174 born · 128 peaked · 56 died · 12 blog posts
Born in 2019 174
- ●12-3-30Treadmill at 12 per cent incline, 3 miles an hour, 30 minutes — 12-3-30 — a routine Laure…
- ☠30-50 Feral HogsA sincere question about protecting children from wild pigs, asked in the middle of a gun…
- ●4B MovementThe South Korean feminist stance of the four 'no's — no dating, marriage, sex or children…
- ●5HeadAn emote of a streamer with an enlarged forehead, spammed for a clever play — and, ironic…
- ●75 HardSeventy-five days of two workouts, a gallon of water, a diet, ten pages of reading and a …
- ●AI DungeonThe text adventure with no script, in which a language model plays dungeon master and let…
- ●ARC-AGIA set of little grid puzzles, colour the cells according to a rule shown in a few example…
- ◐And That's On'And that's on…' — the closing of a statement with the thing it stands on: 'and that's on…
- ●AngelcoreWhite lace, wings, halos, Renaissance cherubs and soft light — angelcore — as the aesthet…
- ☠AnthemBioWare's flying-suit shooter, released in February 2019 after a 2017 trailer that promis…
- ●Apex LegendsRespawn's battle royale, revealed and released on the same morning in February 2019 with …
- ●Attachment StyleAnxious, avoidant, secure — the attachment styles — from a 1960s psychology theory into t…
- ●AutoglyphsFive hundred and twelve pieces of ASCII-style generative art produced and stored entirely…
- ●Ayo'Ayo?' — the reaction to something suspect, with a raised eyebrow: 'ayo, what did he say?…
- ☠Baby YodaA small green creature in a floating pram. Disney had withheld the toys to avoid spoilers…
- ●BackroomsEndless yellow office corridors reached by noclipping out of reality. A folk horror setti…
- ●Bald FraudPep Guardiola, as named by football Twitter every spring his Manchester City side went ou…
- ◐Big Brain TimeA YouTuber in a beanie saying 'yeah, this is big brain time' after a stupid decision — th…
- ●Big WA win — 'big W', 'Ws in the chat' — as the internet's way of congratulating anything, fro…
- ☠Big YikesYikes, but larger — the response to a situation too awkward for the regular size. A 2019–…
- ☠Bird Box ChallengeDoing ordinary tasks blindfolded because a film had. Netflix asked people to stop, YouTub…
- ●Bitter LessonRich Sutton's 2019 observation, in a page and a half, that seventy years of AI research s…
- ●Blox FruitsA Roblox action game loosely modelled on the anime One Piece, released in January 2019 an…
- ●Bot LobbyA match filled with AI players, either by design for beginners — Fortnite added bots in O…
- ●Boy MomA mother of sons, self-identified — 'boy mom' — as an Instagram badge from around 2019 an…
- ◐Bruh MomentA moment so absurd or disappointing that the only response is 'bruh' — a bruh moment — as…
- ☠Bye SisterThe title of a 43-minute video posted on 10 May 2019 by the beauty YouTuber Tati Westbroo…
- ●Chart ManipulationThe accusation, thrown between fandoms since around 2019, that a number one was bought — …
- ●CheapfakeA manipulated video made with cheap tools — slowing, cropping, re-captioning, selective e…
- ☠CheemsA small Shiba Inu with a sad, hopeful face and a habit of adding 'm' to words — 'bonk', '…
- ●Christian Girl AutumnTwo women in scarves, riding boots and long curls, holding pumpkin spice lattes in a leaf…
- ●Clown Emoji🤡 — the reaction for someone who has embarrassed themselves and does not know it, or, ap…
- ◐ClowncoreHarlequin diamonds, ruffled collars, primary colours, painted tears and a deliberate unea…
- ●CohereThe Toronto lab founded in 2019 by Aidan Gomez, one of the eight authors of the Transform…
- ●Comfort CharacterA fictional character who makes you feel safe — a comfort character — as the 2019–21 voca…
- ●CrackedExtremely good, alarmingly so — 'he's cracked' — as the gamer's compliment for a player w…
- ●Da HoodA Roblox open-world game of guns, gyms, robberies and a great deal of shouting, with a re…
- ☠Dalí LivesAn installation at the Dalí Museum in Florida in which a life-size deepfaked Salvador Dal…
- ●Death StrandingHideo Kojima's post-Konami game, released in November 2019, in which Norman Reedus delive…
- ●Disco ElysiumA role-playing game with no combat in which an amnesiac detective argues with the twenty-…
- ●Doom Eternalid Software's 2020 Doom, which trended for a year before it came out because it shared a …
- ◐Dopamine DetoxAbstaining from phones, sugar, music and other 'stimulation' for a day to reset one's rew…
- ●Down BadDesperately attracted, to the point of embarrassment — down bad — as the 2019–21 way of c…
- ◐Drive to SurviveNetflix's Formula 1 documentary series, from March 2019, that turned a European engineeri…
- ◐E-BoyThe male counterpart of the e-girl — the e-boy — as a 2019 TikTok type made of chain neck…
- ◐E-GirlA look built for a front-facing camera. Fading with the specific shade of pink and the sp…
