Editor’s Note: This article is part of Know Your Meme’s annual review series looking back at some of the most memorable and popular memes, events and people that defined internet culture in 2018 as we know it.

he internet has an impressive talent for bending and twisting the very fabric of reality, facilitating the spread of false or misleading information far and wide around the globe. As misinformation has continued to proliferate, many have ramped up efforts to curtail its propagation online.

Photoshopped images have remained a popular hoax medium, but with the emergence of deepfakes, which contain disturbingly convincing face swaps made with machine learning algorithms, even video has become suspect. Who knows what new technologies remain just around the corner?

In the realm of politics, misinformation is as present as ever, with both sides of the political divide accusing the other of "fake news." On 4chan /pol/ board, users launched numerous hoax campaigns in a neverending effort to "own the libs".

Without further adieu, take a cruise down memory lane as we go over all the rumors, bamboozles and other fake news that tried to fool the internet over the last year.

Ninja Died of Ligma

A death hoax claiming that Tyler "Ninja" Blevins died of the fictional disease "Ligma" used to setup the punchline "ligma balls."

• Duration: July 2018

• How It Started: In mid-July, Instagram user foster.roach reposted a photoshopped image of Ninja ascending to heaven, along with a message that Twitch streamer died of the "Ligma." Shortly after, fake news articles claiming Ninja died of the disease began circulated across the web, leading Twitch users to spam various Ligma jokes in chat channels.

• How It Unraveled: The hoax was widely covered by various news sites and by YouTuber PewDiePie.

#NoMenMidterms

A hashtag campaign calling for liberal men to abstain from voting in the 2018 midterm elections.

• Duration: July 2018 – November 2018

• How It Started: In mid-July, a thread was submitted to 4chan's /pol/ board about a hoax campaign calling for viewers to spread photoshopped images encouraging "liberal men" to abstain from voting in the 2018 midterm elections in the United States.

• How It Unraveled: Screenshots of the 4chan orchestrating the hoax were widely circulated online.

Train Selfie Hoax

A viral video showing an Indian man identified as "T. Siva" pointing a camera at himself while standing on a railroad in front of a train prior to dropping the phone as the train appears to hit him.

• Duration: January 2018

• How It Started: The video was uploaded to YouTube in late January, where it gathered hundreds of thousands of views.

• How It Unraveled: Journalist Nellutla Kavitha tweeted a video of several men teasing Siva for making the video.

Sokal Squared

A hoax orchestrated by Areo Magazine editor Helen Pluckrose, math doctorate James Lindsay and Portland State University assistant professor Peter Boghossian, who successfully submitted seven intentionally outlandish papers to various journals to see if they would be accepted for publication.

• Duration: May 2017 – October 2018

• How It Started: In May 2017, the journal Cogent Social Sciences arguing that penises should be considered "social constructs," which was revealed to be a hoax paper drafted by Lindsay and Berghossian.

• How It Unraveled: In early October, YouTuber Mike Nayna uploaded a short documentary about the hoax, which included interviews with Pluckrose, Lindsay and Berghossian.

#FreeBlackCoffee

A hoax featuring photoshopped Starbucks coupons falsely claiming to provide "1 free beverage" as an apology to African Americans.

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• Duration: April 2018

• How It Started: In mid-April, Twitter user Hotep Jesus posted a video of himself demanding a free coffee at a Starbucks as an apology for a controversy involving the arrest of two African American men at a Starbucks location in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Two days later, posts appeared on 4chan's /pol/ board encouraging the spread of fake Starbucks coupons for free coffees.

• How It Unraveled: That week, Snopes published an article revealing that the coupons were a hoax campaign.

#DroptheB

A hashtag campaign to exclude bi-sexuals from the initialism LGBT ostensibly in opposition to the concept of a gender binary.

• Duration: June 2018

• How It Started: In early June, posts encouraging the spread of #DropTheB images began appearing on 4chan's /pol/ board.

• How It Unraveled: Various Twitter users began posting warnings that #DropTheB was a troll campaign, along with screenshots from 4chan threads orchestrating the hoax.

#PitBullDropOff

A hashtag campaign urging people to euthanize pit bull dogs as a public safety measure.

• Duration: May 2018

• How It Started: In early May, Twitter user @BixterN tweeted the hashtag, claiming to have joined a "growing wave of activists" dropping the dogs off at kill shelters.

• How It Unraveled: That month, Snopes published an article about the campaign, identifying it as a hoax.

#TakeDownMilleBobbyBrown

A hashtag cataloguing a series of troll quotes and stories that are homophobic, Islamophobic, offensive and insensitive in nature falsely accredited to actress Millie Bobby Brown.

• Duration: November 2017 – June 2018

• How It Started: In mid-November, Twitter user @KelsFiona posted a tweet falsely accusing Millie Bobby Brown of asking her to remove her hijab at an airport.

• How It Unraveled: Several news sites covered the hashtag campaign, including Babe.net and Popbuzz.

Dr. Phil Treasure Controversy

An episode of Dr. Phil in which a black teenager named Treasure Richards claimed she was caucasian and hated black people.

• Duration: October 2018 – November 2018

• How It Started: In late October, the episode of Dr. Phil was broadcast, which was widely circulated on YouTube and Facebook.

• How It Unraveled: In an interview with Essence, Treasure's sister Nina accused her of being "fake" and that the Dr. Phil appearance was "just a disgusting attempt to become a meme."

Elves of Color

A mock news article that promotes the unsubstantiated rumor that the Amazon-produced. Lord of the Rings television series will include elves whose skin color is not white.

• Duration: November 2018

• How It Started: In early November, a 4chan user submitted a screenshot of the mock news article to the /tv/ board.

• How It Unraveled: The Daily Dot published an article about the hoax.

Editor’s Note: This article is part of Know Your Meme’s annual review series looking back at some of the most memorable and popular memes, events and people that defined internet culture in 2018 as we know it.

s the 2018 comes to an end, it’s important to take stock in the various websites, apps and technology that helped make life a little more bearable--and, in some cases, more miserable--over the past year. Our understanding and manipulation of online content, both new and old, led us down some dark corridors 2018, punctuated by brief flashes of light, sometimes at the time. Social networks continued to tumble (no pun intended) towards the inevitable Orwellian nightmare that we signed up for in the terms and services. Facebook's robot-in-chief Mark Zuckerberg hemmed and hawed his way through a year-long apology tour, while other apps picked up the slack. Many were left to wonder "Should we just join Generation Z on TikTok and call it day?"

Things weren't much better outside of social media. Deepfakes opened Pandora’s Box in terms of making Fake News and fake celebrity porn more believable. Meanwhile, 23andMe sold their users' DNA to a pharmaceutical and used its vast database to catch the Golden State Killer. So that’s both good and scary.

