Warning: This article about memes, no matter how wholesome, does contain language some people may find offensive.
ADVERTISEMENTSomehow, the year is almost over, so Euronews Culture takes a look back at some of our favourite memes of 2023.
We have made some choices and picked the memes – the internet’s lifeforce – that ticked all the boxes. These weren’t just about enjoyment; they inform us about how people deal with the news, the world that surrounds them, and signal language shifts in the cultural lexicon.
So, from viral dancing to notable crazes, here are our top memes of the year.
Angela Basset did the thing
In February, Ariana DeBose opened the BAFTA Film Awards with a song shouting out many of the night’s female nominees. DeBose rapped: “Angela Bassett did the thing / Viola Davis, my woman king / Blanchett, Cate, you’re a genius / And Jamie Lee, you are all of us!”
A strange and maddeningly vague way to praise the legendary performer, who was nominated for Black Panther: Wakanda.
What thing?? We demand context!!
The moment took the internet by storm, and her performance was panned and labelled as cringey - leading DeBose to delete her Twitter account.
However, what followed, was its celebration, with Bassett bringing the meme full circle when she took the stage at the NAACP Image Awards after winning Entertainer of the Year. “I guess Angela Bassett did the thing!” she said in her acceptance speech.
Tube Girl
Malaysian model and influencer Sabrina Bahsoon went viral on TikTok with her videos dancing and lip-syncing on the London Underground.
“Tube girl” inspired many others to recreate the trend themselves, and the fame even led Bahsoon to walk in fashion shows in London, Paris, and Milan.
Big Red Boots
What is the mark of a culture collectively soiling itself, threatening to walk off a cliff edge with a shrug of “F*ck it, we’re done”?
The answer came in a humongous pair of clunky bright red boots created by art collective MSCHF.
The Astro Boy-inspired $350 rubbery monstrosities, described online as “extremely shaped like boots” were spotted on celebrities and influencers all over New York Fashion Week this year, and became rightly became the target of mockery online.
We get that making a statement with footwear and cartoonish abstraction is all well and good, but let’s try better next year please.
What the XXXX?
It’s been quite the year for Elon Musk, who curled out the new name X; saw the valuation for the platform formerly known as Twitter half during his tenure as owner; its ad revenue decrease by 89%; and cemented his status as the poster boy for racists and antisemites online. Oh, and he also made it into the Guinness Book of Records for registering the single biggest loss of net worth in financial history, with around $200 billion.
Mocking him continued being the internet’s favourite pastime, showing that there’s still some sense out there.
Boris Johnson for the deaf
After three years since the start of the pandemic and countless reports of parties, misconduct and empathy-lacking antics, the catastrophic former British PM Boris Johnson was hauled in front of MPs to answer to accusations of misleading the House of Commons.
The bumbling equivalent of an unmade bed did his best – which sets the bar real low. However, it did give us this moment, courtesy of the sign interpreter:
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Boyfriends? How very 2022 of you.
This year, the internet started having babygirls.
The term, often used to describe adult men, took off on social media and was used to describe mostly Jeremy Strong’s Succession character Kendall Roy.
So, what defines a man as being a babygirl?
Tough to say, as it’s apparently an essence to thirst over? That or you just want to give him a kiss on the forehead, tell him everything’s going to be alright, and tuck him into bed for a big boy nap.
ADVERTISEMENTLudicrously capacious
Sticking with Succession, which had its final season this year, one of the most memorable moments for the internet was that roast of Cousin Greg's date, courtesy of Tom Wambsgans, who commented on the young lady’s “ludicrously capacious bag”.
Tom, explaining to Greg his date’s "faux pas," delivering the viral monologue about her fashion choices: "Why? Because she’s brought a ludicrously capacious bag? What’s even in there, huh? Flat shoes for the subway? Her lunch pail? I mean, Greg, it’s monstrous. It’s gargantuan. You could take it camping. You could slide it across the floor after a bank job."
Cue countless totes sold, and instant meme fame.