- ●EZ Clap'Easy', with a clapping emote — the Twitch chat's response to a win, especially one that …
- ☠Endgame Early ScreeningThe 2019 request from a terminally ill Marvel fan, known online as Alexander, to see Aven…
- ●FYP'For You Page' — TikTok's algorithmic front page, and the acronym users hashtag in the ho…
- ☠FaceApp ChallengeA week in July 2019 when every celebrity and most of your contacts posted a photograph of…
- ◐Fan CamA short edit of a celebrity, set to music, posted in reply to anything — a news story, a …
- ●Felt'Felt' — 'I felt that', compressed — as the reply to a sentence that landed emotionally, …
- ●Ferrari StrategyThe internet's name for whatever Ferrari's pit wall decides — 'Ferrari strategy', 'strate…
- ●Fr Fr'For real, for real' — sincerity doubled, typed in lowercase at the end of anything true.…
- ●Fraud WatchFootball Twitter's habit of labelling a player or manager a 'fraud' the moment they lose …
- ▲GPT-2The language model OpenAI announced in February 2019 and declined to release in full, cal…
- ☠Gamer Girl Bath WaterJars of used bath water sold for thirty dollars each in July 2019 by the influencer Belle…
- ●GappedBeaten so badly that the gap was the story — gapped — as the gaming word for a defeat wit…
- ☠GlitchcoreHyperpop played over a rainbow-strobing, heavily pixelated, emoji-flooded edit of an anim…
- ●GoatedThe adjective form of GOAT — 'he's goated', 'goated with the sauce' — for someone or some…
- ●GoblincoreMud, moss, mushrooms, and collecting shiny things. Cottagecore for people who did not wan…
- ●Good for Her'Good for her' — approval of a woman doing something drastic, usually in a film — from a …
- ☠Google StadiaGames streamed from a data centre to any screen, sold on a promise Google itself did not …
- ◐GrandmillennialChintz, needlepoint pillows, scalloped edges, wicker, a skirted table and a ruffle on eve…
- ◐GriddyA shuffling celebration dance — arms pumping, feet crossing — from a Louisiana teenager t…
- ☠Harry Potter: Wizards UniteA location game from the makers of Pokémon Go in which players walked around real streets…
- ●Here We GoFabrizio Romano's two-word confirmation that a transfer is done — 'Here we go!' — first u…
- ●Hinge PromptsThe fill-in-the-blank questions on a dating profile — 'the way to win me over is', 'I go …
- ◐Hits DifferentFeels different — better, sadder, more — in a way you cannot explain: 'this song hits dif…
- ☠Hot Cheeto GirlA TikTok archetype of late 2019: long acrylic nails, hoop earrings, a lanyard, a bag of F…
- ◐Hot Girl SummerThe original summer-girl phrase — from a rapper's song and persona in 2019 — meaning a se…
- ●Hydro HomiesA community devoted to drinking water and being nice about it — the Hydro Homies — as Red…
- ☠Hype HouseThe Los Angeles mansion where the biggest TikTok teenagers — Charli and Dixie D'Amelio, C…
- ●Hypnospace OutlawA game about moderating a fictional 1999 internet browsed while asleep, with GeoCities-st…
- ●IYKYK'If you know, you know' — the caption for an in-joke that will not be explained, used sin…
- ●Ight Imma Head OutSpongeBob rising from a chair, captioned 'ight imma head out', as the 2019 image for leav…
- ☠In Event of Moon DisasterA seven-minute film of a deepfaked Richard Nixon delivering the speech that had been writ…
- ●Instagram FaceCat eyes, full lips, a small nose, high cheekbones, poreless skin and an ethnically ambig…
- ●Isekai FatigueThe exhaustion of a fandom with the genre in which a man is hit by a truck and wakes up i…
- ☠Jim Carrey in The ShiningThe deepfake that made the format look like a craft: Jim Carrey's face on Jack Nicholson …
- ◐Joe Mama'Don't say it — who's Joe?' — the 2019 revival of the 'your mama' setup as a trap: someon…
- ☠Jump KingA platformer in which the only move is a jump charged by holding a button, and a single m…
- ◐KEKWLaughter, expressed by a Spanish comedian who died in 2021. Still in use on Twitch in the…
- ☠Kane Trophy CurseThe joke that Harry Kane could not win a trophy — not at Spurs, not at Bayern in his firs…
- ◐Kill This LoveThe Blackpink single that set the template its own successor would beat: a record premier…
- ◐Kombucha GirlA woman tasting kombucha, disgusted, then reconsidering, then disgusted again — two secon…
- ●LLMLarge language model — the research term for the text-predicting neural networks behind C…
- ◐Ladies and Gentlemen, We Got HimA pairing: Breakbot's Baby I'm Yours dropped over footage of somebody being caught out, w…
- ●Liminal SpaceAn empty place designed for passing through, photographed with nobody in it. The feeling …
- ●Love That for You'Love that for you' — happiness for someone else, delivered in a way that also makes clea…
- ●LovecoreAn aesthetic built entirely of hearts, roses, Valentine's cards and 1950s romance — lovec…