But when it comes to the Internet, you have to take the good with the bad. After all, who knows how long we’re going to have such a free reign. Net Neutrality was repealed earlier this year in the United States, and in Europe, a similar type of apocalyptic legislation in the form of the European Union Copyright Directive could spell the end of meme-ing in the E.U. as we know it.

Through it all, however, it was still business as usual online in 2018. Things got worse, and things got better. Based on the updates and addition to our database, we picked ten of the most noteworthy apps and sites of year, So in no particular order, here the sites and apps that helped guide conversations about memes, privacy and ethics, because, in the end, we live in a society.

TikTok

The lip-syncing app TikTok, which on the surface looked a whole lot like last year’s Musical.ly, revealed itself to be a short-form video behemoth, allowing users to interact with each other’s videos in ways that excited users and annoyed just about everyone else. The little earworm "I’m Already Tracer," became TikTok's first bona fide hit in the last few months of 2018, highlighting the possibilities of TikTok Duets simply and efficiently. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, as the throngs of anti-TikTok memes and message board posts can attest, but for a generation searching for the new Vine, they may have found it in TikTok.

Fuck you and fuck this game pic.twitter.com/d0GMygHluY

— Ironic Tik Toks (@IronicTikTok) October 14, 2018

MoviePass

Perhaps nothing sums up the wonderful, horrible life of MoviePass better than a tweet by @juliaraneyj, who wrote, "with moviepass i once saw 11 movies in a single month and now because of that some rich assholes are about to lose a ton of money, what an all around great experience." For nearly a year, MoviePass users saw an ungodly amount of movies as investors and executives struggled to make the service, which basically gave movie tickets away for free, profitable. They didn’t. Most good deals on the Internet are too good to be true, but for about six glorious months, this one wasn’t. Well, at least until there’s some sort of data breach and all their former user’s information is leaked to the dark web or something. Until then, we hold our MoviePass experience near and dear to our hearts.

Trump Dating Sites

After two years of making America great again, that gameshow-host-turned-president Donald Trump has had a hard time getting his supporters laid. Apparently, no one except the biggest Limp Bizkit fans finds a red baseball cap attractive. So it’s unsurprising that over the past year, a series of conservative-branded dating sites have begun to pop up to entice you with a bottle of red, a bottle of white and some light conversations about repealing and replacing Obamacare. Two of the most-memed, Trump.Dating and Righter were filled with controversies and poor marketing to make it worthy of the year end list. Trump.Dating got hit upon its launch, when the Internet unearthed sex offenses by one of the models on the site's splash page. Meanwhile, Righter got dragged into oblivion before anyone could even sign up. It’s a lonely existence for the American conservative, it seems.

Deepfakes

Late last year, a subreddit called /r/deepfakes quietly launched. Little did anyone know that the technology it championed would become one of the year’s most controversial. The release of the easy-to-use FakeApp made the practice, which allowed users to swap faces in video content, easy and accessible, and for a time, it was good. The Internet did what the internet does best: They put Nicolas Cage’s face on stuff. But as fun and disturbing as Man of Steel starring Cage as Lois Lane is, the more nefarious and ugly practices of the app emerged as users began putting celebrity faces on adult film actors, violating both consent and good taste. By mid-year, people were already reporting the dangers of deepfakes due to its ability to propagate fake news. Even the government commented on the technology, calling it a threat to national security.

Facebook

Is it 2008? Why is Facebook on this list? All of Facebook's chickens came home to roost in 2018, putting Mark Zuckerberg on trial for the 2016 election hack, fake news and Russian interference. They just couldn't get ahead of any of their many scandals this year, from Cambridge Analytica to the company trading in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories to help quell the rising tide against them. Honestly, it’s hard to find an impressive thing the company did all year. Oh, wait, they managed to put out a video chat device nobody wanted and lost $123 billion in market value in a single day, one of the largest drops in history. Through it all, Mark Zuckerberg, who had his eyes on a presidential campaign at the beginning of the year, went from one robotic apology to another, hoping to rebuild the public trust. Did it work? Who knows, but at least we won’t have to worry about President Zucc anytime soon.

23andMe

23andMe is another old chestnut that really came into its own this year. For years, people were wowed by the work of genealogy company 23andMe, who made their money taking people’s DNA and telling them that, yup, they're European. The test results may have seemed like a fun thing to bring up at a party, but the DNA database became the subject of many surprising headlines this year. The company’s information was used to finally catch the Golden State Killer, a serial rapist and murderer who had eluded law enforcement for decades. Additionally, the British pharmaceutical GlaxSmithKline agreed to buy a $300 million stake in the company, giving them access to users’ DNA. While it remains to be seen what will come of all this, the two stories put what can be done 23andMe in perspective.

Fish4Hoes

Scam sites are a dime a dozen on the internet, especially when it comes to dating, sex and pornography. Surprisingly enough, very few of those scams become memes. Enter Fish4Hoes, a scam website that simply leads users to other scam websites with the promise of sex. Is anyone really surprised that a website called "Fish4Hoes" could be a scam, though? They weren't fooling anyone. Whatever Fish4Hoes was hoping to accomplish (scam lonely people out of their money), becoming a long-running and popular subject on the r/badfaketexts subreddit probably wasn't one of them. Memers joyfully replaced the weird incoming texts from the company, creating a series of funny exploitables that anthropomorphized the site as a cheeky Cassanova. The site, essentially, became a stand-in for all scam dating sites and shorthand for how pathetic their tactics are.

YouTube

It's been a rough year for YouTube. From December to December, the chasm between what YouTube wants to be (a welcoming place for a diverse, global audience) and what YouTube's audience wants became a canyon. Even before the year technically started, on New Year's Eve 2017, Logan Paul uploaded his now infamous Suicide Forest video, costing one of the site's most popular creators YouTube's seal of approval. Fast forward to about a year later, and the site's most popular star PewDiePie recommended a channel with anti-Semitic content to his 76 million subscribers. While PewDiePie has denied knowledge of the channel's politics--despite a racial slur appearing in the description for the video he highlighted--similar controversies got him removed from YouTube's preferred list in previous years. The events bookended a disastrous YouTube Rewind video that became YouTube's most disliked video of all time. All of this shines a spotlight on the real problem with YouTube: They cannot be a bastion of free speech, which their audience clearly wants, and police the actions of their young and quasi-nihilst creators, who do not wield their power responsibly. The absence of PewDiePie and Logan Paul from the Rewind video, replacing them with a group of creators and celebrities that YouTube's core audience couldn't care less about, is about as close as this controversy comes to poetry. Will YouTube ever solve this problem and find a balance between creators and company? Sound off in the comments below, and don't forget to dislike and subscribe.

