50 famous memes and what they hateful

Merriam-Webster defines "meme" as "an thought, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a civilisation" or "an amusing or interesting item (such every bit 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—it hasn't even been around for 5 years. The dictionary editors officially added the entry along with "emoji" and "clickbait" to the formal dictionary in May 2015.

Memes have e'er come with an air of mystery, intriguing and confusing even the nigh computer literate. Where did they come from? More chiefly, what exercise they mean? Fifty-fifty modern scientific discipline is hopping on the meme train. A team of scientific researchers from University College London, Cyprus University of Engineering, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Male monarch'due south College London came together in September 2018 to inquiry the net's about popular memes. Autonomously from assembling a definitive listing of the world'southward favorite memes, the academic study also explored the influences (both positive and negative) that memes have on unlike communities. Some memes are created just for fun by artistic or bored cyberspace 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, information technology's hard to continue track. Simply when you've grasped the significant of one hilarious meme, it has already become old news and replaced by something equally as enigmatic. Online forums similar 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 resource, popular culture publications, and databases like Know Your Meme to find fifty unlike memes and what they mean. While the virtually self-replicating nature of these vague symbols tin get exhausting, memes in their essence can also bring people closer together—every bit long as 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 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 stage. One of the first manifestations of the "expanding brain" meme came from the who-whom-whomst progression of words that seemingly makes i sound smarter.

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Immature 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 cyberspace rapidly began finding humorous (and fabricated) explanations for what the two were so attentively concentrating on, everything from the rappers planning an elaborate heist to playing erstwhile school games like minesweeper.

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First World problems

While the "Kickoff World" terminology has been effectually for a while, the hashtag #firstworldproblems reached its height in popularity on Twitter in 2011 subsequently Buzzfeed posted a serial of memes about problems experienced by privileged people from wealthy countries. The meme almost ever depicts an attractive person looking sad, with a explanation explaining his or her Offset World frustrations.

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Change my heed

Later on Steven Crowder, a conservative podcaster, posted a photo of himself in 2018 sitting at a desk with a sign proverb "Male privilege is a myth: Modify my mind," it was virtually also piece of cake for the net to begin making fun of him with memes of their own. Memes ranged from merely irresolute the words on the sign to elaborate photoshops.

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Drake

Drake has been the discipline of several different memes throughout his long career. His 2015 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 accumulate even 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 first rose to popularity in 2011 after Tumblr posted a photo from a Japanese animated show of an android mistaking a butterfly for a pigeon. Most of the memes derived from the photograph utilise the subjects to express modern confusions or paranoia.

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Real name Google searches

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

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Futurama Fry

"Futurama Fry" is one of the nearly relatable memes on the web. I pop meme, which began in 2011, shows the character Fry from the blithe 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 holding cash yelling "shut upward and accept my money," used for when someone finds the description of a production on the internet particularly appealing.

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Weird flex but OK

The phrase "weird flex only 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 continued to exist used in response to awkward boasts. One of the most popular uses of the meme was during the recent Brett Kavanaugh hearings afterwards he used his high school virginity equally an argument.

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Evieliam // Wikimedia Commons

This is fine

Taken out of a 2013 webcomic strip called "On Fire," this prototype showing a human-similar dog enjoying his coffee while his firm is burning down has seemingly become more and more relatable every year. The image 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 near "large brother watching" are old, just in early on 2018 the net was more paranoid than ever earlier thank you to the net-fueled idea of FBI agents watching people through their webcams. The memes aren't always critical, either; most of them draw 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, simply the internet meme sensation didn't brainstorm until 2014. Almost notable memes include Kermit sipping on some tea with passive aggressive text followed by "merely that's none of my business organisation," as well as some other with a hooded Kermit formatted to bear witness good vs. evil thoughts.

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Cats

From "I need dis" to "Nyan Cat," at that place really isn't 1 subject that emcompasses the internet'south love of memes better than cats. Since the early 2000s when "Keyboard Cat" offset made an appearance on YouTube, people have been posting funny images of felines paired with hilarious text.

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Squinting woman

Also known equally 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 then, the picture has been practical to whatsoever circumstance that the poster finds unbelievable.

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A Star is Built-in

When the offset 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 pop ones came from funny adaptations of Cooper's line "I just wanted to take another look at you" and Gaga's belted solo from the song "Shallow."

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AndreDThompson // Twitter

Angry Patrick

Besides known as "evil Patrick" or "brutal Patrick," this meme takes a nonetheless of the character Patrick from "Spongebob Squarepants" with a menacing await in his optics from a 1999 episode. Twitter got a hold of it around February 2018 and started using the image along with an caption of bad behavior or motives.

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PaulFaire/TheThings // TheThings.com

By age 35...

Following a 2018 MarketWatch commodity that implied an unrealistic amount of savings one 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 truthful 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 betwixt themselves and their brains, from bringing up awkward conversations topics to resisting "that'south what she said" jokes. The start tweet with the meme showed upwards in 2010, merely later resurfaced in 2017 and showed an inner struggle between whether or not to start a conversation with a taxi driver.

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MILOSLAVvonRANDA // WW Interweb

Handshakes

The 1987 film "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 as a background to agreements began to arise in 2018.

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Elon Musk

At that place have been several memes revolving around the tech entrepreneur Elon Musk throughout the years, especially following his Twitter request for "dank memes" in October 2018. One 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 prototype from a 2012 episode of Spongebob Squarepants to brand fun of some other person's opinion on the internet. The earliest uses of this meme came in 2017 on Twitter, quickly gaining traction and condign one of the most popular (and effective) means to insult someone online.

