Absurdist & Shitposts

Surreal, deep-fried, ironic, and absurdist humor.

486 moments in this segment.

2009-05-21 - Three Wolf Moon
2009-05-21 - Three Wolf Moon ("Colors of The Wind" - Pocahontas Parody). )
2009-08-15 - Crasher Squirrel. (a.k.a Scene-stealing Squirrel or Cheeky Squirrel) refers to the single character image macro of a squirrel randomly placed into photos.
2009-08-15 - Banff Crasher Squirrel: The Movie! - Alberta, Canada
2010-08-06 - America: Fuck Yeah!. !” is a multi-purpose expression that can be used as an authentic display of strong approval or an ironic response to extreme or unwarranted patriotism toward the United States of America. The phrase rose to fame after being quoted in the 2004 action comedy film Team America: World Police.
2010-08-06 - AMERICA F#K YEAH! MUSIC VIDEO Team America World Police THEME SONG
2011-07-18 - You Spoony Bard!. (II in America). It is used as a comical and nonsensical insult by the character Tellah against the character Edward. The phrase is one of the more popular examples of Engrish in games.
2011-07-18 - final fantasy ff 4 IV 2 you spoony bard bard!. !
2012 - Where Is Your God Now?. " is a popular catchphrase often used as a caption for cursed or menacing images or pictures that depict something defying the normal order of things. The meme originates from a viral YTMND page of the King from Burger King advertisements in the 2000s. The phrase has also been repurposed as the "Where Is Your X Now?" snowclone.
2012-06-20 - The Wikipedia Game. (also known as WikiRace or WikiWars) is a competitive game in which two or more players must navigate through Wikipedia from a randomly assigned page to another page of destination by using the fewest number of links in the shortest amount of time. Usually, the first player to reach the targeted article or the player that reaches the destination with the fewest number of links, wins the race.
2012-07-16 - Notes From Chris. “Craig.”
2012-07-16 - Todd Lamb standup "Notes From Chris" from Joe's Pub NYC
2013-02-14 - 420 Blaze It. ” is a catchphrase used in celebration of smoking marijuana. The phrase is often used ironically to mock cannabis enthusiasts who identify themselves with the stoner subculture.
2013-02-14 - Snoop Dogg- 420 [Blaze Up] feat. Devin The Dude, Wiz Khalfia, & Dj Battlecat (Official Audio). )
2013-02-21 - That's the Evilest Thing I Can Imagine. ” is an expression used to ironically highlight juvenile pranks or trolling schemes, in a similar vein to the phrase “Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn.” In image macros, the phrase is usually accompanied by a screen capture of cartoon characters HIM and Mojo Jojo from the animated television series Powerpuff Girls.
2013-05-03 - #FollowATeen
2014-01-24 - Surprise Trust Fall. “trust fall” trust-building exercise in which one person is either blindfolded or closes their eyes before falling backward into another person or group of people in hopes that they will be caught.
2014-01-24 - Tosh.O: Surprise Trust Falls. 1:06
2014-05-20 - Webdriver Torso. 7th, 2013, the channel has garnered much online attention due to its enigmatic nature, in similar vein to other mystery projects like the Pronunciation Manual and Cicada 3301. As of May 2014, more than 77,000 videos have been uploaded to the channel.
2014-12-05 - Dank Memes. ”* is an ironic expression used to mock online viral media and in-jokes that are intentionally bizarre or have exhausted their comedic value to the point of being trite or cliché. In this context, the word “dank,” originally coined as a term for high quality marijuana, is satirically used as a synonym for “cool.”
2014-12-05 - Random memes I permanently borrowed PT.1513. 14:17
2014-12-11 - *Hits Blunt*. * is a catchphrase associated with a series of two-panel image macros that convey inane or absurd thoughts which may run through a person’s head while under the influence of marijuana, especially when it is consumed in the form of a cannabis cigar (more commonly known as a “blunt”), typically accompanied by a photograph of a subject sporting a hooded sweatshirt and looking utterly confused in the typical fashion of a stoner.
2014-12-11 - *HITS BLUNT* most famous memes. 2:23
2015-01-23 - Well Meme'd. ” is an ironic expressioon typically accompanied an exploitable image of a character laughing and saying “Hahaha, great post!” followed by “Well meme’d, my friend!”. The original featured Pepe, also known as “Feels Good Man Frog”. A template was later made, leading to several variations.
2015-01-23 - well meme'd. 1:53
2015-04-07 - Fefe. /s4s/ (shit 4chan says) and /r9k/ (robot 9000) boards on 4chan.
2015-04-07 - 6ix9ine - FEFE ft. Nicki Minaj, Murda Beatz. 2:59
2015-05-09 - This is Now A Spiderman Thread. 60’s Spider-Man images, it later covered other subjects, spawning the snowclone “This is now a X thread”.
2015-05-09 - Spiderman Thread Song (SPTV). ) · 2:27
2015-05-19 - STRUGGLE - THE STRUGGLE IS REAL (Ft. AARON LEWIS). ) · 4:11
2016-03-07 - It's Still Shitposting Even If You Are Being Ironic. ” is an expression used to discourage the act of intentional shitposting, or sharing worthless content on purpose, on the imageboard site 4chan. The phrase is usually accompanied by an illustration of the Touhou Project character Keine Kamishirasawa.
2016-05-08 - "I Bet the Jews Did This". ” is an ironic catchphrase used to mock anti-semitic conspiracy theorists and trolls who blame the people of Jewish descent for their own personal woes and misfortunes. The phrase, along with its snowclone variants, is often featured in a series of reaction images based on a stock photo of a middle-aged man struggling to untangle a messy cluster of Christmas decoration lights, in a similar vein to the combination of infomercial FAIL GIFs and the phrase Thanks, Obama!.
2016-05-29 - Dude Weed LMAO. ” is a catchphrase used to impersonate and mock members of the stoner subculture and as a spam and shitposting practice. The catchphrase is also associated with the Canadian actor, filmmaker, and comedian Seth Rogen, known for featuring marijuana-related jokes or scenes on his movies. The phrase can be used as a criticism of some kinds of comedy, under the phrasal template “Dude X Lmao”.
2016-05-29 - dude weed lmao
2016 - Dolphin Conspiracy Theories. The *Dolphin Conspiracy Theories* refer to various beliefs that the Cetacean mammals are plotting a scheme against the mankind. Like many other absurd conspiracy theories that have gone viral online, it can be seen as a satire of self-convicted conspiracy theorists.
2016 - The Dolphin Conspiracy: WTF Are They Hiding From You?
2016-07-07 - Wew Lad. ” is an obfuscatory expression associated with circle jerking or shitposting, which is often accompanied by a poorly-drawn illustration of a man’s face known as the “Wrinkle Face” or a digitally altered picture of the Doge Shiba Inu.
2016-07-07 - Wew Lad
2016-08-04 - Doggo
2016-08-10 - Nico Nico Nii. " is a catchphrase used by Love Live! School Idol Project character Yazawa Nico, often as a reaction or a form of shitposting. It is also frequenlty used as a source in YTPMVs or MAD videos, and is often accompanied by Nico's signature pose or hand sign.
2016-09-07 - Mr. Orange
2016-09-07 - Popof - Mr. Orange [HQ]. Popof - Mr. Orange
2016-10-29 - Welcome to Die!. ! is a memorable quote uttered by the villain Magneto in the 1992 arcade game X-Men. The absurdity of the phrase has made it a popular in-joke among the X-men fanbase and Video Games community.
2016-10-29 - X-Men (Arcade Game) - Welcome to Die
2017-02-01 - Whomst. 2017, “whomst” images pairing the word with pictures of people photoshopped to have bright purple eyes a la Gordon Ramsay’s Lamb Sauce grew popular on meme-focused subreddits.
2017-02-01 - Kekistan. 4chan’s /pol/ board as the tongue-in-cheek ethnic origin of “shitposters” known as “Kekistanis” who worship the ancient Egyptian diety Kek. In late January 2017, Kekistan began widely circulating on Twitter following its promotion by YouTuber Sargon of Akkad.
2017-02-01 - KEK VULT #FreeKekistan
2017-02-17 - Sandsverse
2017-04-25 - ALL OF R/SURREALMEMES
2017-05-01 - The World's Most Famous Teapot: The Utah Teapot
2017-05-05 - Wuss Poppin Jimbo. “What’s up, Jimbo?” The images generally feature signature Black Twitter memes such as the B Button Emoji and Timbs. Other variations have appeared with different Nickelodeon characters.
2017-05-05 - WUSS POPPIN JIMBO - Original. This clip belongs to Paramount Pictures not me.WUSS POPPIN GUYS, NEW FRESH MEME ON THE RISE SO TIME TO GET MY YOUTUBE CAREER STARTED WITH THIS BOYOS. Thanks for watching and don't forget to like, share, comment, and subscribe and don't forget to share. My Casting Call Club Profile - My Steam Accounts - My Social Blade -
2017-05-30 - Mr. Worldwide. 's jet-setting playboy persona.
2017 - World's most expensive milkshake! - Guinness World Records
2017-06-28 - Where TF My Uber Driver Taking Me?. /or impossible sights through the windshield. The meme almost always includes the caption "where tf my uber driver taking me" as if a rideshare brought them to this location.
2017-06-28 - yo where tf my uber driver takin us rn??
2017-07-20 - Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn
2017-08-08 - Not Tim and Eric
2017-09-23 - Decearing Egg. “えぐえぐえぐえぐえぐ” (Egu egu egu e guegu) discovered by An Odd World of Mine in a video. The nonsensical phrase has led it to become a catchphrase of critique for Google Translates methods.
2017-10-17 - Meme Chimera
2017-10-17 - Teto jockey animation meme
2018-01-04 - Conke. “Bepis”.
2018-01-04 - The Conker World Championships
2018-01-05 - Maymay. ” is a phonetic spelling of a common mispronunciation of the word meme, which is typically used ironically in various online communities to mock mainstream Internet culture.
2018-01-08 - I Enjoy.... … refers to a shitposting snowclone in which people post about things with the construction, "I enjoy X. They are my favorite Y. When (something good happens), I think to myself “yes”. When (something bad happens), I think to myself “no”." It is often used with sports teams.
2018-01-16 - BORN TO DIE / WORLD IS A FUCK / Kill Em All 2035 / I am memel man / 410,757,864,530 DEAD SVINS
2018-01-19 - Americans Be Eating Cheesed Burger. “Americans eat cheeseburgers” that turned into a shitpost snowclone popular on Tumblr in which people write variations on the title text with different groups of people and other purposefully misspelled objects.
2018-01-26 - WordArt Image Macros
2018-02-01 - The Titular Line
2018-02-01 - titular
2018-02-13 - You're Mom Gay. ” is a satirical insult which typically uses the intentionally grammatically incorrect phrase as a form of shitposting online.
2018-02-27 - Rarted. “retarded,” which is typically referenced as a mock pejorative in various shitposting and circlejerk communities online in a similar vein to the mock insult “you’re [sic] mom gay”.
2018-03-14 - Memes Then, Memes Now. 2000s and early-2010s to the more surreal and shitpost memes of the late 2010s.
2018-03-15 - Finna Woke. (AAVE) slang words “Finna,” which means “about to,” and Woke, generally meaning to be aware of social issues. The combination of the two words is generally used as an adjective to mean “good,” (i.e. “That’s finna woke.”) The phrase was spread predominantly by YouTuber JacksFilms, who used it as a parody of millennial slang.
2018-04-01 - Gordon Ramsay's Lamb Sauce. 2006 episode of Hell’s Kitchen in which Chef Gordon Ramsay berates a kitchen full of chefs, demanding to know where the lamb sauce is for a dish.
