fifty famous memes and what they mean

Merriam-Webster defines "meme" as "an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person inside a culture" or "an amusing or interesting item (such every bit a captioned movie 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 fifty-fifty been around 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 fifty-fifty the most computer literate. Where did they come from? More than importantly, what do they hateful? Even modern science is hopping on the meme train. A squad of scientific researchers from Academy College London, Republic of cyprus University of Technology, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and King's Higher London came together in September 2018 to research the internet's most popular memes. Apart from assembling a definitive list of the earth'south favorite memes, the academic study also explored the influences (both positive and negative) that memes have on dissimilar communities. Some memes are created just for fun past creative or bored internet users, only 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 keep runway. Just when yous've grasped the significant of one hilarious meme, information technology has already become former news and replaced by something equally equally enigmatic. Online forums like 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 culture publications, and databases similar Know Your Meme to find 50 unlike memes and what they mean. While the nigh cocky-replicating nature of these vague symbols can go exhausting, memes in their essence can besides bring people closer together—equally long equally 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 nigh their brain sizes, information technology 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 starting time 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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Immature Thug at computer

Dorsum in 2018 a photo 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 made) 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 Globe 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 series of memes about issues experienced by privileged people from wealthy countries. The meme almost always depicts an attractive person looking deplorable, with a caption explaining his or her First World frustrations.

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Change my mind

After Steven Crowder, a conservative podcaster, posted a photo of himself in 2018 sitting at a desk with a sign saying "Male privilege is a myth: Change my mind," it was almost too piece of cake for the internet 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 field of study 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 construction 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 offset rose to popularity in 2011 after Tumblr posted a photograph from a Japanese animated show of an android mistaking a butterfly for a dove. Nearly of the memes derived from the photo utilize the subjects to express modernistic confusions or paranoia.

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Real name Google searches

"Real proper name Google searches" is a meme that gained popularity in 2018 using the generic google template to depict fabricated-up names for popular celebrities (ordinarily those who go past aliases). According to Know Your Meme, it start appeared showing the rapper Lil Pump'due south name every bit "Lilliam Pumpernickel" and only got more ridiculous from there.

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Futurama Fry

"Futurama Fry" is 1 of the near relatable memes on the web. Ane popular meme, which began in 2011, shows the character Fry from the animated show "Futurama" with eyes narrowed thinking near contradicting questions usually referring to modern times or sarcasm. Some other is a generic photograph with the same grapheme belongings cash yelling "shut upward and accept my money," used for when someone finds the clarification of a product on the internet particularly appealing.

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Weird flex simply OK

The phrase "weird flex only OK" is used when someone brags near something that others would find awkward or but apparently irrelevant. The phrase began showing up on the internet in 2017 and has continued to be used in response to bad-mannered boasts. Ane of the most pop uses of the meme was during the recent Brett Kavanaugh hearings after he used his high schoolhouse virginity as an argument.

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Evieliam // Wikimedia Commons

This is fine

Taken out of a 2013 webcomic strip called "On Burn," this epitome showing a human-like canis familiaris enjoying his java while his house is burning downwards has seemingly become more and more relatable every yr. 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 amanuensis

Jokes about "large brother watching" are erstwhile, simply in early 2018 the cyberspace was more paranoid than ever before 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 beingness 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, only the cyberspace meme awareness didn't begin until 2014. Most notable memes include Kermit sipping on some tea with passive aggressive text followed by "but that's none of my business organization," as well 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 really isn't one bailiwick that emcompasses the net'south love of memes better than cats. Since the early 2000s when "Keyboard Cat" kickoff fabricated an appearance on YouTube, people have been posting funny images of felines paired with hilarious text.

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Squinting woman

As well known every bit the "squat and squint" meme, the photograph showing a squinting woman staring at something in the distance really came from an outtake of a Instagram shot that went viral in March 2018. Since and then, the picture has been practical to whatever circumstance that the poster finds unbelievable.

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A Star is Born

When the first trailer for the highly anticipated motion picture 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 just wanted to accept some other await 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 nonetheless of the character Patrick from "Spongebob Squarepants" with a menacing look in his optics from a 1999 episode. Twitter got a concord of information technology around February 2018 and started using the image along with an explanation of bad behavior or motives.

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PaulFaire/TheThings // TheThings.com

By age 35...

Post-obit a 2018 MarketWatch article 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 take by age 35 (from the hilariously truthful to the ridiculous). Communication on avocado toast, Pokemon, and drawers total of miscellaneous chargers followed.

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Don't say information technology

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's what she said" jokes. The commencement tweet with the meme showed up in 2010, just later resurfaced in 2017 and showed an inner struggle betwixt whether or not to outset a chat with a taxi commuter.

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MILOSLAVvonRANDA // WW Interweb

Handshakes

The 1987 flick "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 pop 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

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 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'south opinion on the internet. The primeval uses of this meme came in 2017 on Twitter, rapidly gaining traction and condign ane of the about pop (and effective) ways to insult someone online.

