Friday, December 20, 2019

What Do You Meme? A Decade in Review

Written by: Emily Opresnick

2019 was filled with many new memes ranging from Minecraft to sayings such as “Ok Boomer”. The following are some of the most viral memes from this year:

Shaggy
In January of 2019, a bunch of memes began to surface about Shaggy, one of the main characters from Scooby-Doo. These memes depicted Shaggy as an extremely powerful individual.
Credit: Reddit

Unsettled Tom Meme
Unsettled or Concerned Tom memes refer to the following image of Tom from Tom and Jerry. This meme is often used when expressing concern or shock about a subject.
Credit: YouTube



Area 51
The Storm Area 51 meme came about as a result of a facebook event scheduled for September 20th, 2019 titled, “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of US.” The event went viral and with this came lots of memes. 
Credit: The Denver Post


Me and the Boys
This meme refers to the caption, Me and the boys. It is most commonly seen with an image of the villains in the 1967 TV Series, Spider-Man
Credit: Memedroid


Me explaining to my mom
The Me Explaining to my Mom meme refers to two images of Quenlin Blackwell crying and e of Ms. Juicy, depicting the facial reactions of an individual trying to convince their mom of something. 
Credit: Know Your Meme


Woman Yelling at  a Cat
The woman yelling at a Cat meme refers to a screenshot of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills stars, Taylor Armstrong and Kyle Richards, next to an image of Smudge the Cat reacting to a salad. These images started as different memes, however, Twitter user @MISSINGEGIRL put the two pictures together ultimately making this viral sensation.
Credit: Reddit

Ok Boomer
This phrase ultimately gained popularity in the fall of 2019 despite being around for a long time. It is typically used in response to something someone from the Boomer generation would say. More specifically, something that pertains to generation Z culture that is not understood by other generations or individuals. 
Credit: Lit Hub


Baby Yoda
Baby Yoda is a character from the Disney+ TV series, The Mandalorian that first aired on November 12, 2019. Instantly, Baby Yoda became a viral sensation resulting in many memes as well as a song on Tik Tok.
Credit: Twitter


Keanu Reeves
Keanu Reeves went viral this year due to an anonymous Change.org petition to make him Time Magazine's Person of the Year. In addition to this, he also made an appearance at E3, Microsoft's gaming conference, to reveal Cyberpunk 2077. Many memes emerged reflecting his charitable actions as well as memes from photos from the conference and game. 
Credit: Reddit


Joker 
Following the release of The Joker movie this year, several memes with scenes from the movie appeared all over the internet. 
Credit: Reddit


Ight Imma Head Out
This meme refers to a scene from the TV show Spongebob Squarepants. In the show, Spongebob is sitting however, the meme is interpreted as Spongebob leaving the room, as it is typically used to show someone exiting from a situation. 
Credit: Reddit



PewDiePie
The “war” between Youtubers Pewdiepie and T-Series began in 2018, however, it continued throughout 2019. Pewdiepie as a search term peaked in late March as a result of the ongoing subscriber count war between the Swedish YouTuber and T- Series. 
Credit: Meme Droid


Minecraft / Revenge
There was a resurgence in the game Minecraft this year, with over 112 million people playing it every month. Ultimately, this brought many memes about the game, most notably “Creeper, aw man,” a line from CaptainSparkles parody, Revenge.  
Credit: Know Your Meme

Memes from the Decade 
Instagram user Grandayy put out a poll to determine the best memes from 2010-2018. To best recap the memes of the decade, here are the results:


2018: 
Ugandan Knuckles
This meme went viral as a result of YouTuber VirtuallyVain, using the phrase, “I know the day” in addition to the character
Credit: YouTube


2017: 
Phil Swift / Flex Tape
In 2017, YouTuber  JonTronmade a video about Flex Tape, a product by the company Flex Seal. After this, many memes and edits were made showing flex tape to fix numerous objects.
Credit: Reddit 


2016: 
We Are Number One
We are Number One is a song sung by Robbie Rotten, the villain in the TV show LazyTown. This became a meme in 2016 as a result of numerous parodies that emerged of the song. 
Credit: Pinterest


2015: 
Pepe the Frog
Pepe the Frog is one of the most well-known memes today. He was created by artist Matt Furie for his comic series, Boys Club. Since it was originally posted, numerous edits and other works were completed showing Pepe with different moods.
Credit: Tumblr


2014:
MLG
MLG refers to montage parody memes. They are parody videos with quick-paced edits and loud dubstep type music. Typically, many other memes appear in the edits. 
Credit: Reddit

2013:
Doge
Alongside Pepe, the Doge meme is also one of the most well-known memes. Doge is a term that refers to a dog, in most cases, the Doge is a Shiba Inu. With these memes, there is text in Comic Sans around the image. 


Credit: iFunny


2012: 
Illuminati Confirmed 
The Illuminati is, “a purported secret society consisting of world governments, corporations, and celebrities that play an important role in global affairs.” This meme is used to jokingly theorize the group's existence. In addition to this, most video edits of the meme contain the x-files theme song.
Credit: Reddit


2011: 
Nyan Cat
Nyan Cat was a viral YouTube video in 2011. It is an 8-bit animation of a cat with a pop-tart body flying through the air. 
Credit: Know Your Meme


2010:
Epic Sax Guy
Epic Sax Guy refers to saxophone player Stepanov, the meme refers to his performance at his group's live concert at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2010.

Credit: Know Your Meme

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