Gang Weed

"We Live in a Society." Five little words with an unbelievable amount of weight and meaning in 2018. No group took this more to heart than Gang Weed, a fake group of memers spread across the internet that mainly posted images of the Joker in his many forms with captions "this meme was made by gang weed" and "we live in a society," like a stamp of approval. Ironic, hilarious and borderline non-sensical, Gang Weed and its many clones mocked the self-serious gamer, who believes that their vision of society, which Gang Weed hypothesizes comes from Batman movies, is best for the world. The series of memes provided a much needed check to the lousy Joker memes that permeate throughout the internet, ironically declaring "Gamers, rise up!"

Tumblr

Much like Facebook, Tumblr had a year fraught with news stories that made the well-established social media and micro-blogging platform appear a little shaky. But what was going on there? For starters, the site helped launch some of the biggest memes and images of the year. Surprised Pikachu mean anything to you? Yup, that started on Tumblr. Bernie Sanders's Kung Pow Penis? You guess it, Tumblr. Even the site's advertisements were properly mocked in tall order. Considering how well things were going for on-site meme-ing, it's surprising that the site would take a knife to its bread and butter: Pornography. In November 2018, the Tumblr app was removed from Apple's App Store due to adult content. Less than a month later, the company announced that they would be banning nudity from the site entirely, which, understandably became the source of more controversy and, yes, memes. Will Tumblr be able to rebound without the presence of female-presenting nipples? Only time will tell.

Editor’s Note: This article is part of Know Your Meme’s annual review series looking back at some of the most memorable and popular memes, events and people that defined internet culture in 2018 as we know it.

ith each year, the internet finds new and improved ways of pissing people off. Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook have become bottomless pits of anger and resentment, feeding society's unending thirst for feelings of righteous fury.

On 4chan, disturbing accusations that Discord user Reiko#3333 had blackmailed users on 4chan's /r9k/ board into taking hormone therapy pills to become part of his "harem" caused an uproar on the site, though some question the authenticity of the stories.

On Twitter, actress Roseanne Barr came under fire for posting a tweet about Valerie Jarret, the African American former advisor to President Barack Obama, which many interpreted as a racist. In the resulting aftermath, which led to Barr losing her television show, the actress claimed she had no idea about Jarret's ethnicity and asserted she was tweeting while under the effects of the sleeping medication Ambien.

Melania Trump briefly took headlines from her husband by wearing a jacket with the words "I Don't Really Care" printed on the back, which many online interpreted as an insensitive message regarding family separations at the Mexico border.

On Facebook, a video in which Tennessee sixth-grader Keaton Jones discussed his experiences with being bullied tugged at many people's heart strings. But not long after, it was the boy's mother was accused of being a Milkshake Duck for posting photographs of her family posing with a Confederate flag.

But that's just scratching the surface. Let's take a closer look back at the top 10 outrages that made the internet grab their pitchforks over the last year.

Logan Paul's Suicide Forest

At the beginning of the year, YouTuber Logan Paul managed to become the internet's Public Enemy No. 1 after posting a video in which he discovers a dead body in the Aokigahara forest in Japan. Paul was widely criticized for trying to exploit a man's suicide for views on YouTube and that he behaved inappropriately in the video. After one poorly received apology tweet, Paul posted a more serious video in an attempt to clear his name. After a short break from vlogging, Paul reappeared later that month with a short documentary about suicide.

By the end of the year, things largely went back to normal for Paul, but Indonesian YouTuber Qorygore ruffled feathers once again by going to the Aokigahara forest himself, where he discovered a raincoat that may have been covering a dead body.

Article 13

For many, the European Union Copyright Directive replaced net neutrality as a primary concern in the list of topics threatening internet freedom this year. In particular, Article 13 of the directive struck many as potentially disastrous for internet platforms hosting user-uploaded data, expanding their liability for all material posted on their site. Many pointed out the chilling effect such regulations could have on the creation of memes, leading to enormous online campaigns opposing the proposed legislation. In addition to the hashtag "#SaveOurInternet", opponents of the directive created photoshopped edits of the European Union Flag as a form of protest under the tongue-in-cheek notion that turning the flag into a meme would make it illegal under Article 13.

Tide POD Challenge

Jokes about eating Tide laundry detergent capsules have circulated online since as early as 2013, but it wasn't until the beginning of the year that a moral panic ensued in response to the game known as the "Tide POD Challenge". To play the social media game, genius teenagers posted videos of themselves ingesting Tide PODS online, which reportedly led to a marked increase in poisoning incidents worldwide. To combat the meme, Tide issued a public service announcement by NFL star Rob "Gronk" Gronkowski, and YouTube announced they would ban all Tide POD Challenge videos from the platform.

Meanwhile, an anime girl version of laundry detergent capsules called Tide POD Chan was born.

Channel Awesome Implosion

In March, a series of disturbing stories about the YouTube network Channel Awesome began circulating on Twitter along with the hashtag #ChangeTheChannel, accusing management of sexual harassment and various other forms of mismanagement and mistreatment.

The resulting backlash led to a slew of other producers leaving the network, leading to jokes that the only remaining producer was Larry Bundy, who was "only on the site ironically."

Tumblr Porn Ban

After Tumblr was removed from the iOS App store in November, many began speculating that the sexually explicit blogs on the site were to blame. The following month, Tumblr announced that "adult content" would no longer be allowed on the platform, and people were not happy to say the least. Memes arguing that the adult content ban would be the demise of the platform quickly circulated online, and users joked about a mass exodus from Tumblr to the media website Newgrounds. Meanwhile, Verizon stock plummeted immediately following the announcement.

In the updated Tumblr community guidelines, the line "female-presenting nipples" became a meme in itself on the microblogging site.

White Cop-Callers

Back in April, a woman was nicknamed BBQ Becky after calling the police on a group of African American people operating a charcoal grill at a park in Oakland, California. She quickly became the butt of jokes online, many of which mocked and accused her of racial discrimination.

Over the course of the year, a slew of other videos in which white people were shown calling the police on African Americans went viral around the web, giving rise to other nicknames like Permit Patty, Pool Patrol Paula, ID Adam, Coupon Carl, Baggage Claim Becky and Cornerstore Caroline. In response, The New York Times released a comedy sketch about a fake hotline for white people who want to call the police on black people "for no god damned reason."

Filip Miucin's IGN Plagiarism

Hell hath no fury like gamer rage. Back in July, YouTuber Boomstick Gaming noticed some striking similarities between his review of the game Dead Cells and a review posted by the gaming website IGN by Nintendo editor Filip Miucin. After making a video exposing the suspected plagiarism, the video exploded on Reddit where the pitchforks came out in full force.

