The viral stars of 2024 were a woman with one onomatopoeia, a make-up artist with one adverb, a cartoon dog with his hands in his pockets, an Australian academic who scored zero, two baby animals and a shade of green. This is where they are now, from Hawk Tuah and Very Demure to Chill Guy, Raygun, Moo Deng, Pesto the Penguin, the Kamala Coconut Tree and Brat Summer, using only what the people involved have said in public and what happened up to mid-2026. The dictionary's own dates are the spine: most of these records are marked dead, with a death month, and the interesting part is what the person did after the meme stopped.
2024 was a specific kind of year for fame. The memes were shorter than ever (Very Demure lasted about two weeks as a joke), the money arrived faster (podcast deals, brand deals and, at the worst end, trading-chat tokens launched under a person's name within days), and the people involved were, for the first time, mostly ordinary adults rather than teenagers or celebrities. The 40 Best Memes of 2024 ranks the memes; this is about the humans, and two hippos.
Haliey Welch, the Hawk Tuah girl
On 11 June 2024 a street-interview channel in Nashville asked a young woman what makes a man go crazy in bed, and her answer, a spat sound and a laugh, became the year's most quoted clip. Welch, then 21, handled the attention unusually well: she hired management within weeks, sold merchandise, threw a first pitch at a New York Mets game and, in September 2024, launched a podcast, Talk Tuah, with an established sports-media company. For a few months she was the model for how to turn a six-second clip into a career.
Then the model broke. On 4 December 2024 a degen-culture token launched under her name collapsed within hours of going live; the dictionary marks the Hawk Tuah record dead that day and files the collapse separately as the Hawk Tuah Rug. Welch went silent for several weeks, returned to the podcast in early 2025 and said she was cooperating with the lawyers representing buyers. The podcast continued through 2025. Where she is now: a podcaster with a smaller audience, which is the ending she wanted before the token happened.
Jools Lebron, very demure, very mindful
A make-up creator from Chicago posted a video on 2 August 2024 explaining how she does her make-up for work: "very demure, very mindful, very cutesy". By the middle of the month it was a phrase, a format and a brand-safe catchphrase used by airlines, the White House and every marketing department. Lebron appeared on Jimmy Kimmel, signed brand deals and said publicly that the month had changed her life.
The complication was the trademark. Other people filed to register "very demure, very mindful" before she did, and she said on video that she had "worked so hard" and was watching someone else try to own the phrase; she later filed her own applications. The Very Demure record died in September 2024, when the joke was over. Where she is now: a working creator with an audience far larger than in July 2024, and a case study in filing the trademark first.
Phillip Banks, the Chill Guy artist
Chill Guy, a dog in a jumper with his hands in his pockets who does not care, was drawn by the illustrator Phillip Banks in 2023 and became a meme in November 2024, when "my new character is a chill guy" caption videos took over TikTok. Banks was the rare meme artist who owned his character, and he used it: he filed for trademarks and issued takedowns against merchandise and against a trading-chat token built on the image without his permission, and said publicly that the response included threats.
The Chill Guy record is marked dead in 2025, and the dictionary's note ("a lot of caring for a chill guy") is affectionate. Where he is now: an illustrator with a licensed character, which is the best outcome available to anyone on this list.
Chappell Roan and HOT TO GO!
Not a viral nobody, but 2024 was the year she became the internet's. "HOT TO GO!", a 2023 song with a cheerleader spell-out, became the year's arm dance after a festival crowd of around a hundred thousand did it at Lollapalooza in August 2024, and every wedding since. HOT TO GO! is marked dying; Roan is not. She won Best New Artist at the Grammys in February 2025 and used the speech to talk about musicians' healthcare. Where she is now: one of the biggest pop acts in the world, and the one who spoke most openly in 2024 about how unpleasant sudden fame is.
Rachael Gunn, Raygun
An Australian university lecturer with a doctorate in breaking competed as Raygun at the Paris Olympics on 9 August 2024, scored zero in three battles, and performed the kangaroo hop and the sprinkler in front of the world. The reaction was in three waves: mockery, a defence (she had qualified legitimately, and the sport's scoring rewarded originality), and a Saturday Night Live parody. In November 2024 she announced her retirement from competitive breaking, saying the scrutiny had made it impossible; the same month her lawyers stopped a parody musical in Sydney from using her name.
The Raygun record died in November 2024. Where she is now: back in academia, and the Olympics dropped breaking from the 2028 programme, which had been decided before Paris but which the internet credits to her anyway.
