The internet is a funny thing. The whole world can go crazy over something silly one day and have totally forgotten about it the next. There's rarely a meme that lasts for more than a few weeks, and I just don't understand it. A joke is funny no matter what! So here is a list of my favorite "dead" memes.
Be like Bill 
Be like Bill was a meme where the whole point was to be as passive aggressive as possible. The best part about this meme was that there was no limit to what you could use it for. There were versions about being kind to waiters, not cutting strangers off while driving, not posting a million Facebook posts a day, parenting children, etc. This meme needs to make a come back as soon as possible.
Rickrolling
Rickrolling is one of my all time favorite memes. The whole point was to trick someone into clicking a link that said something interesting, only to have Rick Astley's song, "Never Gonna Give You Up!" pop up and start blaring through the speakers. I'm pretty gullible, and I was rickrolled more times than I can count throughout middle school. This meme needs to come back purely because the harmless fun of it all appealed to all ages and consistently put a smile on so many people's faces.
Unexpected JOHN CENA!
This meme started as a prank phone call from a radio station that went pretty viral on its own, (click here to hear it. It's pretty hysterical.) but after a few years of being online, it resurfaced from the black hole of youtube. The whole point was to find a creative way to work the phrase "and his name is JOHN CENA!" into movie clips, internet sketches, songs, or commercials. My favorite part about this meme was the ingenuity that internet creators had to use to work in the joke. I sincerely hope that this meme makes a comeback soon because I will never get tired of it.
Ryan Gosling Won't Eat his Cereal
Similar to the Unexpected John Cena meme, the whole point of this meme was to find movie clips of Ryan Gosling and hold a spoonful of cereal up to his mouth during moments where you would not expect it. Apparently, in a lot of his films, Ryan Gosling likes to turn his head for dramatic effect, making it look like he is rejecting the cereal. It's a ridiculous joke, and I cannot stop laughing at it to this day.
Harambe 
This meme is the perfect example of a joke that came out of nowhere and disappeared just as quickly. The whole story is that Harambe was a gorilla who was shot and killed after a three-year-old climbed into his enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo back in May. His death was controversial and as a result, he went super viral. The memes typically consisted of jokes about how so many people felt that Harambe's death was not fair. I am all for a meme renaissance, but can we all agree that Harambe deserves to rest in peace at this point?
Memes go through phases of popularity, just like everything else on the internet, but I really do love these 5 and I hope to see a few of these pop up on my newsfeed again soon. Which memes do you miss?