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Curl Safe

In 2016 a British mockumentary starring actor Kayode Ewumi chosen "Hood Documentary" was uploaded onto YouTube past BBC. Soon subsequently, people on the net began using a screen-grabbed image of Ewumi pointing to his temple similar he had a good 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 single "Thank U, Side by side" about her ex-boyfriends in early 2019, fans quickly began creating memes out of the lyrics. Bated from merely using the title phrase to demonstrate being over something and moving on, the internet also used the lyrics to compare iii things that taught them dearest, patience, and pain to mimic the chorus.

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Permit's become this breadstuff

People on the internet employ the "Let's get this bread" meme ironically (usually it is slang for earning money) to make fun of people or themselves for trying likewise hard to earn coin. 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 late 2018. For the side by side few months, the image blew up when people started using it as a meme for doing something with an obvious effect.

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Warren Bakery // The Blogging Baker

Cavalier Willy Wonka

The meme uses an epitome of Factor Wilder's 1971 Willy Wonka character to say something patronizing or mock someone. Starting time used on Gizmodo and Tumblr as early as 2011, the epitome has become a common condescending response online.

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Pinkish 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 ruby rug the same year, it quickly went viral. On the final 24-hour interval of 2017, a Facebook account posted a meme using the image, labeling Momoa equally "2018." The meme gained popularity throughout the post-obit months as people labeled the two as different things creeping up on each other.

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Wearied Spongebob

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

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Classical art memes

There is a lot of unique classical art out there, so of course the internet has to observe the nearly hilarious and wacky pieces to plough into memes. While art-related videos and other online fine art parodies tin be traced back to 2004, the more recognizable memes gained popularity starting in 2013.

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Earth's most interesting human

Virtually people volition recognize the "world's well-nigh interesting man" (played past actor Jonathan Goldsmith) from the Dos Equis beer commercials that began in 2008. The meme usually uses the image of Goldsmith as a well-dressed gentleman with an accommodation of his catchphrase "I don't always Ten, but when I do, I Y" and began to gain popularity as early on as 2010.

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Guy blinking nervously

I of the well-nigh popular memes of 2017, "guy blinking nervously" is commonly used in GIF course to demonstrate bafflement and existence 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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Hard to swallow pills

The "hard to eat pills" meme uses two stock photos from WikiHow that were starting time posted to the internet in August 2017. Information technology didn't take long for a Redditor to photoshop the image of the pill bottle to read "difficult to swallow pills" and use it as a meme to illustrate a hard 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 have begun in 2014 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 do y'all sleep at night?" was the inspiration for this meme. The more modernistic rendition shows a movie of a person or brute sleeping soundly with different versions of the words: "How I sleep knowing..." This commonly 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 Up with the Kardashians" first aired in 2007, people vicious in honey with watching the family'south antics. They have all been the field of study of a huge number of memes, with some of the nearly popular ones using screen shots from the show (commonly of a meltdown or overreaction).

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"Today" days quondam

"Today days old" is used as a response to whatsoever random realization. It first came from posts request "How old were yous when you realized X?" with someone responding: "I was today years onetime." 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 so. Starting out as a positive meme known as "feel good frog" in 2008, Pepe was edited into a more than sad or aroused meme a few years later. By 2015, what was initially intended to symbolize a peaceful fashion of life by the creative person became twisted by several hate groups causing the image to be added to the Anti-Defamation League'south database of detest symbols in 2016.

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Crying Michael Jordan

Taken from an image of the famous athlete'due south emotional voice communication during his 2009 induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame, this meme is usually used to convey a fan's thwarting when his detail team 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 establish the unabridged fad pretty funny.

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*Slaps roof of car*

"Slaps roof of motorcar" tin can be traced back to a 2014 tweet of a ridiculous car salesmen chat overheard and started blowing up in 2018 later on being paired with an illustrated stock paradigm of a car salesman showing off a car. The meme has seen many photoshopped variations, but usually utilizes the phrase "This bad boy can fit and so much X in information technology."

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Bad-mannered petty girl

Too known as "Side Eyeing Chloe," this meme can be used in pretty much any bad-mannered situation. The original photo came from a video of a little daughter giving an unimpressed and hesitant look after being told about a surprise trip to Disneyland in 2013.

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Krusty Krab vs. Chum Bucket

Merely nearly every "Spongebob Squarepants" fan knows most the intense rivalry between the Krusty Krab and the Chum Saucepan restaurants, but the former usually reigns supreme. The meme uses photoshopped images of both drawing restaurants in order to project 2 rivals, such as sports teams and TV 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 flavor and tell their children that information technology was watching them be naughty or dainty. Toward the end of 2017, it became pop to mail images of funny things that rhyme sitting on elevation of other things that rhyme using the phrase "You lot've heard of elf on the shelf, now become ready for X."

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I does not merely...

Fans of "Lord of the Rings" won't need an explanation for this meme. Actor Sean Bean played Boromir in the movies, and one of his famous lines, "1 does non simply walk into Mordor," became the inspiration for a meme that plays on the phrase. Edible bean himself fifty-fifty admitted to seeing a big influx of the memes online during a 2015 interview.

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

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

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Success child

One of the most pop memes of all time, "success kid" uses a 2007 photograph taken of a little male child with a clenched fist and determined expression. Information technology is virtually e'er used to display small successful moments or "wins" that happen to someone throughout a normal day like getting an extra craven nugget in a fast-food 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 girl singing a rendition of Justin Bieber's vocal "Beau." Information technology quickly began making its rounds on the net, using captions portraying her as a stereotypical overly attached girlfriend.

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Donald Trump yelling at lawnmower boy

The net just couldn't help itself after images surfaced of a little male child mowing the lawn at the White House completely ignoring Trump. The kid was apparently 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 great 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 globe-trotting dangerously into an exit ramp. People began photoshopping the exit sign (exit 12) to say comical things that ane might swerve off the highway in order to get to.

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