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Let’s be clear, this category honors popular memes that conveyed an extremely relatable feeling. And so we use them all the time and think about them more than most other memes.
In week 3 of the Daily Dot’s 2024 Hall of Fame, we’re turning to “Big Moods.” The vibes that defined how we really feel, alive in America, at this point in time.
Last year, we uplifted Corn Kid and quiet quitting and not caring that aliens are probably real amid U.S. declassification of intel because, brother, it’s pretty rough down here on Earth as is.
This year it’s all about memes that give us feelings of helplessness, regret, irrational confidence, and extreme sign-of-the-times cringe.
Here are the nominees for the third round of the Daily Dot Hall of Fame.
Smiling Dolphin
You are hungry and ready to order at a restaurant. The waiter, an aspiring actor, explains in great detail the day’s specials instead. You have no intention of ordering this meal but you are trapped and smile politely.
This is a great use case for the smiling dolphin meme which arrived online in 2023 but really made a name for itself this year.
And actually this meme is a Chinese porpoise that lives in rivers and lacks a dorsal fin. The specimen is as critically endangered as it is breathtaking and relatable.
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Hugh Jackson Recreates The Wolverine Meme
In the original meme, noted X-Man Wolverine longingly looks at a photograph of Jean Gray. And so in the meme you Photoshop whatever it is that your heart desires onto the photo that Wolverine is looking at. Like, say, a coach who left your football team.
It’s a construction that has been a very emotional vibe online for some time now.
This summer as he reprised the role, Hugh Jackman re-created the Wolverine meme in some promotional material.
Talk about a big mood: longing nostalgia, self-awareness, and crippling doubt.
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Stonks
You invest five hours of your time weekly for 16 weeks in a fantasy football league. You win $25 for coming in third place.
This inefficiency warrants the stocks meme in which a smooth gray meme man shows the numbers always going up, via trend line. It conveys irrational confidence and simultaneously accepts that there is no such thing as money. Only control.
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Lucky Luciano (“I Had To Do It To Em”)
Do you ever roll up looking so hard in front of your boys that you look in the mirror and say dang I had to do it to ‘em?
This happened to Lucky Luciano 10 years ago. It was funny because he looked normal, kind and innocent. His caption seemed tone-deaf and funny because it was so earnest.
These days he’s in on the joke.
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Gen Z Boss In A Mini
This meme was widely deconstructed because it showed, for starters, a Gen-Z boss being an all-in corporate girlie on behalf of the man, filming a fun video at work. It made everyone feel old and confused.
But I can’t think of a bigger mood in recent memory than this sign of the times workplace cheer that then took on a life of its own on social media.
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