IGN immediately apologized and pulled the video and announced they had "parted ways" with Miucin after performing an investigation. Over the next week, several other examples of suspected plagiarism surfaced, leading IGN editor Justin Davis to remove all of Miucin's content from the website.

Sarah Jeong NYT Hiring

In August, The New York Times announced they would be hiring Sarah Jeong to the publication's editorial board as the "lead writer on technology." It didn't take long for critics to perform a full audit of her Twitter history, discovering a collection of tweets making disparaging remarks about white people.

After a wave of backlash, Jeong claimed the tweets were meant to be satirical and referred to them as "counter-trolling" for abuse directed her way. Shortly after, The New York Times released a statement echoing Jeong's claims that she was "imitating the rhetoric of her harassers." In the end, supporters of Jeong compared the backlash to the 2014 GamerGate controversy, while critics argued the Times was being inconsistent for firing journalist Quinn Norton over Twitter correspondences.

Johnny Bobbitt's "Paying it Forward" GoFundMe

In November last year, New Jersey residents Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico came to the internet with a heartwarming story, claiming that homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt had given McClure his last $20 when she ran out of gas to help her get home safely. The couple started a GoFundMe called "Paying it Forward" to raise funds for Bobbitt, which gathered upwards of $400,000 in the coming months.

In August this year, the story took a dark turn when Bobbitt accused the couple of withholding his money, to which they responded by accusing him of wasting the funds on drug addictions. In an even more bizarre twist, all three were arrested on charges of conspiracy, with authorities alleging that the trio made up the entire story to bamboozle the entire internet.

Butch Hartman's Oaxis Streaming Service

In June, American animator Butch Hartman launched a Kickstarter for a new streaming service called OAXIS. After videos emerged of Hartman promoting OAXIS as a Christian network, he was widely accused of hiding the true nature of OAXIS from backers on Kickstarter leading to a widespread backlash.

By the end of July, Hartman posted a letter addressing the controversy, claiming that "OAXIS Entertainment is not faith-based," but by that point, numerous memes mocking Hartman as a manipulative scam artist had proliferated across the web.

Editor’s Note: This article is part of Know Your Meme’s annual review series looking back at some of the most memorable and popular memes, events and people that defined internet culture in 2018 as we know it.

rom January 1st, 2018, the video game meme scene was outright weird. It kicked off with Ugandan Knuckles, a bizarre mind virus that affected the entire internet for about one month before disappearing entirely. Things didn’t get any less surreal from there: 2018 featured a parade of creative and unfortunately sexy original characters, Nintendo IPs getting bastardized into oblivion, and finally, an Overwatch TikTok meme so brutal it should be used to torture war criminals. Here’s a look at the bizarre world of video game memes in 2018.

Ugandan Knuckles

The traditional symbol of the new year is a baby, celebrating a beautiful new life of possibilities afforded by the full passing of the earth around the sun. In a sense, Ugandan Knuckles was the meme baby of the New Year, and like a baby, it came into this world forcing everyone to pay attention to its screaming and shitting.

Sitting with a mind-boggling 4.9 million views on KnowYourMeme, Ugandan Knuckles was undoubtedly one of the most popular memes of 2018, yet also causes a certain shudder whenever it’s mentioned now. The roaming gang of Knuckles avatars (designed by Gregzilla, who most likely regrets it) ruining VRChat spouting their catchphrase “Do U Kno De Way” in arguably racist accents was almost simultaneously a funny little example of how entertaining the internet can be when a bunch of people agree to participate in something stupid and a reminder of how obnoxious the internet can be for the same reason. And while most memers likely want to see this embarrassing chapter of the internet die forever, I have a sneaking suspicion we haven’t seen the last of “Ugandan Knuckles,” because as everyone online knows, cringe never dies.

Original vs. Un-Tumblrized

Idiots outraged that female video game characters aren’t bimbo-ified enough for them will always be funny, and nothing embodied that fact more than “Original vs. Un-Tumblrized.” The post that launched the meme is a perfect storm of dumb shit to be annoyed about. It’s a guy complaining a Fortnite character isn’t white, skinny, or scantily clad enough to be a “real” video game woman and that somehow Tumblr is to blame.

The amount of collar-tugging crap embedded in the above image is enough to cover a dozen sociology theses, but the internet, naturally, mocked it via jokes. It spoofed the comic by dolling up hundreds of characters to make them more “sexy,” but the heart of the satire was that the characters never needed to be sexy in the first place. Thus, we got “Un-Tumblrized” versions of Squidward, Lucky Luciano, Shrek, PewDiePie, etc. It was a joyful ribbing of the negative gamer stereotypes the original post perpetuated while celebrating the diverse ways any character could be imagined.

SoulCalibur VI Custom Characters

The SoulCalibur series has never been one to shy away from over-the-top cartoonishness (I mean, have you seen Voldo?) But in this year's reboot title, Bandai Namco gave control of that cartoonish charm to the players. While SoulCalibur V's character creation system made its fair share of buzz, it was nothing compared to that of VI, which allows players to customize just about anything their mind can imagine with their characters.

Just look at that Shrek. Namco and Project Soul knew exactly what they were doing when they included that outfit into the character creation system. And that’s not the only particularly recognizable pop culture character created. Notable SoulCalibur VI custom characters created by genius players include Kirby, Magikarp, Robbie Rotten, a Pistachio, Ronald McDonald, and more. The result is a bevy of perfect internet content, as finally, internet users could see their dream death match between Sans and The Cat In the Hat.

Mario Bros. Views

In the hands of Nintendo, Luigi is generally regarded as a coward that’s overall inferior to Mario albeit with better Smash viability. In the hands of memers, Luigi has been imagined as a creep, a cruel titan of the road, and in 2018, a radical force of chaotic evil.

In 2018, the endless bastardization of Mario’s green brother took the form of Mario Bros. Views, which placed the two brothers side by side giving Luigi the Evil Kermit opinion, often in rhyme, to Mario’s more reasonable opinion. It was a strange little shitpost format that chugged along over the summer, eventually incorporating other characters and more outlandish topics. Overall, Mario Bros. Views was a goofy meme that was but a harbinger for the Nintendo meme apocalypse that was to come.

Bowsette / Super Crown Characters

Bowsette. Hooooo, boy. I just… agh. Damn, man, you know? Jeeeeeesus.