2018-04-25 - Lord Marquaad E. Lord Marquaad, also known as Lord Farquaad / Markiplier E, refers to a deep fried image of the face YouTube Let's Player Markiplier photoshopped onto the head of Lord Farquaad from Shrek with the letter "E" in impact font overlaying the image. Later edits posted the face over an image of Mark Zuckerberg's Congressional Hearings. The character was then edited in several templates referencing the absurdity of modern memes.
2018-06-12 - So Glad I Grew Up Doing This Not This
2018-07-02 - reddit's anti memes
2018-08-14 - Kung Pow Penis
2018-08-14 - Kung pow penis
2018-09-11 - Let's Get This Bread
2018-09-24 - styropyro throwing car batteries in a pond for 27 seconds
2018-10-03 - M14 Gang. 14 gun in Call of Duty Black Ops. The group, though small, received large attention after being mentioned by PewDiePie in an episode of his "Meme Review" series.
2019-01-22 - Guacamole Nigga Penis
2019-01-24 - Do U Want Anyfing From Macdondald / Borgar. Do U Want Anyfing From Macdondald, also known as Borgar, is an anti-meme based on the "Can a Robot Write a Symphony" scene from the 2004 American film "I, Robot". Originally a popular submission on /r/okbuddyretard subreddit, the post spawned other edits based on the template, while the word "borgar" gained popularity as a punchline.
2019-01-24 - Do u want anyfing from macdondald
2019-02-10 - Cool Bug Fact's. /or aggressive statement.
2019-02-10 - Cool bug fact’s
2019-02-19 - Due To Personal Reasons
2019-02-19 - Due To Personal Reasons - Jazmine Robinson | Official Music Video | Cat_Series Music
2019-03-15 - Cursed Cat. "ъеъ" trend among Russian users, in March 2019 the edited photograph gained popularity as an image macro on Reddit.
2019-03-15 - Australian Shitposters. 4chan users are responsible for the vast majority of shitposts created on the site, which is often attributed to the timezone difference preventing mods in the United States from regulating Australian submissions.
2019-04-05 - Pass the boof thanos meme
2019-05-01 - Bro! You Just Posted Cringe!. ! refers to a catchphrase appearing in a series of reaction images used to ironically highlight cringeworthy quality of someone's content.
2019-05-01 - Rick Astley Bro you just posted cringe
2019-05-07 - Poop Dealer. /r/okaybuddyretard before spreading to other subreddits.
2019-05-07 - Poop Dealer
2019-05-16 - Kek or Cringe. "Kek or Cringe" where they rate memes as "kek" or "cringe". The format originated on iFunny in March 2019 and was later spread by ironic meme pages on Twitter, Instagram and Reddit.
2019-05-16 - Kek or Cringe with Dutch Van Der Linde
2019-05-21 - Soup Time
2019-05-24 - Cringe Normie. "cringe" as being cringy itself and sometimes also references /r/woooosh subreddit and other aspects of the Reddit culture. The expression gained popularity in ironic communities on iFunny, Instagram and Reddit starting in late 2018.
2019-06-05 - Stonks. "stocks" which is often associated with a surreal meme featuring the character Meme Man standing in front of a picture representing the stock market followed by the caption "Stonks." The picture began seeing use as a reaction image online in jokes about making poor financial decisions.
2019-06-05 - STONKS UPDATE Made It EASIER To Make REAL ROBUX..
2019-06-07 - Casey Frey "Get TF Out of My Way Type Way" Video. Casey Frey's "Get TF Out of My Way" Video refers to a surreal sketch by Casey Frey in which he is chopping wood and bullied by another character (also played by Frey) until he appears to be inspired by a third character (also played by Frey) to dance, frustrating the bully. A month after the video was posted, screenshots of the bully and the wood-cutting character began seeing use on Twitter as reaction images.
2019-06-07 - Get tf out of my way type way
2019-06-19 - Blessed Image. "Blessed Image." They are generally pictures that are seen as positive or opposite than "Cursed Images":https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cursed-image to the viewer. The picture's contents are typically cute or "wholesome":https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wholesome-memes. They have inspired several popular social media accounts devoted to posting various Blessed Images.
2019-06-19 - reddit's blessed images
2019-07-18 - Pennis and Also Dicke and Balls. “shitposting” when used as a nonsensical retort on image boards, discussion forums and comment sections.
2019-07-18 - Pennis And Also Dicke And Balls (Pee Pee Pee). )
2019-07-24 - Beanos Theme Song [LYRICS]
2019-08-13 - Cursed Emojis. 2019 many of the emojis gained popularity online in memes.
2019-08-13 - Cursed emoji
2019-10-16 - Ironic Big Chungus Memes. 2019, spreading to Instagram and certain Reddit communities in the following months.
2019-10-16 - MOST IRONIC MEMES EVER #1
2019-10-31 - Powercry. 2 is a Powercry variation.
2019-10-31 - powercry
2019-11-03 - Shitposting. ” is an Internet slang term describing a range of user misbehaviors and rhetoric on forums and message boards that are intended to derail a conversation off-topic, including thread jacking, circlejerking and non-commercial spamming. On 4chan, the byproduct of shitposting is referred to as cancer.
2019-11-13 - He Was There For Me When No One Else Was. (fictional) character on someone’s life. The phrase is commonly used on the microblogging social network Tumblr in image posts featuring a 3×3 collection of images accompanied by the phrase.
2019-11-21 - Stay Hydrated
2019-11-21 - The Best Way to Stay Hydrated (Not Water). )
2019-12-03 - Cheems. /r/dogelore. The dog's real name is Balltze, also nicknamed Ball Ball. In memes, he is known for liking cheeseburgers, which the Shiba Inu pronounces, "Cheemsburbger." Memes featuring Cheems are usually based upon the character humorously misspelling various words, particularly by including extra "M" letters and first appeared on /r/dogelore in June 2019. In late August 2023, Balltze passed away due to complications from thoracentesis surgery.
2019-12-03 - Harami Dogesh | हरामी डोगेश | cheems| vidhayak ji | cheems doge | cheems meme | doge memes | chimtu
2019-12-16 - I May Not Show It. "I may not show it" followed by an absurd or humorous admission.
2019-12-16 - I may not show it
2020-01-13 - Out Pizza the Hut. "out pizza the hut," describing the consequences experienced by those who attempt to do so. It was inspired by Pizza Hut's slogan, "No One OutPizzas The Hut," which started in 2016. The phrase was first used on Twitter in 2016 but increased in usage within ironic Reddit communities in October 2019.
2020-01-13 - No one OutPizza's the Hut
2020-02-05 - Random Chimp Event. "random chimp event." The warnings usually imply that an organized attack by a group of chimpanzees will happen at an unidentified point in the near future. The trend started from the eponymous Instagram account, with memes about the event being spread by major meme accounts in early February 2020.
2020-02-10 - You Have Lost Penis Privilege
2020-02-10 - Seiringer - you have lost penis privilege [oida mi wiafts remix]
2020-03-02 - Go Ahead, Get In, Since Your Ass Wanna Act. 2019, the catchphrase maintained popularity in ironic meme communities in the following year, often reduced to Go Ahead, X snowclone.
2020-04-07 - IncrediblE AbsolutelY PhenomenaL FantastiC. 5:21
2020-04-14 - PC2. 2, an imagined successor to the PC. Typically these memes play off the structure of other tech products, like game consoles, which release various editions that are accompanied by a new number, such as the PlayStation 4 vs. 5. The joke is frequently used by both the PC gaming community (or PC Master Race) and various console fan bases, often asking the question, “If PC is so good, why haven't they released PC2 yet?” in the form of a copypasta.
2020-04-23 - GUESS THE GIBBERISH pt. 2! Can you solve these mad gabs?. 5:14
2020-04-23 - Things That Just Make Sense. "random things in my X home that just make sense," followed by a showcase of weird or unique things in their home. The videos, which became popular in April 2020 due to one tour of a Japanese home, inspired a series of ironic parodies on TikTok.
2020-04-23 - European Things That Just Makes Sense... *are we dumb?*. * · 17:21
2020-05-02 - Maskposting
2020-05-04 - What Vibe Do I Give Off?. "What Vibe Do I Give Off," began ironically on Facebook in April 2020 and spread to Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram.
2020-05-28 - Gun Owners Pointing Guns At Their Crotches. 2019, has been mistakenly considered a means of owning the libs.
2020 - Tiger King and Carole Baskin. Date: 20 March 2020 · Place: Netflix, global lockdown living rooms · Figures: Joe Exotic, Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park · Carole Baskin, Big Cat Rescue · Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin, directors · Tags: Netflix, Lockdown, Docuseries 01. Big Cats, Bigger Vacuum Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness drops on Netflix on 20 March 2020, four days after most US states issue stay-home orders. Within ten days it pulls 34.3 million US viewers per Nielsen, the second-biggest Netflix debut to that point. The country has nothing else to talk about and nowhere else to be. Joe Exotic, mulleted private-zoo owner already imprisoned for murder-for-hire, and Carole Baskin, the rival sanctuary operator he tried to kill, become the first true memes of pandemic time. Tiger King mask edits, Joe Exotic Cameos, and homemade Carole Baskin TikToks fill the feed for six weeks. 02. Hey All You Cool Cats and Kittens Baskin's chirped catchphrase becomes a TikTok sound with hundreds of thousands of uses by April. Megan Thee Stallion samples it. SNL stages a Zoom-era cold open about it. The show ends on Joe asking, then telling, the camera that his husband Travis took his own life and that Carole probably fed her missing first husband Don Lewis to her tigers. Sources • Nielsen, 'Tiger King Pulls 34.3 Million U.S. Viewers Over First 10 Days' (April 2020) • Vulture, 'A Complete Guide to Every Tiger King Meme' (April 2020) • Netflix, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness (20 March 2020)
2020 - TikTok Lockdown Adoption. Date: March 2020 · Place: Global, originating ByteDance Beijing · Figures: Zhang Yiming, ByteDance founder · Kevin Mayer, briefly TikTok CEO June-August 2020 · lockdown teenagers worldwide · Tags: Platform, Algorithm, Pandemic 01. The For You Page Arrives TikTok launches globally in August 2018 as the international skin of Douyin, but the platform crosses into infrastructure when COVID-19 lockdowns begin in March 2020. Monthly active users jump from roughly 500 million at the start of 2020 to over 700 million by July. Bored teenagers, suddenly homebound, download the app in numbers Facebook took a decade to assemble. The algorithm, not the social graph, becomes the substrate. The For You Page serves content based on watch-time signal rather than follower count, collapsing the distance between unknown creator and viral hit to a single afternoon. 02. The Format Compresses Vine maxed out at six seconds. TikTok lets a meme run a minute. The vertical full-bleed frame with overlay text and a borrowed sound becomes the unit of online culture for the next half-decade. Meme propagation, which on Facebook took weeks and on Twitter took days, now resolves in hours. A sound posted at noon can soundtrack a hundred thousand videos by midnight. Sources • Eugene Wei, 'Seeing Like an Algorithm' (Remains of the Day, 19 August 2020) • Sensor Tower, 'TikTok Has Now Been Downloaded Over Two Billion Times' (April 2020) • The New York Times, 'How TikTok Is Rewriting the World' (10 March 2019)
2020 - Among Us / Sus. Date: September 2020 · Place: Twitch, TikTok, Discord · Figures: Innersloth, three-person developer studio · xQc, popularizing streamer · Sodapoppin, popularizing streamer · Tags: Game, Vocabulary, Sus 01. Two-Year-Old Game, Sudden Hit Among Us launches in 2018 by three-person Texas studio Innersloth. It is essentially ignored for two years. In summer 2020 streamers including xQc, Sodapoppin, and Pokimane begin playing it on stream. By September 2020 Among Us has 60 million monthly active users. The game's premise, identifying an imposter among a crew, generates the term 'sus' as universal shorthand for suspicious. The phrase enters mainstream Gen Z and Gen Alpha vocabulary within a month. 02. Sussy Baka and the Crewmate By 2021 the Among Us crewmate silhouette is one of the most-meme'd images of the year. Belle Delphine's May 2021 'Sussy Baka' video extends the lexicon. The phrase 'when the imposter is sus' loops through TikTok formats for two full years. Among Us is the lockdown-era game whose vocabulary outlasts its player base. Sources • The New York Times, 'Among Us, a Game Trending With Twitch Streamers' (5 October 2020) • Innersloth, Among Us 2020 player statistics • Know Your Meme, 'Sus / Among Us' entry
2020-07-13 - X Fandom Is Dying, Repost If You're a True Fan
2020-08-05 - Don't Mess With Fans. 't Fuck With Fans refers to a series of ironic memes which warn people not to mess with fans of certain fandoms, paired with a humorous reason why they shouldn't do it, most notably with the punchline "we'll suck your dick."
