HypeFor many of us, the best notifications come in the form of “Your friend tagged you in a post.” Some people take a more active role, and can’t spend a day without sharing memes on their News Feeds. With the popularity of memes ever on the rise, these funny, and sometimes idiotic, posts have become a part of the internet generation’s everyday life.
From browsing the meme site 9GAG to posting on Twitter and now TikTok, we have shaped meme culture by creating viral content that may (or may not) have broken the internet. Memeticist and author of The Meme Machine (2000) Susan Blackmore explains in a TED Talk that memes are replicated pieces of information passed through person to person. And as today’s meme culture constantly evolves, memes have become more diverse, encompassing a variety of topics in pop culture. For now, take a trip down memory lane with Vantage’s timeline of the decade’s noteworthy memes.
2010: Rage comics, GIFs, and the Bed Intruder Song
Rage comic Photo sourced from The New York Times
The start of the decade saw the height of trololol-filled rage comics such as Me Gusta and Forever Alone, which depicted the most relatable reactions through these signature crudely sketched faces. That same year, we had to deal with random cool-guy shades used as clapbacks and Leonardo DiCaprio squinting at us through Inception (2010) multipanes.
2010 was also when Antoine Dodson blessed us with the “Bed Intruder Song” and warned all of us to hide our kids and our wives via an interview-turned-song gone viral. Dodson–who sassily testified about an assailant that broke into their home–instantly became an internet star. The video racked millions of views that year, became the most-watched non-label video on YouTube, and made enough money to relocate the Dodsons, courtesy of its catchy beat and “lyrics.”
2011: The rise of 9GAG, song memes, and when Planking was a thing
Riding the 2010 meme wave, the top memes on 9GAG–a platform that slowly gained more traction in 2011–took a TV-inspired turn from rage comics. This year marked the start of many top-bottom text memes, like the Ancient Aliens dude and Futurama Fry, both hailing from TV shows.
Nyan Cat Photo sourced from Tynker
Those aside, 2011 was an interesting year, to say the least. For some reason, we were all invested in the rainbow farts of the pop-tart Nyan Cat and Game of Thrones at the same time. Unsurprisingly, an Imminent Ned Stark announcing Winter is coming also started making the rounds online.
We also started making fun of people who complained about the simplest inconveniences through First World Problems, while Rebecca Black invited us to get down with her on the infamously autotuned track “Friday.” In their own way, people indeed got down with that year as planking became a trend–and everyone just started lying face down at the most random places, just because.
2012: Peak 9GAG culture and that time everyone sang “Eyyyy, sexy lady”
By the time 2012 came, 9GAG was at its peak. Apart from the already prevalent top-bottom text memes, reaction pictures, like an unimpressed McKayla Maroney slowly started becoming A Thing. Most popular among these was Crying Michael Jordan, lifted from his Hall of Fame induction speech–a meme still used by sports fans to emote until today.
Despite 2012 not being the end of the world, it still made us go “Ermahgered!” with relatable and cute animal content–like the dogshaming trend that exposed our dogs’ funny business, and the popularity of the late Grumpy Cat (RIP, you are dearly missed). And of course, one can’t look back at 2012 and not mention the boom of Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” which made waves everywhere for its iconic horse dance–especially in our school program performances.
2013: Pop culture song memes, Doge, and Side-eyes from Chloe
After a fair share of viral hits over the past few years, 2013 combined memes and music to a whole new level. The music industry gave its all from Miley Cyrus coming in like a “Wrecking Ball” to learning exactly “What Does the Fox Say?”
Doge Photo sourced from Wikipedia
We can’t have all this music without some new sick moves, and so the Harlem Shake got its claim to fame. In the midst of all these bangers, reaction memes only multiplied without fail. The internet was then blessed with the likes of Doge and Side-eye Chloe, giving us judgmental looks that we’ll never forget.
2014: Vines, Kermit Sipping Tea, and the year Kim K broke the internet
Taking a step away from the danker memes, we collectively moved on to Vine: A short-video platform we still love and miss more than ever. We got a certain satisfaction from six-second long videos perfectly cut for nearly anything to easily become the next best meme. Vine videos ranged from normal day-to-day activities like being In Me Mum’s Car to playing around with today’s top hits–case in point being the famous Frank Ocean parody A Potato Flew Around My Room.
Then all of a sudden, memes went green (literally) with Shrek is Love, Shrek is Life and But That’s Not My Business, the latter being a humble beginning for Kermit and his indifferent tea sipping. However, the year isn’t anything without some controversy from Kim Kardashian, this time in the form of her Paper Magazine cover. Her posing naked for the fashion magazine spread like wildfire, and soon, people were posting parodies of all kinds.
2015: A Left Shark, the Charlie Charlie Challenge, and questions with no answers
2015 was when we never seemed to run out of questions. First, people wondered, what color was The Dress anyway? And after that debate, we also couldn’t help but ask, Why You Always Lying? Even Nicki Minaj threw Miley Cyrus some questions with her iconic “What’s good?” diss from the MTV Video Music Awards.