- ◐Maguire SlanderThe three-year internet sport of mocking Harry Maguire — the £80 million fee, the head, t…
- ●Mariah Carey DefrostingThe joke that Mariah Carey is frozen for eleven months and thaws on 1 November to sing th…
- ●McBlingJuicy Couture, rhinestones, a Sidekick, low-rise jeans, a chihuahua in a bag and Paris Hi…
- ●MetalheartChrome, wireframes, pierced-metal textures and liquid type — Metalheart — as the 2019 nam…
- ●Microsoft–OpenAI PartnershipThe deal that began with Microsoft's $1bn investment in July 2019 and grew, with a report…
- ●MidwitThe person in the middle of the bell curve — smart enough to have a complicated opinion, …
- ☠Minecraft EarthAn augmented-reality version of Minecraft in which builds appeared on tables and pavement…
- ◐Minecraft ManhuntThe video format in which one Minecraft player tries to beat the game while several other…
- ●MootsMutuals — people who follow you and whom you follow back — shortened to 'moots' on stan T…
- ●Ms RachelRachel Accurso, the pink-headbanded YouTube teacher whose 'Songs for Littles' videos taug…
- ●NGL'Not gonna lie' — the honesty prefix of the early 2020s, placed before opinions that did …
- ☠NeumorphismSoft shadows making buttons look extruded from the page. Beautiful on Dribbble, unusable …
- ◐No Thoughts, Head EmptyThe caption of blissful vacancy — 'no thoughts, head empty, just vibes' — which spread fr…
- ●No Worries If NotThe phrase appended to any request by anyone afraid of being a burden — 'no worries if no…
- ☠OK BoomerTwo words dismissing an entire generation's opinion. Said in the New Zealand parliament, …
- ◐Ok Boomer (Reply)The two-word reply to any older person's complaint about the young, which ended arguments…
- ●Old Town RoadA country-trap track that spread through TikTok as the Yeehaw Challenge — drink milk, cut…
- ●Outer WildsA space exploration game about a solar system that ends every twenty-two minutes, release…
- ●POV Format'POV: you're the dog and I've come home' — a video from a point of view, which by 2021 ha…
- ☠Periodt'Period', with a T for emphasis — the end of the discussion, no further comment. Mainstre…
- ●Pig ButcheringA long-con investment fraud in which the victim is befriended, flattered and 'fattened' o…
- ●Podcast BrosMen with microphones, a black backdrop, a two-camera setup and opinions about testosteron…
- ☠Pokémon Sword and ShieldThe 2019 Switch Pokémon games, announced in June 2019 without the ability to transfer eve…
- ●Poor Little Meow MeowA character who is terrible and whom the fandom insists is a small wet cat that must be p…
- ◐Raid: Shadow Legends SponsorThe sponsored segment for a mobile fantasy game that appeared in, by common estimate, mos…
- ●Reddit MomentA moment of behaviour so characteristic of Reddit — a pun chain, a 'this', an atheist in …
- ●Redraw TrendA panel, frame or photo redrawn by hundreds of artists with their own characters — the Fr…
- ☠RenegadeThe dance of early 2020 — to 'Lottery' by K Camp — done by every teenager and by the plat…
- ●Resident Evil 2 (2019)Capcom's 2019 remake of its 1998 game, whose trench-coated Mr X followed players through …
- ◐Ring Fit AdventureNintendo's exercise game with a plastic ring, released in October 2019 to mild interest a…
- ●Risk of Rain 2A co-op roguelike shooter in which items stack until the game breaks, released into early…
- ●RosterThe set of people one is dating at once, spoken of like a sports team — 'he's on the rost…
- ☠RoxanneAn independent single by Arizona Zervas, released October 2019, that TikTok turned into a…
- ●Sam AltmanOpenAI's chief executive since 2019, the former head of Y Combinator, who testified to Co…
- ●SatisfactoryA first-person factory game on an alien planet, released into early access in March 2019 …
- ☠Say So DanceThe hip-swaying, finger-pointing routine Haley Sharpe made for Doja Cat's 'Say So' in Dec…
- ●Sea MossA gel made from Irish moss seaweed, spooned into smoothies and sold as containing '92 of …
- ●Second BrainA digital system for everything you know — the second brain — as the productivity interne…
- ●Seed OilsSunflower, canola, soybean and their relatives, recast by a corner of wellness Twitter as…
- ●Sekiro: Shadows Die TwiceFromSoftware's samurai game, released in March 2019 without the stats, summons or co-op t…
- ●Shy Fingers👉👈 — two index fingers touching, as the emoji of a shy request: 'can I have a bite 👉👈…
- ↺SilksongHollow Knight: Silksong, announced in 2019 and then silent for so long that the waiting b…
- ◐SimpA man who does too much for a woman who does not want him to — the internet's 2019–20 ins…
- ☠SkskskKeyboard-mashed laughter — a hand dragged over the S and K keys — which had circulated on…
- ◐SlapsTo be very good, of a song — 'this slaps' — from Bay Area slang into everyone's mouth by …
