Classic memes

☠ Deadn.✎ 2

Courage Wolf

A snarling wolf on a colour-wheel background dispensing violent encouragement in Impact font — 'Fall down seven times / get up eight, then punch the ground'. Born on 4chan in 2008 as the aggressive sibling of Advice Dog. The record's entry for motivation with teeth.

▸ 2008peak 2010†2014

▲ Fossiln.✎ 2

Rage Guy

The crudely drawn screaming head that closed the first rage comic in 2008 — a four-panel story about a toilet, a splash and a man shouting 'FFFFFUUUU'. The founding face of a whole comic dialect. The record's entry for the scream that launched a thousand MS Paint panels.

▸ 2008peak 2011†2014

▲ Fossiln.✎ 2

The Lazer Collection

Dom Fera's 2008 series of animated sketches in which anyone, at any moment, fires a laser from their mouth, introduced by the villain Doctor Octogonapus. A Shoop Da Whoop spin-off that outran its source. The record's entry for the comedy of interruption by beam.

▸ 2008peak 2009†2012

▲ Fossiln.✎ 2

Dramatic Chipmunk

Five seconds of a prairie dog on a Japanese television show turning to the camera, with a zoom and a horror-film sting added in June 2007. One of the first clips short enough to be a reaction and long enough to be a video. The record's entry for the animal that established the dramatic turn.

▸ 2007peak 2007†2012

▲ Fossilphr.✎ 3

I Like Turtles

A local-news reporter asks a boy in zombie face-paint what he thinks of his makeup; he replies 'I like turtles' and looks away. Seventeen seconds in June 2007 that became the era's shorthand for an answer unrelated to the question. The record's entry for the non sequitur that was, on reflection, perfectly honest.

▸ 2007peak 2007†2012

▲ Fossilphr.✎ 3

Milhouse Is Not a Meme

The 4chan paradox of 2007: a campaign to make Milhouse a meme, met by the reply 'Milhouse is not a meme', which spread so widely that the denial became the meme and Milhouse still, technically, did not. The record's entry for the internet's first documented ontological argument.

▸ 2007peak 2009†2013

☠ Deadn.✎ 2

Success Kid

A toddler clenching a fistful of sand in triumph. Used in a congressman's fundraising in 2020; the toddler's mother sued and won, ending the last politically neutral meme.

▸ 2007peak 2011†2020

▲ Fossiln.✎ 3

Techno Viking

A shirtless, muscled man at Berlin's 2000 Fuckparade who stops a fight, points down the street and then dances to techno with terrifying purpose, in footage uploaded in 2007. Later the subject of a privacy lawsuit that the man won, which killed the meme more effectively than boredom. The record's entry for the dancer who sued.

▸ 2007peak 2008†2013

▲ Fossiln.✎ 3

The Mysterious Ticking Noise

Neil Cicierega's 2007 puppet sketch in which Snape, Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione and Harry chant their own names to a ticking rhythm until a pipe bomb goes off. 'Snape, Snape, Severus Snape' was the playground's most performed line for two years. The record's entry for the round that ended in an explosion.

▸ 2007peak 2008†2012

☠ Deadphr.✎ 3

This Is Sparta

Gerard Butler's roar as he kicks a Persian messenger into a pit in the 2007 film 300, re-edited for the rest of that year into every scene where someone falls, with the shout mixed to be louder than physics allows. The record's entry for the year the internet learned to remix a kick.

▸ 2007peak 2007†2011

▲ Fossiln.✎ 2

Weegee

A stiff, dead-eyed sprite of Luigi from the 1993 educational game Mario Is Missing!, which 4chan in 2007 declared could turn anyone who looked at it into Weegee. Pasted into thousands of images as a staring curse. The record's entry for the plumber that looked back.

▸ 2007peak 2008†2012

▲ Fossiln.✎ 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.

▸ 2006peak 2007†2012

↺ Undeadn.✎ 3

Awesome Face

The yellow smiley with the enormous grin and eyes pointed off to one side, born around 2006 on 4chan and YTMND, pasted onto anything wonderful or stupid, and often paired with 'Epic Win'. Faded around 2013; back since about 2020 as an ironic emote for the same feeling. The record's entry for joy, slightly off-centre.

▸ 2006peak 2009†2013

▲ Fossiln.✎ 3

Bus Uncle

A six-minute phone video from a Hong Kong bus in April 2006 in which a middle-aged man berates a younger passenger for tapping his shoulder — 'I have pressure, you have pressure' — that became the city's catchphrase and one of the first viral videos in Cantonese. The record's entry for stress as public performance.