Alongside that, we had all kinds of videos to play around with–whether it be Drake’s “Hotline Bling,” Adele’s “Hello,” or even a wonderful performance from our favorite Left Shark, a flailing shark mascot dancing backup for Katy Perry’s Super Bowl Halftime performance. Amid all of this, a game to “summon a demon” somehow managed to go viral too, with the Charlie Charlie Challenge going from scary to comedic real quick.
2016: Twitter memes, Arthur’s Fist, and everyone’s confusion
If 9GAG, YouTube, and Vine had their time, 2016 marked the reign of Twitter memes. With a limited word count and the options to posting videos, photos, and even GIFs, the possibilities for memes were endless.
Confused Math Lady from KnowYourMeme
History had a way of recreating itself with the Damn Daniel montage having a similar energy to previous year’s What Are Those? Both videos involve a person overreacting to someone else’s shoes, whether by being startled or hyping them up. Meanwhile, reaction pictures and GIFs kept going strong with the help of Confused Math Lady, Confused Mr. Krabs, and Arthur’s Fist to convey our everyday frustrations. Evil Kermit also had its moments of pulling us to the dark side, but at the same time we wanted #JusticeforHarambe: Aside from all the petitions about zoo safety, some people honored the fallen ape by placing him alongside other celebrity deaths in 2016. Try naming a more iconic duo, we’ll wait.
2017: Spongemock, Salt Bae’s sprinkling, and the Distracted Boyfriend
Our favorite childhood sea sponge made his comeback by way of Spongemock, striking an iconic pose with hands on his hips and the infamous aLtErNaTiNg CaSe CaPtIoNs–used to mock everything from missteps in public healthcare to angsty relationship issues.
Some other relationships may have turned sour at the time of Salt Bae, a flamboyant Turkish chef who was filmed in the middle of garnishing a steak. Twitter has gone far to pair this meme with the caption You vs. the guy she tells you not to worry about, where the latter was the charming salt bae. His theatrical pose became a quick favorite for its use in just about any situation: From ending arguments in a sassy way to sprinkling unnecessary details in conversations. You name it, the Salt Bae’s got it.
Distracted Boyfriend from KnowYourMeme
2017 also witnessed the rise of the Distracted Boyfriend, who came from a collection of stock photos following the story of an unfaithful man. The supposed first photo of the series shows a guy holding hands with his girlfriend, while he turns to look at another woman instead. Since its first published appearance, the distracted boyfriend series also saw how the two women he dated and cheated on became friends, and even ending up as lovers–talk about some girl power!
2018: Yodelling, Yanny-Laurel, and “not feeling so good”
Unless you lived under a rock for the past decade, no one would have missed Mason Ramsey’s unique performance at Walmart. Also known as the Walmart Yodel Boy, child performer Ramsey made his rendition of “Lovesick Blues” (1949) by Hank Williams. The country song then hit Spotify’s Viral Top 50 after the release of his mega-viral video. This yodeling performance stood out against the wave of pop music in 2018, and is exactly the reason why the child gained a huge following online.
The internet seemed to gain a liking towards fresh audio finds, as the Yanny-Laurel audio clip also went viral. The ambiguous distinction between the two names tore the internet apart as some people claimed to hear both. No one knew which was which, and it was like 2015’s Dress all over again.
In other pop culture news, Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War was also a 2018 highlight. The show was a rollercoaster of emotions and fans “didn’t feel so good” after its heartbreaking cliffhanger. Apart from several “Infinity War spoilers without context,” one meme stood out from the rest: The Disintegration Effect meme, or widely popularized as I Don’t Feel So Good, was a photo manipulation effect referring to the said cliffhanger–which not only left moviegoers reeling, but the entire internet, too.
2019: And I… TikToks
And I Oop from Youtube
In loving memory of Vine, it was difficult to find a true replacement for the iconic app. Though people could post videos on other platforms, time limits made memes funnier and so far, nobody could exactly recreate those short and sweet clips–at least, that was the case until TikTok came along.
Duets, roleplaying, and more lip-syncing than ever before? At first Tiktok seemed like a joke…then we accepted that it is. Fast forward to 2019 and now anybody can get a whole room going “Sksksk and I oop” at the drop of a Hydroflask. Similar to Vine, the app managed to make anything seem funny with its short video format. Some of the finest gems are Kombucha Girl and her mixed feelings, the adorable Mister Sandman Cat, a Starbucks lover Spilling the Tea, and a reenactment of high school bullies asking “Are You Emo?” accurate enough to give us flashbacks best forgotten. Given the variety of videos that gained fame, it’s clear TikTok has the potential for more as we enter a new decade.
Since 2010, meme culture continues to be broader and brighter than ever. This list–though not complete by any means–serves to guide readers in recalling the best of the best in memes. Some memes became the talk of the town, garnering a massive online presence, while some had more trouble standing out. So what will the next decade bring us in memes? Best stay on the internet to find out.
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