2020-08-05 - Don't mess with JoJo fans, they're actually insane. 8:09
2020-08-06 - I Don't Believe In That Nonsense / So True. I Don't Believe In That Nonsense, also known So True, refers to a series of Wojak Comics memes likening pseudosciences, parasciences and actual sciences to astrology, therefore claiming they are also a pseudoscience, or otherwise disregarded them as invalid.
2020-08-10 - The ‘We Did It Reddit!’ Incident
2020-08-13 - Built Different. 2020, TikTokers began a series of ironic videos claiming to be uniquely powerful while viewers listed "Built: Different" as a comedic descriptor.
2020-08-13 - Tunde - Built Different [Music Video]
2020-08-14 - Peter Griffin Explains the Joke. 2018 and reached mainstream attention in May 2019.
2020-08-24 - Your Honor. "Your honor." The format gained popularity in /r/okbuddyretard subreddit in 2020 following a viral post and often features Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul character Saul Goodman as the lawyer.
2020-08-24 - Your Honor: Usapang KOMEDYA sa POLITIKA ng bansa with Atty. Ed Chico! (Full Episode 72). )
2020-09-20 - H (Alphabet). H is the 8th letter of the English alphabet which received attention as an ironic meme in the 2010s.
2020-09-23 - Strongest Man vs. Weakest Man. 2020.
2020-10-14 - Only At Miller Grove
2020-10-21 - Bobux. 2020. The name of the currency parodies Robux, the virtual currency in the video game Roblox.
2020-10-27 - 8800 Blue Lick Road. 2020 after a 3D walkthrough of it began circulating online.
2020-10-27 - The Mystery At 8800 Blue Lick Road. 17:13
2020-11-13 - Me Perdonas?. (meperd0n as¿ or meper d0nas?) refer to a shitpost image macro of a cat’s face edited into the sky of London that is used to apologize to other online users. The image is usually accompanied by the phrase “Meperd0n as¿” and a copypasta from the chorus of the song "Un Siglo Sin Ti" by Chayanne. The name “Me Perdonas” is also used to refer to the cat edit as a character.
2020-11-29 - Bone Hurting Juice. ’s bones after consumption, often causing them say “oww oof my bones.”
2021-01-21 - Jesse, Play X Even If We Scare the Hoes. "scaring the hoes". The format gained popularity on Facebook in January 2021.
2021-03-25 - THEY HATE TO SEE A GIRL BOSS WINNING
2021-03-31 - Sogga being a idiot and annoying floppa ( idiot sogga ). )
2021-05-20 - Me: Studies Anatomy, College Student Majoring in the Arts. 2021.
2021-05-20 - Learning Anatomy for Art? Study this FIRST.. 23:11
2021-05-20 - Chupapi Munyayo / Muñañyo. Chupapi Munyayo, or Chupapi Muñañyo, is a nonsense phrase used in a series of prank videos on TikTok in which a person approaches someone unexpectedly and says, "chupapi Muñañyo" or simply "Muñañyo" in order to confuse them and make them believe they can't speak English. The phrase is similar to Howard Stern's Baba Booey. The trend began in late 2020, gaining significantly in popularity over the course of 2021.
2021-05-20 - CHUPAPI MUNYANYO. 0:13
2021-05-25 - Who Need They Pussy Ate. "omg me!" The format, initially spread in the form of Long Distance Wojaks memes, achieved popularity with post-ironic versions spawned by the Shroomjak meme in July 2021.
2021 - Homophobic Dog / Not Too Fond Of Gay People. Homophobic Dog or Not Too Fond Of Gay People refers to a series of ironic image macros of a white dachshund named Whitney Chewston, often sitting next to a glass of red wine with a Whisper caption that reads, "not too fond of gay people," suggesting the dog is homophobic. The image was posted to Instagram in June 2019 and first appeared as a meme on Instagram in March 2021, gaining viral spread over the course of the year and inspiring users to place new quotes over the photo of the dog. In 2022, the meme inspired photoshops of additional Whitney Chewston photos adding similarly ironic homophobic captions, as well as captions suggesting the dog learned from its homophobic ways and is now tolerant of the LGBTQ+ community.
2021 - Is This Dog Homophobic?. 7:16
2021 - Berries and Cream. Date: September 2021 · Place: TikTok, ad originally aired 2007 · Figures: Jack Ferry, original Starburst Little Lad actor · Starburst, brand · @afharrold25, TikTok revivalist · Tags: AdRevival, Sound, Loop 01. A Fourteen-Year-Old Advertisement Starburst airs a Berries and Cream commercial in 2007 featuring a powdered-wig 'Little Lad' chanting and clogging for the candy. The ad has a small cult following for over a decade. In September 2021 the TikTok user @afharrold25 chops the chant into a four-second sound and the audio spreads across hundreds of thousands of videos in a week. Jack Ferry, the original actor, surfaces and posts his own duet, now an adult, reprising the chant. The ad is older than half the kids using its sound. 02. The Sound Is the Meme TikTok's audio-as-substrate logic is fully formed by autumn 2021. The video does not have to make sense; it has to remix the sound. Berries and Cream becomes the prototype dead-ad revival, a pattern that will recur through 2023 with the Subway Surfers gameplay loop and through 2024 with the Costco Guys chants. Sound, not image, structures the meme. Sources • Know Your Meme, 'Berries and Cream' entry • The Verge, 'How a 14-Year-Old Starburst Ad Took Over TikTok' (24 September 2021) • Jack Ferry, reprise upload (TikTok, September 2021)
2021 - Squid Game Goes Global. Date: 17 September 2021 · Place: Netflix, 94 countries simultaneously · Figures: Hwang Dong-hyuk, writer-director · Lee Jung-jae, lead · Jung Ho-yeon, breakout · Netflix Korea division · Tags: Netflix, K-Content, Red Light Green Light 01. 456 Players, One Algorithm Squid Game launches on Netflix on 17 September 2021. Within 28 days it pulls 1.65 billion viewing hours, becoming the most-watched Netflix series ever to that point. The pitch Hwang Dong-hyuk wrote in 2009 and shopped unsuccessfully for a decade lands the moment global pandemic precarity makes a death-game allegory legible to everyone at once. The Red Light Green Light doll, the green tracksuits, the dalgona honeycomb challenge, and the pink-jumpsuited guards saturate Halloween 2021. School districts in Britain, Belgium, and the US issue letters warning that children are reenacting the games on playgrounds. 02. The Honeycomb Crack The third episode's dalgona challenge sends TikTok back to the same Korean sugar candy that powered the March 2020 whipped coffee meme. Users carve umbrellas with sewing needles, fail, repost. The visual loop closes between two lockdown years and one Korean confection. Sources • Netflix Top 10, 'Squid Game' (28-day window, October 2021) • The Guardian, 'Schools warn parents over Squid Game playground reenactments' (10 October 2021) • Variety, 'Hwang Dong-hyuk on Squid Game's decade-long path' (29 September 2021)
2021 - Megamind No Bitches. Date: December 2021 · Place: TikTok and Twitter, source film 2010 DreamWorks · Figures: DreamWorks Megamind (2010) · Anonymous TikTok soundboard editors · Will Ferrell, voice actor · Tags: Sound, Macro, Loop 01. No B Word Detected An anonymous TikTok editor in December 2021 overlays a Megamind face screenshot from the 2010 DreamWorks film with text reading 'no bitches?' The audio of the meme is a sliced Megamind line read by Will Ferrell ostensibly asking 'why are you alone on Valentine's Day?' but recontextualized through the soundboard format. The macro becomes a top-shelf reaction format throughout 2022 and is recycled into the Sigma Face character template a year later. 02. The Dead-Film Reanimation Megamind grosses 321 million dollars in 2010 and is forgotten for a decade. The TikTok meme cycle generates more cultural relevance for the film in 2022 than its original theatrical run. DreamWorks announces a direct-to-Peacock sequel in 2024 explicitly citing meme attention. The dead-film reanimation pattern, set by Berries and Cream and Morbius, becomes routine. Sources • Know Your Meme, 'No Bitches / Megamind' entry • The Verge, 'How Megamind Became a Meme' (28 January 2022) • DreamWorks Animation, Megamind sequel announcement (April 2024)
2021-07-02 - 10 Weirdest Facts About Sigma Males No One Is Talking About. 12:58
2021-07-07 - I'm going to Shit Yourself. 0:05
2021-07-30 - I Wonder If They Ever Explored Each Other's Bodies. 's bodies or wondering if they have alongside the catchphrase "I wonder if they ever explored each other's bodies." The meme was inspired by a June 2021 tweet, gaining popularity in July that year.
2021-08-04 - 1 Hour Of Silence Broken By Sound Effects. 2018, seeing a resurgence in popularity in 2021.
2021-08-25 - I Thlammed My Penith in the Car Door. "I thlammed my penuth in the car door" on the top and bottom captions. The image was first posted online in June 2019, becoming more widespread over the following years and inspiring a number of video edits in 2021. Jokes about slamming your penis in a car door have been the occasional subject of memes since at least 2015.
2021-09-16 - I have mental illness. 1:31
2021-10-15 - Yo Mister White! Someone's at the Door
2021-10-29 - Gibby Requires Soil / Coochie. "Gibby requires soil," as if he's searching for soil. The meme first appeared on Reddit in 2018 and has since become an exploitable where people change "soil" to something else. A version of the meme reading "Gibby requires coochie" was uploaded late that year, becoming significantly popular as well.
2021-11-12 - X When You Open Their Ribcage / Violent Anti-Memes. X When You Open Their Ribcage, also known as Violent Anti-Memes, refers to a series of fandom generalization anti-memes with captions about violently disemboweling or ripping open the ribcages of obsessive fans of various properties, typically using the phrasal template by replacing the subject at the beginning. The original meme shows The Boss Baby crying and starts "Pokémon fans when you rip open their ribcages." The meme became popularized in November 2021 across multiple social media platforms, including Instagram, Twitter and iFunny.
2021-11-17 - Sex Update / Add Sex to X. Sex Update, also known as Add Sex to X, refers to a series of ironic hornyposting memes in which users request developers to add sexual intercourse to a certain game, particularly to games popular among teenagers, such as Fortnite and Minecraft. The meme also includes requests to add "boob skin" or other similar changes.
2021-11-17 - Kiss - Let's Put The X In Sex (Official Music Video). )
2021-11-29 - CHILLING KUWAIT AIRPORT ATTACK AFTERMATH In Visuals: Gulf On Edge Amid US-IRAN Cross-Fury | 4K VIDEO
2021-12-09 - I Think It Can Digging In The Ground For Tubers. "you have to take it seriously eventually," ending with the sentence, "I think it can digging in the ground for tubers." The post was made in August 2019 and inspired numerous memes referencing it over the following years, with the catchphrase itself becoming a copypasta.
2021-12-11 - Que Pro. "FIGHT!" by Aests plays. It mostly sees use in Clash Royale, Minecraft and Geometry Dash videos.
