l 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 civilization" 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 effectually forever—it hasn't even been around for five 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 most computer literate. Where did they come from? More importantly, what do they hateful? Even modern science is hopping on the meme railroad train. A team of scientific researchers from University Higher London, Republic of cyprus University of Engineering, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Male monarch's College London came together in September 2018 to inquiry the internet'due south most popular memes. Autonomously from assembling a definitive list of the world's favorite memes, the academic written report also explored the influences (both positive and negative) that memes have on different communities. Some memes are created just for fun by creative or bored net users, just others are fabricated with the explicit intention of going viral to promote political ideas.

With the space number of memes scattered beyond the internet, it's difficult to go along runway. Just when y'all've grasped the significant of 1 hilarious meme, it has already become old news and replaced by something as equally enigmatic. Online forums like 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 resources, pop culture publications, and databases similar Know Your Meme to find 50 dissimilar memes and what they mean. While the about self-replicating nature of these vague symbols can get exhausting, memes in their essence tin also bring people closer together—as long as they have net access.

You lot might also 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 about 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 kickoff manifestations of the "expanding brain" meme came from the who-whom-whomst progression of words that seemingly makes i audio smarter.

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Young Thug at computer

Back in 2018 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 rapidly 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 erstwhile schoolhouse games similar minesweeper.

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Get-go World bug

While the "Starting time World" terminology has been around for a while, the hashtag #firstworldproblems reached its peak in popularity on Twitter in 2011 after Buzzfeed posted a serial of memes about bug experienced past privileged people from wealthy countries. The meme about always depicts an bonny person looking sad, with a caption explaining his or her First Earth frustrations.

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Modify my mind

After Steven Crowder, a bourgeois podcaster, posted a photo of himself in 2018 sitting at a desk-bound with a sign saying "Male privilege is a myth: Modify my heed," it was nearly besides easy 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 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 than. Since then the net has memed everything from his Twitter posts to school portraits.

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Is this a...?

The "is this a pigeon" meme commencement rose to popularity in 2011 afterwards Tumblr posted a photo from a Japanese animated show of an android mistaking a butterfly for a pigeon. Nigh of the memes derived from the photo employ 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 depict made-up names for popular celebrities (usually those who become by aliases). According to Know Your Meme, it outset appeared showing the rapper Lil Pump's name equally "Lilliam Pumpernickel" and only got more ridiculous from there.

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Futurama Fry

"Futurama Fry" is i of the about relatable memes on the web. One popular meme, which began in 2011, shows the graphic symbol Fry from the animated show "Futurama" with eyes narrowed thinking about contradicting questions usually referring to modern times or sarcasm. Another is a generic photograph with the aforementioned grapheme property cash yelling "close upward 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 but OK

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

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Evieliam // Wikimedia Eatables

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 business firm is burning downward has seemingly go more and more than relatable every year. The prototype is rarely altered, simply attached to troubling or difficult-to-grasp news.

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Unsplash / Bence Boros and Twitter / @joshwillhall

FBI agent

Jokes nigh "big blood brother watching" are old, but in early 2018 the internet was more than paranoid than e'er before thank you 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 being friendly with their subjects.

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Kermit

The iconic light-green puppet has stolen the hearts of millions on the "Muppet Testify" since the 1950s, but the internet meme sensation didn't brainstorm until 2014. Nigh notable memes include Kermit sipping on some tea with passive aggressive text followed past "only that's none of my business," as well as another with a hooded Kermit formatted to show skilful vs. evil thoughts.

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Cats

From "I need dis" to "Nyan Cat," there really isn't i subject field that emcompasses the internet's love of memes meliorate than cats. Since the early on 2000s when "Keyboard Cat" first made 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 as 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 moving-picture show has been applied to any circumstance that the poster finds unbelievable.

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A Star is Born

When the outset trailer for the highly predictable moving-picture show starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga came out in 2018, excited fans took screenshots and made them into memes. The almost popular ones came from funny adaptations of Cooper's line "I simply wanted to take another look at you" and Gaga's belted solo from the vocal "Shallow."

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AndreDThompson // Twitter

Angry Patrick

Besides known every bit "evil Patrick" or "savage Patrick," this meme takes a withal of the graphic symbol Patrick from "Spongebob Squarepants" with a menacing look in his optics from a 1999 episode. Twitter got a hold of information technology around February 2018 and started using the paradigm along with an caption of bad behavior or motives.

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PaulFaire/TheThings // TheThings.com

By age 35...

Following a 2018 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 true to the ridiculous). Advice on avocado toast, Pokemon, and drawers total of miscellaneous chargers followed.

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Don't say it

The "don't say information technology" meme details the relatable conversations people have between themselves and their brains, from bringing up awkward conversations topics to resisting "that'south what she said" jokes. The first tweet with the meme showed up in 2010, merely later resurfaced in 2017 and showed an inner struggle between whether or non to outset a conversation with a taxi commuter.

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MILOSLAVvonRANDA // WW Interweb

Handshakes

The 1987 film "Predator" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers independent within it what could be the manliest handshake of all time, and in 2007 information technology began gaining traction on YouTube. After multiple videos and fan art paying tribute to the handshake became pop in the following years, object labeling memes using the handshake as a groundwork 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 October 2018. One of the 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 prototype from a 2012 episode of Spongebob Squarepants to brand fun of another person'southward 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) ways to insult someone online.