When Nintendo put a crown on Toadette to make her Princess Peach, it seemed innocuous enough. It was a way to sneak Princess Peach into a game as a playable character when in the story, she’s captured by Bowser. But, as ProZD put it, the internet made it all fucky. The idea that a crown could turn a Nintendo character into a beautiful woman with a giant set of badonkers was all the internet needed to destroy itself. It all started with an innocuous comic showing Bowser making the transformation, and the internet was off. For months, the most popular fan art on the internet featured Nintendo characters including Chain Chomp, King Boo, Petey Piranha, and others morphed into sexy anime waifus. Honestly, I can’t sum up the saga any better than this video by EverThingy does:

Voiceover Pete

Voiceoverpete is one of the most heartwarming stories of memedom in 2018. A very game freelance voiceover artist struck gold when internet users sent him requests to upload silly videos with transparently humorous credit card scams. It started with Pete telling Fortnite gamers that John Wick needed their credit card information to get the Epic Win.

The meme spread to multiple games but this was obviously too good to last. Eventually the online marketplace Fiverr, through which Pete had been receiving the commissions, banned his account. However, the move only seemed to make Pete stronger, as he gained shoutouts from major YouTubers like PewDiePie and Pyrocynical. He launched his own YouTube and Twitch channels which have gained hundreds of thousands of subscribers and utilized his meme status to land on his feet. On top of that, he seems like just the nicest guy. Great job, internet!

Dad of Boy

Of all the video game memes of 2018, the most popular to come from an actual AAA video game came from God of War. The excellent reimagining of Santa Monica’s action series reimagined the hero, Kratos, as a grizzled dad rather than the monstrous killing rage machine he was in previous games. The new game’s plot revolved around Kratos rearing his son Atreus, or as Kratos calls him over and over again in the game, “Boy.”

The ubiquity of “boy” led to a loving meme around of God of War. “Dad of Boy” became the perfect way to foil Kratos’ ultra-serious demeanor while highlighting the subtle moments of comedy sprinkled throughout the game. A fitting tribute to one of the best games of the year.

Baldi’s Basics

Horror games hidden in unexpected genres have been a growing trend in indie games for some time, and 2018’s top entry into that category was Baldi’s Basics in Education and Learning. The spook-a-rama is essentially Slender Man tweaked to involve math problems, which of course makes it all the more terrifying.

The game, which could be knocked off in about a half hour, was Let’s Play gold, and sure enough, screaming YouTubers like Markiplier and PewDiePie racked up millions of views playing it. The bite-size length also led to a huge fandom, as art, fake movie trailers, and various parodies about the game caught like wildfire around the game. As far as indie horror goes, it wasn’t as original as, say, Doki Doki Literature Club or as successful as Five Nights at Freddy’s, but Baldi’s Basics was an effective entry into the genre nonetheless.

Waluigi’s Smash Snub

Super Smash Brothers Ultimate produced a bevy of memes in 2018, but perhaps none were so iconic or as enduring as Waluigi’s Smash Snub. Ultimate took the bold step of adding every character who ever appeared in Super Smash Brothers to its roster, while promising some new characters, most prominently Daisy and Ridley. But where was Nintendo’s nefarious party-game staple? Oh, he was in the game alright. As an assist trophy.

Further character announcements only added further salt to the wound, as more obscure characters entered the game, including King K. Rool, Incineroar, and most devastatingly, Piranha Plant. Yes, Nintendo had somehow worked out how to make a potted plant a playable character but could not make room for a humanoid creature with an affinity for sporting events. It’s almost admirable trolling on Nintendo’s part, preying on the tears of the notoriously fickle Smash fanbase. Personally, I hope Waluigi never makes it to Smash so we can keep rehashing this drama forever until the planet crashes into the sun.

I'm Already Tracer

There are numerous TikTok memes that should be tried for war crimes and at the top of that list is the agonizingly painful “I’m Already Tracer.” This bouncy carnivorous earwig featuring an argument about who plays what in Overwatch became synonymous with TikTok cringe in 2018. It’s the embodiment of nodding_man_puts_gun_to_head.gif.

No amount of ironic TikTok duets could make this funny. The song sounds like getting your brain melted, drained out of your ears and served to you as salmon tartar. It’s the meme equivalent of Floop Is a Madman from Spy Kids looping inside your skull while being tortured by the cast of Barney. Watching “Can You Feel It Mr. Krabs” on a 15-minute loop will do as much damage as one viewing of “I’m Already Tracer.” Go ahead, try it:

Yeesh.

Editor’s Note: This article is part of Know Your Meme’s annual review series looking back at some of the most memorable and popular memes, events and people that defined internet culture in 2018 as we know it.

uch like image macros, exploitables are an integral piece of the meme experience. Re-appropriating images and videos is basically what it's all about, and exploitables give people an easy template to follow--a formula that can be replicated an infinite number of times.

The best exploitables can serve a variety of purposes, from niché interests to worldwide branding for billion-dollar companies. As such, lesser exploitables grow tired in the eyes of the public, which is becoming increasingly more sophisticated in internet and meme literacy. The lifespan of a new exploitable shortens every day, as overzealous memers on Twitter, Reddit and Instagram rattle off jokes in hopes of beating each other to the punch.

However, a truly good exploitable has no expiration date. Its meaning and intention live on as others fall by the wayside. 2018 was lucky to have a number of such memes, and below is a list of some of the most prevalent, noteworthy, and influential. In no particular order, here are the top exploitables of 2018.

Thai Political Crisis Breakup

This was one of the most confusing and hard-to-research memes of the year, which makes its prevalence all the more interesting. Appearing in December of 2017, the Thai Political Crisis Breakup arrived a little too late for last year's lists, so it seems only fair to include it here. But how did a meme referencing a variety of Thai political officials, specifically former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, end up in so many memes about Star Wars Battlefront and Ajit Pai? The meme takes the specificity of political cartoon and turns it into a template that can be applied to seemingly any subculture, news item, opinion or other even memes themselves. Whether you like the meme or not, its spread is a prime example of the power of a good exploitable, where even if you don't understand its initial targets, memers can re-contextualize its easy-to-use format for any culture.

American Chopper Argument

I bet you didn't expect this one to make comeback. A relic of the days when America was obsessed with Oakley-wearing bikers, American Chopper is a show where 2009 never died, so it surprised everyone when an argument between the two leads drove its way back into the meme-scape nearly a decade later. Simple in its format, but endlessly hilarious given the right material, the American Chopper Argument shows father and son Paul Teutul Sr. and Paul Teutul Jr. at each others' throats. To memers, however, they are debating who has the High Ground, downvoting OC and whether or not a vertical template is even right for the meme. Everyone was a winner in the resurgence of this meme, thanks to Paul Sr.'s hilarious pointing and chair throwing.