2021-12-11 - QUE PRO (VERSION ORIGINAL). )
2021-12-20 - Trojan Horse Chuu
2022-01-03 - Me, An Empath. "me, an empath," followed by an ironic example of something the meme creator spiritually senses is off within a given scenario. The trend ultimately makes fun of people who deem themselves as an empath (someone who feels more empathy than the average person). The first use of the catchphrase was on Twitter in 2016, however, it gained more usage in late 2021 on TikTok.
2022-01-21 - The Devil Shivers When A Nice Guy Loses His Temper. 2015 when an image macro of the Joker saying the phrase was posted to 9GAG, notably the original Gamer Joker meme.
2022-01-27 - Milk Face Cat. 2020. It spread across social media over the following year, becoming the subject of image macros and a reaction image, often used to represent someone as mentally or physically exhausted or in agony.
2022-02-10 - I Sat My White Ass Down And Listened. "sit their white ass down and listen" to a piece of media centered on or written by people of color. The catchphrase was first used in late 2021 on Twitter where it picked up traction going into 2022.
2022-02-15 - I Love Lean!!!. !!! refers to a catchphrase and series of memes including image macros and TikTok videos ironically expressing an exaggerated love for lean or purple drank, a drink made of prescription-strength cough syrup containing codeine often mixed with Sprite and Jolly Ranchers. The meme, which often pairs purple characters with the phrase "I love lean," began on the apandiscord Discord server in November 2021 and spread over the following months, going viral on TikTok in February 2022 and spreading to other social media platforms. The meme is similar to the 2010 I Love Cocaine format.
2022-02-15 - I Love Lean (Weed). ) · 3:21
2022-02-16 - How COPPER and CABLES are Made - Satisfying Process. 9:50
2022-02-18 - Fuck Them Kids. "Fuck them kids," in reference to a video of him from 2016 sinking shots despite a crowd of summer camp kids trying to distract him. The image macro was first posted to Instagram in late 2018 and became a notable reaction image on platforms like Twitter. The catchphrase was also placed over other celebrity headshots going into 2022.
2022-02-24 - Girlboss
2022-02-24 - Sara Landry - GIRLBOSS. 3:13
2022-03-01 - Quandale Dingle. 2021 and went viral through reposts, inspiring further memes referencing the name and how ridiculous it is. In late 2021 throughout early 2022 people began using distorted images of people, mostly Black men, to represent Quandale Dingle in ironic memes. The name also inspired a trend where TikTokers create parody RapTV posts about Quandale.
2022-03-03 - Day 1, 2, 3 No Lean. "Day X No Lean," "X" most often being a number between one and three, is used over an image of a person or character showing an emotion that implies they've stopped taking lean or purple drank. The format is inspired by a December 2020 Instagram post by rapper Kasher Quon and became increasingly popular in late 2021 and early 2022 alongside the I Love Lean!!! format. In February 2022 the format inspired video edits on YouTube where Internet celebrities and characters document their journey getting off lean.
2022-03-28 - Guys I Have Bad News. 2 poster to share ironically bad news. The image was first used along with the caption in July 2021 and spread over the course of the year.
2022-04-05 - One Trillion Tickets. 2022 equals only 7.9 billion people, which would mean that every person on Earth would have to buy multiple copies or tickets in order for such a staggering result to be achieved. The joke is similar to the Cultural Reset meme.
2022-04-06 - How Long Would a Monkey Take to Type Shakespeare? [Infinite Monkey Theorem]. 3:42
2022-04-08 - Drunk Driving Memes. Ironic Drunk Driving Memes is a niche meme genre that revolves around the act of driving while intoxicated, a federal offense and illegal in almost every country, but from an intentionally humorous and positive angle. The ironic meme genre often outright defends and celebrates the illegal act, while acting in opposition to thousands of PSA memes that are vehemently against drunk driving. Ironic memes about driving while drunk began appearing online around the mid-2010s onward.
2022-04-08 - Drunk Driving memes. 3:59
2022-04-18 - It's Always The Low-Quality Videos. 2020 but became notable on TikTok in 2021.
2022-04-21 - Historical Battle Shitposts / Decisive Victory. Historical Battle Shitposts, also known as Decisive Victory, refers to a series of history memes that involve humorously presenting historic battles or events or biographies of historic figures in a video or image format, often by combining lines from their Wikipedia articles and humorous imagery.
2022-04-24 - Fotosíntesis / Photosynthesis. Fotosíntesis (English: Photosynthesis) refers to a Spanish shitpost meme where actor Tom Holland says "Fotosíntesis" in a robotic voice, followed by a jet of water knocking someone over in the background as the song "Can You Feel My Heart" by Bring Me the Horizon. The meme is an edit of a behind the scenes video posted to Instagram by Holland in 2018 and went viral in 2022 as the subject of edits and redraws.
2022-05-24 - Morb. 's mostly used in a nonsensical fashion, but also means to destroy, dominate or win as the character Morbius is portrayed by memers from the 2022 film Morbius starring actor Jared Leto. Originating on the official Morbius Discord server around February 2022, morb is associated among the movie's ironic and memetic fandom in that community where users are known as Morbheads. Morb is also used in conjunction with other Morbius memes, such as Morbius Sweep, Morbius Poster Mashups and It's Morbin Time.
2022-05-24 - Morb. 7:09
2022-05-26 - Binley Mega Chippy. (chippy) restaurant that became the subject of ironic memes on Twitter and TikTok in early 2022. The trend relates to other British irony trends like Blokecore and Well At Least Our Schools Are Not A Shooting Range and is similar to memes made about Cash Pope, another restaurant with a liminal aura.
2022-05-26 - Binley Mega Chippy 3 Years Later. 5:30
2022 - Andrew Tate Algorithmic Surge. Date: July-December 2022 · Place: TikTok, YouTube Shorts, then Romanian custody · Figures: Andrew Tate, former kickboxer and Big Brother UK contestant · Tristan Tate, brother · Hustlers University affiliate program · Tags: Manosphere, Algorithm, Arrest 01. The Affiliate Push Andrew Tate's Hustlers University runs an explicit affiliate program: members pay 49 dollars a month, then earn commissions by reuploading Tate clips to TikTok and YouTube Shorts. By July 2022 his name pulls 13 billion TikTok hashtag views. Teachers across Britain and the US start reporting that 13-year-old boys are quoting him in class. The clips weaponize the For You Page. The same fragment of him in a sports car explaining why women belong to men gets cut into thousands of variants, each optimized differently for watch time. 02. Pizza Box Tate is banned from TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube in the first week of August 2022. On 29 December 2022 he is arrested in Romania on charges of human trafficking and forming an organized criminal group. The Greta Thunberg pizza-box rumor that he was traced through a Jerry's Pizza box in a video reply to her is false but durable, the meme that finally caps the year. "What color is your Bugatti?", Andrew Tate, response template, 2022 Sources • The Guardian, 'How Andrew Tate became one of the most googled men in the world' (6 August 2022) • Reuters, 'Andrew Tate arrested in Romania on human trafficking charges' (30 December 2022) • Vice, 'Inside Andrew Tate's Hustlers University' (22 July 2022)
2022 - Goblin Mode (Oxford WOTY 2022). Date: December 2022 (Oxford selection) · Place: Twitter, then Oxford Languages · Figures: Oxford Languages · Public vote (340,000 ballots) · A fake Julia Fox headline from 2022 · Tags: OxfordWOTY, PostPandemic, Aesthetic 01. Defining the Slob Oxford Languages, for the first time, opens its Word of the Year vote to the public in December 2022. 'Goblin mode,' defined as 'a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations,' wins with 318,956 of 340,000 votes. The term gains traction after a fabricated Julia Fox quote about Kanye West circulates on Twitter in February 2022. The phrase had already been used on Reddit since 2009. Its 2022 ascent is post-pandemic post-cottagecore reaction formation. 02. Reaction Aesthetic Goblin Mode is named the same year as Tomato Girl Summer, Hot Girl Walk, and Cottagecore's tail. Its win signals the audience's exhaustion with aspirational TikTok aesthetics and embrace of their opposite. The term will be displaced within 12 months by Rizz, then Brain Rot. Oxford is now choosing meme words annually. "The state of being unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy.", Oxford Languages, Word of the Year announcement, 5 December 2022 Sources • Oxford Languages, 'Word of the Year 2022: Goblin Mode' (5 December 2022) • The Guardian, 'Goblin Mode Beats Out Metaverse for Word of the Year' (5 December 2022) • BBC News, 'Goblin Mode Voted Oxford Word of the Year' (5 December 2022)
2022 - My Reaction To That Information
2022-07-21 - Lilgayboy45 - Lilgayboy45 (Offical Video). ) · 0:15
2022-07-27 - Me when I see a happy couple. a tiktok edit of atrain
2022-07-28 - Le Reddit Army. ” is an ironic nickname for YouTube commenters who post intentionally inflammatory statements on the video-sharing site, often using roleplay accounts parodying various online stereotypes.
2022-08-25 - Greatest Legal Mind I Ever Knew. (played by Patrick Fabian) that became a shitpost meme popularized among the TV series' fandom, which involves posting a GIF of Hamlin captioned with the quote or referencing it in some other way that went viral in the /r/okbuddychicanery subreddit in August 2022. It is also used less commonly as an exploitable image macro.
2022-09-14 - KFC Deep Fried Rat / Rats When They See A KFC Deep Fryer. KFC Deep Fried Rat refers to the viral news post and belief that KFC has deep fried a rat before, and that rats jump in the KFC deep fryers whenever they see them. These jokes are often used as a video exploitable format with videos of people jumping into pools or other liquids.
2022-09-16 - Have You Seen This Woman?. "have you seen this woman? If you haven't seen it, now you have!". The trend became popular in August 2022, after some fans started to glue posters of the singer in Universities all over the country.
2022-09-19 - Heisenbones saves Walter White Full Scene | Breaking Bad
2022-09-30 - Say the Line, Wojak. 2022.
2022-09-30 - SAY THE LINE, BOWLINGBALLJAK!!!. !!!
2022-10-26 - Is There a Lore Reason?. /r/BatmanArkham subreddit where users ironically ask if there is a lore reason for a given Batman character's name, personality trait, outfit, etc. that does not necessarily need further explanation, later expanding into other fandoms as well. The trend was started as a form of shitposting in October 2022 and largely inspired by the lack of new games in the "Arkham Asylum" series to discuss and the barring of talk about the recently released game Gotham Knights.
2022-11-15 - The Rothschild Conspiracies They Don’t Want You to Know (in 7 Minutes). ) · 7:25
2022-12-08 - Random Mixue. 's swift opening of multiple locations in Asia. The meme bears similarity to how Spirit Halloween memes are used in the West.
2023-01-05 - Keep Gambling. 2013 satirical article, the format achieved viral presence with Whisper macros and tweets in 2022.
2023-01-05 - I MUST KEEP GAMBLING. 43:34
2023-01-11 - Hood Irony
2023-02-16 - This Is What Men Like Right?. 3:52
2023-03-16 - Is He Stupid? / Is She Smart? / Are They Stupid?. Is He Stupid?, Is She Stupid? or Are They Stupid? is a catchphrase and phrasal template that started on the /r/okbuddychicanery subreddit in which users ironically ask about certain plot details of the Breaking Bad universe lore, calling out the villain Gus as "stupid" for complaining about a worker's cooking skills for his facade-restaurant, among other characters. The trend became popularized in February 2023, inspiring other fandoms to post memes of plot details that the main character could've easily solved. As the trend expanded into March 2023, other variations of the phrase setup emerged, particularly Is He Smart? and Is She Smart?, among others.
2023-04-17 - Gently Holds. "*gently holds.*" Although its exact origins is unconfirmed, the Emoji was first posted to Tumblr in March 2020 and gained viral spread over the following years as people photoshopped various images into its hands. The Emoji resembles another cursed Emoji by Twitter artist @okayroutt known as Powercry.
