As 2018 begins to end, I thought it was a good idea to reflect on the most popular and memorable memes on popular social media platforms of 2018.
1. January 2018
TIDE PODS: The Tide POD meme refers to a dare called the "Tide POD Challenge." This dare is eating the Tide PODS laundry detergent capsules that look like fruit snacks. The Tide Pod meme started from a Youtube video called the "TIDE POD CHALLENGE." by Youtuber TheAaronSwan669 on January 7th, 2018. He pretends to eat tide pods before saying "just kidding." The video went viral and many others started to participate in the challenge videos. People began to make foods looking like tide pods and posting them on Twitter.
2. February 2018
CHANGE MY MIND: This meme references Steven Crowder's "Change My Mind" Campus Sign at Texas Christian University. He originally had a poster saying "Male Privilege is a myth / Change My Mind" on February 16th, 2018 and posted the original tweet. Within 2 days, the picture was photoshopped into memes like this one.
3. March 2018
SAVAGE PATRICK:This meme got it's start with a still image of Patrick from Spongebob Squarepants where Patrick looks like he is in an evil trance. This meme began to spread with edgy captions displaying real feelings of people with bad and funny intentions.
4. April 2018
WALMART YODEL BOY: The Walmart Yodel Boy meme began with a Youtube video of Mason Ramsey, a 12 year old, performing in Wal-Mart on March 24th, 2018 in Harrisburg, Illinois. Quickly, Mason Ramsey's performance became a meme. There was a 1-hour EDM remix to his yodeling uploaded on Youtube on April 4th, 2018. Ramsey appeared on The Ellen Degeneres Show on April 10th, 2018 and performed at Coachella in Indio, California on April 13th, 2018.
5. May 2018
YANNY OR LAUREL : The Yanny or Laurel meme began with the debate of an audio clip of a voice saying a word. People began to tweet saying if they heard "Yanny" or "Laurel". Many people began discussing their opinion on the sound clip on Twitter including the White House and U.S. Air Force.
6. June 2018
LEBRON JAMES NBA FINALS REACTION: This meme began with a still image of LeBron Jame's reaction to J.R. Smith. This was during the NBA Finals Game One on May 31st, 2018 between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers when there were five seconds left on the clock and J.R. Smith on the Cavaliers just decided to dribble with the ball as time ran out. This still image was a reaction to J.R. Smith's action and moments later the image became viral with many people relating it to life when you are frustrated.
7. July 2018
PARODY ELON MUSK TWITTER ACCOUNTS: Multiple parody Twitter accounts were made of Elon Musk, an Entrepreneur. Many people changed their display name and avatars on their Twitter accounts as well as what they posted to parody Elon Musk. Some changed Elon Musk's nationality. Twitter even decided to start locking accounts if you changed your name to Elon Musk.
8. August 2018
BIBBLE SINGING:Bibble is a character from the film Barbie: Mermaidia made in 2006. This image of Bibble went viral with people using the image to express love for songs from their childhood. Multiple variations were made and spread as people would tweet "artist name: song lyrics and then __ year old me : image of Bibble".
9. September 2018
COLIN KAEPERNICK AD PARODIES: This meme began with the original Colin Kaepernick National Anthem controversy. Nike made an ad of Colin Kaepernick consisting of the statement "Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. Just do it." This ad was then made into a meme where celebrities started tweeting black and white photoshopped pictures with similar statements to Colin Kaepernick's ad in response to the ad and mocking Nike's 30th Anniversary of "Just do it."
10. October 2018
DONALD TRUMP'S PRESIDENTIAL ALERT: Donald Trump sent out a nationwide test text of a presidential alert system built by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on October 3rd, 2018. Before the text arrived, FEMA tweeted "TODAY (10/3): At 2:18 PM EDT, we will be testing the Wireless Emergency Alert system nationwide. Expect a message box on your phone along with a loud tone and vibration." Immediately people began to mock the Presidential alert and photoshop the Alert into alerts for humor.
11. November 2018
SURPRISED PIKACHU: This meme is a still image of the character Pikachu from Pokemon Anime where he had his mouth open as looking like he is in shock, disbelief, or surprised. Recently, this still image has been used as a reaction to predictable outcomes but displays how we are still surprised by the outcome anyway.
Here is to another year of high-quality memes.
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