50 famous memes and what they hateful

Merriam-Webster defines "meme" equally "an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture" or "an amusing or interesting particular (such as a captioned motion-picture show or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online particularly through social media." That definition hasn't been around forever—it hasn't fifty-fifty 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 up with an air of mystery, intriguing and confusing fifty-fifty the most computer literate. Where did they come from? More importantly, what do they mean? Even modern science is hopping on the meme train. A team of scientific researchers from University College London, Cyprus University of Technology, the Academy of Alabama at Birmingham, and Rex'south College London came together in September 2018 to research the internet'south most popular memes. Apart from assembling a definitive list of the world'south favorite memes, the academic study also explored the influences (both positive and negative) that memes have on different communities. Some memes are created just for fun past creative or bored cyberspace users, but others are fabricated with the explicit intention of going viral to promote political ideas.

With the space number of memes scattered across the cyberspace, it's hard to keep runway. Just when you've grasped the meaning of one hilarious meme, it has already become old news and replaced by something equally as 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, popular civilisation publications, and databases similar Know Your Meme to observe 50 dissimilar memes and what they mean. While the virtually self-replicating nature of these vague symbols can get exhausting, memes in their essence can also bring people closer together—equally long as they have cyberspace access.

Y'all might also like: What "woke" and 50 other millennial sayings hateful

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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, information technology quickly turned into a meme. Photos of dissimilar sized brains are paired with "smart" sounding words until they aggrandize into a fully enlightened stage. Ane of the first manifestations of the "expanding brain" meme came from the who-whom-whomst progression of words that seemingly makes one audio smarter.

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Immature Thug at computer

Back 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 ii were so attentively concentrating on, everything from the rappers planning an elaborate heist to playing sometime school games like minesweeper.

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First Globe bug

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

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Change my mind

Afterwards 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: Modify my listen," it was nigh too easy for the internet to begin making fun of him with memes of their ain. Memes ranged from merely 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 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. Almost of the memes derived from the photo use the subjects to express modern confusions or paranoia.

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Existent 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 popular celebrities (ordinarily those who get past aliases). Co-ordinate to Know Your Meme, information technology first appeared showing the rapper Lil Pump's name as "Lilliam Pumpernickel" and only got more than ridiculous from there.

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Futurama Fry

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

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Weird flex but OK

The phrase "weird flex only OK" is used when someone brags near something that others would find awkward or just obviously irrelevant. The phrase began showing upwards on the internet in 2017 and has continued to be used in response to awkward boasts. One of the most popular uses of the meme was during the contempo 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 chosen "On Burn down," this prototype showing a human being-like dog enjoying his coffee while his business firm is burning down has seemingly become more and more relatable every year. The prototype is rarely contradistinct, just attached to troubling or hard-to-grasp news.

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Unsplash / Bence Boros and Twitter / @joshwillhall

FBI agent

Jokes well-nigh "big brother watching" are old, merely in early on 2018 the internet was more paranoid than ever 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 draw the agents either protecting or being 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, but the internet meme awareness didn't begin until 2014. Well-nigh notable memes include Kermit sipping on some tea with passive aggressive text followed by "simply that'southward none of my concern," as well as another with a hooded Kermit formatted to show good vs. evil thoughts.

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Cats

From "I demand dis" to "Nyan Cat," at that place really isn't one subject that emcompasses the internet'south love of memes better than cats. Since the early 2000s when "Keyboard Cat" first made an appearance on YouTube, people accept 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 adult female staring at something in the distance actually came from an outtake of a Instagram shot that went viral in March 2018. Since and so, the film has been applied to any circumstance that the poster 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 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 vocal "Shallow."

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AndreDThompson // Twitter

Angry Patrick

Also known as "evil Patrick" or "cruel Patrick," this meme takes a still of the character Patrick from "Spongebob Squarepants" with a menacing look in his optics from a 1999 episode. Twitter got a concur of it effectually February 2018 and started using the image forth with an explanation 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 have in their 30s, people on Twitter began responding to the article by sharing all the other things y'all should ideally take past 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 accept between themselves and their brains, from bringing up awkward conversations topics to resisting "that'due south what she said" jokes. The first tweet with the meme showed up in 2010, but afterwards resurfaced in 2017 and showed an inner struggle betwixt 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 exist the manliest handshake of all time, and in 2007 it began gaining traction on YouTube. Afterwards multiple videos and fan 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, peculiarly following his Twitter request for "dank memes" in October 2018. I 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 image from a 2012 episode of Spongebob Squarepants to make fun of another person'southward opinion on the internet. The earliest uses of this meme came in 2017 on Twitter, quickly gaining traction and becoming one of the most popular (and effective) ways to insult someone online.

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Roll Safe

In 2016 a British mockumentary starring actor Kayode Ewumi called "Hood Documentary" was uploaded onto YouTube by BBC. Before long afterwards, people on the internet 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

Thank u, next

When Ariana Grande released her single "Thank U, Next" about her ex-boyfriends in early on 2019, fans speedily began creating memes out of the lyrics. Bated from just 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 dearest, patience, and pain to mimic the chorus.

