Forums & Reddit

☠ Deadn.✎ 7

Glue on Pizza

A search engine recommending non-toxic adhesive as a pizza topping, sourced from an eleven-year-old Reddit joke. Removed within days; remembered by everyone who wonders where the answers come from.

▸ 2024peak 2024†2024

☠ Deadn.✎ 1

Balenciaga Pope

The Pope in a white puffer jacket, generated. The first AI image that fooled a large number of people, and the last that fooled anyone who read a newspaper about it.

▸ 2023peak 2023†2023

◐ Dyingn.

Canon Event

A necessary bad experience that makes you who you are, from a film about multiverse plot logic. Used to excuse not warning a friend about a haircut.

▸ 2023peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Will Smith Eating Spaghetti

An actor consuming pasta in a nightmare, generated. Became the unofficial benchmark for video models, re-run with every release, and has now been performed by the actor himself.

▸ 2023peak 2025still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Prompt Engineering

Writing instructions for a language model, as a profession. Died as a job title when the models stopped needing to be spoken to carefully, which took about three years.

▸ 2022peak 2023†2026

● Aliven.✎ 3

Apes (WSB)

The retail traders who held GameStop in January 2021, self-named as apes — 'apes together strong', from a Planet of the Apes line — as the collective identity of a meme-stock movement. The record's entry for the name, and for the fact that some are still holding.

▸ 2021peak 2021still up

● Aliven.✎ 7

Dead Internet Theory

The claim that most of the web is now machines talking to machines. Filed here without editorial comment, for reasons the reader may work out.

▸ 2021peak 2024still up

● Alivephr.✎ 2

My Brother in Christ

'My brother in Christ, you…' — the exasperated address to someone who has done the thing they are complaining about, with a religious formality that makes it funnier. The record's entry for the phrase that means 'you did this to yourself', lovingly.

▸ 2021peak 2022still up

● Aliveinterj.✎ 3

Real

'Real' — agreement that something is true and also felt — as the 2021–23 reply to any relatable statement, with 'so real' for emphasis and 'real and true' for the ironic. The record's entry for the adjective that became a whole reply.

▸ 2021peak 2023still up

◐ Dyingphr.✎ 3

So True Bestie

'So true bestie' — agreement delivered with an intimacy the speaker does not have, as the 2021 reply to any take, sincere or otherwise. The record's entry for the affirmation that is also a small joke about affirmation.

▸ 2021peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Average Redditor

A wojak with a neckbeard, glasses and a specific smile, captioned with a pun and an opinion about religion — the average redditor — as the 2020 drawing that the site's own users adopted with resignation. The record's entry for the portrait, which was drawn by an enemy and hung by the subject.

▸ 2020peak 2021still up

● Aliveinterj.✎ 2

HELP

'HELP' — in capitals, as a reaction to something funny rather than a request — the 2020s' way of saying 'this is too much', and the record's entry for the cry that has never once been answered because it was never a cry.

▸ 2020peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

King

'King' — the address for a man doing something good, with 'you dropped this 👑' as the full form — as the 2020 way of praising men that was, from the start, half joke. The record's entry for the crown emoji as a compliment.

▸ 2020peak 2021still up

● Alivephr.✎ 3

No Because

'No because' — the opening of an agreement that sounds like a disagreement: 'no bc this is exactly what I said'. The record's entry for the sentence that begins with no and means yes, which is most of the 2020s' grammar.

▸ 2020peak 2022still up

● Aliven.

Weirdcore

Low-resolution images with unsettling captions in a default font. The nightmare version of the early web, made by people nostalgic for it.

▸ 2020peak 2021still up

◐ Dyingphr.✎ 2

And That's On

'And that's on…' — the closing of a statement with the thing it stands on: 'and that's on period', 'and that's on mental health'. The record's entry for the 2019–20 grammar of conviction, which ended most sentences with a foundation.

▸ 2019peak 2020still up

● Aliveinterj.✎ 2

Ayo

'Ayo?' — the reaction to something suspect, with a raised eyebrow: 'ayo, what did he say?' From chat into speech, and the record's entry for the two syllables that ask 'did I hear that right' without the question.

