50 famous memes and what they mean

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

Memes have always come with an air of mystery, intriguing and confusing even the most reckoner literate. Where did they come up from? More importantly, what do they mean? Even modern science is hopping on the meme railroad train. A team of scientific researchers from Academy Higher London, Cyprus University of Applied science, the Academy of Alabama at Birmingham, and Rex'southward College London came together in September 2018 to enquiry the internet's nearly pop memes. Apart from assembling a definitive listing of the earth's favorite memes, the academic study as well explored the influences (both positive and negative) that memes have on different communities. Some memes are created simply for fun past creative or bored internet users, simply others are made with the explicit intention of going viral to promote political ideas.

With the infinite number of memes scattered across the cyberspace, it'due south hard to keep track. Just when y'all've grasped the significant of 1 hilarious meme, it has already go old news and replaced by something every bit equally enigmatic. Online forums like Tumblr, Twitter, 4chan, and Reddit are responsible for a bulk 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 resource, pop civilization publications, and databases like Know Your Meme to notice 50 different memes and what they mean. While the nearly cocky-replicating nature of these vague symbols can get exhausting, memes in their essence can likewise bring people closer together—as long equally they have internet access.

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Danganronpamemer // imgflp

Expanding brain

In 2017, when a number of posters on Tumblr and 4chan started bragging nearly their encephalon sizes, it quickly turned into a meme. Photos of dissimilar sized brains are paired with "smart" sounding words until they expand into a fully aware phase. I of the first manifestations of the "expanding encephalon" meme came from the who-whom-whomst progression of words that seemingly makes 1 sound smarter.

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Young Thug at computer

Dorsum in 2018 a photo surfaced of the rappers Immature 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 2 were so attentively concentrating on, everything from the rappers planning an elaborate heist to playing old school games like minesweeper.

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First World issues

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

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Change my heed

After Steven Crowder, a conservative podcaster, posted a photo of himself in 2018 sitting at a desk with a sign maxim "Male privilege is a myth: Change my mind," information technology was nearly likewise easy for the cyberspace to begin making fun of him with memes of their own. Memes ranged from simply changing the words on the sign to elaborate photoshops.

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Drake

Drake has been the discipline of several unlike memes throughout his long career. His 2015 single "Hotline Bling" was one 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 than. Since so 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 after Tumblr posted a photo from a Japanese animated evidence of an android mistaking a butterfly for a pigeon. Most of the memes derived from the photo use the subjects to express modern 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 draw made-up names for popular celebrities (usually those who go by aliases). According to Know Your Meme, it beginning 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 most relatable memes on the web. One popular meme, which began in 2011, shows the character Fry from the animated show "Futurama" with optics narrowed thinking near contradicting questions ordinarily referring to modern times or sarcasm. Another is a generic photo with the same character holding cash yelling "shut up and take my money," used for when someone finds the description of a product on the internet specially appealing.

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Weird flex but OK

The phrase "weird flex but OK" is used when someone brags about something that others would observe awkward or just plain irrelevant. The phrase began showing up on the net in 2017 and has connected 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 later he used his high schoolhouse virginity every bit 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 homo-like dog enjoying his coffee while his house is burning downwards has seemingly become more and more relatable every year. The image is rarely altered, just attached to troubling or hard-to-grasp news.

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Unsplash / Bence Boros and Twitter / @joshwillhall

FBI amanuensis

Jokes well-nigh "large brother watching" are old, but in early 2018 the internet was more paranoid than ever before thanks to the cyberspace-fueled idea of FBI agents watching people through their webcams. The memes aren't always critical, either; well-nigh of them depict the agents either protecting or existence friendly with their subjects.

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Kermit

The iconic green puppet has stolen the hearts of millions on the "Muppet Prove" since the 1950s, but the internet meme sensation didn't begin until 2014. Most notable memes include Kermit sipping on some tea with passive aggressive text followed past "simply that's none of my business organisation," equally well as another with a hooded Kermit formatted to show good vs. evil thoughts.

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Cats

From "I need dis" to "Nyan True cat," in that location really isn't one subject that emcompasses the net'due south love of memes amend than cats. Since the early 2000s when "Keyboard True cat" beginning made an appearance on YouTube, people have 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 photograph 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 then, the moving picture has been applied to any circumstance that the affiche finds unbelievable.

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A Star is Born

When the showtime 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 virtually popular ones came from funny adaptations of Cooper'southward line "I just wanted to take another look at you" and Gaga'southward 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 withal of the character Patrick from "Spongebob Squarepants" with a menacing await in his eyes from a 1999 episode. Twitter got a concur of it around February 2018 and started using the paradigm forth with an caption of bad behavior or motives.

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PaulFaire/TheThings // TheThings.com

By historic period 35...

Following a 2018 MarketWatch commodity that implied an unrealistic corporeality of savings 1 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). 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 have between themselves and their brains, from bringing upwards awkward conversations topics to resisting "that'due south what she said" jokes. The starting time tweet with the meme showed up in 2010, but later resurfaced in 2017 and showed an inner struggle between whether or not to showtime a chat with a taxi commuter.

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MILOSLAVvonRANDA // WW Interweb

Handshakes

The 1987 motion picture "Predator" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers contained within it what could exist the manliest handshake of all time, and in 2007 information technology began gaining traction on YouTube. Subsequently multiple videos and fan fine art paying tribute to the handshake became popular in the following years, object labeling memes using the handshake as a groundwork to agreements began to ascend in 2018.

