Internet Culture Dictionary
Since 2008
The internet forgets. We keep the record. for 18 years
Every meme, game, app and turn of phrase — with the year it was born, the year it peaked, and the day it stopped being funny.
Latest death
☠ Dead
Character.AI Lawsuit
A wrongful-death suit filed in Florida in October 2024 by the mother of a fourteen-year-old who died by suicide after months of conversations with Ch…
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Newest record
● Alive
SpaceTime
A community memecoin and self-described archival project on Robinhood Chain commemorating Spacetime Industries, the corporate name under which the co…
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Record of the day · 4 Sep
◐ Dying
Ultimate Chicken Horse
Four animals take turns placing a trap on a platform level, then all of them have to run it, and points only come if some of you fail. Made in Montre…
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Gaming 657AI era 557Platforms & apps 503Memes 433Degen & memecoins 333Forums & Reddit 223Classic memes 188Aesthetics & -cores 156Fandom & stan culture 152TikTok 147Global slang 130Dating, work & life 118Textspeak & emoji 116YouTube & streaming 113Music & viral songs 112Slang 96Sports internet 71Tech & dev 64Brainrot 53Wellness 40Scams & security 37The old web 28
New on the record
- Soul Train Awards ReturnSeptember
- Kids' Choice on CBSSeptember
- Kenan on AGTSeptember
- Emmys 2026September
- Bartiromo OutSeptember
- Roman Space Telescope30 August
- Poland Volleyball Nations League2 August
- King Haakon VIII28 August
Rising this week
The full index →
Then
The canon
The records with the most testimony on file, born before 2016. Where the language came from.
Ranked by testimony on filestatus · years · rulings
-
01
Gangnam Style3,422rulings
A Korean pop video that broke YouTube's view counter. Danced by the UN Secretary-General, which…
-
02
Chocolate Rain3,398rulings
A baritone leaving the microphone to breathe. Died when Dr Pepper hired him to sing about a sof…
-
03
Konami Code3,354rulings
Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A. Older than the web and hidden in more websi…
-
04
Wojak3,087rulings
A bald outline face, drawn to feel something. Has mutated into more documented subspecies than …
-
05
Betteridge's Law2,853rulings
Any headline ending in a question mark can be answered with no. Older than Betteridge, but he w…
-
06
Neopets2,655rulings
Virtual pets, a stock market, and a fandom that learned HTML to decorate its shop. Lost most of…
-
07
Blue Check2,454rulings
A badge meaning the account was who it said it was. Sold for $8 a month from November 2022, at …
-
08
Stan2,256rulings
To support obsessively. Began as a cautionary tale about a fan who drives into a river and ende…
The record
Showing 24 records
↺ Undead
n.
✎ 4
009 Sound System
An electronic project whose tracks became the default sound of amateur YouTube because AudioSwap replaced copyrighted audio with Creative Commons music, and an alphabetical list put 009 Sound System first. With a Spirit, Dreamscape, Holy Ghost and Space and Time were on thousands of videos nobody chose them for.
▸ 2008
peak 2010
†2014
◐ Dying
phr.
✎ 3
1v1 Me
The challenge to a duel, issued over Xbox Live in the late 2000s by anyone who had just lost, and by 2013–14 a meme ('1v1 me bro, Rust, quickscopes only') about the twelve-year-old who issued it. The record's entry for the honour code of a generation that settled everything in a private match and nothing at all.
▸ 2009
peak 2014
still up
● Alive
n.
✎ 2
360 No-Scope
Spinning a full circle and killing an opponent with a sniper rifle without using the scope, first as a genuine trick in Halo 2 and Call of Duty 4 montages and by 2013 as the central sacrament of the ironic MLG meme. The record's entry for the shot that took ten thousand attempts and thirty seconds of dubstep.
▸ 2007
peak 2013
still up
▲ Fossil
n.
✎ 3
=3 (Equals Three)
Ray William Johnson's three-times-weekly viral-video review show, '=3', begun in 2009, which was for a time the most-subscribed channel on YouTube and the template for every 'reacting to the internet' format that followed. The record notes the show's structure — a clip, a joke, a 'comment question of the day' — is now so standard nobody remembers it was invented, and that Johnson left it in 2014 and it ended in 2016.
▸ 2009
peak 2011
†2016
● Alive
phr.
✎ 3
[Citation Needed]
Wikipedia's tag for an unsourced claim, adopted by the internet as a joke to attach to anything doubtful — 'the best film ever made [citation needed]'. The record's entry for the bracket that became a punchline, and for the encyclopedia's most-quoted sentence.
▸ 2005
peak 2010
still up
● Alive
n.
✎ 3
Ace (FPS)
Killing every member of the opposing team in a single round, in Counter-Strike from about 2000 and in Valorant from 2020, where the game announces it and the clip goes on social media within the minute. The record's entry for the shooter's highest ordinary honour.
▸ 2000
peak 2020
still up
● Alive
phr.
✎ 2
Achievement Unlocked
The pop-up and chime with which the Xbox 360 rewarded players for doing things from its launch in November 2005, and the phrase since attached to any minor real-life accomplishment ('Achievement Unlocked: Left the House'). The record notes the system was designed to keep players playing, and that it worked on a scale nobody at Microsoft had budgeted for.
▸ 2005
peak 2010
still up
☠ Dead
n.