▸ 2006peak 2006†2010

↺ Undeadn.✎ 3

Caramelldansen

A loop of two anime girls waving their hands over their heads, set to a sped-up 2001 Swedish pop song, that spread from Japanese and 4chan boards in 2006 to every fandom's animation by 2008. Faded, then came back around 2021 when sped-up songs became a whole genre. The record's entry for the dance that every fandom has drawn.

▸ 2006peak 2008†2013

● Aliven.✎ 5

Clickbait

A headline that promises more than the article. Named in 2006, industrialised by 2013, and now simply the shape of a headline.

▸ 2006peak 2014still up

▲ Fossiln.✎ 3

Evolution of Dance

Judson Laipply's six-minute medley of fifty years of dance moves, uploaded in April 2006 and the most-viewed video on YouTube for nearly three years. A motivational speaker's closing bit that became the site's first blockbuster. The record's entry for the video your uncle emailed you.

▸ 2006peak 2006†2011

▲ Fossiln.✎ 3

Leekspin

A Flash loop from 2006 of an anime girl twirling a leek to a Finnish folk group's scat-sung polka, which ran on every forum for a year and introduced the world to both Loituma and the concept of the infinite loop. The record's entry for the vegetable that would not stop.

▸ 2006peak 2007†2011

▲ Fossilphr.✎ 2

Pool's Closed

The 2006 catchphrase of 4chan's raids on Habbo Hotel, in which identical suited avatars with afros blocked the virtual pool and announced it was closed. A prank, a protest against alleged moderation bias, and a swastika of avatars, depending on who you asked. The record's entry for the first organised trolling of a children's game.

▸ 2006peak 2007†2012

▲ Fossiln.✎ 3

Serious Cat

A grey cat with a level stare, captioned 'I am serious cat / this is serious thread', posted from around 2006 to declare that a discussion had, against precedent, become earnest. One of the first lolcats with a job. The record's entry for the animal that policed tone before tone was policed.

▸ 2006peak 2007†2011

▲ Fossiln.✎ 3

Shoes

Liam Kyle Sullivan's 2006 video in which his character Kelly, a sullen teenager in a wig, demands shoes in a flat monotone over a beat — 'Let's get some shoes'. One of the first comedy songs to go viral on YouTube and a school-bus chant for two years. The record's entry for the deadpan that sold footwear.

▸ 2006peak 2007†2011

▲ Fossilphr.✎ 3

Shoop Da Whoop

A crudely drawn face with enormous lips that fires a beam from its mouth while shouting 'I'ma firin' mah lazer', edited onto anything in 2006–08. Origins in a Dragon Ball Z parody and a great deal of MS Paint; the record notes the drawing's minstrel-show roots were noticed later than they should have been.

▸ 2006peak 2008†2012

▲ Fossiln.✎ 3

Sneezing Baby Panda

A mother panda chewing quietly until her cub sneezes and she jumps out of her skin — sixteen seconds from a Chinese breeding centre, uploaded in November 2006 and among the most watched videos of YouTube's first years. The record's entry for the sneeze that proved the platform would be mostly animals.

▸ 2006peak 2007†2012

● Aliven.

The 1% Rule

One per cent create, nine per cent edit, ninety per cent lurk. The demographic of every community ever measured, including this one.

▸ 2006peak 2010still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 2

YouTube Poop

A genre of deliberately nonsensical video remix — stuttered clips, reversed audio, ear-rape volume, the same two seconds of a Zelda CD-i cutscene forty times — named on YouTube in 2006 and at its peak around 2009. Dying, but its editing habits are now simply how teenagers edit. The record's entry for the art form that named itself accurately.

▸ 2006peak 2009still up

▲ Fossiln.✎ 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.

▸ 2005peak 2006†2010

▲ Fossilphr.✎ 2

Boom Goes the Dynamite

A Ball State student sportscaster's four-minute ordeal on college TV in March 2005, in which the teleprompter failed and he narrated a basketball highlight with 'boom goes the dynamite'. Became the catchphrase for a moment of disaster you somehow speak through. The record's entry for live television's greatest amateur.

▸ 2005peak 2006†2012

▲ Fossiln.✎ 2

Charlie the Unicorn

Jason Steele's 2005 Flash cartoon in which two manic unicorns drag a grumpy one to Candy Mountain, where he loses a kidney. Went viral on YouTube in 2006 and gave a generation the phrase 'Shun the non-believer'. The record's entry for the first cartoon everyone could quote and nobody could explain.

▸ 2005peak 2007†2012

☠ Deadn.✎ 2

Club Penguin

A snowy island of penguins where a generation learned to type and to be banned. Closed by Disney in 2017; the fan servers were closed by Disney again in 2022, which is grieving twice.

▸ 2005peak 2008†2017

● Alivev.