2023-04-18 - Quoicoubeh. (French for What). The goal is either to wait for a "quoi" question to come up or to the lure the potential victim into asking it as a form of verbal bait and switch in a manner exceedingly similar to its English equivalents Joe Mama and Deez Nuts. Since its explosion on the French web following a viral TikTok of a young man doing the punchline on a teacher, variations popped up to prank other kinds of retorts such as Quirikiki for Qui? (French for Who), Apayinye for Hein? (French for Huh) or even Commandant de bord (French for Airplane Captain) for Comment? (French for How).
2023-04-18 - QUOICOUBEH - PINK LILY (clip officiel). ) · 2:28
2023-04-19 - Why Is The Blue Grinch Getting Knee Surgery? What Does The Meme Mean?. 3:41
2023-04-27 - Grass Clibbins, Almost Haddalayerdown. "grass clippings, almost had to lay her down." The phrase was popularized on the "Hog Crankers Against Grass Clibbins" Facebook page and refers to the potential danger that grass clippings left on the road present to cyclists, as grass clippings make the road slicker.
2023-04-27 - Bronze Age Shitposting / Iltam Sumra Rashupti Elatim. Bronze Age Shitposting refers to shitpost and status videos that use Bronze Age artifacts and heritage as their primary theme. Spawned by memes such as Complaint Table to Ea-nasir and Sumerian Bar Joke, the format achieved popularity on YouTube in late March 2023.
2023-05-12 - Now You See Me 3. 2:25
2023-05-24 - Top 10 Goobie Woobies. 10 "goobie woobies," showing images of random creatures, animals and items while listing off their nonsensical names. The video was originally posted in 2022 and went viral in April and May 2023 as users applied new visuals to the audio, some of which gained viral spread online. The slang term "goobie woobies" is loosely defined and meant to be absurd.
2023-05-24 - top ten goobie woobies (Pikmin). ).
2023-05-25 - Weak Aura vs. Strong Aura. 2018 and became popularized throughout the 2020s as users photoshopped the listed items.
2023-06-14 - Pizza Tower Ohio Rizz Gyatt. 2022 and early 2023 such Ohio, Rizz, Gyatt, Pizza Tower and Big Chungus. Initially a series of images parodying Delet These / Erm… What the Deuce reaction images, the format gained popularity in mid-May 2023, with users posting seemingly nonsensical phrases consisting of the slang on Twitter and other social media.
2023 - Kai Cenat Subathon Record. Date: February 2023 · Place: Twitch, streamed from New York · Figures: Kai Cenat, streamer · Twitch · Any Means Possible (AMP) collective · Tags: Streaming, Twitch, Record 01. Mafiathon Kai Cenat runs a 30-day continuous live stream called Mafiathon through February 2023. By the end of the month he holds 306,621 active Twitch subscribers, an all-time platform record by a margin that no streamer subsequently approaches without copying the same subathon format. Cenat earns an estimated 1.5 million dollars from the subscriber count alone during the month. 02. AMP and the Streamer Cohort Cenat is the center of the Any Means Possible (AMP) collective alongside Fanum, Duke Dennis, Agent00, Chrisnxtdoor, and ImDavisss. The cohort generates the bulk of Gen Alpha streaming slang in 2022-2023 including 'rizz,' 'fanum tax,' 'mewing,' and 'gyat.' By 2024 Cenat's Mafiathon 2 will break his own record with 728,000 subs. Streaming is now the primary substrate for Gen Alpha vocabulary formation. Sources • The Verge, 'Kai Cenat Breaks All-Time Twitch Subscriber Record' (28 February 2023) • Forbes, 'How Kai Cenat Became Twitch's Biggest Star' (18 March 2023) • Dexerto, 'Mafiathon 1 Final Sub Count' (1 March 2023)
2023 - Pope Francis Balenciaga. Date: 25 March 2023 · Place: Reddit r/midjourney, generated in Chicago · Figures: Pablo Xavier, construction worker and creator · Midjourney v5 · Pope Francis, subject · Tags: AI, Drip, Synthetic 01. The Drip Pope Pablo Xavier, a 31-year-old construction worker from Chicago tripping on mushrooms, generates Midjourney v5 images of Pope Francis in an oversized white Balenciaga puffer jacket on 25 March 2023. He posts them to r/midjourney with no particular intent. The images cross to Twitter and Instagram within hours. Chrissy Teigen tweets 'i thought the pope's puffer jacket was real and didnt give it a second thought. no way am I surviving the future of technology.' The Drip Pope is the first AI image to make the average non-technical user genuinely uncertain about photographic reality. 02. The Turing Test Falls Pablo Xavier is doxxed by Buzzfeed News within a week. The image is more widely shared than any real photograph of Pope Francis in his lifetime. Vatican observers note that the actual Pope's style is roughly that of the AI image, which is part of why the deception works. Image synthesis passes the lay-person Turing test on 25 March 2023. Sources • Buzzfeed News, 'The Pope Balenciaga Image Was Made by a Construction Worker on Shrooms' (28 March 2023) • Pablo Xavier, original r/midjourney post (Reddit, 25 March 2023) • The Verge, 'How a Pope Wearing Balenciaga Tricked the Internet' (27 March 2023)
2023 - Wes Anderson Aesthetic Trend. Date: March 2023 · Place: TikTok · Figures: Ava Williams, originator · Alexa filter and song · Wes Anderson, unwitting reference · Tags: Aesthetic, Film, Filter 01. If My Life Were a Wes Anderson Film Ava Williams posts a TikTok in March 2023 walking through an airport titled 'if my life were a Wes Anderson movie,' set to a wistful song by French composer Alexa. The format catches. Users film themselves entering rooms, opening fridges, riding trains in centered symmetric framing with pastel grading and Futura overlay text. Wes Anderson himself comments dryly in interviews that he had no idea his name was a TikTok filter. 02. Style as Trend Substrate The cycle reveals TikTok's capacity to flatten a director's 25-year body of work into a six-week aesthetic trend. The Asteroid City marketing team leans into the cycle in the lead-up to the June 2023 release. The Anderson trend is followed within months by AI-generated faux-Anderson trailers for Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and The Avengers. Style becomes a commodity ChatGPT and Midjourney can dispense. Sources • Ava Williams, original Wes Anderson airport upload (TikTok, March 2023) • The Guardian, 'How TikTok Discovered Wes Anderson' (18 April 2023) • Wes Anderson, Sky News interview re Asteroid City (12 May 2023)
2023 - Will Smith Spaghetti Benchmark. Date: 27 March 2023 (and 14 February 2024 successor) · Place: Reddit r/StableDiffusion, then OpenAI Sora announcement · Figures: Reddit user u/chaindrop, original poster · ModelScope text-to-video model · Will Smith, subject · Tags: AI, Benchmark, Video 01. Spaghetti as Cursed Object On 27 March 2023 the Reddit user u/chaindrop generates a 20-second video of Will Smith eating spaghetti using the open-source ModelScope text-to-video model. The clip is grotesque. The fork phases through Smith's hand. The pasta becomes Smith's face. The face becomes the pasta. The clip earns millions of views as a benchmark of what AI video cannot do. Will Smith eating spaghetti becomes the internet's canonical AI-video stress test. 02. The 2024 Comparison When OpenAI announces Sora on 15 February 2024 the first thing the internet does is rerun the prompt. The 2024 Sora version is photoreal. The fork holds. The pasta behaves. Side-by-side 2023 vs 2024 comparison videos become a meme in their own right. Will Smith eating spaghetti is the only AI benchmark widely understood by non-engineers. It is the unit by which the layperson measures one year of model progress. Sources • u/chaindrop, original ModelScope Will Smith video (Reddit r/StableDiffusion, 27 March 2023) • The Verge, 'Why Is AI Generating Cursed Videos of Will Smith?' (3 April 2023) • OpenAI, Sora announcement and gallery (15 February 2024)
2023 - Girl Dinner. Date: May 2023 · Place: TikTok · Figures: Olivia Maher, originator · Karina Polanco, viral expander · The medieval peasant plate · Tags: Food, Aesthetic, Format 01. Bread, Cheese, Grapes Olivia Maher posts a TikTok on 11 May 2023 calling her snack-plate dinner a 'girl dinner.' The plate is bread, cheese, butter, grapes, gherkins. Maher invokes a medieval-peasant association. The format is the meme. Within six weeks the hashtag has 1.6 billion views. Karina Polanco's follow-up Girl Dinner song goes platinum on TikTok by August. The aesthetic licenses snack-plate dinners as a complete category. 02. The Discourse Argues With Itself Wellness Twitter and disordered-eating activists argue Girl Dinner romanticizes restriction. Defenders argue it normalizes not cooking. The Atlantic, Vox, and the BBC all publish takes. The meme outlasts the discourse. By winter 'girl dinner' is colloquial English in a way 'sea shanty TikTok' never managed to be. Sources • Olivia Maher, original Girl Dinner upload (TikTok, 11 May 2023) • The New York Times, 'Girl Dinner, Explained' (5 August 2023) • The Atlantic, 'The Trouble With Girl Dinner' (28 July 2023)
2023 - Tomato Girl Summer. Date: June 2023 · Place: TikTok · Figures: TikTok lifestyle creators · Olive oil, repeating prop · Linen, repeating textile · Tags: Aesthetic, Summer, Mediterranean 01. Olive Oil and Linen The Tomato Girl aesthetic emerges in June 2023 as a Mediterranean-coded summer mode: olive oil drizzled on focaccia, red-painted nails, linen dresses, ripe tomatoes on rustic boards. Pinterest searches for 'tomato girl' jump 1,300 percent month-over-month. The aesthetic descends from the Italian Coastal Grandmother aesthetic of 2022 and from the Hot Girl Summer franchise. 02. Three Months and Gone Tomato Girl is replaced by Cucumber Salad Girl, then Olive Theory, then by autumn aesthetics. The cycle compresses to roughly six weeks per named look. The fashion publications that once worked in seasons can no longer track the velocity. By 2024 the aesthetic discourse will turn over completely twice per quarter. Sources • The Cut, 'Tomato Girl Summer Is Here' (14 June 2023) • Pinterest Predicts 2023 summer trend report • Vogue, 'How Tomato Girl Became the Summer's Defining Aesthetic' (28 June 2023)
2023 - Threads Launch. Date: 5 July 2023 · Place: Meta, Menlo Park · Figures: Adam Mosseri, Threads lead and Instagram head · Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO · Elon Musk, X owner being targeted · Tags: Platform, X-Exodus, Launch 01. Hundred Million in Five Days Meta launches Threads on 5 July 2023 as a text-first companion app to Instagram positioned against Elon Musk's Twitter, eight months into Musk's chaotic ownership. The app reaches 100 million users in five days, breaking ChatGPT's record by two days. Mosseri leads the project from Instagram. The app launches without an explicit chronological feed, without hashtags, without DMs, all of which are added across the next six months. 02. The Replacement Wars Threads is the largest of several attempts to replace Twitter during the post-Musk exodus, alongside Bluesky, Mastodon, Nostr, and Spill. By February 2024 Threads claims 130 million MAU but engagement is sleepy. Bluesky pulls the journalists and political left; X retains the right. The town square fractures into four. Sources • Meta, Threads launch announcement (5 July 2023) • Reuters, 'Threads Hits 100 Million Users in Five Days' (10 July 2023) • The Verge, 'Threads Launches as Meta's Twitter Killer' (5 July 2023)