- ●Slowed + ReverbThe opposite edit: a song pitched down, slowed, and drowned in echo until it sounds like …
- ●Smooth BrainA brain with no wrinkles, and therefore no thoughts — 'smooth brain' — as the 2019–21 ins…
- ◐Soft GirlThe pastel, blushed, clip-in-butterfly opposite of the e-girl — the soft girl — as a 2019…
- ☠Spicy Nuggets PetitionThe May 2019 campaign, begun when Chance the Rapper tweeted about Wendy's discontinued sp…
- ●SponsorBlockA crowdsourced browser extension, released in July 2019, that lets viewers mark and autom…
- ●Spotify Wrapped DiscourseThe first week of December, when everyone posts their listening statistics and argues abo…
- ☠Storm Area 51A joke event proposing to Naruto-run past the guards, RSVP'd by two million people. About…
- ☠Talk to TransformerThe website where most people first typed a sentence and watched a model continue it: a p…
- ●Talking StageThe period before dating in which two people text constantly and are not anything — the t…
- ●Technoblade Never DiesThe catchphrase of the Minecraft YouTuber Technoblade, coined as a boast about surviving …
- ●Temperature (AI)The dial that controls how adventurous a model's next word is. At zero it always picks th…
- ☠The Black Hole (Fortnite)The two days in October 2019 when Fortnite's map was sucked into a black hole and the gam…
- ●The Moment'A moment', 'the moment', 'having a moment' — the stan internet's word for anything brief…
- ●The Most Mysterious Song on the InternetA new wave song recorded off German radio in 1984, believed to be by a European band, wit…
- ◐This Person Does Not ExistA website that shows a single photorealistic face on a white background and a new one eac…
- ☠This X Does Not ExistThe format that followed the face site within weeks: This Cat Does Not Exist, This Rental…
- ●Token (AI)The unit a language model actually reads and writes: not a word, not a letter, but a chun…
- ●Top-pThe other sampling dial: instead of considering every possible next token, the model keep…
- ●Tower Defense SimulatorA Roblox co-operative tower-defence game with towers to level, zombies to hold back and s…
- ●Transition (TikTok)The hard cut disguised as a gesture — a hand over the lens, a jump, a hair flip — that le…
- ☠Twitter Political Ad BanTwitter's decision, announced by Jack Dorsey on 30 October 2019, to stop all political ad…
- ◐Unsettled TomTom the cat, lying down with an expression of deep unease, as the 2019 caption for hearin…
- ☠Untitled Goose GameA game in which you are a horrible goose in an English village with a to-do list of small…
- ☠Unus AnnusA YouTube channel launched on 15 November 2019 by Markiplier and Ethan Nestor with a sing…
- ☠VSCO GirlScrunchies, a Hydro Flask and sksksk. Named in July, parodied in August, explained in the…
- ●ValidAcceptable, understandable, fine — 'that's valid' — the internet's way of agreeing withou…
- ●Vibe (Noun)The atmosphere of a thing, as the decade's most-used noun — 'it's a vibe', 'the vibes are…
- ●Vibe CheckAn assessment of someone's mood or energy — 'vibe check' — first as a joke about hitting …
- ☠WWE 2K20The 2019 wrestling game, made without its long-time developer for the first time, release…
- ◐Wait for ItThe caption promising a payoff — 'wait for it…' — placed over a video whose first five se…
- ●We Move'We move' — acceptance and continuation, after a setback: 'lost the job. We move.' The re…
- ●Wife's BoyfriendWSB's running joke about the member's domestic situation — 'my wife's boyfriend let me us…
- ☠Woman Yelling at a CatA crying woman and a confused cat at a dinner table, arguing about anything. Two unrelate…
- ●Wrong Answers OnlyA photo with a question and the instruction to answer wrongly — the format that produced …
- ●Y2K AestheticChrome, translucent plastic, low-rise everything, an optimism about the future. Named by …
- ☠Yeehaw ChallengeThe transformation meme of early 2019: drink a mysterious 'yee yee juice', and on the bea…
- ☠ZAOA Chinese app that put the user's face into famous film and television scenes from a sing…
- ☠Zuckerberg Spectre DeepfakeA short deepfake of Mark Zuckerberg sitting at a desk and boasting about controlling 'bil…
Peaked in 2019 128
- ●#AdThe three-character disclosure that turns a post into an advert — #ad — adopted by influe…
- ●10x EngineerA programmer ten times as productive as an ordinary one, as an industry myth and, after a…
- ◐5-Minute CraftsThe channel of fast, wordless 'life hacks' — a hot glue gun, a plastic bottle, a result t…
- ◐80s RemixA video genre in which a current pop song is rebuilt as though it had been released in th…
- ●@channelThe notification that reaches everyone, used by people who should not have it — '@channel…
- ●AO3Archive of Our Own — the fanfiction archive built by fans, run by volunteers, tagged with…
- ●Affiliate LinkA link that pays the poster a commission if you buy — the affiliate link — Amazon's inven…
