50 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 civilisation" or "an agreeable or interesting item (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 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 always come with an air of mystery, intriguing and confusing even the nearly figurer literate. Where did they come up from? More importantly, what do they mean? 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 Male monarch'south College London came together in September 2022 to research the internet's well-nigh popular memes. Apart from assembling a definitive listing of the globe'southward favorite memes, the bookish study also explored the influences (both positive and negative) that memes have on dissimilar communities. Some memes are created merely for fun past artistic or bored net users, only others are fabricated 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 track. Just when y'all've grasped the pregnant of ane hilarious meme, it has already become old news and replaced past something equally every bit 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, pop culture publications, and databases like Know Your Meme to find 50 different memes and what they mean. While the almost self-replicating nature of these vague symbols can get exhausting, memes in their essence can too bring people closer together—as long every bit they have internet access.

You might also like: What "woke" and fifty other millennial sayings mean

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Danganronpamemer // imgflp

Expanding encephalon

In 2017, when a number of posters on Tumblr and 4chan started bragging most their brain sizes, information technology quickly turned into a meme. Photos of dissimilar sized brains are paired with "smart" sounding words until they expand into a fully enlightened phase. 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 2022 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 fabricated) explanations for what the two were so attentively concentrating on, everything from the rappers planning an elaborate heist to playing old schoolhouse games like minesweeper.

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Starting time Globe issues

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

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Change my mind

Later Steven Crowder, a conservative podcaster, posted a photo of himself in 2022 sitting at a desk-bound with a sign maxim "Male person privilege is a myth: Alter my listen," it was almost too like shooting fish in a barrel for the internet to begin making fun of him with memes of their own. Memes ranged from simply irresolute 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 accumulate even more than. 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 dove" meme commencement rose to popularity in 2011 after Tumblr posted a photo from a Japanese blithe show of an android mistaking a butterfly for a dove. Almost of the memes derived from the photo use the subjects to limited modern confusions or paranoia.

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Real proper noun Google searches

"Real name Google searches" is a meme that gained popularity in 2022 using the generic google template to depict made-up names for pop celebrities (ordinarily those who go by aliases). According to Know Your Meme, it outset appeared showing the rapper Lil Pump's name every bit "Lilliam Pumpernickel" and only got more than ridiculous from there.

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Futurama Fry

"Futurama Fry" is one of the most relatable memes on the spider web. I pop meme, which began in 2011, shows the character Fry from the blithe evidence "Futurama" with eyes narrowed thinking about contradicting questions commonly referring to modernistic times or sarcasm. Some other is a generic photo with the same character belongings cash yelling "close up and take my money," used for when someone finds the clarification of a production on the cyberspace particularly appealing.

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Weird flex merely OK

The phrase "weird flex only OK" is used when someone brags about something that others would find awkward or just patently irrelevant. The phrase began showing up on the net in 2022 and has continued to be used in response to awkward boasts. One of the well-nigh popular uses of the meme was during the recent Brett Kavanaugh hearings later on he used his loftier school virginity every bit an argument.

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Evieliam // Wikimedia Eatables

This is fine

Taken out of a 2013 webcomic strip called "On Burn," this image showing a man-like domestic dog enjoying his coffee while his house is burning down has seemingly become more and more relatable every yr. The paradigm 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 about "big brother watching" are quondam, merely in early 2022 the cyberspace 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; most of them depict 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, but the internet meme sensation didn't begin until 2014. Most notable memes include Kermit sipping on some tea with passive ambitious text followed by "but that'south none of my business," also every bit some other with a hooded Kermit formatted to evidence skillful vs. evil thoughts.

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Cats

From "I need dis" to "Nyan Cat," there really isn't ane subject that emcompasses the cyberspace's dearest of memes amend than cats. Since the early 2000s when "Keyboard Cat" starting time 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 as the "squat and squint" meme, the photograph showing a squinting adult female staring at something in the distance really came from an outtake of a Instagram shot that went viral in March 2018. Since then, the movie has been practical to whatsoever circumstance that the affiche finds unbelievable.

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A Star is Born

When the first trailer for the highly anticipated motion-picture show starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga came out in 2018, excited fans took screenshots and fabricated them into memes. The most popular ones came from funny adaptations of Cooper'southward line "I just wanted to have 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 all the same of the character Patrick from "Spongebob Squarepants" with a menacing look in his eyes from a 1999 episode. Twitter got a concur of it around Feb 2022 and started using the prototype along with an explanation of bad behavior or motives.

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PaulFaire/TheThings // TheThings.com

By age 35...

Following a 2022 MarketWatch article that implied an unrealistic amount of savings one should take in their 30s, people on Twitter began responding to the article past sharing all the other things you should ideally have by historic period 35 (from the hilariously truthful to the ridiculous). Communication on avocado toast, Pokemon, and drawers full of miscellaneous chargers followed.

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Don't say it

The "don't say information technology" meme details the relatable conversations people accept between themselves and their brains, from bringing up bad-mannered conversations topics to resisting "that'south what she said" jokes. The first tweet with the meme showed up in 2010, but subsequently resurfaced in 2022 and showed an inner struggle between whether or not to start a conversation with a taxi commuter.

