The top ten memes from 2024
2024 was tough. Here are the memes that cheered you up
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Welcome to my last newsletter of the year. What better way to go out than with memes?
I wrote 26 meme explainers throughout the year, starting Jan. 1, 2024 with a cannibalistic PopTart and ending last week with Cookie the Gingerbread Man. From the all-encompassing “brat” movement to the satirical “very mindful, very demure” trend, here are the best memes of 2024.
(If you’re reading this in your email, you’re going to have to expand it. Click “view entire message” to find out what meme took first place!)
10.
Meme Monday: Does JoJo Siwa deserve the hate?
This is not so much a “meme” as a “person-who-is-getting-memed-on” – JoJo Siwa, known for being on “Dance Moms,” Nickelodeon, and “Dancing With The Stars.”
JoJo Siwa. Nuff said.
9.
Meme Monday: The Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony
The Paris Olympics’ Opening Ceremony staged some notable moments, to say the least.
How could we forget the ridiculousness of every single segment in the Paris Olympics?
8.
Meme Monday: girlhood is a spectrum
In the most popular version of the meme, two images are set on a spectrum line chart to demonstrate the duality of the female experience.
Exploring the female experience is so in. Enter: “girlhood is a spectrum.”
7.
Meme Monday: The sacrificial Pop-tart
A Pop-tart mascot with disturbingly intense eyes showed up at the Kansas State vs. NC State Pop-tarts Bowl last week. A mascot that the winners then toasted and ate on live television.
We’ve come full circle. 2023 started with the unsettling, yet amusing cannibalism of a Pop-Tart at a football game, and now it’s ending the same way.
6.
Meme Monday: in da clerb, we all fam
Based on a TikTok soundbite, the memes revolve around the phrase “in da clerb, we all fam.”
Irony is timeless, and the internet is forever. Enjoy responsibly.
5.
Meme Monday: Four Seasons Orlando Baby
A video of a baby excited to go to the Four Seasons Resort in Orlando. She points up to the ceiling and says “Me!”
Self-awareness, always a good thing to have. Even when you’re a baby.
4.
Meme Monday: Holding space for Wicked memes
In an Out Magazine interview with Wicked co-stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, journalist Tracy E. Gilchrist informed the two actresses that queer fans were “really taking the lyrics of 'Defying Gravity' and really holding space with that and feeling power in that.”
Perhaps I’m biased because this meme is more recent, but the chokehold this meme had on the internet was riveting.
3.
Meme Monday: Brat and it's the same, but it's memes in my newsletter, so it's not
Whether it’s the signature green, the Arial font, the spoof on the extended edition of the album, references to the lyrics, or riffs on “brat summer,” this meme is versatile.
“Isn’t there just something so relatable about an aesthetic that boasts of both extravagance and minimalism?” I wrote.
2.
Meme Monday: very demure, very mindful
Influencer Jools Lebron coined the phrase in a satirical video. “See how I come to work?” She said. “I do my makeup. I lay my wig. I do a little braid. I flat iron my hair. … Very demure, very mindful.”
Campy, empowering, and insightful, “very demure, very mindful” ushered in a counter-movement to “brat.” I can only aspire to be very demure and very mindful one day.
1.
Meme Monday: Moo Deng, the screaming baby hippo
This baby hippo from Thailand has “wriggled her way into the hearts and minds of millions on the internet with her seemingly feisty antics and petrified looks."
It’s undeniable. You can’t get any better than Moo Deng. There was so much content on the little hippo that I did a second Meme Monday. (That’s Gen Z Translator history right there). She was an uncontroversial queen – until she wasn’t – but she’ll forever hold a special place in 2024.
Happy 2025 y’all! Here’s to more good (and bad) memes in the new year.
Catch up on the Meme Mondays you missed here.
Pop-Tart Bowl #1 baby