The prominence of the World Wide Web in the 1900s gave birth to numerous cultural phenomena, including internet jokes and other popular meme forms. Modern memes exist in multiple forms, such as GIFs, moving frames, short videos, texts, and classic photo texts.
Mostly seen as humorous pieces in the early days, memes have now been intricately grained in society and have become an inseparable part of our everyday lives. They manifest as powerful tools of pop culture and often have the power to avert thought processes, change public opinion, and even influence politics.
Disclaimer: The article contains the writer's opinion. Do comment below to let us know about other popular memes that should make it to the list.
Exploring the meaning of the 7 most popular memes
With the ever-expanding internet reaching new people every day, hundreds and thousands of memes are created and shared with the world daily.
While some of them rise to prominence only to be forgotten, others become part of the global pop culture and are always relevant.
Some of the most popular memes that have continuously humored people globally over the years are:
1) Napolean: There's nothing we can do
It rose to prominence in August 2023 and featured Napolean Bonaparte telling his subordinates that "there's nothing we can do." The video meme featured multiple images of Napolean looking down and disappointed and was often paired with Videoclub's 2021 song, Amour Plastique.
The Napolean meme hinted at the hopelessness of the situation and meant that there was no way out. Netizens often made the popular meme with texts hinting at contrasting or last-moment situations, hinting at a sense of complete defeat.
2) Drake Hotline Bling
The meme came to be known after Drake released a music video for the hit song, Hotline Bling, in October 2015. It featured two snapshots from the music video where the rapper made specific hand poses seemingly hinting at like and dislike.
Meme creators made the best out of Drake's popularity at the time and turned the hand poses from the MV into popular memes by pairing them with text boxes. While one of the text boxes was meant to hint at things that were to be skipped or rejected, the second text box hinted at things that should be accepted.
3) Emotional Damage
It originates from a September 2021 skit of the popular Asian comedian and YouTuber, Steven He, featuring him playing a video game and facing an 'Asian Aunty' game boss. Steven's game protagonist died of emotional damage the moment the boss asked how he got so fat.
Seemingly infuriated about the unexpected death in the game, Steven screams 'Emotional Damage,' thus giving birth to the popular meme. It rose to prominence in December 2021 and was often paired either with the sound of Steven saying emotional damage or an image of the same.
The popular meme is meant to humorously signify unexpected hurt or damage that is not at a physical level but may still be painful for the receiver.
4) Left Exit 12 Off Ramp
It originates from Fredrik Sørlie's July 2013 YouTube video, titled - 'How to exit freeway like a boss.' The meme features a car drifting into the off-ramp, along with an empty highway signboard on the top.
The meme is meant to showcase free will and the choice between the preferred and disapproved options. Netizens often put the preferable choices on the signboard point at the off-ramp and the disapproved choice at the signboard pointing straight forward.
5) Disaster girl
The Disaster Girl meme originated from a 2005 picture taken by Dave Roth in Mebane, California. Roth captured his daughter devilishly smiling as she observed a house that the fire department burned for a live drill.
The popular meme is meant to showcase incidents or actions orchestrated by someone without the knowledge of others. The Disaster Girl meme is often used by putting the girl in front of different mayhaps or by placing dark humor texts on the original image.
6) Distracted Boyfriend
It dates back to an iStock photograph submitted by photographer Antonio Guillem in November 2015. The Distracted Boyfriend meme features a guy with his girlfriend who can't help glancing at another woman on the road.
The popular meme is an aged classic and is meant to showcase the desire for something else, while instinctively ignoring what one may already have. It is often used when making comparative humor and satires between two people, brands, items, situations, and more.
7) Woman Yelling at Cat
The 'woman yelling' part of the meme originated from episode 14 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and showed Taylor Armstrong crying while Kyle Richards calmed her. The cat part of the meme came from a Tumblr post that @deadbefordeath posted on the platform in June 2018.
The meme-makers saw how perfectly the two images complemented each other and turned them into a photo meme in May 2019. The versatile meme is meant to show arguments, differences of opinions, and other contrasting situations.
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People who want to make their versions of popular memes can use online meme-generators like Tenor, ImgFlip, Kapwing, and others. These tools often have numerous images and gifs in the template libraries that one can use to make some of the most humorous memes.
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