Concern Trolling

Undermining a position while pretending to hold it, out of worry. The troll's only formal dress.

▸ 2005peak 2010still up

☠ Deadphr.✎ 7

Do Not Want

Darth Vader's scream, mistranslated. The most useful three words the bootleg market ever produced, worn out by 2010 like every good phrase.

▸ 2005peak 2007†2010

◐ Dyingphr.✎ 2

It's a Trap!

Admiral Ackbar's three-word warning from Return of the Jedi, posted from the mid-2000s under any link, offer or thread that was obviously bait. The fish-faced admiral became the internet's most trusted security advisor. Dying, but not dead: the record still sees him under ticket-resale links.

▸ 2005peak 2010still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 2

MSN Nudge

A button that shook your friend's window to get their attention. The last piece of software that let you physically rattle another person's computer, and it was removed for exactly that reason.

▸ 2005peak 2007†2013

↺ Undeadn.✎ 2

Pepe the Frog

A comic frog that was community property until it wasn't. The clearest case study of a meme taken hostage, and of an author trying to get one back.

▸ 2005peak 2015†2016

● Aliven.✎ 4

Streisand Effect

Trying to suppress something and thereby publicising it. Named for a lawsuit over one aerial photograph of a house, which had been downloaded six times before the lawsuit and millions after.

▸ 2005peak 2010still up

▲ Fossiln.✎ 3

The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny

Neil Cicierega's 2005 song, animated for Newgrounds, in which Godzilla, Batman, Abraham Lincoln, Chuck Norris and most of pop culture fight to the death, with Mr Rogers winning. The record's entry for the Flash era's national anthem, and an early sign of what its author would do to Smash Mouth.

▸ 2005peak 2006†2011

● Aliven.✎ 3

Weeb

A non-Japanese person too into Japanese culture — from a 4chan word filter in 2005 to a general term, then a self-description, then, by the 2020s, a mild joke about a generation that grew up on anime. The record's entry for the insult that became a demographic.

▸ 2005peak 2016still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 6

Yahoo Answers

Where the public asked how babby was formed and other people guessed. Sixteen years of questions deleted in May 2021, the second-largest bonfire in Yahoo's history.

▸ 2005peak 2009†2021

● Aliveabbr.✎ 6

FOMO

Fear of missing out. The rare business-school coinage that turned out to describe a real feeling.

▸ 2004peak 2013still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Long Tail

The theory that niche products would together outsell the hits. Right about the shape of the graph and wrong about who got the money.

▸ 2004peak 2007†2012

▲ Fossiln.✎ 3

Magical Trevor

Jonti Picking's 2004 Flash song about a magician who makes a cow disappear — 'Everyone loves Magical Trevor' — from the same British studio as the badgers. Looped in school computer rooms until Flash was banned from them. The record's entry for the trick that was mostly the song.

▸ 2004peak 2005†2009

☠ Deadn.✎ 1

Numa Numa

A man in a chair lip-syncing to a Romanian pop song with his whole upper body. The first viral video whose star visibly regretted it, and the first the press hunted down to ask why.

▸ 2004peak 2005†2006

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Salad Fingers

David Firth's green, long-fingered hermit who loves rusty spoons and talks to finger puppets in a wasteland, launched on Newgrounds in July 2004 and famous by 2005 as the internet's most unsettling cartoon. Dying only in the sense that new episodes still appear and fewer people are surprised. The record's entry for British dread in Flash.

▸ 2004peak 2006still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Web 2.0

Rounded corners, gradients, beta labels and the user as the product. The last version number the web ever gave itself before it stopped being a thing you could version.

▸ 2004peak 2007†2010

↺ Undeadn.✎ 3

YTMND

A picture, a sound, some tiled text, forever. Went dark in 2019 and returned in 2021 on a new server, still playing Sean Connery to anyone who asks.

▸ 2004peak 2006†2019

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Badger Badger Badger

Badgers, a mushroom, a snake, on a loop. Ran uninterrupted for seventeen years and then stopped on the same afternoon as everything else made in the same program.

▸ 2003peak 2004†2020

↺ Undeadn.✎ 2

Crazy Frog

A blue animated frog with a motorcycle and an exposed absence of trousers, built in 2003 around a Swedish teenager's 1997 impression of a two-stroke engine, sold as a ringtone in 2005 until it topped the UK charts and was hated by a whole country. Returned to YouTube in December 2020 to a warmer reception. The record's entry for the ringtone that got a comeback.

▸ 2003peak 2005†2009

☠ Deadn.✎ 6

Delicious

Social bookmarking with tags, back when a link was worth keeping. Sold four times, redesigned to death, and finally bought by a one-man competitor who switched it off out of mercy.

▸ 2003peak 2007†2017