\n\t\t<\/aside>\nBarbie<\/em> (2023), Girl Dinner, Roman Empires, and yacht-hunting orcas were microscopic glimmers of joy in last year\u2019s memescape, grasping at relatability, connectivity, and misplaced optimism amid live-streamed global atrocities. This year, however, was different. <\/p>\nThe disparate and chronically unserious nature of virality in 2024 stems from accepting an uncertain expiration date for our survival on a burning planet with no extinguisher in sight. Feeble and superficial connections over common interests and shared notions of \ud83c\udf80girlhood\ud83c\udf80 were fun while they lasted, but they can no longer cover or even fog up the inscrutable fuckery around us, exacerbated by finger-wagging, virtue-signaling keyboard activism on your leftist friend\u2019s private Instagram story.<\/p>\n
The word \u201cunhinged\u201d has been colloquialized and thrown around a lot in the last few years, but it feels like an especially apt description for meme trends this year and the real-life events that spawned them. If you had told me last year that we\u2019d be clowning on a vice presidential candidate over a rumor about being a couch violator, or that Charli XCX would put a cork in her Brat<\/em> summer by endorsing Kamala Harris, or that an empty plastic water jug would become the symbol of student resistance, I probably would have asked you for your plug\u2019s number and possibly a tarot card reading.<\/p>\nNow, after what feels like 1,000 lifetimes and a non-stop conveyor belt of evil Mad-Libs-style headlines condensed into a year, I get it. We\u2019re throwing in the towel and going straight for the jugular after reaching our bullshit limit. There\u2019s microplastics in my uterus, climate change is killing people by the tens of thousands, and the gunning down of a health insurance CEO has gotten more coverage than the umpteenth school shooting \u2014 there\u2019s simply no room for sensitivity and preciousness anymore. Nothing is off limits.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nSo with that, here are the memes that encapsulated 2024, in (mostly) chronological order.<\/p>\n
Willy\u2019s Chocolate Experience<\/h2>\n\n
\n\t\t\t\tA screenshot from the \u201cWilly\u2019s Chocolate Experience\u201d website (left) and a photo from the actual event (right) (screenshot Hyperallergic<\/em>, photo by and courtesy Stuart Sinclair)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nKicking off 2024\u2019s meme harvest was the Wonka<\/em>-inspired nightmare that devastated hundreds of Scottish children and their parents, but entertained millions internationally. AI-generated <\/strong>marketing images for an event called Willy\u2019s Chocolate Experience in Glasgow promised families live performances, a \u201cpasadise of sweet teats,\u201d \u201ccartchy tuns,\u201d \u201cexarserdray lollipops,\u201d and \u201ccatgacating.\u201d<\/p>\nBut at the actual event, which took place on February 24, children cried amid a jellybean scarcity and parents called the police. Refunds are still up in the air and the \u201cexperience\u201d organizer Billy Coull has since been put on the sex offender registry. Meanwhile, web users tapped into their own world of pure imagination centering the forlorn Oompa Loompa actress, Kirsty Paterson, the face that launched a thousand memes.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\tEdward Hopper\u2019s \u201cNighthawks\u201d (1942) merged with the world of the \u201cWilly\u2019s Chocolate Experience\u201d in Glasgow (edit Valentina Di Liscia\/Hyperallergic<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nWhile we certainly pointed and laughed at the time of this unfolding saga, looking back on it now, it feels like the entire year was a never-ending Willy\u2019s Chocolate Experience considering the world and life we were promised versus what we got \u2026 <\/p>\n
Water Jug of Justice<\/h2>\n\n
\n\t\t\t\tA viral moment emerged when a student \u201cbonked\u201d a police officer with an empty water jug. (screenshot Hyperallergic<\/em>\u00a0via @missladysalad on\u00a0Instagram)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nDuring the nationwide university student encampments in solidarity with Gaza last spring, students at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, went viral in April after one of them repeatedly drummed a riot police officer over the helmet with an empty five-gallon water jug. The hollow *bonk* sound, revered by many for its slapstick cartoonishness, along with the jug itself, became symbolic of the plucky student solidarity movement throughout the United States.<\/p>\n
Northern Lights FOMO<\/h2>\n\n
\n\t\t\t\tNorthern lights win; solar eclipse loses (screenshot Hyperallergic<\/i>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n The aurora borealis that swept through international skies last May satiated the wanderlust of many across North America, Asia, and Europe, but drew immense envy from everyone else. It was a cloudy night in New York City when the coveted lights danced above us, shooing away any lingering excitement from the solar eclipse as we stewed in new-found jealousy. We got our turn with the pretty colors on a clear but frigid night in October, but the salty sentiments from May were <\/strong>the ultimate coping mechanism.<\/p>\nPresidential Debate #1<\/h2>\n\n