Orca Attacks
Over the summer, orcas started seemingly attacking boats off the coast of southwestern Europe.
People began declaring their allegiance to “Team Orca” in the so-called “orca wars.”
ADVERTISEMENTThe memes continued to pop up and continued to trend, celebrating nature’s act of revenge on humans.
One Margarita
The biggest song of the year? ‘Cruel Summer’? ‘Flowers’? Think again.
In May, a video went viral of pro-abstinence preacher Cynthia Smock (“Sister Cindy”) delivering an impassioned sermon at Louisiana State University, in which she warned: “If you buy her one margarita, she will spread her legs!”
Enter comedian Angel Laketa Moore, who joked that the speech sounded like a rap song, before launching into a freestyle: “Give one margarita, I’mma open my legs / Give me two margaritas, I’mma give you some head / Give me three margaritas, I’mma put it in my puss, give me four margaritas, I’mma put it in my tush / Give me five margaritas, I’mma have some fun / Give me five margaritas, I’mma put it in your bum!”
The clip was a hit, leading producers Steve Terrell and Carl Dixon to remix it into the banger we all needed this year:
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The Stanley Kubrick-reminiscent death stare said it all.
Serving C*nt
2023 was the year one of the rudest words in the English language went mainstream.
Considering it would be hypocritical and antithetical to the whole reclamation of the word that happened this year, we’re going to cut out the '*'s from now on. Indeed, 2023 was the year “cunt” went mainstream.
Yep, people were ubiquitously “serving cunt”.
This was not a crude reference for a vagina, mind you, but now a term of femininity and empowerment.
ADVERTISEMENTPlanet of the Bass
The satirical Europop song by DJ Crazy Times and Ms. Biljana Electronica (aka TikTokker Kyle Gordon and vocalist Chrissi Poland) went viral on TikTok and captured the imagination of the internet.
The lyrics featured such swoon-worthy and grammatically inept lines as “All of the dream / How does it mean”, “When the rhythm is glad / There is nothing to be sad” and “Life, it never die / Women are my favourite guy.”
Ms. Biljana Electronica, performed in the original video by TikTokker Audrey Trullinger, was subsequently played by several TikTok stars in other videos, parodying the genre’s tendency for replacing its female vocalists for no apparent reason.
Pedro is (still) daddy
If you thought that Kendal from Succession was the internet’s main squeeze, Pedro Pascal continued to capture everyone’s imagination.
Whether the star of Mandalorian and The Last of Us was eating a sandwich or grinning adoringly at Nicolas Cage in a clip from The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Pascal was the wholesome serotonin hit we all needed this year.
ADVERTISEMENTFind someone who looks at you like this, and a happy life you will have.
Flipping the bird
BBC news anchor Maryam Moshiri was caught giving the middle finger, which was seen by millions.
The full video was subsequently released, showing Moshiri counting down and ending the countdown in that sauciest of ways.
After the clip went viral, Moshiri said she was sorry she “offended or upset anyone”. “I wasn’t ‘flipping the bird’ at viewers or even a person really. It was a silly joke that was meant for a small number of my mates.”
Maryam, it’s been a tough year. Thank you. It’s... It’s everything.
ADVERTISEMENTBarbenheimer
2023 saw Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer collide head-on at the box office, and broke the internet with memes, jokes and fan art.
It was to such an extent, we even gave it its own list.
Barbie was already the biggest thing all year – with iconic phrases like “Just Ken”, “Kenough” and “mojo dojo casa house” taking the cultural lexicon by storm - but its unexpected convergence with Oppenheimer meant that the combined memes were everywhere – and surprisingly uplifting.
Barbenheimer was the unavoidable cultural phenomenon of the year, and the world was actually a better place for it.
Granted, many Japanese moviegoers found the memeification of Barbenheimer upsetting, considering the bombing of Hiroshima approaching its 75th anniversary, but this cinematic splice did bring people back to the theatres in a big way. So, swings and roundabouts.
ADVERTISEMENTWhich ones did we miss, and what was your favourite meme of 2023?