Advice Animals
A face on a coloured background, two lines of Impact, one character trait. The industrial phase of the meme, when anyone could make one and everyone did.
▸ 2008
peak 2011
†2014
☠ Dead
n.
✎ 1
Advice Dog
A puppy on a rainbow background giving terrible guidance. Spawned an entire taxonomy of animals with opinions and was retired by its own descendants.
▸ 2006
peak 2008
†2011
▲ Fossil
n.
✎ 3
Afro Ninja
An audition tape in which a man in an afro attempts a backflip, lands on his head, staggers to his feet and swings nunchucks anyway — filmed in 2004, viral in September 2005. The record's entry for the first great fall of the video era, and for finishing the routine regardless.
▸ 2005
peak 2006
†2010
● Alive
phr.
✎ 3
Allow It
'Stop', 'leave it', 'don't' — 'allow it' — as the London phrase that means the opposite of allowing, and the record's entry for the second inversion in this batch, which is British slang's whole personality. 'Allow it, bro' is a plea.
▸ 2005
peak 2015
still up
● Alive
n.
✎ 2
Alt Account
A second account, for a second self — an alt — used for a different character, a different opinion, or a second try after a ban. The record's entry for the alt, and for the moment someone replies to their own post from one, which is the internet's oldest tell.
▸ 2003
peak 2015
still up
● Alive
interj.
✎ 2
Alter
'Old man', but really 'dude' or 'whoa' — the German interjection ('Alter!') that opens a sentence of shock or address, and that German internet and gaming spaces made a fixture in the 2000s, later exported by German YouTubers to anyone who watched them. The record's entry for the exclamation that calls everyone old and means it kindly.
▸ 2000
peak 2015
still up
● Alive
abbr.
✎ 3
AMA
'Ask me anything' — the interview format in which the internet asks and the subject answers, or does not, as when a Hollywood star turned one into a film advert in 2014 and the format nearly died of it. The record's entry for the question box as a genre.
▸ 2009
peak 2012
still up
☠ Dead
n.
✎ 4
America's Army
A free tactical shooter published by the United States Army as a recruiting tool, in which both teams saw themselves as the Americans and the training included a virtual medic course. Its trend moment was the mid-2000s, when it was among the most-played online shooters and the subject of a debate about propaganda. The Army shut it down in May 2022.
▸ 2002
peak 2005
†2022
● Alive
n.
✎ 4
AMV (Anime Music Video)
Fan-made videos that re-cut footage from anime out of its original order, lay a full song over it and lip-sync characters to the lyrics. A staple of convention screening rooms long before video sites existed, and by 2003 the method had spread to video-game and Western-animation footage as well.
▸ 2000
peak 2007
still up
↺ Undead
n.
✎ 5
Angry Birds
A slingshot game in which birds are fired at structures built by egg-stealing pigs. The record's entry for the first mobile game to become a brand: it was the most-downloaded paid app for most of 2011, produced plush toys, a theme park area and two films, then saw its original version removed from stores in 2019 and reissued as a classic in 2022, which is the record's definition of undead.
▸ 2009
peak 2011
†2019
▲ Fossil
n.
✎ 3
Angry German Kid
A 2006 video of a German teenager smashing his keyboard and screaming at a slow-loading Unreal Tournament, subtitled and remixed into everything from Hitler parodies to lip-syncs. Was staged, which took years to be widely believed. The record's entry for the tantrum that toured the world in a hundred edits.
▸ 2006
peak 2007
†2012
▲ Fossil
n.
✎ 4
Animal Crossing: Wild World
A village of animals, a mortgage to a raccoon, and a clock that ran in real time so the shop closed when you got home from school. The DS version was the first Animal Crossing most of the world played, and the first with online visiting through friend codes, a system so awkward it became a joke. The 2020 island version is filed separately.
▸ 2005
peak 2006
†2014
● Alive
n.
✎ 2
Anon
'Anonymous', shortened — the name every poster had on a board without names, and therefore the address for anyone: 'anon, are you okay?' The record's entry for the pronoun of the nameless, which became a way of speaking to a stranger with care.
▸ 2004
peak 2010
still up
● Alive
n.
✎ 3
Anti
A person in a fandom who is against a character, a ship, or a celebrity — an anti — and, in fandom discourse, the side that believes some fiction should not be written. The record's entry for the opposition as an identity, filed for the word.
▸ 2009
peak 2017
still up
● Alive
n.
✎ 2
Any%
The speedrun category where only finishing counts, however you do it — and, since about 2023, the suffix for any task done with minimum effort: 'any% dinner', 'any% essay'. The record's entry for a category name as a life philosophy.
▸ 2008
peak 2025
still up
● Alive
n.
✎ 2
AO3
Archive of Our Own — the fanfiction archive built by fans, run by volunteers, tagged with more precision than any library, and the winner of a Hugo Award in 2019. The record's entry for the site, and for 'AO3 tags' as a genre of joke about specificity.
▸ 2009
peak 2019
still up
● Alive
n.
✎ 3
App Store
Apple's software shop, opened on 10 July 2008 with 500 apps including a $999 'I Am Rich' screen, which invented 'there's an app for that', the 30 per cent cut, the one-star review and the profession of app developer. The record notes the term became generic within a year, Apple sued over it and lost, and that 'the app store' now means whichever one your phone has.
▸ 2008
peak 2012
still up
The whole file, letter by letter
The whole record, paged 60 at a time. Pick a letter or open the full index.