Left Exit 12 Off Ramp

One of the earliest memes of the year was also one of the easiest to mimic. A photograph of a car skidding into an exit is a clear, relatable and endlessly repeatable concept. Over the first half of the year, we saw a ton of these, ranging from the hopeful to the horribly racist and the self-deprecating to the over-confident, a true cross-section of the Internet. Much like the resurgence of It's a Pigeon?, "Left Exit 12" finds strength in clarity. This meme requires no prior inside knowledge, Internet codebreaking or even a site like Know Your Meme to understand what the author is going for. Whether or not the meme is funny or good or malicious isn't necessarily up to the meme, it's what people do with it. As a starting point for millions, Left Exit 12 gives them all the tools.

Steven Crowder's "Change My Mind" Campus Sign

Nothing better than a nice backfire meme, when one's hubris and desire for attention simply explodes in a sea of irony. Steven Crowder's "Change My Mind" meme didn't start as a helpful template for expressing an unpopular opinion or flight of nonsense. Crowder concocted the sign as a way to freak out college kids, especially those who are concerned about the treatment of women in society, with a big ol' sign that reads "Male Privilege Is a Myth." One can only imagine how triggered those libs would've been had this campaign been successful. But instead, his sign was quickly undercut by photoshops that said things like "Gonna drink this mug of Hot Piss / Change my mind," which were actually funny. The meme had a slow burn throughout the year, so hopefully, it'll stick around a little longer than others.

Yep, It's Gamer Time

Over the summer, something strange happened: Gamers rose up. Not to say they aren't frequently rising up. The customer base for one of the most profitable and popular hobbies in the world has long put pressure on companies, creators and developers, which sometimes turned very, very ugly. In short, gamers are always rising up, so the fact that a group of memes taking on the burden of society's most chastised subculture made for a great series. One of the most popular came from the /r/GamersRiseup subreddit, a hub of ironic gamer boy memes. But this four-panel meme kept intact some of the best parts of the gamer revolution, most importantly a level of self-awareness that's sorely lacking in many gaming memes.

Polite Cat

It's hard to hate Polite Cat. This smiley companion is not only landlord-approved but also it helped set off a flurry of variations in which a cat's unnatural, wide-mouthed smile earned a place in all our hearts. While most exploitables allow users to express an opinion, this is really a kind of one-note joke, but it's simple enough--and weird enough--to have stuck with us throughout the year. There's just something off-putting and comforting, in equal measure, about these little guys. However, any meme that can force you to question what's physically possible is sure to be memorable. This one had many, including some of the Know Your Meme staff, wondering "wait, can cats really smile like that?"

Gru's Plan

The year that also gave us Minion or Da Bob, also delivered on one of the most frequently replicated memes of the year. When it first appeared in March 2018, Gru's Plan seemed like another one-off Despicable Me meme. But over time, Gru's Plan proved much more insidious, infecting every quadrant of the internet with four-panels irony. The meme's self-reflexive streak helped keep it from getting stale, as its popularity soared around the internet. It's not the cleverest of plans, but for memers desperate to point out their own foibles, Gru's Plan really scratched an itch.

Deku Playing With His Mother

It should surprise no one that a My Hero Academia meme would be one of the year's most popular, but most anime memes are not as versatile as Deku Playing With His Mother. Anime usually isn't so welcoming to non-believers, but the scene from the My Hero Academia television series doesn't require any knowledge of the series, as the expressive faces make the two-panel exploitable crystal clear. Those who love it used the template, again and again, placing the characters in different situations, and replacing them with different signs and signifiers to change its meaning. The meme was a slow burn, never exploding all at once, allowing it to stay fresh in the minds of the memers who use it. Deku played with his mother all year, and no one got tired of the game.

Just Wanted to Get Another Look at You

Coming in late, Just Wanted to Get Another Look At You is aided by the ridiculously hyped movie the birthed it. Most seem to love A Star Is Born, and by proxy, they love A Star Is Born memes. But somehow, even the movie's detractors and critics signed up for this one, exploiting the trailer's most heartwarming moment and turning it on its head. The best memes can puncture a cultural moment that might be taking itself a little too seriously. Thankfully, this meme got there before the Oscar buzz did.

Steamed Hams

What can you say about the perfect meme from the perfect scene? Steamed Hams was already a highlight of the Simpsons' golden age, before this fantastic remix series arrived. The mix of bad lies, bad sitcom tropes and a little isometric exercise never fails to satisfy. So when it when the meme broke free from the prison of Simpsons Shitposting and into the outside Internet, people worked hard to improve upon a masterpiece. Somehow, they did. In one of the most shocking bursts of creativity of the year, Steamed Hams exploded all over the internet, like Aurora Borealis in a kitchen, and seemed to get better the more it was replicated. Steamed Hams might not just be the best exploitable of the year, but it also might be the best meme. Filled with wonderful moments, and tiny jokes and inflections, Steamed Hams is a neverending source of memes. Not bad for a three-minute long segment.

Editor’s Note: This article is part of Know Your Meme’s annual review series looking back at some of the most memorable and popular memes, events and people that defined internet culture in 2018 as we know it.

he year 2018 was a tough year for a lot of people. A constant stream of surreal, dumpster-fire political news, fiery hot takes, global disasters, school shootings, and kidnapped children made scrolling through social media feeds at times unbearable. Perhaps that’s why most of the popular slang of the year is pretty wholesome. Many of the most popular phrases of the year have an upbeat twist to them, the equivalent of a pat on the back and an understanding nod. Some are straight up compliments, others words of encouragement. It’s as though when faced with a collectively difficult set of circumstances, the internet took a break from firing negativity back and forth (though there was still plenty of negativity, mind you) and adopted a new parlance that, even at its most biting, was pretty nice.

Chonk

Oh lawd he comin! Cats, as always, had another great year online, and this year that took the form of the excellent Cats Wanting Fruit Loops meme and Chonk. Chonk is an excellent way to describe a fat cat, and the Chonk Facebook group grew into one of the biggest cat-sharing pages of 2018. The community of wholesome cat lovers use their chonkers to brighten each other’s days, making for one of the lovelier experiences you can have online.

This Ain’t It, Chief

For some reason, 2018 featured two memes featuring the word “chief” (the other is "Imma Keep It Real With U Chief"). The word “Chief” is a perfect backhanded term of endearment, barbed with condescension and affection, and it became the premiere way to address those with bad takes in 2018. A solid “This ain’t it chief” undercuts the effort a person made in making an Important Point, dismissing it with the just right amount of bite. It's as though your kid presented you with just a horrible project they worked really hard on, so you pat them on the back and say, gently, "Chief… this ain't it."

Weird Flex But Ok

Like many slang spawned in 2018, “Weird Flex But Ok” is an update of a long-running meme but given a slight tweak to fit the general 2018 attitude of letting things pass with a chill-but- condescending dismissal. “Weird Flex But Ok” is the 2018 update of “retweeted by Humblebrag,” a shot at the a-little-too-full-of-themselves posters of Twitter. “Weird Flex But Ok” works best for the bizarre brags, like Brett Kavanaugh bragging he was a virgin for many years or a guy bragging he spends hundreds of dollars on gummie bears. It’s a slightly biting comment to let these braggadocious ducks know that their arrogance is noted, and ignored, which is what Twitter should be.

