For the last two decades , some of the weirdest and most originative thing on the internet played out in images and GIFs . There have always been unspeakable memes , but for days , memes as a category were consistently funny , utilitarian , inspiring , and even thought - provoking . They crossed over into all of the uttermost reaches of our culture , serving as communal glue that invited us all to participate in a recognizable and well adapted conversation . But judging by what we saw in 2023 , it ’s clear that the golden age of memes is over . Call it an obituary : memes are numb .
The most pop meme of the last 12 months are scantily deserving mentioning : Kevin James , Angela Basset did the matter , Skibidi Toilet , can you even think of the others ? Most ofRolling Stone ’s listof best meme of the year are n’t memes at all , they ’re topics of give-and-take , with introduction includingnepo babies , grampus attacks , and asking your boyfriend how often he thinks about the Roman Empire .
The smirky lineage photograph of Kevin James taken to promote his 25 - year - old situation comedy King of Queens was undoubtedly the bighearted meme of the year . Here ’s the caper : Kevin James expect smug and a little embarrassed , here ’s an instance of a clock time people sense self-satisfied or mortified . Hilarious . Examples let in “ When u accidentally like a selfie from 34 weeks ago , ” or “ keep an eye on someone else get blamed for your fart . ” Is this how far we ’ve fallen ?
Image: Gizmodo
In one sense , it ’s a return to the dawn of meme cultivation with low - effort “ I can haz cheezeburger ” mode artistry . That is n’t a proficient thing . The barely amusing cat memes of the former 2000s walked so we could go , and now we ’ve forget how running works . Our recent meme harvest time is all sentence structure no gist .
This is n’t some lament about how the children are betray us . We ’re talk about the consequences of the transfer way we practice the internet . Post - pandemic , the web has shift from an mental image - based ecosystem to one focused on videos . Part of that comes from the ascent of rapid internet connection , but it obviously stanch from the growing authorization of TikTok .
In 2023 , A lot of the creative energy we used to spend redaction meme was taken up oppose to TikTok movement , with shining exercise includinggirl dinner , beige flags , and “ this was you when you were a baby . ” You could call that a exchange definition , but we ’re stretching the Logos meme so far it does n’t make sense anymore .
Will we ever be able to laugh again?Screenshot: X / Gizmodo
In a simpler clip you could send this mf and get the whole squad laughingpic.twitter.com/swXQesJtGw
— trevy ( @chillextremist)December 15 , 2023
Jumping on a popular TikTok data formatting is not a meme . Posting links to an clause aboutLivvy rizzing up Baby Gronkis not a meme . Making jokes about theChinese spy balloonis not a meme . These are trends .
Before the comment warriors plunge their attack , yes , it ’s unfeigned that these things jibe the definitive definition of the Christian Bible “ meme ” that get along from the philosophic cogitation of memetics , or what Richard Dawkins call “ units of culture ” that live in our mind . word can have multiple meanings , and when the internet adopt the mind of “ memes ” it was in reference work to a very specific affair that was tensile enough to riff on endlessly . Argue if you want , but you ’re going to sound irksome .
When it comes to the year ’s rightfully memey - meme , what was there ? Barbenheimer ? Sure , those photos of Cillian Murphy ‘ I am become death’-ed their way into our meat , but that is a sorry showing . The same goes for theGrimace Shake . If the best we ’ve get are the results of corporate marketing campaigns , we have lost the patch .
It ’s not a disaster . Maybe nostalgia is a poisonous substance and we should all just move on with our lives , but it ’s a picayune melancholic . Memes were beautiful . Now they ’re deadened .
We put together a list of the year ’s “ best ” memes . They ai n’t much but they ’re the best we ’ve got . Click through the slide show up at the top of the page to see them all , or just scroll down if you ’re on a mobile equipment .
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