\n\t\t\t\tGrant Wood\u2019s masterpiece reimagined for the 2024 election season (edit Valentina Di Liscia\/Hyperallergic<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nSo we\u2019re up to the first Presidential debate for the 2024 race. That went about as well as it could have, with Trump referring to \u201cBlack jobs\u201d being stolen by illegal immigrants (a claim that has been widely debunked) and calling Biden a Palestinian (\ud83e\udd74). Trump and Biden also exchanged some weird snipes about each other\u2019s golf prowess, and there was an inadvertent advertisement for Adderall prescriptions, among other fever-dreamlike statements. In case you forgot, it only gets worse!<\/p>\n
Donald Trump\u2019s Ear<\/h2>\n\n
\n\t\t\t\tWhat healed faster \u2014 your Claire\u2019s ear piercing done by a 15-year-old with a poorly sanitized piercing gun, or Trump\u2019s gunshot wound? (screenshot Hyperallergic<\/em> via @CopyOfACopyofJen on X)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nDonald Trump being shot was such a long time ago now, and ended up being old news pretty quickly in terms of media coverage and public reactions. The unseriousness I talked about earlier reared its head here, as you can see, in that the internet just meme\u2019d the hell out of it. And then Biden dropped out of the race and uncorked a whole other dimension of delusion. Back to that shortly \u2026<\/p>\n
As an aside, I\u2019ve had papercuts that took longer to heal and left bigger scars than Trump\u2019s ear injury. Make of that what you will. <\/p>\n
JD Vance Couch Allegations<\/h2>\n\n
\n\t\t\t\tDifferent meaning to breaking out the leather tonight \u2026 (screenshot Hyperallergic <\/em>via @kayteterry on X)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nWe all heard the rumor that Vice President-elect JD Vance had sex with his couch as a horny teenager based on a troll post on X where some guy alleged that Vance recounted the story, including the use of an inside-out latex glove between two cushions, between pages 179 and 181 of his memoir Hillbilly Elegy<\/em> (2016). Despite being fact-checked almost immediately, the meme was cemented to Vance\u2019s reputation \u2014 so much so that Democratic VP candidate Tim Walz even referenced it in a speech to attendees at one of the Harris rallies last August. Yikes \u2026<\/p>\nSummer Olympics 2024<\/h2>\n The 2024 Summer Olympic Games were rife with iconic moments. From the Turkish and Korean shooters eliciting both sheer impression and gay panic to the Australian breakdancer Raygun doing her 0-point-worthy routine featuring kangaroo hops, the cramp, and SpongeBob-like choreography, to the French pole vaulter whose ample nether regions cost him a medal, and swimmers getting sick from the Seine River, there\u2019s really too much to ruminate on in this fever dream.<\/p>\n
Justice for Jordan Chiles, though.<\/p>\n
Coconut Tree Meets Brat<\/em><\/h2>\n\n
\n\t\t\t\tBoomers have lead poisoning, Gen X has asbestos, millennials have microplastics, and Gen Z has ~coconut tree~ \u2026 (screenshot Hyperallergic<\/em>\u00a0via\u00a0@CantEverDie on X)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nIt\u2019s mid-to-late July. Biden is out, Harris is in. The childhood Coconut Tree tale from a 2023 speech resurfaces in full force as a meme, and then goes triple platinum on the social media platforms after British hyperpop artist of the moment Charli XCX grinds Brat<\/em> summer to a halt with three words: \u201ckamala IS brat.\u201d<\/p>\nThe world stops for a second. The record scratches. We do a double-take. We ask why Charli XCX getting involved with this? We ask why is the Harris campaign running with it? The music starts again, the Fire Island Gays\u2122 print t-shirts expeditiously, the memes flow like fresh water from a baby coconut plucked from the content farm, and some people are deluded into thinking this will help Harris win the election.<\/p>\n
Oops.<\/p>\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\tHey ChatGPT, who is the opposite of Cassandra the Seer? (screenshot Hyperallergic<\/em> via @M1das_OW2 on X)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nDemure <\/h2>\n We\u2019ve reached August, a time when we\u2019ve been instructed to become \u201cvery demure, very mindful\u201d and \u201ccutesy\u201d about our workplace appearance by TikTok influencer Jools Lebron. The phrase exploded in every comments section of every post in every corner of social media, in ad campaigns, merch, speaking, and publicity opportunities for Lebron, and other avenues. The best part is that the virality of the video actually helped Lebron fund her transition! Dictionary.com even named \u201cdemure\u201d as its 2024 Word of the Year.<\/p>\n
Maybe it\u2019s because I work from home too much, or because I\u2019m simply not mindful enough to get it, but I was always puzzled by the way the internet latched onto this particular trend. <\/p>\n