Big Dick Energy

“Energy” as a concept was a massive trend in 2018, and it all started with “Big Dick Energy.” Thanks in part to Ariana Grande, much of the internet spent their summer identifying which celebrities had “Big Dick Energy” (BDE). Of note, one does not need a penis to have Big Dick Energy, but rather the confidence one carries when they have a big penis. For example, Bob Ross definitely has Big Dick Energy, but Dr. Strange doesn’t have BDE. It’s a term with a fuzzy definition--you either sense it or you don’t. This made it perfect for endless debate, as topics neither party fully understands make for the best arguments.

Same Energy

After “Big Dick Energy,” it seemed like everything on the internet was emitting an energy. This took the form of “Same Energy,” which was essentially an update of the Totally Looks Like meme. It wasn’t the most creative format, but for months of 2018, one couldn’t check Twitter without seeing two pictures that sort of looked similar with the comment “Same Energy.” Perhaps “Energy” as a meme reached its saturation point and we won’t see it in 2019, but there’s no doubt 2018 was the year all of the internet shared the same, well, energy.

Absolute Unit

As “Chonk” could be considered a body positive meme for cats, “Absolute Unit” could be considered a body positive meme for large, beefy boys. It started with a tweet about British hotelier David Morgan-Hewitt, who is genuinely one of the largest men ever. A Twitter user saw him and sparked the phrase. “In awe at the size of this lad. Absolute unit.” is not only one of the most well-crafted phrases in modern English, it offers respect to the portlier among us, not mocking their size, but appreciating the sheer scope of it.

Let’s Get This Bread

As the prophet Delonge once said: “Work sucks. I know.” We’ve all had days where we don’t want to get out of bed, but somehow, “Let’s Get This Bread” makes that all better. The phrase is one of the most motivating I’ve ever heard. Though it started spreading in 2017, a series of Mascot Selfies paired with the phrase helped it go viral in 2018. Nothing revs the engines like seeing a Baskin Robbins ice cream cone say “Rise and grind. Let’s get this bread. No days off.” It almost make work ethic seem cool, which is frankly stunning.

Oopsie Woopsie

As internet companies try to get more “in touch” with their millennial audiences, they sometimes go overboard with cutesy speak to appear relatable. This trend was skewered brilliantly by a tweet from @cherrikissu that read "OOPSIE WOOPSIE!! Uwu We made a fucky wucky!! A wittle fucko boingo! The code monkeys at our headquarters are working VEWY HAWD to fix this!" The tweet later became a hit on /r/me_irl, as edits mocked every mishap and PR disaster, from Tumblr shooting itself in the foot to Bethesda riding the Oopsie Woopsie nuke to their own destruction. It even became a running gag in the KYM office whenever the site experienced an error. I'll always fondly remember IM-ing Don letting him know the site made a fucky wucky uwu :O.

30 Year Old Boomer

If you’re a regular at Know Your Meme, you probably know that the 30 Year Old Boomer is one of the staff’s favorite memes. He’s just so jolly! Mowing the lawn, playing Quake, drinking Monster, listening to AC/DC; how could you not like the guy? The character spawned several Wojak variations over the year, from the surreal Zoomer to the depressed, kinda anti-semitic Doomer. In some ways, the character represents the early meme generation getting older and shifting to adulthood, falling into its comfortable habits and finding the peace in being a functioning adult. That certainly struck a chord with our staff, and our smirking Boomer friend is, for us, undoubtedly most entertaining memes of 2018.

It Really Do Be Like That Sometimes

In a world of confusing circumstances, “It really do be like that sometimes” is a terrific phrase which underlines the universal emotions we all feel. Originally, the meme was used as a type of deep-fried shitpost, but in 2018, it took off as a way for people to offer the meme equivalent of a solemn head nod. It's Feels Guy come to life. TFW No GF? It really do be like that sometimes. Stuck in a dead-end job? It really do be like that sometimes. Sometimes you don’t think it be like that, but it really do. A wholesome mantra that helped us all get through 2018.

Ten years ago on this day, the Know Your Meme database officially went live. Since its beginning in December 2008, what began as a companion site to the original web series has grown from a niche forum for internet meme enthusiasts to an encyclopedia of Internet cultures, thanks to YOU, the hard-working members of our community. As we enter the first decade milestone, here are some numbers and factoids about Know Your Meme:

In Numbers

Over the last decade, the database has received:

- 27,590 entry submissions
- 4,096,323 comments
- 1,398,502 images
- 186,437 videos
- 423,942 users
- 887,556 forum posts

Milestones

September 5th, 2007: Know Your Meme begins as a recurring segment within Rocketboom’s daily weblog.

December 13th, 2007: The pilot episode of Know Your Meme web series is released, featuring co-founders Kenyatta Cheese, Ellie Rountree and Jamie Wilkinson as “internet scientists.”

December 23rd, 2008: The Know Your Meme Database launches as a companion website to the web series.

August 24th, 2009: TIME magazine highlights Know Your Meme as among the 50 Best Websites of 2009.

April 11th, 2010: Know Your Meme wins a Streamy Award for Best Guest Star in a Web Series.

May 21st, 2012: Know Your Meme wins a Webby Award for Best Culture Blog, People's Choice.

June 5tth, 2014: Know Your Meme is inducted into the Web Archiving Program of American Folklife Center at the United States Library of Congress.

March 30th, 2016: Know Your Meme gets mentioned in a "Netflix and Chill" clue on Jeopardy!

May 31st, 2018: Know Your Meme is cited in On the Origins of Memes by Means of Fringe Web Communities, a EU-funded academic study of memes across various social networks, published by seven researchers.

Notes: All statistical figures listed above were logged on December 7th. The artwork featured in the masthead was created by our community member Cat-Monster.

Bring of the good vibes 2019!

"Some of You Were Never…" refers to a snowclone by the format "Some of you were never X and it shows." The format is popular on Twitter and is growing popular in early 2019.

"Hello, I'm a Professor in a Movie" refers to a phrasal template that mocks film cliches. The template begins "Hello, I'm a [X] in a movie," followed by a series of cliches that the cinematic characters perform that differ from those professions in reality.

Since the dawn of time, mankind has asked itself: "How Mafia Works?" Thanks to Mafia City, now we know. Mafia Works when Lvl. 1 Crooks get upstaged by Lvl. 35 Bosses in ridiculous ways. Don't believe me? Have a look at these ridiculous Mafia City memes.