2023 - Twitter X Rebrand. Date: 23 July 2023 · Place: Twitter HQ, San Francisco · Figures: Elon Musk, owner · Linda Yaccarino, briefly CEO · The blue bird, removed · Tags: Platform, Rebrand, Loss 01. The Bird Comes Down Elon Musk renames Twitter to X on 23 July 2023. The blue bird logo, in use since 2012, is replaced by a black X glyph. San Francisco building permits for taking the existing T-W-I-T-T-E-R signage off the headquarters are denied; Musk has workers begin removing the W anyway, which they fail to complete due to a police complaint. Twitter has been declining as a meme propagation engine since the Musk acquisition closed in October 2022. The rebrand accelerates the decline. 02. Verification Inverts The blue check, once a journalistic and political authority marker, becomes paid. Hexagon NFT PFPs, briefly a status object, are removed entirely. The 'algorithm' becomes 'For You' on a chronological feed nobody wants. Memes still circulate on X but the platform stops being where they originate. The originating platform of the 2010s meme era ends, formally, on a Sunday in July. Sources • The Verge, 'Twitter Is Now X' (23 July 2023) • The San Francisco Chronicle, 'SF Police Stop Twitter Sign Removal' (24 July 2023) • The New York Times, 'Musk Renames Twitter to X' (23 July 2023)
2023 - Sam Altman Ouster. Date: 17-22 November 2023 · Place: OpenAI, San Francisco · Figures: Sam Altman, ousted then reinstated CEO · Ilya Sutskever, board member · Mira Murati, briefly interim CEO · Emmett Shear, briefly interim-interim CEO · Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO · Tags: AI, Governance, FiveDays 01. Friday Afternoon Termination On Friday 17 November 2023 at 12:28 p.m. Pacific, the OpenAI board announces it has terminated Sam Altman as CEO, citing that he 'was not consistently candid in his communications with the board.' Mira Murati is named interim CEO. The internet, the AI industry, and Silicon Valley spend the weekend in continuous shock. By Sunday Microsoft has announced it will hire Altman to run a new internal AI division. By Monday, 738 of OpenAI's 770 employees have signed a letter threatening to follow Altman to Microsoft unless the board resigns. 02. Reinstatement and Heart Emoji On 22 November 2023 the board reverses. Altman returns as CEO. Most of the original board resigns. Throughout the five-day crisis the meme of the era is the heart emoji, posted by OpenAI employees on Twitter as a coordinated signal of loyalty. The cycle becomes the canonical example of governance theater in the AI industry, retold continuously through 2024 and 2025 in business books, podcasts, and a forthcoming HBO series. Sources • OpenAI, board announcement (17 November 2023) • The New York Times, 'Sam Altman Is Reinstated as OpenAI's Chief Executive' (22 November 2023) • The Atlantic, 'Inside the OpenAI Power Struggle' (28 November 2023) by Karen Hao
2023 - Saltburn / Murder on the Dancefloor. Date: December 2023 to January 2024 · Place: TikTok, film released by MGM · Figures: Emerald Fennell, director · Barry Keoghan, lead · Sophie Ellis-Bextor, song (2001) · MGM, distributor · Tags: Film, SoundRevival, Dance 01. A 2001 Song Charts Again Emerald Fennell's Saltburn releases in US theaters 22 November 2023 and on Amazon Prime 22 December. The closing scene features Barry Keoghan naked-dancing through a country house to Sophie Ellis-Bextor's 2001 single 'Murder on the Dancefloor.' By Christmas the song has charted in 17 countries and TikTok is wall-to-wall recreations. Ellis-Bextor earns more streaming income from December 2023 alone than from the previous decade combined. 02. The Bathwater Cycle The film generates two parallel meme cycles. The Keoghan dance becomes a TikTok recreation format. The earlier bathwater scene, in which Keoghan drinks Jacob Elordi's used bathwater, becomes the rarer kind of meme that the algorithm partially suppresses for content-policy reasons. Both cycles depend on the platform's forensic gaze. Couch Guy two years earlier rehearsed the same instinct. Sources • Billboard, 'Sophie Ellis-Bextor Murder on the Dancefloor Charts Worldwide' (5 January 2024) • The Guardian, 'How Saltburn Made Sophie Ellis-Bextor a Star Again' (4 January 2024) • Variety, 'Saltburn Becomes Streaming Phenomenon on Prime Video' (28 December 2023)
2023-06-26 - Katie (Goat Story). Katie or Katy is a character in the 2008 Czech movie Goat Story: The Old Prague Legends. The character gained an ironic following due to her uncanny and exaggerated design, inspiring several online communities like Twitter and Reddit to create reaction images using clips of the character.
2023-06-26 - goat story being the weirdest movie of all time for 3 minutes. 3:05
2023-06-28 - Model vs. Cashier. 2021 and spread over the following years with new examples being posted on sites like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok.
2023-06-28 - Random Cashier Better than a Model - Chat Music. 1:19
2023-08-26 - Morbidly a Beast. "morbidly obese," which is used as a catchphrase in ironic memes. The memes are usually structured in a way that the person diagnosed with morbid obesity is bragging about being called "morbidly a beast," often with other weight-related puns also included.
2023-08-26 - Asking AI To Make A Song Called “Morbidly a Beast” - Full Song. 2:43
2023-10-11 - Rambling Goat and Huh? Cat / Goat Cat Huh?. Rambling Goat and Huh? Cat, also known as Goat Cat Huh? or Goat and Cat Meme, is an exploitable video meme format depicting a goat making random noises and a confused cat making a "huh?" sound. The clip was uploaded to TikTok in early October 2023 and is often used alongside object-labeling captions about situations in which a person is making indistinguishable sounds or speaking in a nonsensical manner, leaving the listener feeling confused and lost.
2023-10-11 - Green Screen Goat Talking to Clueless Huh Cat Meme. 0:09
2023-10-31 - Throwing a Microwaved Honey Bun at a Homeless Man. 10 minutes and throwing it at a homeless person in order to burn their skin. The videos were popularized on TikTok in October 2023 and often feature captions about throwing the honey buns over reaction videos or images meant to represent the homeless person.
2024-01-29 - LOBOTOMY KAIZEN IN A NUTSHELL. 0:28
2024-05-11 - Because Of Woke. / X in the early 2020s. After a resurgence of interest in the term "woke," jokes about wokeness causing various aspects of cultural decline began making the rounds online. This joking sentiment is sometimes expressed using the grammatically incorrect addendum, "because of woke."
2024 - Mob Wife Aesthetic. Date: January 2024 · Place: TikTok · Figures: Kayla Trivieri, originator of the trend declaration · Carmela Soprano, ur-reference · Clean Girl Aesthetic, predecessor · Tags: Aesthetic, Fashion, Cycle 01. Death of Clean Girl Kayla Trivieri posts a TikTok on 20 January 2024 declaring the Clean Girl aesthetic over and the Mob Wife Aesthetic in. The new mode is fur coats, gold jewelry, smoky eyes, hairspray, leopard print. The reference texts are Carmela Soprano, Adriana La Cerva, and 1980s Italian-American street style. The Trivieri post hits 5 million views in 48 hours. Fashion publications declare Mob Wife the trend of 2024 within a week. 02. The Aesthetic Turnover Accelerates Mob Wife is succeeded by Coquette, Tomato Girl carryover, Brat Summer, Demure, and at least seven other named aesthetics in 2024 alone. Each cycle lasts roughly six weeks. The fashion industry, which once worked in seasons, now works in TikTok declarations. Mob Wife is the first 2024 declaration. By December the aesthetic cycle has eaten itself. Sources • Kayla Trivieri, original Mob Wife declaration (TikTok, 20 January 2024) • Vogue, 'The Mob Wife Aesthetic Has Taken Over TikTok' (24 January 2024) • The New York Times, 'Goodbye Clean Girl, Hello Mob Wife' (26 January 2024)
2024 - Stanley Cup Obsession. Date: January 2024 · Place: Target stores, TikTok · Figures: Terence Reilly, Stanley CEO · Target, retail partner · TikTok haul-creators · Tags: Object, Retail, Hype 01. A Car Survives a Fire Danielle Lettering posts a TikTok in November 2023 showing her totaled car burned to the chassis after a fire. The Stanley tumbler in the cup holder is intact and still has ice in it. The clip has 100 million views by Christmas. Stanley CEO Terence Reilly responds with a video offering Lettering a new car. By January 2024, Target stores see riots over limited-edition Valentine's Day pink Stanley Cup releases. Resellers list them for 200 dollars. Stanley revenue grows from 75 million in 2019 to a reported 750 million in 2023. 02. The Cup as Cultural Object The Stanley becomes the canonical TikTok-era physical object, the way Supreme bricks were the canonical 2010s drop. Owners collect them in colors. The 40-ounce model with handle is the standard. Counterfeits flood Temu. The cup outlives several aesthetic cycles. It is still on every desk in 2026. Sources • The New York Times, 'How the Stanley Tumbler Became a Status Symbol' (10 January 2024) • Danielle Lettering, original car-fire upload (TikTok, 14 November 2023) • CNBC, 'Stanley Revenue Grows from $75 Million to $750 Million' (8 February 2024)
2024 - Dune Popcorn Bucket. Date: February 2024 · Place: AMC Theatres, USA · Figures: AMC, exhibitor · Warner Bros, distributor · Saturday Night Live (sketch reference) · Tags: Object, Cinema, Innuendo 01. The Sandworm Container AMC releases an exclusive Dune: Part Two popcorn bucket on 21 February 2024. The bucket is molded into the open maw of a sandworm. The opening is, the internet immediately notes, suggestively shaped. The bucket sells out within days at 24.99 dollars. Resellers list them for 200 to 500 dollars on eBay. Saturday Night Live runs a Timothée Chalamet sketch about the bucket on 2 March. Paul Mescal, hosting a different week, jokes about it on camera. The bucket eclipses the actual film in cultural footprint for two weeks. 02. Promotional Object as Meme The Dune bucket becomes the prototype for a year of weird studio-issued physical merchandise. Subsequent buckets for Despicable Me 4, Garfield, and Wonka all attempt to repeat the cycle. None match. The cinema lobby, two years after Gentleminions, is fully meme territory. Sources • The Hollywood Reporter, 'The Sandworm Dune Popcorn Bucket Has Taken Over the Internet' (23 February 2024) • AMC Theatres, official bucket announcement (15 February 2024) • The Cut, 'Why Is Everyone Talking About the Dune Popcorn Bucket' (27 February 2024)
2024 - Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift Super Bowl. Date: 11 February 2024 · Place: Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, broadcast on CBS · Figures: Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs tight end · Taylor Swift, Eras Tour midway · Andy Reid, Chiefs coach · the suite-cam director · Tags: Sports x Pop, Super Bowl LVIII, Suite Cam 01. Friendship Bracelet, Tight End Travis Kelce attends an Eras Tour show in Kansas City in July 2023 and tries to give Taylor Swift a friendship bracelet with his phone number. The story leaks in September. By the Chiefs versus Jets game on 1 October Swift is in Kelce's mother's suite, and the NFL broadcast cuts to her so often that the meme is born midgame. Across the 2023-2024 NFL season, every Chiefs broadcast budgets suite-cam time. Fox Sports and CBS both lean in. Right-wing pundits speculate about a psy-op. The relationship survives both the cameras and the discourse. 02. Vegas Confetti Super Bowl LVIII airs 11 February 2024. The Chiefs beat the 49ers in overtime, 25 to 22. Kelce wins the ring. Swift runs onto the field. The kiss image goes everywhere within four minutes. CBS draws 123.7 million viewers, the most-watched US broadcast since the 1969 moon landing. The NFL audience tilts measurably younger and more female for the entire season. "It's me, hi.", the universal caption on every suite-cam screenshot, autumn 2023 Sources • Nielsen, 'Super Bowl LVIII Draws 123.7 Million Viewers' (February 2024) • ESPN, 'Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift: a timeline' (February 2024) • The New York Times, 'How the NFL Embraced Taylor Swift' (10 February 2024)
