Memes! Who doesn't love 'em? In 2016, memes had such a strong run they became bigger than Jesus. This year? Already we have more than two dozen heavy hitters, gems that seek to steal the thrones of yesteryear's web royalty.
Below, we're compiling, ranking, and updating our favorites of 2017, in terms of enduring dankness. (Sadly, the following list doesn't include contenders that were on the cusp of the new year -- our apologies, in particular, to YouTube Clickbait.) Without further ado...
29. Your Eyes on Drugs
A few years ago, VICE published a thing titled "Here's What Your Eyes Look Like When You Take Different Drugs." The story somehow left out the most intoxicating substances of all: croissants, ravioli, and DINKLEBERG!
28. #BowWowChallenge
To kick off his press tour for Growing Up Hip Hop, Bow Wow snapped a private jet and added the caption: "Travel day," promising the "hottest show EVER." Cool pic. Cool caption. The problem? Wow was later spotted on a normal plane, a plot twist that inspired copycat claims of faux glamorous lives. "I love it because people don't understand the scientific method to my madness," the rapper later said in an interview with Hot 97. "Everything's for the show." Insert your thinking-face emoji here.
27. Salt Bae
Turkish chef Nusret Gökçe isn't your average chef. He's the kind of culinary artist who thinks knives are paintbrushes, slabs of red meat are canvases, and evil omens about spilling salt are straight-up horse pucky. Thanks to one Instagram upload, Gökçe's signature finishing salt pose has spawned delectable soccer celebrations, street art pieces, and parodies galore.
26. Brother, May I Have Some Oats
Do you like pigs? What about oats? (Sorry: öats.) If you're a fan of them separately, you might also love this inexplicable tweet, which combined the two and became so popular earlier this year it led to a spamming practice called "oatposting." Watch out, Dat Boi: The new Prince of Random is here.
25. Side-Eyeing Michelle Obama
One of the weirdest (but best) parts of Trump's inauguration was that moment when Melania handed Michelle Obama that mysterious Tiffany's box. Michelle's "Jim-facing" was all of us that day, in more ways than one.
24. Gossiping Gosling
When Jimmy Kimmel surprised a group of Hollywood tourists by parading them through this year's Oscars, La La Land's resident jazz-splainer gifted one guest with a dirty little secret.
23. Tiny Trump
Google would have you believe Donald Trump's 6-ft-2. According to this Lilliputian meme, that shit's fake news. Sad!
22. Redbone
Last December, Childish Gambino (also dba Donald Glover) released Awaken, My Love! The album's second single, "Redbone," would debut as a sleeper hit, the kind that, thanks to an inexplicable "What 'Redbone' would sound like while X" meme, would give the song new life. The kind that would come full circle at Governors Ball, where Glover would reference said meme and make everyone lose their marbles.
21. Cash Me Ousside, Howbow Dah?
Late last year, The Dr. Phil Show unwittingly gave birth to a star, a 13-year-old girl who called members of the studio audience hoes and asked them to "catch her outside... how 'bout that?" The aggressive question has attained immortality in the form of a sassy but multipurpose comeback.
20. Asahd Khaled
Meet Asahd, DJ Khaled's young son who, despite the diapers, has already bagged an executive producer credit, a Ferrari, and his very own meme shrine. How's business? You know it's BOOMIN'.
19. Beyoncé's Order
As a recent restaurant visit proved, truly everything Bey does gets meme-orialized.
18. Spotify Playlists
Step aside, mixtapes. Spotify playlists are the new keys to musical seduction. Or turning song titles into sentences.
17. I Have Never Been to Prague in My Life
Early in January, BuzzFeed published a report alleging that one of Trump's attorneys (Michael Cohen) had met with Kremlin officials in Prague. Cohen's response: a sick close-up of the front of his passport. The randomness of the rebuttal has inspired countless copycat uploads -- all of which similarly make no sense.