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Roll Safe

In 2016 a British mockumentary starring thespian Kayode Ewumi chosen "Hood Documentary" was uploaded onto YouTube by BBC. Shortly subsequently, 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 well-nigh 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 on 2019, fans quickly began creating memes out of the lyrics. Aside from but using the title phrase to demonstrate beingness over something and moving on, the cyberspace also used the lyrics to compare three things that taught them dearest, patience, and hurting to mimic the chorus.

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Let's become this bread

People on the internet use the "Allow's go this bread" meme ironically (usually it is slang for earning money) to make fun of people or themselves for trying as well 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 prototype of Pikachu looking surprised from an episode of "Pokemon" caught the attention of Twitter in belatedly 2018. For the next few months, the image blew upwards when people started using it as a meme for doing something with an obvious outcome.

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Warren Bakery // The Blogging Baker

Condescending Willy Wonka

The meme uses an prototype of Gene Wilder'due south 1971 Willy Wonka character to say something patronizing or mock someone. First used on Gizmodo and Tumblr as early as 2011, the paradigm has become a mutual 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 up on Cavill on the red carpeting the same year, it quickly went viral. On the last twenty-four hour period of 2017, a Facebook account posted a meme using the epitome, labeling Momoa every bit "2018." The meme gained popularity throughout the following months as people labeled the two as different things creeping upwardly on each other.

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Exhausted Spongebob

In yet another Spongebob Squarepants meme, "wearied Spongebob" uses an paradigm from a 1999 episode where the grapheme is leaning against a rock, naked and out of breath. Twitter began using the screengrab as an attachment to tweets effectually March 2018 virtually existence tired.

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Classical art memes

There is a lot of unique classical art out at that place, 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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World's near interesting man

About people volition recognize the "earth's well-nigh interesting human" (played by 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 always X, merely when I do, I Y" and began to gain popularity as early as 2010.

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Guy blinking nervously

1 of the most popular memes of 2017, "guy blinking nervously" is ordinarily used in GIF form to demonstrate bafflement and being defenseless 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 "hard to swallow pills" meme uses two stock photos from WikiHow that were first posted to the internet in August 2017. Information technology didn't have long for a Redditor to photoshop the paradigm of the pill bottle to read "hard to swallow pills" and use it as a meme to illustrate a difficult truth.

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Who would win?

The net has taken the childhood 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 take 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 archetype rhetorical question "How do you sleep at night?" was the inspiration for this meme. The more modern rendition shows a motion picture of a person or creature sleeping soundly with different versions of the words: "How I sleep knowing..." This normally refers to something that almost people feel guilty nearly or worry nigh (and therefore lose sleep over).

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Kardashians

Ever since the prove "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" starting time aired in 2007, people fell in dearest with watching the family's antics. They accept all been the bailiwick of a huge number of memes, with some of the most pop ones using screen shots from the evidence (ordinarily of a meltdown or overreaction).

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"Today" days old

"Today days onetime" is used equally a response to any random realization. It kickoff came from posts asking "How old were you lot when you lot 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 character that commencement appeared in a 2005 comic, and has gone through multiple transformations since and so. Starting out every bit a positive meme known as "feel expert frog" in 2008, Pepe was edited into a more than sad or angry meme a few years later on. By 2015, what was initially intended to symbolize a peaceful way of life by the creative person became twisted by several hate groups causing the image to be added to the Anti-Defamation League'southward database of hate symbols in 2016.

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Crying Michael Jordan

Taken from an image of the famous athlete'south emotional spoken language during his 2009 induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame, this meme is usually used to convey a fan's disappointment when his detail team loses or performs poorly. The meme has been around since outset appearing on MemeCrunch in 2012 and gained an official fan folio on Tumblr in 2015. Jordan has reportedly found the unabridged fad pretty funny.

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*Slaps roof of car*

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

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Awkward petty daughter

Also known as "Side Eyeing Chloe," this meme tin be used in pretty much whatever awkward state of affairs. The original photo came from a video of a piddling girl giving an unimpressed and hesitant look after existence told almost a surprise trip to Disneyland in 2013.

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Krusty Krab vs. Chum Bucket

Just almost every "Spongebob Squarepants" fan knows about 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 order to project ii 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 curtain during the holiday season and tell their children that it was watching them exist naughty or overnice. Toward the end of 2017, it became popular to postal service 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, at present get set up for X."

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One does not simply...

Fans of "Lord of the Rings" won't need an explanation for this meme. Thespian Sean Edible bean played Boromir in the movies, and ane of his famous lines, "One does non 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 man/woman looking for....

Later on 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 then, it has get popular to apply the format to brand funny declarations.

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Success kid

1 of the nearly pop memes of all time, "success child" uses a 2007 photograph taken of a footling boy with a clenched fist and determined expression. It is almost always 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 prototype he plant comical from a video of a girl singing a rendition of Justin Bieber's song "Boyfriend." 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 internet just couldn't assistance itself subsequently images surfaced of a little boy mowing the backyard at the White Business firm completely ignoring Trump. The child was plain 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 bully meme fuel.

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Left get out 12

The "Left get out 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 (get out 12) to say comical things that one might swerve off the highway in gild to go to.

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