- ●AirDropApple's over-the-air file transfer, born on the Mac in 2011 and on the iPhone in 2013, wh…
- ●Alignment ChartA three-by-three grid — lawful to chaotic, good to evil — with anything sorted into it: p…
- ◐Amazon FBA GuruThe man in a rented Lamborghini who will teach you to source goods from overseas and sell…
- ☠And I OopDrag queen Jasmine Masters' startled 'and I oop—', recorded in a January 2015 YouTube ran…
- ●Apology VideoThe genre in which a creator, filmed in a plain room with no music and often no make-up, …
- ◐ArianatorsAriana Grande's fandom — Arianators, named around her 2013 debut and at its most powerful…
- ●Arsenal (Roblox)A Roblox arena shooter in which every kill hands the player a different weapon, ending wi…
- ●BYE'BYE' — not a goodbye but a dismissal of something too ridiculous to continue with, in ca…
- ●Bacon HairThe default Roblox avatar whose free hair item resembles rashers of bacon, and by extensi…
- ●Bandwidth (Corporate)'I don't have the bandwidth' — time and energy, as a network metaphor — as the corporate …
- ●Banter EraThe name football Twitter gives, with hindsight, to a club's years of comic mediocrity — …
- ●BevA beverage, usually a beer — 'a bev', 'a few bevs' — and, in the 2019 series of Love Isla…
- ●Bias WreckerThe K-pop group member who is not your favourite ('bias') but keeps threatening to become…
- ●BitLifeA text-based life simulator in which the player is born, presses a button to age a year, …
- ●BitsTwitch's tipping currency, bought with real money and given in chat with an animated chee…
- ●BlackpillThe pill beyond the red one: the belief that nothing can be done, that looks are fate, th…
- ◐BloomerThe doomer who got better — a wojak with a smile, a plant and a plan — as the hopeful mem…
- ◐Boss BabeA woman running a business from her phone, in her own description, usually selling leggin…
- ●Bottled ItTo lose from a winning position through nerves — 'bottled it', 'bottlers', 'bottle job' —…
- ●Bruh'Bro', flattened into a sound of disbelief — 'bruh' — which became a Vine sound in 2014, …
- ●CampExaggerated, theatrical, knowingly too much — camp — a century-old word from queer cultur…
- ●CancelledPublicly withdrawn from, as a person. Coined as a joke about a celebrity and has since be…
- ●Choke (Esports)To lose a match, series or round from a position that could not be lost, under pressure a…
- ●ChonkA fat cat, affectionately — 'a heckin' chonker' — from a 2018 chart that graded cats from…
- ●CloutOnline influence, as a currency. Chasing it is an accusation; having it is the point of e…
- ●Clout ChasingDoing anything for attention — a beef, a stunt, a fake apology — as the accusation 'clout…
- ●Content IDYouTube's automated fingerprint system, launched in 2007, which matches uploads against a…
- ●Copyright StrikeA formal takedown against a YouTube channel — a copyright strike — three of which, within…
- ☠Counter-Strike: Global OffensiveThe fourth Counter-Strike, which invented the weapon-skin economy in 2013, spawned a gamb…
- ●CringeSecond-hand embarrassment, as a noun, a verdict and a genre — from a verb to 'that's crin…
- ◐Cringe CultureThe practice of collecting and mocking embarrassing behaviour online — the compilations, …
- ●Crossover MemeTwo unrelated franchises, memes or people combined in one image — the crossover — with 't…
- ●Cursed CommentA reply so wrong, dark or unexpected that it curses the innocent post above it — the curs…
- ●CushioningKeeping a few backup options warm while in a relationship, in case it ends — the cushion …
- ●Dame TimeDamian Lillard's wrist-tap — 'Dame Time' — for a late shot that ends a game, first proper…
- ●Dark ModeThe system-wide black-background setting that arrived on the Mac in September 2018 and th…
- ●DeadassSeriously, genuinely, no joke — 'deadass, that happened' — from New York into the interne…
- ●Deceased'I'm deceased' — laughing so hard you have died, in the formal register — as the successo…
- ●Digga'Bro', 'dude' — the German vocative from Hamburg hip-hop of the 1990s ('Dicker', thick on…
- ●Dota 2Valve's version of the DotA map, made with its original maintainer, and the game whose an…
- ☠DramageddonThe name given to the 2018–2020 series of feuds among beauty YouTubers — Dramageddon 1 (2…
- ◐FOBO'Fear of a better option' — the inability to commit to a plan in case a better one arrive…
- ●Facebook MomA mother who posts Minion memes, tags her children in things, comments 'so proud' on stra…
- ●Facts'Facts' — agreement stated as a verdict — with 'big facts', 'straight facts' and 'facts, …
- ●FanchantThe synchronised shout of members' names and phrases at set points in a K-pop song — the …
- ●FlexTo show off, particularly a purchase. 'Weird flex but ok' was the correct response for on…