16. Obamacare vs. GOP Replacement
Much of the internet wasn't thrilled with the idea of Trumpcare. To illustrate its frustration in simplest terms, the internet built a meme, a meme that starkly juxtaposed purity with disappointment, goodness with garbage, a meme that yelled, "Fuck that shit!"
14. The Return of Palpatine
Why has this Star Wars character been having a breakout year, trying to tell everyone the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? Because he's the Senate.
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13. The Babadook
In 2014, The Babadook terrified moviegoers. Then, in 2016, the movie found a home in Netflix's LGBT section. Now, the movie's title character is a queer icon, a hero who has made fans the world over Babashook.
12. Bad Volume Sliders
Volume sliders: those things you click or drag your mouse on to get more volume or less volume. Simple. Intuitive. Great. Well, not anymore. Thanks to PM_ME_YOUR_WATERMELO, who asked, "Who can make the best volume slider?" in the ProgrammerHumor subreddit, alongside a counterintuitive slider, other creative Redditors have abandoned simplicity and embraced absurdity to create volume not-sliders. Yes. It's all very bad. But sometimes it's good to be bad.
11. Retire Bitch
10. Trump's First Order of Business
Since taking office, President Trump has found a new favorite hobby: signing executive orders. The internet's way of dealing with this has been to turn all his fancy black folders into silly statements and rudimentary doodles. Say what you want, but this walking Ralph Steadman cartoon can draw.
8. Trump Orb
At the end of May, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Saudi Arabia's King Salman, and our very own President Trump joined forces to do some very good orb touching. Photos were snapped, a mystery born -- WHAT IS ORB??? -- paving the way for apt comparisons (like Bill Kristol's Macbeth reference) and poignant insights (you know "orb" is "bro" spelled backwards, right, bro?). To this day: SOS.
7. This Is the Future That Liberals Want
When far-right Twitter user @polNewsNetwork1 tweeted a photo of a drag queen sitting next to a woman in a niqab in a New York subway car, deriding the image as "the future that liberals want," said liberals clapped back by celebrating diversity and offering self-aware visions of their own utopias. (Enter dogs, superheroes, Guy Fieri.) "I hope one day that a picture of a woman in modesty garb sitting next to a colorful drag queen isn't out of the ordinary," the drag queen in the original picture, Gilda Wabbit, told BuzzFeed News, "that it's everyday life for everyone!"
6. One Thicc Bih
The Ditty app will sing whatever you type. Even if it's about someone being "one thicc bih." Actually, especially if someone is "one thicc bih." Because apparently everyone is, and no one is safe.
5. Cracking Open a Cold One With the Boys
Sure, you've heard the phrase before. But have you seen these amazing metaphor-stretching, sometimes visually punny, always well-labeled spins on the phrase? You must. You simply must.
4. Meryl Streep Singing
Thanks to Dash Tsushï and other Twitter users, 2015 SAG Awards Meryl has now become one of social media's most ubiquitous concertgoers, completing or echoing the iconic lyrics to damn near everything with the infectious enthusiasm of a nostalgic mom. Be grateful all of these exist -- especially the "Bohemian Rhapsody" and Bill Nye ones.
3. Mocking SpongeBob
SpongeBob, ever the meme supplier, once had a bizarre episode in which he responded to things like a chicken. You know how Melissa McCarthy's Sean Spicerdisses reporters by repeating their questions back to them in a mocking tone? That's basically SpongeChick. Weird text overlays do the rest.
2. Roll Safe
Last summer, while playing the character R.S. (aka Roll Safe) in the BBC Three's #HoodDocumentary series, actor Kayode Ewumi made a coded oral sex quip. Now, the screengrab of that moment is your best-worst source of advice.
1. Blinking Guy
Baffled by something? Let the virtuosic blinks of video producer Drew Scanlon handle that reaction for you.
In Meme-oriam
RIP to all the bold, wonderful, ultimately mortal memes we've seen so far this year, including Trump and Pope Francis, Persona 5, everything 13 Reasons Why, sad athletes and student athletes, Best Picture Gaffe, Gold Ceelo, Fyre Fest, and the #GetOutchallenge.
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