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Elon Musk

There have been several memes revolving around the tech entrepreneur Elon Musk throughout the years, especially post-obit his Twitter request for "dank memes" in October 2018. Ane of the most popular Musk memes uses an prototype of the billionaire smoking during a podcast interview.

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Mocking Spongebob

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

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Coil Condom

In 2016 a British mockumentary starring actor Kayode Ewumi called "Hood Documentary" was uploaded onto YouTube by BBC. Before long after, people on the net began using a screen-grabbed image of Ewumi pointing to his temple similar he had a skilful idea to reversely joke about bad decisions and poor thinking.

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Kyle MacLachlan // Twitter

Thank u, next

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

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Let'due south get this breadstuff

People on the internet employ the "Let's get this bread" meme ironically (unremarkably it is slang for earning coin) 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 paradigm of Pikachu looking surprised from an episode of "Pokemon" caught the attention 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 upshot.

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Warren Baker // The Blogging Bakery

Cavalier Willy Wonka

The meme uses an image of Cistron Wilder's 1971 Willy Wonka character to say something patronizing or mock someone. First used on Gizmodo and Tumblr every bit early as 2011, the image has become 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 upwardly on Cavill on the cerise carpet the same year, information technology quickly went viral. On the last twenty-four hour period of 2017, a Facebook business relationship posted a meme using the paradigm, labeling Momoa as "2018." The meme gained popularity throughout the post-obit months every bit people labeled the two equally different things creeping up on each other.

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Exhausted Spongebob

In yet some other Spongebob Squarepants meme, "exhausted Spongebob" uses an epitome from a 1999 episode where the character is leaning against a stone, naked and out of jiff. Twitter began using the screengrab as an attachment to tweets around March 2018 about being tired.

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Classical art memes

There is a lot of unique classical art out in that location, then of course the internet has to discover 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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World's about interesting man

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

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Guy blinking nervously

One of the near pop memes of 2017, "guy blinking nervously" is usually used in GIF course 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 eat pills

The "hard to eat pills" meme uses two stock photos from WikiHow that were start posted to the internet in August 2017. It didn't have long for a Redditor to photoshop the image of the pill canteen to read "difficult to swallow pills" and utilise it as a meme to illustrate a difficult truth.

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Who would win?

The internet has taken the babyhood 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 ii video games as opponents.

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How I slumber knowing...

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

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Kardashians

Ever since the bear witness "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" first aired in 2007, people fell in love with watching the family's antics. They have all been the bailiwick of a huge number of memes, with some of the well-nigh pop ones using screen shots from the show (unremarkably of a meltdown or overreaction).

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"Today" days onetime

"Today days quondam" is used as a response to any random realization. It first came from posts request "How sometime were you when you 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 first appeared in a 2005 comic, and has gone through multiple transformations since then. Starting out as a positive meme known as "feel practiced frog" in 2008, Pepe was edited into a more than deplorable or angry meme a few years later. By 2015, what was initially intended to symbolize a peaceful way of life by 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 prototype of the famous athlete'due south emotional speech during his 2009 induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame, this meme is usually used to convey a fan'due south thwarting when his particular team loses or performs poorly. The meme has been effectually since first appearing on MemeCrunch in 2012 and gained an official fan folio on Tumblr in 2015. Hashemite kingdom of jordan has reportedly establish the entire fad pretty funny.

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*Slaps roof of car*

"Slaps roof of car" can exist traced dorsum to a 2014 tweet of a ridiculous machine salesmen conversation overheard and started blowing upward in 2018 afterwards beingness paired with an illustrated stock image of a car salesman showing off a car. The meme has seen many photoshopped variations, merely usually utilizes the phrase "This bad boy can fit and then much X in it."

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Bad-mannered niggling daughter

Also known as "Side Eyeing Chloe," this meme can be used in pretty much whatever bad-mannered situation. The original photograph came from a video of a trivial girl giving an unimpressed and hesitant look afterward being 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 about the intense rivalry between the Krusty Krab and the Chum Saucepan restaurants, only the former usually reigns supreme. The meme uses photoshopped images of both cartoon restaurants in order to projection two rivals, such as sports teams and Telly shows.

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Havokimin // College 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 holiday season and tell their children that information technology was watching them exist naughty or dainty. Toward the cease of 2017, it became popular to post images of funny things that rhyme sitting on top of other things that rhyme using the phrase "Y'all've heard of elf on the shelf, now get gear up for Ten."

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One does not but...

Fans of "Lord of the Rings" won't need an explanation for this meme. Actor 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 2015 interview.

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I am a human being/woman looking for....

Afterwards a 2017 tweet that posed a questionnaire using the archetype dating template "I am a man/woman looking for a man/woman" about Carly Rae Jepsen, a meme was born. Since and so, information technology has become popular to utilize the format to brand funny declarations.

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Success kid

One of the most popular memes of all time, "success kid" uses a 2007 photo taken of a little male child with a clenched fist and determined expression. It is well-nigh ever used to brandish pocket-size successful moments or "wins" that happen to someone throughout a normal day like getting an extra chicken nugget in a fast-nutrient repast.

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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 found comical from a video of a girl singing a rendition of Justin Bieber's song "Swain." It quickly 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 cyberspace just couldn't help itself after images surfaced of a little boy mowing the lawn at the White House completely ignoring Trump. The kid was obviously 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 sound of the lawnmower and making for some corking meme fuel.

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Left exit 12

The "Left exit 12" meme uses a serial of screen grabs from a 2013 YouTube video showing a car 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 social club to become to.

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