2024 - Sora Launch. Date: 15 February 2024 · Place: OpenAI, San Francisco · Figures: Bill Peebles, Sora research lead · Tim Brooks, Sora research lead · OpenAI · Tags: AI, Video, Launch 01. Tokyo Street, Two Mammoths OpenAI announces Sora on 15 February 2024 with a gallery of one-minute videos: a woman walking through neon Tokyo, woolly mammoths kicking up snow, a paper plane swooping through jungle canopy. The clips are not perfect but they are an order of magnitude beyond anything ModelScope or Runway has shipped. Sora is research-preview only, not publicly available. Will Smith eating spaghetti benchmarks circulate within an hour comparing the 2023 cursed-pasta clip to a clean Sora-quality version of the same prompt. 02. The Video Substrate Arrives Sora's announcement compresses the timeline for synthetic video memes. By the time public access ships in late 2024 the format is already culturally settled. Will Smith spaghetti benchmark stops being a meme because the model passes the test. Sora is the substrate for the next era of synthetic image memes that supersede photorealism into pure brainrot. Sources • OpenAI, Sora announcement and technical report (15 February 2024) • The Verge, 'OpenAI's Sora Generates Photorealistic Videos' (15 February 2024) • Bill Peebles and Tim Brooks, Sora gallery posts (Twitter, 15 February 2024)
2024 - Shrimp Jesus and AI Slop. Date: March 2024 · Place: Facebook News Feed · Figures: Stanford Internet Observatory and Georgetown researchers Renee DiResta and Josh Goldstein · Pakistani and Vietnamese content farms · Facebook's recommendation algorithm · Tags: Facebook, AI Slop, Shrimp Jesus 01. The Crustacean Christ Across early 2024, Facebook fills with AI-generated images of Jesus Christ rendered out of shrimp, vegetables, or Coca-Cola bottles. Each image collects tens of thousands of Amen comments from older users. Stanford and Georgetown researchers publish a paper in March 2024 documenting the ecosystem and naming it AI-generated low-quality content, soon shortened to slop. The economic logic is brutal. A content farm in Lahore or Hanoi generates a thousand variants per day. Facebook's algorithm rewards engagement, the elderly engage devotionally, the page monetizes via creator bonuses or follower-list arbitrage. 02. Slop Enters the Language Slop becomes the term of art for AI-generated content posted at scale with no human curation. Simon Willison popularizes the usage in May 2024. By autumn the word covers AI YouTube Shorts of cartoon animals fighting, Amazon listings written by Claude, and the Italian Brainrot universe itself. Shrimp Jesus is the founding image. Sources • Renee DiResta and Josh Goldstein, 'How Spammers and Scammers Leverage AI-Generated Images on Facebook' (Stanford Internet Observatory, March 2024) • 404 Media, 'Facebook's AI Spam Nightmare Is Just Beginning' (March 2024) • Simon Willison's Weblog, 'Slop is the new name for unwanted AI-generated content' (8 May 2024)
2024 - Skibidi Toilet Film Deal. Date: 1 March 2024 · Place: Hollywood, Variety announcement · Figures: Michael Bay, attached director · J.J. Abrams, attached producer · Alexey Gerasimov (DaFuq!?Boom!), Skibidi creator · Adam Goodman, Invisible Narratives · Tags: Hollywood, Skibidi, Adaptation 01. Bay and Abrams Attach Variety announces on 1 March 2024 that Michael Bay and J.J. Abrams have attached to develop Skibidi Toilet as a feature film, television series, and game franchise. The deal is between Bay's production company and Invisible Narratives, run by former Paramount president Adam Goodman, which has acquired the rights from Skibidi creator Alexey Gerasimov. Gerasimov, working as DaFuq!?Boom!, began the YouTube Shorts series in February 2023 from Georgia. By early 2024 the series has 65 billion cumulative views. 02. The Brainrot Adaptation Era The Skibidi deal is announced months after Kane Parsons signs a similar deal with A24 to direct a Backrooms feature based on his 2022 short film series. The 2024 cycle establishes that algorithmically-emerged short-form internet horror and absurdism is now major-studio acquisition territory. Whether the films ever ship is an open question. The deals themselves are the cultural event. Sources • Variety, 'Michael Bay, J.J. Abrams to Develop Skibidi Toilet Feature' (1 March 2024) • The Hollywood Reporter, 'Skibidi Toilet Movie in the Works at Invisible Narratives' (1 March 2024) • DaFuq!?Boom!, original Skibidi Toilet uploads (YouTube Shorts, February 2023 onward)
2024 - Hawk Tuah. Date: 11 June 2024 (filmed), viral 19 June · Place: Broadway, Nashville · Figures: Hailey Welch, interviewee · Tim and Dee TV, street interview duo · Talk Tuah podcast, eventual launch · Tags: StreetInterview, Sound, BrandDeal 01. Eight Seconds Outside a Bar Tim Dickson and Dee Dickson, street interviewers operating as Tim and Dee TV, film 21-year-old Hailey Welch outside a bar on Broadway in Nashville on 11 June 2024. They ask Welch what move drives a man wild in bed. Welch replies 'oh you gotta give him that hawk tuah and spit on that thang.' The clip is posted 19 June. It hits 30 million views in five days. Welch's identity is unknown for several weeks. The internet calls her the Hawk Tuah Girl. She is doxxed by mid-July. Brand offers begin arriving immediately. 02. Podcast and Token Welch launches the Talk Tuah podcast with Jake Paul in August 2024 to over one million downloads in its first week. She signs with Penguin Random House for a memoir. In December 2024 a Hawk Tuah Solana memecoin launches with Welch's apparent endorsement, then crashes by 95 percent within hours, becoming the largest celebrity-endorsed memecoin rug-pull of the year. Welch denies involvement. The cycle, eight seconds to memoir deal to memecoin scandal, is the canonical 2024 brand-arc for a TikTok-discovered person. Sources • Tim and Dee TV, original Hawk Tuah upload (TikTok, 19 June 2024) • Rolling Stone, 'How Hawk Tuah Girl Hailey Welch Became 2024's Most Unlikely Star' (12 August 2024) • CNBC, 'Hawk Tuah Memecoin Crashes 95 Percent in Hours' (5 December 2024)
2024 - Fight Fight Fight at Butler. Date: 13 July 2024 · Place: Butler Farm Show grounds, Butler, Pennsylvania · Figures: Donald Trump, candidate · Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old shooter · Corey Comperatore, fire chief killed in the crowd · Evan Vucci, AP photographer · Tags: US Politics, Assassination Attempt, Iconography 01. The Photo At a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on 13 July 2024 a 20-year-old gunman fires from a nearby rooftop. A bullet grazes Donald Trump's right ear. One rallygoer, fire chief Corey Comperatore, is killed. Two others are critically wounded. Trump drops behind the lectern, then stands, raises his fist, and mouths the word fight three times as Secret Service surround him. AP photographer Evan Vucci captures the moment with a perfectly composed image: bloodied ear, raised fist, American flag behind. The picture becomes one of the most reproduced political photographs of the century within twenty-four hours. 02. Meme As Campaign The Trump campaign converts the photo into merchandise within the week. The Republican National Convention opens two days later. Trump enters with a bandaged ear. The Fight Fight Fight chant becomes the closing slogan of his successful campaign. The line between live-event horror and political meme dissolves entirely. Sources • AP News, 'Trump injured but safe after shooting at rally' (13 July 2024) • The New York Times, 'How a Photo Captured a Defining Moment' (14 July 2024) • Reuters, 'Pennsylvania rally shooting timeline' (14 July 2024)
2024 - Moo Deng. Date: September 2024 · Place: Khao Kheow Open Zoo, Chonburi, Thailand · Figures: Moo Deng, baby pygmy hippopotamus (born 10 July 2024) · Atthapon Nundee, zookeeper · Khao Kheow Open Zoo · Tags: Animal, Thailand, Cute 01. Bouncy Pork Moo Deng, whose name means 'bouncy pork' in Thai, is born at Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi, Thailand on 10 July 2024. Zookeeper Atthapon Nundee begins posting videos in early September. The pygmy hippo, slick and stout and inclined to be aggressive at her keepers, becomes the global animal meme of late 2024. Visitor numbers at Khao Kheow triple. Sephora releases a Moo Deng-themed blush. Saturday Night Live runs a cold open. The hippo is on the cover of New York Magazine. 02. Animal Meme Cycle Moo Deng's cycle peaks alongside two other 2024 baby-animal memes: Pesto, the giant baby penguin at Sea Life Melbourne, and the Pittsburgh Zoo's hyena cub. The collective discourse calls 2024 the year animal cuteness rivals AI slop for cultural footprint. Moo Deng turns one in July 2025 already a brand. The hippo does not know. Sources • Khao Kheow Open Zoo, official Moo Deng announcement (September 2024) • The New York Times, 'How Moo Deng the Baby Hippo Became a Global Star' (20 September 2024) • New York Magazine, 'Moo Deng on the Cover' (October 2024)
2024-08-30 - Sean Dyche "Utter Woke Nonsense". " is a quote card featuring the face of professional football manager Sean Dyche captioned "Utter Woke Nonsense," though there is no evidence Dyche ever actually uttered the words. The image is typically used sarcastically as a reaction image to voice minor complaints, often that have nothing to do with topics usually related to wokeness.
2024-10-04 - Balkan Rage. 2024. The phrase is often paired with the other popular ironic memes at the time, including "still water," "noradrenaline," and "hawk tuah." The meme was likely inspired by a series of TikToks made by Balkan women talking about Balkan female rage, with subsequent ironic meme creators powerscaling "Balkan rage" against the idea of noradrenaline, often set to a phonk soundtrack.
2024-10-09 - Jamaican Smile. 2024, predominantly used withing Sigma Phonk edits featuring the creepy Trollface variant Trollge.
2024-10-11 - Subtle Foreshadowing. 2024, with the catchphrase becoming specifically popularized in October a month later.on sites including YouTube, TikTok and X / Twitter.
2025-01-08 - Scientists Reveal How Time Travel Is Actually Possible. 8:53
2025-01-26 - Irena Aizen Rabbit Paintings. 2025, especially on TikTok, being used as reaction images, exploitables and other memetic formats usually portraying the rabbits in brainrot-related content.
2025-01-26 - These Unusual Rabbit Paintings Have Become A Viral Meme On TikTok. 1:25
2025-04-08 - Trippi Troppi / Trulimero Trulichina (Italian Brainrot). Trippi Troppi, also called Trulimero Trulichina, refers to a series of AI-generated Italian Brainrot memes that depict animal hybrids set to nonsensical Italian rhymes. The line "Trulimero Trulichina" often refers to a cat-fish hybrid, as does the line "Trippi Troppi," although the audio originates from a video featuring a hairy creature with a fish for a head. The meme became popularized on TikTok and YouTube in late March and early April 2025. Trippi Troppi is sometimes powerscaled and ranked against other AI brainrot memes that went viral online in early 2025, such as Bombardiro Crocodilo and Tralalero Tralala.
2025-04-08 - Italian Brainrot But They All Broken Brainrot Part 3. 1:05
2025-04-14 - Gurting / Gurt (Slang). Gurting or Gurt is an ironic slang term and spinoff of the "Gurt: Yo" meme that means doing something that's very smart but also very dangerous, which is a reference to the "What They're Doing Is Very Smart but Also Very Dangerous" meme. The term was popularized as the subject of memes in mid-April 2025.
2025-04-14 - Shaneil Muir, Cjthechemist - Hurt (Audio Visual). ) · 2:38
2025-04-23 - IKIAG (Slang). IKIAG is an ironic slang acronym that stands for "I'mma Keep It A Gurt." The term was created by combining the acronyms "IKIAB," a slang phrase that means to be honest, and "Gurt," a nonsensical slang term used to describe something very smart but also very dangerous. The acronym is often used in brainrot videos and memes, and became popularized on TikTok in April 2025.
