What were the most important memes of 2023?

Time to reflect on the past year… in memes! And? Do you recognize everyone? Probably hardly, because memes and related internet phenomena have a way of suddenly becoming ubiquitous, but then just as quickly disappearing as they are replaced by the next viral trend.

And now several websites such as Mashable, Rolling Stone, Buzzfeed – and now Watson – are starting to list the “most important memes of 2023”.

But there is hardly any consensus. Therefore, a selection follows – followed by a request to you, dear users, to list missing Internet trends!

Boston Cop slide

An adult, a police officer on duty, tries out a slide in the playground. And the mashups immediately follow.

Timothée Chalamet Chocolate meme

“Oh, the brother is trying so much“Be funny and bizarre” – that is the response from Twitter users @Trey_Explainer about Timothée Chalamet’s performance in the trailer for the new film “Wonka”. Apparently quite a few people shared this opinion, as TikTok was promptly flooded with parodies of Chalamet’s somewhat over-the-top performance.

Tube girl

Malaysian model Sabrina Bahsoon dances on the London Underground: the original TikTok video goes viral, spawning countless imitations as Ms Bahsoon gains hundreds of thousands of followers.

Congress is a mess

It goes without saying that the days-long inability of the Republican majority in Congress to elect a Speaker of the House of Representatives has spawned countless memes. Congress is a mess. But at least the memes are good.

Kevin James memes

The photo is antique. It’s from the set of the 1998 TV series King of Queens. Defeated 25 years later, actor Kevin James goes viral with his innocent pose.

Big red boots

As if designed by a cartoonist, the huge, rubbery boots from the fashion and art collective MSCHF retail for $350. They didn’t become a top seller, but because various celebrities and influencers (who probably received them as business gifts) were wearing their clothes. spotted, they were briefly ubiquitous on the Internet.

Chinese spy balloon

According to China, it was by no means a spy balloon. The meme world didn’t care. When the thing was shot down over the US, there were more and more ‘Chinese Spy Balloon’ memes.

Nepo babies

Suddenly we all realized how many famous kids have become celebrities themselves. Nepo Babies (by: “nepotism” – “Nepotism”) are called.

M3gan

The 2022 horror film M3gan became an internet meme a year later when the evil AI child doll became an icon of the gay community. A TikTok challenge was to… M3gan dance to dance afterwards.

The Roman Empire

Heterosexual men apparently think about the Roman Empire very often. Asking your boyfriend/husband/brother about it became a video meme.

As a result, the term ‘The Roman Empire’ now figuratively means ‘something that is very busy at the moment’.

Orca attacks

It is still unclear why orcas are apparently increasingly attacking boats en masse. The fact that rich people’s yachts are often hit has spawned a number of malicious memes. #TeamOrca; #Eat the rich…

The Lorax

Even my 15-year-old daughter, a perfect representative of this oh-so-Gen Z meme’s target audience on TikTok, can’t explain why Lorax memes suddenly started popping up all over her age group bubble.

Yes, “The Lorax” is a famous children’s book by Dr. Seuss – but from 1971! And yes, there is an animated film about it – but from 2012! Sometimes memes appear out of nowhere. Or, like The Young Ms. Baroni tries to explain: “I think we all saw the movie as children, and in 2023 we remembered it.”

One margarita

It started with this clip Here, abstinence preacher Cynthia Smock appears to warn of the dangers of happy hours at Mexican restaurants: “If you buy her a margarita, she’ll spread her legs!”

Comedian and rapper Angel Laketa Moore spontaneously said that something like this would be perfect as a rap song – and the ‘One Margarita’ meme was born:

Coronation Day

As part of an outdated ceremony, a grumpy old man is dressed in bizarre garments and carries trendy utensils in his hands. Of course the meme machine is on here.

Barbenheimer

Barbie memes were ubiquitous weeks before the release of the “Barbie” movie. When it was announced that the blockbuster would share a release date with Oppenheimer, the mashups went through the roof.

Bentley ASMR

The original video was probably intended to be completely unironic:

The countless parodies (some of which were much more successful) were completely different. Within days of publishing the original video, YouTube user Just Sul had already uploaded a parody featuring a Tata pickup, which received over 53 million views within a month:

And? Which ones are missing here?

Of course, these are by no means all of the viral memes of 2023. Other honorable mentions include: Grimace Shake, Serving Cunt, Planet of the Bass, Girl Dinner or Skibidi toilet. Which memes do you think are missing? The comment column is open!