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Scroll Safe

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

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Kyle MacLachlan // Twitter

Give thanks u, next

When Ariana Grande released her single "Thank U, Next" about her ex-boyfriends in early 2019, fans quickly began creating memes out of the lyrics. Aside from but 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's become this bread

People on the internet employ the "Let'southward go this bread" meme ironically (commonly it is slang for earning money) to make fun of people or themselves for trying also 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" defenseless the attending of Twitter in late 2018. For the side by side few months, the image blew upwards when people started using information technology as a meme for doing something with an obvious upshot.

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Warren Baker // The Blogging Baker

Condescending Willy Wonka

The meme uses an image of Cistron Wilder'south 1971 Willy Wonka character to say something patronizing or mock someone. First used on Gizmodo and Tumblr as early on as 2011, the prototype has get a mutual condescending response online.

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Pink Diamond // Pinterest

Jason Momoa sneaking upward 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 same year, it chop-chop went viral. On the last day of 2017, a Facebook business relationship posted a meme using the epitome, labeling Momoa equally "2018." The meme gained popularity throughout the following months as people labeled the ii every bit dissimilar things creeping up on each other.

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Wearied Spongebob

In yet some other Spongebob Squarepants meme, "exhausted Spongebob" uses an prototype from a 1999 episode where the character is leaning against a rock, naked and out of breath. Twitter began using the screengrab as an zipper to tweets around March 2018 nigh being tired.

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Classical fine art memes

In that location is a lot of unique classical art out there, so of form the internet has to find the most hilarious and wacky pieces to turn into memes. While fine 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 most interesting human being

Most people will recognize the "world's most interesting human" (played by actor Jonathan Goldsmith) from the Dos Equis beer commercials that began in 2008. The meme unremarkably uses the prototype of Goldsmith as a well-dressed gentleman with an adaptation of his catchphrase "I don't e'er X, just when I do, I Y" and began to gain popularity equally 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 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 swallow pills

The "difficult to consume pills" meme uses 2 stock photos from WikiHow that were get-go posted to the cyberspace in August 2017. It didn't take long for a Redditor to photoshop the image of the pill bottle to read "hard to swallow pills" and use information technology every bit 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 betwixt two opposing subjects, the "who would win" meme is said to have 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 than 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 virtually people feel guilty nearly or worry about (and therefore lose sleep over).

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Kardashians

Ever since the evidence "Keeping Upwards with the Kardashians" first aired in 2007, people brutal in beloved with watching the family unit's antics. They have 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 onetime

"Today days old" is used as a response to any random realization. Information technology outset came from posts request "How erstwhile were y'all when you realized 10?" with someone responding: "I was today years old." This tin can be a fact both well-known or more obscure.

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Pepe

Pepe the frog is a fictional character that outset appeared in a 2005 comic, and has gone through multiple transformations since and 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 later. By 2015, what was initially intended to symbolize a peaceful fashion 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 epitome of the famous athlete's emotional spoken communication during his 2009 induction into the Basketball game Hall of Fame, this meme is usually used to convey a fan'southward thwarting when his particular 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 found the entire fad pretty funny.

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*Slaps roof of auto*

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

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Awkward niggling daughter

Also known every bit "Side Eyeing Chloe," this meme can be used in pretty much whatsoever awkward situation. The original photograph came from a video of a little daughter 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 Saucepan

But almost every "Spongebob Squarepants" fan knows virtually the intense rivalry betwixt the Krusty Krab and the Chum Bucket restaurants, only the former usually reigns supreme. The meme uses photoshopped images of both cartoon restaurants in society 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 drape during the holiday season and tell their children that information technology was watching them be naughty or nice. Toward the end of 2017, it became pop to postal service 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 non simply...

Fans of "Lord of the Rings" won't need an explanation for this meme. Actor Sean Bean played Boromir in the movies, and 1 of his famous lines, "1 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 homo/woman looking for....

Later a 2017 tweet that posed a questionnaire using the classic dating template "I am a man/adult female looking for a human being/adult female" almost Carly Rae Jepsen, a meme was born. Since then, it has become pop to use the format to brand funny declarations.

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Success child

One of the nearly popular memes of all time, "success child" uses a 2007 photo taken of a trivial boy with a clenched fist and determined expression. Information technology is almost always used to display small successful moments or "wins" that happen to someone throughout a normal day like getting an actress chicken asset 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 constitute comical from a video of a girl singing a rendition of Justin Bieber'south song "Boyfriend." It quickly began making its rounds on the internet, using captions portraying her as a stereotypical overly fastened girlfriend.

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Donald Trump yelling at lawnmower boy

The internet just couldn't assist itself later images surfaced of a little boy mowing the lawn at the White House completely ignoring Trump. The kid was evidently so focused on the job that he didn't detect Trump when he came out to greet him, forcing Trump to yell loudly over the audio of the lawnmower and making for some bully meme fuel.

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Left get out 12

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

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