype of Ewumi pointing to his temple like he had a practiced thought to reversely joke about bad decisions and poor thinking.

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Kyle MacLachlan // Twitter

Thank u, side by side

When Ariana Grande released her unmarried "Give thanks U, Adjacent" nearly her ex-boyfriends in early on 2019, fans apace 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 beloved, patience, and pain to mimic the chorus.

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Permit's get this staff of life

People on the net use the "Let's become this breadstuff" meme ironically (unremarkably it is slang for earning money) to make fun of people or themselves for trying too hard to earn money. In 2022 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 every bit a meme for doing something with an obvious outcome.

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Warren Baker // The Blogging Baker

Condescending Willy Wonka

The meme uses an paradigm of Gene Wilder's 1971 Willy Wonka character to say something patronizing or mock someone. First used on Gizmodo and Tumblr every bit early equally 2011, the image has go a common cavalier 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 upward on Cavill on the ruddy rug the same year, it chop-chop 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 post-obit months as people labeled the two equally dissimilar things creeping up on each other.

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Exhausted Spongebob

In nonetheless another Spongebob Squarepants meme, "wearied Spongebob" uses an epitome from a 1999 episode where the grapheme is leaning against a rock, naked and out of jiff. Twitter began using the screengrab every bit an attachment to tweets effectually March 2022 well-nigh being tired.

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Classical art memes

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

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Globe's most interesting man

Most people will recognize the "world's most interesting man" (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 accommodation of his catchphrase "I don't always 10, but when I do, I Y" and began to gain popularity as early on every bit 2010.

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Guy blinking nervously

1 of the most pop memes of 2017, "guy blinking nervously" is normally used in GIF class to demonstrate bafflement and being 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 "difficult to swallow pills" meme uses two stock photos from WikiHow that were first posted to the internet in August 2017. It didn't take long for a Redditor to photoshop the prototype of the pill bottle to read "hard to swallow pills" and employ 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 ii opposing subjects, the "who would win" meme is said to take begun in 2022 when a 4chan user posted the meme using two video games as opponents.

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How I sleep knowing...

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

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Kardashians

Always since the show "Keeping Upwards with the Kardashians" first aired in 2007, people fell in love with watching the family'due south antics. They have all been the field of study of a huge number of memes, with some of the near popular ones using screen shots from the show (usually of a meltdown or overreaction).

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"Today" days quondam

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

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Pepe

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

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Crying Michael Hashemite kingdom of jordan

Taken from an image of the famous athlete'south emotional speech during his 2009 induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame, this meme is usually used to convey a fan'southward disappointment when his particular squad loses or performs poorly. The meme has been effectually since get-go appearing on MemeCrunch in 2012 and gained an official fan page on Tumblr in 2015. Hashemite kingdom of jordan has reportedly plant the entire fad pretty funny.

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*Slaps roof of automobile*

"Slaps roof of automobile" can be traced back to a 2022 tweet of a ridiculous car salesmen conversation overheard and started blowing up in 2022 later being paired with an illustrated stock paradigm of a automobile salesman showing off a car. The meme has seen many photoshopped variations, merely usually utilizes the phrase "This bad male child can fit so much X in it."

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Bad-mannered little girl

Also known every bit "Side Eyeing Chloe," this meme tin be used in pretty much any awkward state of affairs. The original photograph came from a video of a piffling girl giving an unimpressed and hesitant look after beingness told most a surprise trip to Disneyland in 2013.

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Krusty Krab vs. Chum Bucket

Just about every "Spongebob Squarepants" fan knows about the intense rivalry between the Krusty Krab and the Chum Bucket restaurants, but the quondam unremarkably reigns supreme. The meme uses photoshopped images of both cartoon restaurants in club to project two rivals, such every bit 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 end of 2017, it became popular to post images of funny things that rhyme sitting on peak of other things that rhyme using the phrase "Y'all've heard of elf on the shelf, now get gear up for X."

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One does not only...

Fans of "Lord of the Rings" won't need an explanation for this meme. Role player Sean Edible bean played Boromir in the movies, and one of his famous lines, "One does not only 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 2022 interview.

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I am a man/woman looking for....

After a 2022 tweet that posed a questionnaire using the classic dating template "I am a man/woman looking for a homo/woman" about Carly Rae Jepsen, a meme was built-in. Since and then, it has get pop to utilise the format to make funny declarations.

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Success kid

I of the most popular memes of all time, "success kid" uses a 2007 photo taken of a picayune boy with a clenched fist and adamant expression. It is virtually ever used to display small successful moments or "wins" that happen to someone throughout a normal day like getting an extra 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 image he institute comical from a video of a daughter singing a rendition of Justin Bieber'south song "Boyfriend." Information technology 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 later images surfaced of a niggling boy mowing the lawn at the White House completely ignoring Trump. The kid was evidently so focused on the task that he didn't notice Trump when he came out to greet him, forcing Trump to yell loudly over the sound of the lawnmower and making for some slap-up meme fuel.

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Left get out 12

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

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