- ◐For the Damaged CodaA short piano piece from 2000 by Blonde Redhead, made recognisable by Rick and Morty and …
- ●Free RobuxThe two words behind roughly every scam ever aimed at a child on the internet: a link, a …
- ◐GANGenerative adversarial network: two networks trained against each other, a forger making …
- ●Gacha LifeA character-dressing app in which players build anime-style avatars and pose them in scen…
- ●Glow UpThe dramatic improvement in looks, style or life between a 'before' and an 'after' — a 'g…
- ◐Google AssistantGoogle's voice assistant, launched in 2016 as the one that actually knew things because i…
- ●Grimace Emoji😬 — the grimace, teeth bared — as the emoji for awkwardness, secondhand embarrassment an…
- ●Hellsite'This hellsite' — the affectionate name for any platform by the people who cannot leave i…
- ●Hit the Bell'Hit the bell' — the request to press the notification-bell icon added to the subscribe b…
- ◐Hopepunk'The opposite of grimdark is hopepunk. Pass it on' — the whole of a 2017 Tumblr post by A…
- ●Hot DropLanding at the most popular, best-looted spot on a battle royale map at the start of a ma…
- ◐HunA woman selling a multi-level-marketing product in your messages — 'hey hun!' — as the na…
- ◐Hustle CultureThe belief that constant work is a virtue — the 4 a.m. alarm, the side hustle, the 'rise …
- ●Icon'Icon', 'iconic', 'an icon' — the stan internet's word for anything memorable, applied to…
- ●InfluencerA person paid for being watched. Objected to by every person it describes and used by all…
- ●Intermittent FastingEating only within a window — sixteen hours off, eight on, or two low days a week — inter…
- ◐JOMO'Joy of missing out' — the wellness industry's 2018 answer to FOMO, for people who had de…
- ◐Kawhi LaughKawhi Leonard's laugh at his first Raptors media day, 24 September 2018 — 'I'm a fun guy'…
- ◐Laung LaachiThe title song of a Punjabi film that became the most-viewed song video in India by Decem…
- ●LightstickThe official glowing baton of a K-pop fandom — the lightstick — from Big Bang's crown-top…
- ●Load ManagementResting a healthy star for a regular-season game — first a Popovich habit in San Antonio,…
- ●LocalsPeople who are not in the fandom, encountered when a post escapes — 'the locals found it'…
- ●Lowercase AestheticTyping entirely in lowercase, including 'i', as a tone: casual, soft, a little sad. The r…
- ●LowkeyQuietly, a bit, secretly — 'I lowkey love it' — with its sibling 'highkey' for the opposi…
- ●Lurker (Twitch)A viewer who watches without chatting, and, on Twitch, a valued one — 'thanks for the lur…
- ●MicroinfluencerAn influencer with a small following — a few thousand — sold to brands as more authentic,…
- ●MinecraftA block-building sandbox first posted by one Swedish developer in 2009, fully released in…
- ☠MixerMicrosoft's Twitch rival, born as Beam in 2016 and renamed Mixer in May 2017, which in Au…
- ◐Modern Problems Require Modern SolutionsDave Chappelle's line from 2004, as the 2018–19 caption for any absurd fix: a phone taped…
- ☠Momo ChallengeA bird-woman sculpture supposedly telling children to hurt themselves via WhatsApp. Never…
- ●MukbangEating a large amount of food on camera, with the sounds, for an audience that watches wh…
- ◐Nine-Year-OldsPewDiePie's 2018 onward name for his own audience — 'my 9-year-olds', the 'nine-year-old …
- ●NoFapAn online community for abstaining from pornography and masturbation, founded on Reddit i…
- ◐Nobody: FormatA caption format in which 'Nobody:' (or 'Literally nobody:') is followed by a blank line …
- ●OMEGALULA Twitch emote — a streamer's laughing face stretched into a circle — spammed in chat whe…
- ●OT7'One true seven' — the BTS fan who loves all seven members equally and will say so in the…
- ●ObbyAn obstacle course, in Roblox: a sequence of platforms, lava and kill-bricks that a playe…
- ☠Ole's at the WheelThe Manchester United chant — 'Ole's at the wheel, tell me how good does it feel' — from …
- ●Open Mouth ThumbnailThe creator's face in the thumbnail, mouth wide, eyebrows up, as if the object beside the…
- ●OrbitingWatching someone's stories and liking their posts after ghosting them — staying in orbit …
- ●Osu!A free rhythm game from 2007 in which players click circles in time with anime and electr…
- ●PepegaA Pepe with a lopsided face, spammed in Twitch chat when a streamer does something stupid…
- ●Per My Last Email'Per my last email' — the phrase that means 'I already told you this and I am furious', i…
- ◐Perfectly Balanced'Perfectly balanced, as all things should be' — Thanos's justification for halving the un…
- ●Polite CatA cat with a small, closed-mouth smile of great restraint, used for the moment you are be…
- ●RedditorA Reddit user, and, since about 2019, a type: pedantic, atheist, fond of a pun, 'well act…