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MILOSLAVvonRANDA // WW Interweb

Handshakes

The 1987 film "Predator" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers contained within information technology 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

There have been several memes revolving around the tech entrepreneur Elon Musk throughout the years, especially following his Twitter request for "dank memes" in Oct 2018. One of the well-nigh 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 make fun of another person'due south opinion on the internet. The earliest uses of this meme came in 2022 on Twitter, apace gaining traction and becoming one of the nigh pop (and constructive) ways to insult someone online.

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Ringlet Safe

In 2022 a British mockumentary starring role player Kayode Ewumi chosen "Hood Documentary" was uploaded onto YouTube past BBC. Before long after, people on the internet began using a screen-grabbed image of Ewumi pointing to his temple like he had a skillful thought to reversely joke well-nigh bad decisions and poor thinking.

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Kyle MacLachlan // Twitter

Thank u, adjacent

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

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Permit's get this bread

People on the internet use the "Let's get this bread" meme ironically (usually it is slang for earning money) to make fun of people or themselves for trying too hard to earn coin. 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" defenseless 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 outcome.

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Warren Baker // The Blogging Bakery

Cavalier Willy Wonka

The meme uses an prototype of Cistron Wilder's 1971 Willy Wonka character to say something patronizing or mock someone. First used on Gizmodo and Tumblr as early as 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 crimson carpet the same year, information technology quickly went viral. On the last day of 2017, a Facebook account posted a meme using the prototype, labeling Momoa as "2018." The meme gained popularity throughout the following months every bit people labeled the 2 as different things creeping up on each other.

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Exhausted Spongebob

In yet some other Spongebob Squarepants meme, "wearied 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 2022 almost being tired.

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Classical art memes

There is a lot of unique classical art out there, so of grade the net has to find the most hilarious and wacky pieces to plow 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 about interesting human

Well-nigh people will recognize the "world's most interesting man" (played past player 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 adaptation of his catchphrase "I don't ever X, 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 most popular memes of 2017, "guy blinking nervously" is unremarkably used in GIF class to demonstrate bafflement and being defenseless 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 swallow pills" meme uses ii stock photos from WikiHow that were first posted to the internet in August 2017. It didn't accept long for a Redditor to photoshop the image of the pill bottle to read "hard to eat pills" and apply it as a meme to illustrate a hard 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 ii opposing subjects, the "who would win" meme is said to have 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 do you slumber at dark?" was the inspiration for this meme. The more than modern rendition shows a picture of a person or creature sleeping soundly with different versions of the words: "How I slumber 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 Up with the Kardashians" commencement aired in 2007, people savage in love with watching the family's antics. They have all been the discipline of a huge number of memes, with some of the about pop ones using screen shots from the bear witness (usually of a meltdown or overreaction).

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"Today" days one-time

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

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Pepe

Pepe the frog is a fictional graphic symbol that first appeared in a 2005 comic, and has gone through multiple transformations since then. Starting out every bit a positive meme known equally "feel good frog" in 2008, Pepe was edited into a more sad or angry meme a few years afterward. 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 exist added to the Anti-Defamation League'due south database of hate symbols in 2016.

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Crying Michael Jordan

Taken from an image of the famous athlete's emotional spoken language during his 2009 induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame, this meme is usually used to convey a fan's thwarting when his particular team loses or performs poorly. The meme has been around since first actualization 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 motorcar*

"Slaps roof of car" can be traced back to a 2022 tweet of a ridiculous car salesmen chat overheard and started blowing upwardly in 2022 after being paired with an illustrated stock paradigm of a motorcar 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 it."

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Awkward petty girl

Also known as "Side Eyeing Chloe," this meme tin can be used in pretty much any awkward situation. The original photo came from a video of a little girl 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 Saucepan

Just about every "Spongebob Squarepants" fan knows nearly the intense rivalry between the Krusty Krab and the Chum Bucket restaurants, but the erstwhile usually reigns supreme. The meme uses photoshopped images of both cartoon restaurants in social club to projection ii 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 season and tell their children that it was watching them be naughty or prissy. Toward the cease of 2017, it became pop to post images of funny things that rhyme sitting on summit of other things that rhyme using the phrase "You've heard of elf on the shelf, now become set for 10."

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One does not just...

Fans of "Lord of the Rings" won't demand an explanation for this meme. Actor Sean Bean played Boromir in the movies, and one of his famous lines, "1 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 2022 interview.

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

Subsequently a 2022 tweet that posed a questionnaire using the archetype dating template "I am a human being/adult female looking for a man/woman" nearly Carly Rae Jepsen, a meme was built-in. Since then, it has become pop to use the format to make funny declarations.

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Success kid

1 of the most popular memes of all time, "success child" uses a 2007 photo taken of a picayune boy with a clenched fist and determined expression. It is well-nigh always used to brandish small successful moments or "wins" that happen to someone throughout a normal mean solar 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 institute comical from a video of a daughter singing a rendition of Justin Bieber's song "Boyfriend." It apace began making its rounds on the internet, using captions portraying her as a stereotypical overly attached girlfriend.

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Donald Trump yelling at lawnmower boy

The internet only couldn't help itself afterward images surfaced of a little male child mowing the lawn at the White House completely ignoring Trump. The child 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 sound of the lawnmower and making for some groovy meme fuel.

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Left exit 12

The "Left get out 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 get out sign (exit 12) to say comical things that i might swerve off the highway in order to get to.

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