2025-04-23 - New slang alert! “?”. ! “?” · 0:07
2025-05-23 - Cracking JellyBean. "gooning to" or "cracking" (as in having sex with) PNGTuber JellyBean. The memes attested that JellyBean was attractive and called them suggestive terms like a "baddie" or "fine shyt." The idea was likely a satirical subversion of the widely expressed sentiment that JellyBean was cringe and annoying, which first spread in memes in 2022. Posts about Cracking JellyBean amassed controversy and backlash in May 2025, following Twitter / X discourse that ultimately resulted in JellyBean privating their X account. Cracking JellyBean memes were from TikTok and X, peaking in May 2025. During the same timeframe, many called JellyBean a Diddy Blud in similar memes.
2025-05-23 - Why Tf Are People "Gooning" To Jellybean???. 8:11
2025-05-29 - They Hit The Second Tower. 11th, 2001, Attacks. The phrase has been used online since the early 2020s alongside the George Bush Learning About 9/11 meme, gaining traction on TikTok in the following years with skit videos in which users uploaded humorous content pretending to pick up a phone and dramatically say, "They hit the second tower," similar to the 2001 Just Called… They Hit The South Tower meme that went viral in January 2023.
2025-05-29 - What? they hit the second tower? #regular show #Benson #meme. 0:13
2025 - DeepSeek R1 and the Nvidia Crash. Date: 27 January 2025 · Place: Hangzhou-based DeepSeek, then the Nasdaq · Figures: Liang Wenfeng, DeepSeek and High-Flyer Capital founder · Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO · Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO · short sellers everywhere · Tags: AI, China, $600B Wipe 01. Open Weights From Hangzhou On 20 January 2025 the Hangzhou hedge-fund spinout DeepSeek releases R1, an open-weights reasoning model that matches OpenAI's o1 on multiple benchmarks. The reported training cost is roughly 5.6 million dollars. By the morning of 27 January the DeepSeek app overtakes ChatGPT atop the US App Store. Nvidia shares fall 17 percent that day, wiping 589 billion dollars in market cap in a single session, the largest one-day loss for any US stock in history. The thesis that frontier AI requires unlimited GPU spend wobbles publicly for the first time. 02. The Meme Aftermath The cycle generates a week of memes about American AI labs explaining to investors how a Chinese hedge fund matched their two-billion-dollar training runs with a side project. Sam Altman concedes DeepSeek is impressive. The whale logo, the lower-case branding, and Liang Wenfeng's quiet Chinese-press interviews become the canonical iconography of the moment. "DeepSeek's r1 is an impressive model.", Sam Altman on X, 28 January 2025 Sources • Reuters, 'Nvidia sheds $589 billion in record one-day loss' (27 January 2025) • The Wall Street Journal, 'DeepSeek Shocks Silicon Valley' (27 January 2025) • DeepSeek, R1 release announcement (20 January 2025)
2025 - RedNote Migration. Date: 13-19 January 2025 · Place: Xiaohongshu app, US-China internet bridge · Figures: Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book / RedNote) staff · TikTok refugees calling themselves TikTok refugees · the bewildered Chinese user base · Tags: TikTok Ban, Migration, RedNote 01. Choosing the Other Chinese App With the US TikTok ban set to take effect 19 January 2025, American TikTok users perform a deliberate joke of mass migration: instead of moving to Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts, they download Xiaohongshu, a Chinese lifestyle app marketed in English as RedNote. Within a week RedNote tops the US App Store with seven hundred thousand new American sign-ups. American users post earnest introductions in English. Chinese users respond, often in Chinese, often baffled. The cross-cultural exchange runs for six days before the Supreme Court upholds the TikTok ban on 17 January and Donald Trump announces a 75-day enforcement pause on 19 January. 02. The English Lesson Bit The dominant meme format inside the week is American users offering to pay their Chinese spies, with Chinese users replying in mock-stern voice that the spy fee is one cat photo. English-language learning content thrives. The Mandarin word for kitty trends in the US. TikTok goes back online late on 19 January, but RedNote keeps a fraction of the migrants. Sources • The Wall Street Journal, 'Americans Flock to Chinese App RedNote' (14 January 2025) • BBC News, 'RedNote tops US App Store ahead of TikTok ban' (14 January 2025) • AP News, 'TikTok ban timeline: Supreme Court ruling and Trump pause' (19 January 2025)
2025 - Bombardiro Crocodilo. Date: February-March 2025 · Place: Italian-language TikTok · Figures: Anonymous Italian-language TikTok accounts · Midjourney + ElevenLabs pipeline · The crocodile-bomber hybrid · Tags: AI, ItalianBrainrot, WarParody 01. Bomber With a Crocodile Head Bombardiro Crocodilo is a B-2-shaped warplane fuselage with the head of a crocodile, generated in Midjourney and voiced in operatic Italian by ElevenLabs. The character's lore involves bombing Gaza, refusing to bomb children, professing love for cocoa-and-mascarpone, and feuding with Tralalero Tralala. The serial videos accumulate millions of views per upload across spring 2025. Like Tralalero, the character has no publicly attached human author. 02. Geopolitics as Brainrot Bombardiro's bombing-Gaza framing draws international press attention as the first AI-meme genre to make active-war references its joke substrate. Italian commentators argue the meme is a coping mechanism for living in a continent watching Gaza on a loop. Critics call it desensitization at scale. Either reading concedes the meme has crossed into political register that crypto-era memes mostly avoided. Sources • Know Your Meme, 'Bombardiro Crocodilo' entry • La Repubblica, 'I Mostri AI Che Spopolano su TikTok' (4 April 2025) • 404 Media, 'AI Brainrot Has a New Italian Accent' (4 April 2025)
2025 - Vibe Coding. Date: 2 February 2025 · Place: X (Twitter), then GitHub README files everywhere · Figures: Andrej Karpathy, former OpenAI cofounder and Tesla AI lead · Cursor and Claude Code as the canonical tools · the demographic of non-coders who ship apps in a weekend · Tags: AI Coding, Coining, Vibes 01. Fully Giving In On 2 February 2025 Andrej Karpathy posts a thread on X describing a new mode of programming he calls vibe coding. The setup: dictate intent to an LLM, accept what it produces, accept the diffs without reading them, paste error messages back, repeat. The code mostly works. Sometimes it does not. The vibe is the methodology. Within a week the term is in headlines. Within a month vibe coding is in pitch decks. By April it appears in YC application essays and in Wikipedia. 02. The New Default Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, and Replit Agent all design around the workflow Karpathy names. Programming, for the first time in fifty years, becomes a thing people do without reading the code. The professional pushback is loud and the demographic that ships shipped apps anyway is louder. "I just see stuff, say stuff, run stuff, and copy paste stuff, and it mostly works.", Andrej Karpathy on X, 2 February 2025 Sources • Andrej Karpathy on X, original vibe coding thread (2 February 2025) • The New York Times, 'Not a Coder? With A.I., Just Have an Idea' (March 2025) • IEEE Spectrum, 'Vibe Coding Enters the Lexicon' (April 2025)
2025 - Ballerina Cappuccina. Date: March-April 2025 · Place: Italian-language TikTok · Figures: Anonymous Italian-language TikTok accounts · Midjourney + ElevenLabs pipeline · A ballerina with a coffee cup for a head · Tags: AI, ItalianBrainrot, Character 01. Coffee Cup Head, Tutu Body Ballerina Cappuccina is a ballerina in a pink tutu whose head is a porcelain coffee cup. She is voiced by ElevenLabs in lilting operatic Italian and her lore involves a doomed romance with Cappuccino Assassino, an espresso cup with knives. The pair is the genre's first canonical love story. The character precipitates Bombombini Gusini (a fighter jet with a duck head), Brr Brr Patapim (a baboon-tree hybrid), Lirili Larila (a cactus elephant), and Crocodilo Bombardilo. 02. The Genre Productivizes By late April 2025 the Italian Brainrot character roster numbers in the hundreds. Fan wikis emerge. Tier lists. Tournament-bracket battles. A genre that did not exist in January is, by May, a fully formed character economy with internal canon and meta-discourse. The pipeline is the meme. The pipeline is also the author. Sources • Know Your Meme, 'Ballerina Cappuccina' entry • Il Post, 'I Personaggi del Brainrot Italiano' (18 April 2025) • Wired Italia, 'Il Brainrot Italiano Sta Conquistando TikTok' (12 March 2025)
2025 - Brr Brr Patapim. Date: March 2025 · Place: Italian TikTok, Italian Brainrot canon · Figures: anonymous AI-image creators · the tree-monkey hybrid · the original Italian narration audio loop · Tags: Italian Brainrot, AI Character, Tree Monkey 01. Roots Like Legs Brr Brr Patapim is rendered as a primate with a tree trunk for a body, exposed roots curling around its feet, and a long mustache. The narration begins Brr brr Patapim, il mio cappello è pieno di lampi and continues into a singsong stanza about its hat being full of lightning bolts. Audio loops are reuploaded thousands of times daily through April. Among the original Italian Brainrot cohort, Brr Brr Patapim is one of the few characters whose lore stabilizes. Wikis describe a forest kingdom, a council of trees, and a recurring conflict with Boneca Ambalabu, the Brazilian rag doll character. 02. Roblox Conversion By May 2025 Brr Brr Patapim is a playable obby character in multiple Roblox games. The Italian Brainrot universe has migrated cleanly out of TikTok into the Roblox children's economy. The lifecycle of an AI meme has compressed to under sixty days from generation to plush toy on Temu. "Brr brr Patapim, il mio cappello è pieno di lampi.", the canonical narration line, March 2025 Sources • Know Your Meme, 'Brr Brr Patapim' entry (April 2025) • The Verge, 'Inside the Italian Brainrot Universe' (May 2025) • Italian Brainrot Wiki, 'Brr Brr Patapim' page (Fandom, 2025)
2025 - Lirilì Larilà. Date: March 2025 · Place: Italian TikTok, then global AI-slop ecosystems · Figures: anonymous Italian TikTok creators · the three-legged cactus-elephant character · ElevenLabs Italian voice models · Tags: Italian Brainrot, AI Slop, Cactus Elephant 01. Cactus With Sandals Lirilì Larilà appears in Italian TikTok in early March 2025 as a Flux- or Midjourney-generated three-legged elephant wearing sandals, with a cactus body, in a desert. An ElevenLabs Italian voice narrates a singsong rhyme over walking footage. The character belongs to the same anonymous slop pipeline that produces Tralalero Tralala and Bombardiro Crocodilo. The lore, generated as fast as the images, places Lirilì in an Italian-Arab-desert oikumene with a magical wristwatch and a nemesis named Tic Tac. None of it is canonical. All of it is real enough to spawn a thousand TikToks. 02. The Roster Expands By spring 2025 Italian Brainrot has thirty named characters. Lirilì sits in the second tier behind Tralalero, Bombardiro, and Tung Tung Sahur. The community wikis crystallize the canon. Children outside Italy memorize the Italian narration phonetically. The ecosystem is the first fully AI-native meme universe with a coherent character roster. Sources • Know Your Meme, 'Lirilì Larilà' entry (April 2025) • Wired Italia, 'Il fenomeno del brainrot italiano' (April 2025) • The Verge, 'Inside the Italian Brainrot Universe' (May 2025)
2026-03-03 - The Shape Store (AI Video). The Shape Store is a surrealist AI video generated in a DIY, found-footage style showing a group of men at the grand opening of "The Shape Store," a fictional shop and amusement park based on colored shape blocks. The video was posted by the infinite_archive_ Instagram page on March 1st, 2026, and spread over the following days to sites including TikTok, Reddit and X / Twitter, becoming the subject of memes and reactions, with many praising it as a standout AI video. Some compared the video's style to The Backrooms.
2026-03-03 - The Shape Store: The AI Video That Feels Like a Lost Memory. 1:49

…and 186 more moments.