▸ 2019peak 2021still up

● Aliven.✎ 1

Backrooms

Endless yellow office corridors reached by noclipping out of reality. A folk horror setting authored by nobody and maintained by everybody.

▸ 2019peak 2022still up

● Aliveadj.✎ 2

Cracked

Extremely good, alarmingly so — 'he's cracked' — as the gamer's compliment for a player who seems to be cheating and is not. The record's entry for excellence described as damage, and for the word that means 'better than should be possible'.

▸ 2019peak 2021still up

● Aliveinterj.✎ 2

Felt

'Felt' — 'I felt that', compressed — as the reply to a sentence that landed emotionally, and the record's entry for the past tense of 'same', which is the same but sadder.

▸ 2019peak 2021still up

● Aliveadj.✎ 3

Gapped

Beaten so badly that the gap was the story — gapped — as the gaming word for a defeat with no excuse, and the record's entry for the humiliation that is also a measurement.

▸ 2019peak 2022still up

● Alivephr.✎ 3

Good for Her

'Good for her' — approval of a woman doing something drastic, usually in a film — from a sitcom line into the name of a whole genre: the 'good for her' film, in which she gets away with it. The record's entry for the verdict as a genre.

▸ 2019peak 2021still up

● Aliven.

Liminal Space

An empty place designed for passing through, photographed with nobody in it. The feeling of a Tuesday afternoon in 1998 that a generation who was not there recognises instantly.

▸ 2019peak 2021still up

● Alivephr.✎ 2

Love That for You

'Love that for you' — happiness for someone else, delivered in a way that also makes clear you are not involved: 'you're doing a marathon? Love that for you.' The record's entry for the compliment with a small fence around it.

▸ 2019peak 2021still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Midwit

The person in the middle of the bell curve — smart enough to have a complicated opinion, not smart enough to see it is wrong — from a 2019 meme in which the genius and the fool agree and the midwit does not. The record's entry for the insult that everyone uses about everyone else.

▸ 2019peak 2022still up

◐ Dyingphr.✎ 3

Ok Boomer (Reply)

The two-word reply to any older person's complaint about the young, which ended arguments and made the news in autumn 2019 when a New Zealand MP said it in parliament. The record has 'boomer'; this is the reply, which was the last word for about six months.

▸ 2019peak 2019still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Reddit Moment

A moment of behaviour so characteristic of Reddit — a pun chain, a 'this', an atheist in a cooking thread — that it must be named. The record's entry for the site's personality as an event, and for the 'average redditor', who is the person in the moment.

▸ 2019peak 2021still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Smooth Brain

A brain with no wrinkles, and therefore no thoughts — 'smooth brain' — as the 2019–21 insult and, on WSB, a badge: 'smooth-brained ape'. 'Wrinkle brain' is the opposite, for someone who has read the filing. The record's entry for neuroscience as a self-description.

▸ 2019peak 2021still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

The Moment

'A moment', 'the moment', 'having a moment' — the stan internet's word for anything briefly excellent: a performance, an outfit, a sandwich. The record's entry for time as a compliment, and for the phrase that means 'this was good and I noticed'.

▸ 2019peak 2021still up

● Alivephr.✎ 3

We Move

'We move' — acceptance and continuation, after a setback: 'lost the job. We move.' The record's entry for resilience in two words, and for 'we go again', its football sibling, which is said after every defeat by every fan.

▸ 2019peak 2021still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Wife's Boyfriend

WSB's running joke about the member's domestic situation — 'my wife's boyfriend let me use the computer' — as the subreddit's self-deprecating identity in one phrase. The record's entry for the joke that nobody explains to newcomers, and that the record is now explaining.

▸ 2019peak 2021still up

◐ Dyingphr.✎ 2

Based and Redpilled

The highest approval of a certain internet — 'based and redpilled' — with 'cringe and bluepilled' as its condemnation, from 2018 boards into ironic use everywhere. The record's entry for the two-word verdict that sorted the whole world into two columns.

