This list appeared first in the Daily Dot’s newsletter web_crawlr. Every week, our reporter Kyle Calise dives deep into the origins of your favorite memes in his “Meme History” column. If you want to see more content like this before everyone else, sign up for the newsletter here.
2024 is almost at an end, and it was one that was unrelenting in its meme-able moments. Whether they dredged up oldies but goodies from the advice animals days of yore, or stampeded through the front pages of gen alpha TikTok, we got countless moments to laugh, cheer on, or simply be confused. A meme is really at its core anything that a crowd online can collectively get hung up on. As such when they happen, they’re a good way to take the pulse of the general population.
So a look back at the biggest ones of the year is actually a pretty good way to get a grip on what we all actually lived through.
Here are our Top 10 memes of 2024.
⮩ 🍁 10) Christian Girl Autumn
Christian Girl Autumn may have been a meme that began a few years ago, but this past fall, Caitlin Covington literally woke up from her slumber ready to embrace pumpkin spice everything in a series of videos for Pop Crave.
This was the fifth year in a row that legions of people online stanned for the demure coziness that is Christian Girl Autumn.
⮩ 🐺 9) Wolf Memes
Wolf memes are really more of a preoccupation than a discreet single meme.
In late 2023, and into the early part of this year, users on X and Reddit (but mostly TikTok) all tried to express their own individuality—by sharing videos of the same artwork and furry animals.
If you’re into the Drain Gang, there’s the Emo Wolf, or if you’re totally above the entire social dynamic, you might be a Sigma.
⮩ 🎙️ 8) Drake Memes
Although the video for Hotline bling came out a whopping nine years ago now, its legacy is something that’s still relevant to internet culture today.
In May, Drake memes briefly had a new moment when Kendrick Lamar and Future both called him out in their new singles, “Not Like Us,” and “Like That,” respectively. It was the latest episode in a longstanding feud that Drake has had with the rest of the hip-hop world, and it reminded us all of the awesomeness of Drake Memes in the first place.
⮩ ❓ 7) English or Spanish
Sometimes the simplest things are the catchiest.
In February, TikToker Alfonso Nieves began pranking young men in shopping malls by getting their attention with the question, “English or Spanish?” and then causing them to freeze up with the dare, “Whoever moves first is gay.”
Controversial for all the reasons you might expect, but a smash hit of a viral fad nonetheless, to some people this was a problematic regression to a less woke time in our culture, while to others, it was all good fun.
⮩ 🍊 6) Orange Peel Theory
If the popularity of English or Spanish proves the insensitivity of bros writ large, then the success of The Orange Peel Theory proves, well, just the opposite.
Like a digital-age “he loves me, he loves me not,” the Orange Peel Theory suggests that if your boyfriend will peel an orange for you with no thought of reward then he’s committed. And if he won’t, he isn’t. The act of peeling an orange is something that anyone can do for themselves, but it’s a nice gesture if someone will do it for you, no questions asked.
In January of 2024, masses of women on TikTok went about putting their significant others to the test.
⮩ 🍫 5) Condescending Wonka
In February, a Willy Wonka themed event billed as “immersive” and “enchanting” opened in Glasgow Scotland. But rather than the G-rated psychedelic candyland families were expecting, visitors were greeted by two sad oompa loompas bartending in a cold, sad, sparse warehouse.
Enter Condescending Wonka, a relic from the Advice Animals years, whose sass and jadedness seemed all of a sudden to be the most on-the-nose reaction possible to such an immediate flop.
⮩ 👱♀️ 4) Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Body
Three months later and an ocean away, condescension and apprehensiveness were again the feelings of the day, but this time it was emanating both from and toward elected officials in the halls of congress.
What began as a run of the mill crazy petty fight about hair color and eyelashes during a House Oversight Committee meeting, morphed into a rhythmic and postmodern catchphrase where people made fun of their favorite cartoon characters.
⮩ 💦 3) Hawk Tuah
What’s one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time? Hailey Welch’s colorful answer to the equally colorful question quickly made the entire internet do a double take this summer. But the success of her 15 minutes of fame was seemingly equaled only by her impressive business savvy.
Within weeks, Welch was selling merch, had talent representation, her own podcast, and was appearing on stage with huge country music stars, milking her celebrity for all its worth.
⮩ 🟩 2) Kamala Brat
When CharliXCX proclaimed that “kamala IS brat,” Democrats the country over had what ended up being an all-too-brief moment of elation, in an ultimately doomed and soul-crushing election cycle.
For a moment in July and August, instead of nightmares about the fall of ancient Rome, in left-leaning circles there was music and dancing, coconut emojis, hope, weird Gen-Z non sequiturs, and the sneaking if incorrect suspicion that things might end up okay after all.
⮩ 🦛 1) Moo Deng
Cute baby animals can be one of the purest sources of joy. In September, the world exploded in unbridled adoration of the latest one to snuggle up into all our hearts—Moo Deng, the pygmy hippo.
For about 8 weeks, she was the hottest thing in the meme world, cutely eating her watermelon, cutely napping, cutely splashing around in her pen and her puddles. Her fame caused the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand to become world famous for bringing this light into all of our hearts, until America’s presidential election in November.
Like a Vietnamese, political version of Punxsutawney Phil, Democrats tried to cancel her when her keepers offered her two fruit and veggie cakes with Kamala Harris’ and Donald Trump’s names, and she went straight for the Trump one. Figures.
Editor’s note: web_crawlr readers like you inducted Moo Deng into the 2024 Daily Dot Hall of Fame!
The Daily Dot looks back at the year that was in our 2024 Year in Review.
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