The memes of the 2010s were made by a very specific machine: Reddit and Tumblr in the first half, Vine and Twitter in the middle, TikTok arriving just in time to close the decade. This list ranks the 50 memes of the 2010s that actually changed how people talked online, in rough chronological order, with the year and platform each one came from and a note on whether it is still breathing.
The rule for inclusion was simple. A meme had to be something a normal person, not just a forum regular, would recognise. Nostalgia counted for nothing; reach and staying power counted for everything. If you were online between 2010 and 2019, you will have used at least half of these without thinking about it.
The early 2010s: Reddit, Tumblr and the rage comic era
1. Rage Comics
The Rage Comic started on 4chan in 2008 but became the lingua franca of Reddit's r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu around 2010. Crude MS Paint panels, a fixed cast of faces, a punchline that was usually just "FFFFUUUU". They taught a generation that a meme could be a format, not just an image. Status: dead as a living form, but the faces (Trollface, Forever Alone, Me Gusta) still turn up as ironic retro props. See Every Rage Comic Face, Ranked for the full cast.
2. Double Rainbow
Paul "Bear" Vasquez filmed a double rainbow over Yosemite in January 2010 and lost his mind on camera. Jimmy Kimmel tweeted it in July 2010, and the Double Rainbow video became one of the first YouTube memes to get a national television bump. Vasquez died in 2020. Status: dead, but fondly remembered as a pure specimen of pre-ironic wonder.
3. Bed Intruder
Antoine Dodson's July 2010 local-news interview ("hide your kids, hide your wife") was autotuned by The Gregory Brothers into the Bed Intruder song, which charted on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the moment the "songify the news" format peaked. Status: dead, though the phrasing survives as a quotation.
4. Old Spice Guy
Isaiah Mustafa's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign launched in February 2010 and then did something new: the Old Spice Guy answered hundreds of tweets and Reddit comments with personalised video replies in July 2010. It set the template for a decade of brand accounts trying to be funny. Status: dead, but its descendants are everywhere.
5. Forever Alone
Forever Alone appeared on 4chan in May 2010 as a rage comic face and became the emblem of self-deprecating loneliness for the Reddit generation. It was later used to bait strangers into showing up to a Times Square "flash mob" of the lonely, which was cruel and very 2011. Status: dying, occasionally revived by people who miss it.
6. Nyan Cat
An 8-bit cat with a Pop-Tart body flying through space to a Japanese Vocaloid loop, uploaded in April 2011. Nyan Cat was the internet's first great "how long can you endure this" endurance test. Status: dead as a meme, immortal as a piece of internet folk art.
7. Friday
Rebecca Black's Friday went viral in March 2011 after a Tosh.0 segment, becoming the most-disliked YouTube video of its year. The song was not good, but the pile-on was worse. Black later reclaimed it with a hyperpop remix and a genuinely good career. Status: dead as mockery, alive as a redemption story.
8. Planking
Lying face-down and rigid on an unlikely surface, photographed and posted. Planking was an Australian Facebook fad that went global in mid-2011 and ended after a man fell to his death attempting it in Brisbane. Status: dead.
9. Scumbag Steve
Blake Boston's sideways-cap photo became the Scumbag Steve advice animal on Reddit in January 2011, the template for everyone who owes you money. Status: dead as a format, remembered as the cornerstone of the advice animal era.
10. Hide the Pain Harold
András Arató, a Hungarian engineer, posed for stock photos in 2011 and became Hide the Pain Harold, the man whose smile does not reach his eyes. He embraced it and now gives talks about being a meme. Status: alive, one of the few 2011 memes that still works unironically.
11. Arrow to the Knee
"I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an Arrow to the Knee." Skyrim's guards said it in November 2011, and players said it for the next two years about everything. Status: dead, retired to gaming nostalgia.
12. Ermahgerd
A girl holding Goosebumps books, captioned in a phonetic retainer-voice, went up on Reddit in March 2012. Ermahgerd was the peak of the "impact font over a photo" style. Status: dead.
13. Bad Luck Brian
Kyle Craven's braces-and-sweater-vest school photo became Bad Luck Brian in January 2012, the advice animal for cosmic misfortune. Status: dead as a format, alive as a face people still recognise.
14. Grumpy Cat
Tardar Sauce, a cat with feline dwarfism, appeared on Reddit in September 2012. Grumpy Cat became the most commercially successful meme animal of the decade, with a movie, an agent and a lawsuit win. She died in May 2019. Status: dead, and mourned.
15. Gangnam Style
Psy's video, released in July 2012, became the first YouTube video to hit one billion views. Gangnam Style was a global dance craze in the old, pre-TikTok sense: people did it at weddings. Status: dead as a meme, permanent as a pop-culture landmark.