▸ 2018peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Diff

'Difference' — the reason a game was lost, blamed on one position: 'jungle diff', 'support diff'. The record's entry for the shortest possible post-mortem, and, since 2022, for any comparison: 'coffee diff', 'dad diff'.

▸ 2018peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Femcel

The female incel — first as a serious forum term, then, by 2022, as a TikTok aesthetic of sad girls with a specific book and a specific eyeliner. The record's entry for a word that went from despair to a costume in four years.

▸ 2018peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Glowie

A federal agent, or anyone suspected of being one, on a board — 'glowie', from a late programmer's claim that agents 'glow in the dark' — as the paranoid internet's word for the infiltrator. The record's entry for the suspicion as a noun, and for the sad man who coined it.

▸ 2018peak 2021still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Loss Porn

Screenshots of catastrophic trading losses, posted for the community's admiration — loss porn — as WSB's most-upvoted genre, and the record's entry for the failure as a flex. A six-figure loss gets more praise than a six-figure gain, which is the whole subreddit.

▸ 2018peak 2021still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 2

Momo Challenge

A bird-woman sculpture supposedly telling children to hurt themselves via WhatsApp. Never actually happened; the newspapers that spread it are the reason it is here, and the reason it stopped.

▸ 2018peak 2019†2019

● Alivephr.✎ 2

Sir, This Is a Wendy's

The reply to a rant delivered to the wrong audience — a political speech in a cooking forum, a confession in a game chat — imagined as a man shouting at a fast-food counter. The record's entry for the redirect as a joke, and for the Wendy's that never asked.

▸ 2018peak 2020still up

● Aliveadj.✎ 3

Sweaty

Playing too hard, too seriously, with too many keybinds — 'sweaty' — as the successor to tryhard, and the reason 'sweat lobby' is a place nobody wants to be. The record's entry for perspiration as a playstyle.

▸ 2018peak 2020still up

☠ Deadn.

Thanos Snap

Half of everything, gone. A subreddit banned half its 700,000 members at random to celebrate, which is the largest voluntary mass deletion of users on record.

▸ 2018peak 2018†2018

● Alivephr.✎ 2

We Love to See It

'We love to see it' — approval of a good outcome, in the collective voice, sincere or sarcastic depending on the outcome. The record's entry for the royal 'we' of the internet, which approves of everything and means it about half the time.

▸ 2018peak 2020still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 1

Yanny or Laurel

One audio clip, two words, no agreement. The Dress for ears, and it lasted about a week longer because you could not screenshot it.

▸ 2018peak 2018†2018

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Expanding Brain

Four brains, each more luminous, each attached to a stupider idea. The last widely-used format that required the reader to have an opinion about which panel was the joke.

▸ 2017peak 2017still up

● Alivephr.✎ 3

Ok And?

'Okay, and?' — the reply to a statement offered as damning that the replier does not find damning: 'she wore it twice — ok and?' The record's entry for the shrug as a question, and for the two words that end a callout.

▸ 2017peak 2020still up

● Alivephr.✎ 3

Spitting Facts

Speaking truth rapidly and well — 'he's spitting' — from the rap word for delivering bars to the general word for anyone making a good point. The record's entry for the verb that turned an argument into a verse.

▸ 2017peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

r/place

A blank canvas on which any user could place one pixel every few minutes, which produced, over three days, flags, art, and wars — r/place — as the internet's best collaborative experiment, run in 2017, 2022 and 2023. The record's entry for the canvas, and for the pixels the record placed.

▸ 2017peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Blackpill

The pill beyond the red one: the belief that nothing can be done, that looks are fate, that effort is pointless. The vocabulary of the most hopeless corner of the internet, filed for the word, which has spread as a general term for fatalism about anything.

▸ 2016peak 2019still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Brainlet

A wojak with a tiny head — the brainlet — for anyone who has said something stupid, and the record's entry for the insult that is also a drawing of a skull. The 'midwit' is its cousin with an average head and a worse attitude.

▸ 2016peak 2018still up