- ●Reply GuyA man who replies to every post by one woman. Catalogued in nine types in 2018 and none o…
- ●Review BombingFlooding a game's user reviews with negative scores as a protest about something — an end…
- ●SIM SwapPersuading a phone company to move your number to the attacker's SIM, so that your two-fa…
- ●Saudade (Meme)The Portuguese word for longing for something absent — which the internet's 'untranslatab…
- ●Self-CareLooking after oneself, as a practice with a hashtag — self-care — from a radical idea in …
- ●Shiny HuntingThe pursuit of alternate-colour Pokémon that appear at odds of roughly one in eight thous…
- ●Side HustleA second job, rebranded as ambition — the side hustle — as the 2015–19 way of describing …
- ●Slay the SpireA card game in which you build a deck as you climb a tower, and lose it all when you die.…
- ●Soft BlockBlocking and immediately unblocking someone, so that they are forced to unfollow you with…
- ◐SoftboiA man who uses feelings, records and Bukowski the way a fuckboy uses abs — the softboi — …
- ●Sorry for the Late ReplyThe apology that opens a reply sent weeks late, and the meme about it — 'sorry for the la…
- ☠Spursy'Spursy' — to lose a winnable thing in a characteristically Tottenham way — the adjective…
- ●StorytimeA video of a person telling a story to camera — 'STORYTIME: my roommate…' — as a YouTube …
- ☠Sub to PewDiePieThe battle cry of the 2018–2019 subscriber race — 'subscribe to PewDiePie' — chanted, spr…
- ☠T-Series WarThe 2018–2019 contest for the most-subscribed YouTube channel between PewDiePie and T-Ser…
- ●Task Failed SuccessfullyA genuine Windows error message that said the task had failed successfully, screenshotted…
- ◐Thank U, NextA number one single whose video, released on 30 November 2018, restaged Mean Girls, Bring…
- ●Third-PartiedTo be attacked by a third team while finishing a fight with a second one in a battle roya…
- ●Timed OutTemporarily silenced in chat by a moderator — timed out — as the stream's minor punishmen…
- ◐Totally Accurate Battle SimulatorWobbly ragdoll armies from different centuries collapse into each other on a green field,…
- ●Visible Confusion'[Visible confusion]' — a subtitle from a game cutscene, adopted as the caption for any f…
- ●Void CatA black cat, especially in a photo where only the eyes are visible — the void — and the r…
- ●Volcel'Voluntary celibate' — celibate by choice, as the counter-term to incel, said sincerely b…
- ●Wait, That's Illegal'Wait, that's illegal' — a line from Halo 2 spoken when the player does something the gam…
- ●Weary Face😩 — the weary face, which the internet decided meant desire rather than tiredness, so th…
- ◐Webinar FunnelA 'free training' that is in fact a ninety-minute sales pitch ending in a countdown timer…
- ☠Woj BombAdrian Wojnarowski's trade or signing scoop, dropped on Twitter seconds before anyone els…
- ●WojakA bald outline face, drawn to feel something. Has mutated into more documented subspecies…
- ●YouTube KidsYouTube's separate app for children, launched in February 2015 with a promise of curated,…
Died in 2019 56
- ☠30-50 Feral HogsA sincere question about protecting children from wild pigs, asked in the middle of a gun…
- ☠3AM ChallengeThe 2017 video format in which a creator does something ordinary — plays a game, orders a…
- ↺Angry BirdsA slingshot game in which birds are fired at structures built by egg-stealing pigs. The r…
- ☠BBMBlackBerry Messenger — the free, PIN-based chat between BlackBerry owners, launched in Au…
- ☠Baby SharkA campfire song about a family of sharks, rebuilt in neon. The most-viewed video on YouTu…
- ☠Baldi's BasicsA game-jam entry made to look like a 1990s educational CD-ROM, in which a maths teacher c…
- ☠Bird Box ChallengeDoing ordinary tasks blindfolded because a film had. Netflix asked people to stop, YouTub…
- ☠Content CopA series of long, documented takedowns of other YouTubers by Ian Carter — iDubbbz — begin…
- ☠Distracted BoyfriendThree people, three labels, one joke, approximately four million times. Retired not by di…
- ☠Doin Me a Frighten'Doing me a frighten' — a scared dog's caption, in the dialect where verbs are nouns and …
- ☠Edmond de BelamyA blurred portrait of a fictional gentleman in a dark coat, generated by a GAN, printed o…
- ☠ElsagateThe 2017 scandal over YouTube videos aimed at children — often featuring Elsa, Spider-Man…
- ☠Endgame Early ScreeningThe 2019 request from a terminally ill Marvel fan, known online as Alexander, to see Aven…
- ☠FaceApp ChallengeA week in July 2019 when every celebrity and most of your contacts posted a photograph of…
- ↺Fallout 76Bethesda's online Fallout, released in November 2018 with no human characters, a great ma…
- ☠Gen Z YellowThe bright, custard yellow declared by the fashion press in 2018 to be the successor to m…