16. Overly Attached Girlfriend
Laina Morris's wide-eyed parody of a Justin Bieber fan song went up in June 2012, and the freeze-frame became the Overly Attached Girlfriend advice animal. Morris retired from YouTube in 2019. Status: dead.
17. Ain't Nobody Got Time for That
Kimberly "Sweet Brown" Wilkins told an Oklahoma news crew about a fire in April 2012 and produced a catchphrase. Ain't Nobody Got Time for That was songified, of course. Status: dying, still quoted by people over 30.
The mid-2010s: Vine, Twitter and the cursed years
18. Harlem Shake
Thirty seconds of Baauer's track, one person dancing alone, then a hard cut to chaos. The Harlem Shake format was invented by YouTuber Filthy Frank in February 2013 and was copied by every office, sports team and navy ship on the planet within a month. Status: dead. The fastest burnout of the decade.
19. Doge
Kabosu the Shiba Inu was photographed in 2010, but Doge became a meme in 2013 when Comic Sans captions ("such wow, very meme") went viral on Tumblr and Reddit. It later mutated into a whole family of dogs. Kabosu died in May 2024. Status: alive as an ancestor of everything.
20. This Is Fine
KC Green's 2013 Gunshow comic of a dog sipping coffee in a burning room became This Is Fine, the definitive image of denial. It peaked in 2016 and never went away. Status: alive, indefinitely.
21. What Does the Fox Say
Norwegian duo Ylvis released a joke song in September 2013 and became inescapable. What Does the Fox Say was the last great "novelty song goes viral" moment before streaming changed how songs blow up. Status: dead.
22. Side-Eye Chloe
Two-year-old Chloe Clem reacting to her sister's Disneyland surprise in September 2013. Side-Eye Chloe became the reaction face for polite disapproval. Status: alive as a reaction image, which is where it belongs.
23. Ice Bucket Challenge
Dump ice water over your head, post the video, nominate three friends. The Ice Bucket Challenge went viral in July and August 2014 and raised over 100 million dollars for ALS research, which is more than most memes can say. Status: dead as a craze, with periodic revivals.
24. Alex from Target
A teenage cashier photographed bagging groceries in November 2014 got a million followers in a weekend. Alex from Target was the first "random person becomes famous overnight for nothing" meme of the Twitter era. Status: dead.
25. Yeet
A Vine dance from 2014 that became a verb for throwing something with force. Yeet is unusual in surviving its origin platform. Status: alive, though now dad-adjacent.
26. Left Shark
During Katy Perry's February 2015 Super Bowl halftime show, one of two dancing sharks forgot its choreography. Left Shark was the meme by the end of the night. Status: dead, but referenced every Super Bowl.
27. The Dress
Blue and black, or white and gold? The Dress hit Tumblr in February 2015 and split the internet for about 48 hours, which is a long time in internet years. Status: dead, but it comes up whenever people talk about perception.
28. Drake Hotline Bling
Two frames from the October 2015 video: Drake recoiling, Drake approving. Drake Hotline Bling became the most versatile two-panel format ever, a "no / yes" for everything. Status: alive.
29. Pizza Rat
A rat dragging a slice down the subway stairs in September 2015. Pizza Rat was New York's self-image in one video. Status: dead, referenced fondly.
30. Dabbing
The dance came from Atlanta hip-hop around 2014, went viral when Cam Newton did it on the field in 2015, and was dead the moment your uncle did it at Thanksgiving in 2016. Dabbing is the textbook meme lifecycle. Status: dead, a fossil.
31. Damn Daniel
Two Californian high schoolers, a pair of white Vans, a voice that just says "damn, Daniel" in February 2016. Damn Daniel got them onto Ellen and got Daniel a lifetime supply of Vans. Status: dead, with an ironic afterlife.
32. Harambe
A gorilla shot at Cincinnati Zoo in May 2016 after a child fell into his enclosure. Harambe became the strangest meme of the decade, part outrage, part parody of outrage, part sincere grief that nobody could quite name. Status: dead, but the peak of "2016 was a weird year" energy.
33. Dat Boi
A frog on a unicycle, "here come dat boi, o shit waddup". Dat Boi surfaced on Tumblr in 2016 and was the first meme to be enjoyed almost entirely because it meant nothing. Status: dead.
34. Evil Kermit
Kermit in a Sith hood, from the 2014 Muppets film, captioned with your worst impulse. Evil Kermit took over Twitter in November 2016. Status: dying, still used.
35. Arthur's Fist
A clenched fist from the PBS cartoon, posted in July 2016. Arthur's Fist was the reaction image for restrained fury and got PBS to politely ask people to stop using it for obscene captions. Status: alive.