Hot Takes are the lifeblood of Twitter. They help us process the whirlwind of news and trends by uniting us against a person with an absolutely batshit thought they decided would be a good idea to type and put out there in the world. Of course, gathering around to dunk on a bad tweet is as time-honored a tradition for Twitter as letting Florida decide the fate of the nation is for Americans, but this past week saw some particularly spicy takes regarding the early year's trending topics, leading to some strong early contenders for Worst Tweet of 2019. Let's take a look at them, shall we?

Sandra Newman's AOC and Jeff Bezos Fanfiction

Politics and sex are two tastes that almost never go well together, but that hasn't stopped a recent deluge of terrible political fan fiction. Who could forget Leah McElrath's infamous Beto sex tweet, which imagined the "leg-cramping" sexual prowess of congressman Beto O'Rourke? Or the multiple vaguelyhornyattempts to smear congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? On January 9th, author Sandra Newman made her contribution to the genre by imagining Alive Girl fetishist Jeff Bezos in a star-crossed romance with the rising Democratic Socialist.

This tweet is awful for several reasons. First, Newman asks her audience to imagine the 54-year old billionaire Goomba seducing the 28-year old congresswoman, which, yeuch. Second, we have to imagine Ocasio-Cortez as a Beauty and the Beast-type heroine who at first sees Bezos as a monster but somehow melts his icy exterior, causing him to reform his business practices. Frankly, this is well-tread territory, and again, these are real people, not Disney characters. Finally, the climax of the story finds the unlikely pair storming the White House as the first President and Vice President husband-and-wife duo in the history of the United States. There are more believable fan fictions on Archive of Our Own. It's the kind of tweet that makes you bang your head on your desk and wait for the sweet release of death. Please, writers of Twitter, stop writing bad political fan fiction on the timeline. I beg you.

Badness Rating: 8/10
Is the tweet still up?: No

Robin James' Nuclear Marie Kondo Take

Challenging oppressive power structures when they're reproduced in media can be a good and valuable thing. Cultural criticism has helped pave the way for artistic representation of marginalized voices, making for original and important media that can be enjoyed by people of all races, creeds, and sexualities. It can, however, be overdone. While pointing out old, harmful tropes a la "gays are pedophiles" and "the black character always dies first" is useful for helping change the media landscape, arguing that a catchphrase coined by a Japanese woman designed to help you clean your house somehow reinforces the patriarchy is, in a phrase, "not it, chief."

For context, in Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, the low-stakes house-cleaning Netflix show that's quickly become a global sensation, author and cleanliness guru Marie Kondo advises people to consider every item in their house and ask themselves if it "sparks joy." If it does not, then it should be thrown out. In the above tweet, philosophy and gender studies professor Robin James argues that the "spark joy" mantra is a coded way the patriarchy asks women to handle the emotions of men. I have sat here for five minutes trying to rephrase that argument to make it clearer but I have had no such luck. I can't make sense of it. After having watched Tidying Up, the closest thing to the reproduction of patriarchal structures I can find is that the wives are generally asked to tidy up the kitchen and the men the garage. But James doesn't seem to be criticizing that aspect of the show, just the phrase "Does it spark joy?" Perhaps Twitter is not the best medium to unpack her argument, because in 280 characters, it reads like a potpourri of academic buzzwords thrown at a trending topic with no rhyme or reason. Which of course, makes it both a nuclear hot take and a god-awful tweet.

Badness Rating: 6.5/10
Is the tweet still up?: Yes

Baseball Crank's Wall Tweet

Discourse about Donald Trump's Wall has reached an exhausting fever pitch as the President continues to refuse to reopen the government until he gets funding for it, but no take has been as Galaxy Brain batshit as the Baseball Crank's. Conservative writer Dan McLaughlin, aka Baseball Crank, has long been a bad tweeter, but his defense of the wall may constitute his greatest work yet.

(Source: Twitter)

This is absolutely pristine. Every time I read it, I'm in awe of the sheer terribleness of this take. Let's break it down: McLaughlin here is responding to California Congressman Eric Swalwell, who tweeted the argument that building a wall along the Mexico-U.S. border is un-American, citing America's influence in having the Berlin Wall torn down. With flawless logic, McLaughlin argues that if Swalwell hates walls so much, he must also hate churches and hospitals, for they too have walls. I love it. The smarmy, "checkmate Libs" subtext behind this asinine point is cocaine for Discourse lovers. Without irony, Crank plays the character parodied in The Nib's We should improve society somewhat comic and somehow makes him even dumber. Without a doubt, this is an early contender for the worst tweet of 2019. It will take a lot to top, "You seem to hate walls, yet you are surrounded by four of them! Very interesting…" Congratulations Baseball Crank, you have the worst tweet of the week!

Badness Rating: 10/10
Is the tweet still up?: Yes

Venmo me $20 is a phrasal template used in tweets in which their authors offer to provide certain services after receiving a $20 transaction over the mobile payment app Venmo. Initially posted as jokes, in early 2019 several users reported receiving requests for the services they offered.

While internet users love to argue with each other, occasionally they will ban together against a celebrity to score an arbitrary victory for the common man by trying to get something stupid more likes than the celebrity on social media. This futile and stupid gesture is a time-honored tradition that goes back to 2010, back when Justin Bieber was such a widely reviled little boy that a Facebook page asked if an onion ring could get more likes than the "Baby" singer. The tradition reached new heights when a campaign to make an egg the most liked post on Instagram succeeded, passing a post by Kylie Jenner announcing the birth of her new baby (take that, you massively successful mother and possible space creature!) The world celebrated with memes, as it does. Let's take a look at some of the good ones.

The current generation of memers has struck gold with memes like Monkey Haircut and Dog Petting, but the latest iteration of these Appendage Extension photoshops, Sasuke Choke Edits, may be the funniest iteration yet. Last week, Twitter user @Mazarenai combined two images to make it look like a very beautiful cat was choking Sasuke from Naruto. This kicked off a deluge of terrific posts making it appear as though Sasuke (who, to my non-Naruto-watching-knowledge, sucks) getting threatened by a variety of characters. Many of these edits are grade-A memes. Let's take a look at the best:

At their core, the best Spider-Man stories are about the challenges of growing up through one's awkward teen years. Perhaps this is why the makers of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse chose to make Miles Morales the protagonist of the film rather than Peter Parker, who appears in the film already well into adulthood. Of course, as anyone who has ever been a teen will tell you, one of the most difficult aspects is learning to talk to people you're romantically interested in. In Into the Spider-Verse, one of the most cringeworthy reminders of this awkwardness occurs when Miles Morales attempts to chat up Gwen Stacy.

Yikes. The internet, perhaps finding something relatable in the scene, took it and got to work churning out parodies. Here are some of our favorites.