- ☠Google PlusGoogle's social network, launched in June 2011 with 'Circles', Hangouts and a forced inte…
- ☠Google+A social network that every Google account was given whether it wanted one or not. Closed…
- ☠Granny (Game)A mobile horror game in which you have five days to escape a house while a grandmother wi…
- ☠Grumpy CatA cat with feline dwarfism who appeared permanently displeased. Made an estimated $100 mi…
- ☠Gucci GangA Lil Pump single built on a hook that says its own name over and over, which turned out …
- ☠Helix JumpA ball bounces down a spiral tower and you rotate the tower so it lands on the right colo…
- ☠Hit or Miss'Hit or miss, I guess they never miss, huh?' — a cosplayer lip-syncing in a shop, which b…
- ☠HyggeCandles, wool socks, a cinnamon bun and a Danish word for cosiness that the British publi…
- ☠In My Feelings ChallengeA dance challenge attached to Drake's 2018 single, replicated by Odell Beckham Jr., Will …
- ☠It's Everyday BroA 2017 song and video by Jake Paul and his 'Team 10' housemates — 'It's Everyday Bro' — a…
- ▲Lord BendtnerNicklas Bendtner, Arsenal's spectacularly self-assured striker, elevated by football foru…
- ☠Man's Not HotA freestyle by the British comedian Michael Dapaah, delivered in character, whose deliber…
- ☠Millennial PinkA dusty salmon somewhere between Rose Quartz and a Glossier bag — millennial pink — as th…
- ☠Milly RockA 2014 song by 2 Milly whose dance went viral the following summer and then detached from…
- ☠Momo ChallengeA bird-woman sculpture supposedly telling children to hurt themselves via WhatsApp. Never…
- ☠Mooo!A novelty song built around the assertion that the singer is a cow and not a cat, filmed …
- ☠Moshi MonstersA British browser world in which children adopted a monster, solved daily puzzles and col…
- ☠Nicolas Cage DeepfakesThe comic strand of the original deepfake wave: Nicolas Cage's face swapped onto Amy Adam…
- ☠Obama Deepfake PSAA public-service video in which a deepfaked Barack Obama warns that 'we are entering an e…
- ▲PPAPA Japanese earworm running about forty-five seconds, in which a man in a leopard-print ou…
- ↺Rare PepeA Pepe drawn in a style nobody had seen before, watermarked and traded as if it were a co…
- ☠Rolex (Ayo & Teo)A song by the duo Ayo & Teo built around a dance and a hashtag, the #RolexChallenge, whic…
- ☠STOOPIDA single whose accompanying dance became a TikTok challenge and whose audio ended up unde…
- ☠Scooby Doo PapaA song and dance video by the New York DJ DJ Kass, recreated widely across social media b…
- ▲Shooting StarsA 2009 Australian synth-pop song that went viral in 2017 as the soundtrack to clips of pe…
- ☠Sophia the RobotA silicone-faced humanoid with a transparent skull who told a CNBC interviewer in 2016 th…
- ☠Spicy Nuggets PetitionThe May 2019 campaign, begun when Chance the Rapper tweeted about Wendy's discontinued sp…
- ☠Storm Area 51A joke event proposing to Naruto-run past the guards, RSVP'd by two million people. About…
- ☠Sub to PewDiePieThe battle cry of the 2018–2019 subscriber race — 'subscribe to PewDiePie' — chanted, spr…
- ☠T-Series WarThe 2018–2019 contest for the most-subscribed YouTube channel between PewDiePie and T-Ser…
- ☠The Black Hole (Fortnite)The two days in October 2019 when Fortnite's map was sucked into a black hole and the gam…
- ↺Tilted TowersThe city on Fortnite's original island, added in January 2018 and instantly the map's mos…
- ☠TowerFallFour archers on a single screen with three arrows each, and a rule that you can catch an …
- ☠Wii Shop ChannelA store with the most relaxing music ever written for commerce. Closed in January 2019; t…
- ↺YTMNDA picture, a sound, some tiled text, forever. Went dark in 2019 and returned in 2021 on a…
- ☠Yeehaw ChallengeThe transformation meme of early 2019: drink a mysterious 'yee yee juice', and on the bea…
- ▲YouTube AnnotationsThe clickable text boxes, arrows and speech bubbles laid over a YouTube video — annotatio…
- ☠ZAOA Chinese app that put the user's face into famous film and television scenes from a sing…
- ☠Zuckerberg Spectre DeepfakeA short deepfake of Mark Zuckerberg sitting at a desk and boasting about controlling 'bil…
- ☠iTunesApple's music program, launched in January 2001, whose store from 2003 sold songs for 99 …
From the blog, 2019
That morning when you board a spaceship to another world29 Jul 2019
Wetransfer in the nineties.28 Jul 2019
Quake on an i486 @ 320 x 200 resolution27 Jul 2019
Requirements [COMIC]31 May 2019
Anglo-Zulu War (1879)29 May 2019
Fighting evil together once again29 May 2019
Deer drinking water from a lake during sunset28 May 2019
Cute boi chilling in a pot27 May 2019
Free Vet lawn care26 May 2019
They were identified within hours of the pic being posted. Internets really do cool stuff sometimes.25 May 2019
Moms strong sponge24 May 2019
Anon is in big trouble23 May 2019