The animals: Moo Deng, Pesto and Kabosu
Moo Deng, a pygmy hippo born on 10 July 2024 at a zoo in Thailand, became famous in September for biting her keeper and glistening. The zoo limited visitors to five minutes each and sued nobody, and she appeared on a football club's kit. The record is marked dead in 2025, "quietly replaced by a different small animal". Where she is now: at the same zoo, considerably larger, and still receiving visitors.
Pesto the Penguin, a king penguin chick at Melbourne's aquarium, was nine months old and heavier than both his parents in September 2024, shaped like a brown sofa cushion. He lost the brown down over the following months and became an ordinary, handsome adult king penguin, which his fans treated as a bereavement. Where he is now: the aquarium, unrecognisable.
Kabosu, the Shiba Inu in the Doge photograph, died on 24 May 2024 at around 18, after a long illness; her owner, Atsuko Sato, announced it on Instagram. She had been photographed with the sidelong look in 2010, and a bronze statue of her stands in her home town of Sakura, Japan, unveiled the year before she died. The Doge record is marked undead, which is the correct status for a meme that outlived its subject; see The Doge Story.
The politics: coconut trees, brat and weird
The American election produced a set of memes that ended on election night. The Kamala Coconut Tree was a year-old clip ("you think you just fell out of a coconut tree?") that became the sound of the summer campaign in July 2024, complete with coconut emoji and green edits. The green came from Brat Summer: Charli xcx's album, released on 7 June, its acid Brat Green cover, and the artist's July post that "kamala IS brat", after which the campaign changed its banner. Both records died in November 2024; the dictionary notes that the endorsement "did not help". Tim Walz's line that the other side were "just weird", in July, ran the same course and ended with him back at his job as governor of Minnesota.
Charli xcx is where she was heading anyway: a Brat arena tour, Grammy wins in February 2025, film roles. "Brat" was Collins' word of the year for 2024, which is the kind of thing that happens to a word after it has stopped meaning anything.
The rest of the year
The Olympic Muffin: Henrik Christiansen, a Norwegian swimmer, posted daily about the Olympic village's chocolate muffin with the intensity of a love affair and did not medal; the muffin did, in effect. The Olympic Opening Ceremony 2024, on the Seine in the rain, produced a fortnight of arguments and one good meme about a hooded torchbearer. Man in Finance: Megan Boni's a cappella wish list ("trust fund, 6'5", blue eyes") became a David Guetta remix and a record deal in one summer. The Apple Dance, invented by a fan for Charli xcx's "Apple", was performed by Charli on stage with the fan who made it. Baby Reindeer ended in a real lawsuit when the internet identified the woman it was about. Eurovision 2024 gave the world Croatia's Baby Lasagna, a very small pair of shorts and a winner who broke the trophy. Beast Games, in December, was the moment YouTube became television and brought its lawsuits with it.
And the year's most consequential four minutes: Not Like Us, the song that ended the Kendrick–Drake Beef in May 2024, won five Grammys in February 2025 and was performed at the Super Bowl halftime show while the other side watched. The beef record is marked dead in February 2025, by consensus, at that moment.
What happened to the class of 2024
Three patterns. The people who owned something (Banks his character, Roan her songs, Lebron eventually her phrase) came out ahead. The people who were the meme rather than its maker (Welch, Gunn) had the hardest year, and both said so. And the animals were fine, because they never knew.
The other lesson of 2024 is speed. Welch's clip was in June, her podcast in September, the collapse in December: a full career arc in six months. The dictionary marks most of these records dead within the year, and the people are the part that carries on.
FAQ
Where is the Hawk Tuah girl now?
Haliey Welch continued her podcast, Talk Tuah, after a pause following the December 2024 collapse of a token launched under her name. She returned in early 2025, said she was cooperating with buyers' lawyers, and kept podcasting through 2025.
Who made the Chill Guy meme?
The illustrator Phillip Banks drew the character in 2023. After it went viral in November 2024 he trademarked it and issued takedowns against unauthorised merchandise and a token using the image.
Did Raygun retire?
Yes. Rachael Gunn announced in November 2024 that she was retiring from competitive breaking, citing the scrutiny after the Paris Olympics. She returned to her academic work.
Is Moo Deng still famous?
She is still at her zoo in Thailand and still draws visitors, but the meme ended in 2025. The dictionary marks the record dead, replaced by the next small animal.
What was the biggest meme of 2024?
By reach, Hawk Tuah in June; by chart impact, "Not Like Us"; by brand adoption, Very Demure. The dictionary's own ranking is in the 40 Best Memes of 2024 list.