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Let's get this bread

People on the cyberspace utilize the "Let's get this bread" meme ironically (normally 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 prototype 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 effect.

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Warren Baker // The Blogging Baker

Condescending Willy Wonka

The meme uses an image of Gene Wilder'due south 1971 Willy Wonka character to say something patronizing or mock someone. First used on Gizmodo and Tumblr as early every bit 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 up on Cavill on the red rug the aforementioned year, it speedily went viral. On the last day of 2017, a Facebook account posted a meme using the image, labeling Momoa as "2018." The meme gained popularity throughout the following months as people labeled the two as unlike things creeping upward on each other.

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Exhausted Spongebob

In yet another Spongebob Squarepants meme, "wearied Spongebob" uses an image from a 1999 episode where the character is leaning confronting a stone, naked and out of jiff. Twitter began using the screengrab as an attachment to tweets effectually 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 notice the most hilarious and wacky pieces to plow into memes. While art-related videos and other online art parodies can be traced back to 2004, the more than recognizable memes gained popularity starting in 2013.

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Earth's well-nigh interesting human being

Nearly people will recognize the "world'southward most interesting human" (played by actor Jonathan Goldsmith) from the Dos Equis beer commercials that began in 2008. The meme ordinarily uses the image of Goldsmith every bit a well-dressed admirer with an adaptation of his catchphrase "I don't always 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 pop memes of 2017, "guy blinking nervously" is commonly used in GIF form 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 two stock photos from WikiHow that were first posted to the internet in August 2017. It didn't take long for a Redditor to photoshop the image of the pill bottle to read "hard to eat pills" and utilize it as 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 two video games as opponents.

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How I sleep knowing...

The classic rhetorical question "How practice you lot 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 dissimilar versions of the words: "How I sleep knowing..." This unremarkably refers to something that most people feel guilty about or worry virtually (and therefore lose slumber over).

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Kardashians

Ever since the prove "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" starting time aired in 2007, people fell in beloved with watching the family's antics. They have all been the subject area of a huge number of memes, with some of the most popular ones using screen shots from the testify (usually of a meltdown or overreaction).

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"Today" days old

"Today days one-time" is used as a response to any random realization. Information technology offset came from posts request "How onetime were you when y'all realized Ten?" 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 character that outset appeared in a 2005 comic, and has gone through multiple transformations since and so. Starting out as a positive meme known as "feel skillful 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 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 image of the famous athlete'due south emotional speech communication during his 2009 consecration into the Basketball game Hall of Fame, this meme is normally used to convey a fan'southward disappointment when his particular squad loses or performs poorly. The meme has been around since kickoff actualization on MemeCrunch in 2012 and gained an official fan folio on Tumblr in 2015. Jordan has reportedly institute the entire fad pretty funny.

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*Slaps roof of car*

"Slaps roof of car" can exist traced back to a 2014 tweet of a ridiculous car salesmen conversation overheard and started bravado up in 2018 after being paired with an illustrated stock image of a car salesman showing off a machine. The meme has seen many photoshopped variations, merely unremarkably utilizes the phrase "This bad male child can fit so much X in information technology."

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Awkward fiddling girl

Also known as "Side Eyeing Chloe," this meme can be used in pretty much any awkward state of affairs. The original photo came from a video of a little daughter giving an unimpressed and hesitant expect subsequently existence told almost a surprise trip to Disneyland in 2013.

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Krusty Krab vs. Chum Saucepan

Just almost every "Spongebob Squarepants" fan knows about the intense rivalry between the Krusty Krab and the Chum Bucket restaurants, simply the quondam normally reigns supreme. The meme uses photoshopped images of both cartoon restaurants in guild to project two rivals, such as sports teams and Television receiver 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 squeamish. Toward the end of 2017, information technology became popular to post 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 Ten."

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1 does not simply...

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, "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 large influx of the memes online during a 2015 interview.

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I am a human/adult female looking for....

Subsequently a 2017 tweet that posed a questionnaire using the classic dating template "I am a human being/woman looking for a homo/woman" well-nigh Carly Rae Jepsen, a meme was born. Since then, it has become popular to use 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 photograph taken of a little male child with a clenched fist and determined expression. Information technology is most always used to display small successful moments or "wins" that happen to someone throughout a normal day similar getting an extra craven nugget in a fast-food repast.

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OverlyAttachedGirlfriend.com

Overly fastened girlfriend

"Overly fastened girlfriend" began in 2012 when a Redditor took a screenshot of an prototype he establish 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 internet, using captions portraying her as a stereotypical overly attached girlfriend.

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Donald Trump yelling at lawnmower male child

The internet just couldn't help itself after images surfaced of a picayune male child mowing the lawn at the White Business firm completely ignoring Trump. The kid was plain then focused on the job that he didn't discover Trump when he came out to greet him, forcing Trump to yell loudly over the audio of the lawnmower and making for some swell meme fuel.

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Left exit 12

The "Left exit 12" meme uses a series of screen grabs from a 2013 YouTube video showing a car globe-trotting dangerously into an exit ramp. People began photoshopping the exit sign (get out 12) to say comical things that ane might swerve off the highway in guild to become to.

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