36. Mannequin Challenge
Freeze in place while a camera pans through the room, usually to "Black Beatles". The Mannequin Challenge began at a Florida high school in October 2016 and reached the Clintons on election eve. Status: dead.
37. Cash Me Ousside
Danielle Bregoli on Dr. Phil in September 2016, challenging the audience to meet her outside. Cash Me Ousside launched a rap career as Bhad Bhabie. Status: dead as a phrase.
38. Confused Math Lady
Brazilian actress Renata Sorrah, from a 2008 telenovela, with equations floating around her head. Confused Math Lady went global in 2016 and is still the picture of trying to do maths in your head. Status: alive.
The late 2010s: Twitter formats, cursed content and the TikTok handover
39. Salt Bae
Nusret Gökçe seasoning a steak with a wrist flourish in January 2017. Salt Bae became a global reaction image and then a global restaurant chain. Status: dying, though the flourish still lands.
40. Distracted Boyfriend
A stock photo by Antonio Guillem became Distracted Boyfriend in August 2017, and became the most-used object-labelling meme of the decade. Status: alive, the last great template of the pre-TikTok era.
41. Expanding Brain
Four increasingly enlightened brains, four increasingly stupid opinions. Expanding Brain started on Reddit in early 2017 and became the format for escalating jokes. Status: alive.
42. Mocking SpongeBob
A frame of SpongeBob acting like a chicken, captioned in aLtErNaTiNg CaPs, from May 2017. Mocking SpongeBob gave the internet a way to type sarcasm. Status: alive, in its typographic form especially.
43. Blinking White Guy
Drew Scanlon, a Giant Bomb producer, blinked in disbelief on a 2013 stream. The GIF became the Blinking White Guy in February 2017. Status: alive, one of the most-used reaction GIFs there is.
44. Ugandan Knuckles
A deformed Knuckles from Sonic, shouting "do you know de wae" in VRChat in December 2017. Ugandan Knuckles was funny for two weeks, then the racism discussion took over. Status: dead.
45. Tide Pod Challenge
A joke about laundry pods looking delicious turned into teenagers filming themselves biting them in January 2018. The Tide Pod Challenge was mostly a moral panic, but a few kids did actually get poisoned. Status: dead.
46. Surprised Pikachu
A low-res screenshot of Pikachu with his mouth open, from a 1997 episode. Surprised Pikachu took over Tumblr and Twitter in September 2018 as the reaction to entirely predictable consequences. Status: alive.
47. Big Chungus
A fat Bugs Bunny from a 1941 short, presented as a fake PS4 game in December 2018. Big Chungus was the peak of Reddit's "the joke is that there is no joke" phase. Status: dead, and its death is itself a meme.
48. Thanos Snap
After Avengers: Infinity War in April 2018, half of everything got "snapped". The Thanos Snap gave the internet a year of dust-particle edits and a subreddit that banned half its members. Status: dead.
49. Woman Yelling at a Cat
Taylor Armstrong from Real Housewives on the left, Smudge the cat at a dinner table on the right. Woman Yelling at a Cat came together in May 2019 and became the best two-panel argument format ever made. Status: alive.
50. OK Boomer
A dismissive two-word reply to older people's opinions, popularised on TikTok in late 2019 and taken up by Twitter as a generational war cry. OK Boomer was the decade's closing statement. Status: dying, replaced by quieter generational contempt.
What the 2010s memes had in common
Three things. First, they came from a small number of places: Reddit's front page, Tumblr's dashboard, Vine's six seconds and Twitter's quote tweet. Second, they were slower. A meme could take months to peak and years to die; today the whole cycle fits into a fortnight. Third, they were mostly image-based. The video-first, sound-first memes of the 2020s were only beginning with TikTok's arrival in 2018.
If you want the other end of the decade, the 40 Memes from the 2000s covers the era before Reddit ruled everything.
FAQ
What was the biggest meme of the 2010s?
By reach, probably Harlem Shake or Gangnam Style in the first half and Distracted Boyfriend in the second. By longevity, Doge, which is still generating new variants a decade on.
Which 2010s memes are still used today?
Drake Hotline Bling, Woman Yelling at a Cat, Surprised Pikachu, This Is Fine, Blinking White Guy and Hide the Pain Harold all still work as reaction images without any irony.
Why did memes get faster in the late 2010s?
TikTok's For You page, launched globally in 2018, rewarded remixes over originals and pushed trends to millions of people in days. Vine had done something similar on a smaller scale between 2013 and 2017.
What killed rage comics?
Mostly Reddit's own growth. By 2012 the format was so overused that the faces stopped being funny, and image macros and then Twitter screenshots took over.