Kendrick vs. Drake Beef<\/h2>\n An overarching saga of 2024 has to include the beef between rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake, which at a cursory level, I\u2019ve boiled down to two grown men writing poems and fanfiction vexing each other. Drake has always been ripe for picking on in the meme-o-sphere for being cringe, but Lamar dumped kerosene over the fire with the release of \u201cNot Like Us\u201d (2024) in May. The single topped the charts for weeks and won multiple awards, and Drake eventually filed a suit against the record label Universal Music and the streaming service Spotify for allegedly artificially boosting the track with bots, and for defamation for streaming content that \u201cfalsely alleges\u201d that he is a sex offender.<\/p>\n
Safe to say we know who won here \u2026 <\/p>\n
Moo Deng (ft. Pesto)<\/h2>\n\n
\n\t\t\t\tThe rage and beauty of the world-famous hippo Moo Deng (edit Shari Flores\/Hyperallergic<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nSeptember has rolled around, and that means we\u2019re up to the woman of the hour \u2014 Moo Deng, the consistently moisturized Thai baby pygmy hippo whose scampering, biting, pool time, and silent screams captured in their obligatory blurriness, goes triple platinum on all social media platforms. An international sensation by 10 weeks old, the spritely baby was at one point responsible for at least 40% of our collective well-being in the lead-up to the election. Many adored her, some wanted to eat her, and she became ubiquitous through memes, merch, advertisements, and more.<\/p>\n
Moo Deng had a brief rival \u2014 Pesto, the enormous King penguin chick from Melbourne, Australia, whose fuzzy physique weighed in at more than that of his parents combined within months of his hatching. Pesto eventually shed the baby weight during his transition to adolescence.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\tSomeone has to pay for this political turmoil \u2026 Sadly, it\u2019s the wrong target. (screenshot Hyperallergic<\/em> via @aidanthereup on X)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nShe did have a rather abrupt fall from grace, as most women in the spotlight do. A nefarious setup led to Moo Deng (accurately) predicting Trump\u2019s win, and the world turned on her.<\/p>\n
True fans will wait until she is ready to enter the public eye again \u2026 Good things come to those who wait.<\/p>\n
Transgender Surgeries on Illegal Aliens in Prison <\/h2>\n\n
\n\t\t\t\tHow many political correctness points did your trans illegal alien score on their woke test? (screenshot Rhea Nayyar\/Hyperallergic<\/em> via\u00a0@anderscjay\u00a0on X)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nSeptember 10, 2024, might have been one of the strangest nights of my life. My roommate and I begrudgingly watch the second Presidential debate with Harris and Trump, and turn to each other after we hear the uttering of \u201ctransgender operations on illegal aliens in prison,\u201d thinking it was a glitch in the matrix. Stranger things have happened, but nope. The Coconut Tree Stare continues as we get hit with the extremely false rumor that Haitian immigrants are eating people\u2019s pets in Springfield, Ohio, the claim that Democrats support \u201cafter-birth abortions\u201d (not to be confused with school shootings), and a word-salad story about \u201cAbdul from Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric Adams Indictment<\/h2>\n\n
\n\t\t\t\tAnd they\u2019re spreading the word (screenshot Lisa Yin Zhang\/Hyperallergic<\/em> via @yosoymichael on X)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nRemember when the whole world united to hate Grimes and Elon Musk\u2019s first baby? Unified in our collective hatred of our incompetent and narcissistic mayor, New York City rejoiced on the day of Eric Adams\u2019s indictment, offering a singular ray of hope in a blustering seastorm of horrible news, funding cuts, and knee-buckling inflation rates. (Sidebar: the horny emoji spam text revival this year, as seen in the image above, is the prime example of general unseriousness I\u2019m referring to.)<\/p>\n
I Hate Gay Halloween, What Do You Mean You\u2019re \u2026<\/h2>\n\n
\n\t\t\t\tIt\u2019s all about the commitment to the bit. (screenshot Hyperallergic<\/em> via\u00a0@chrisfrostwho on X)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nIt\u2019s late October, and Gay Halloween rams into the atmosphere of the Queer Canon with a slew of DIY costumes referencing a hyper-specific niche side character from a nostalgia-inducing piece of media, or some other such overlooked or momentary presence or concept nested deep within the mind\u2019s eye. We saw outfits inspired by the Passenger Seat from a Chappell Roan song, the POV tennis ball from Challengers<\/em> (2024), the Brat<\/em> concert tour curtains, iconic references from the defunct seven-second video app Vine, and so much more to ruminate on in a campy fashion. \u201cWhat I find interesting is how many of these supposedly forgettable moments resonate with others,\u201d said Hyperallergic<\/em> Editor-in-Chief Hrag Vartanian in our report on the trend. \u201cOne of the best parts of contemporary queerness is looking for the glitter in something others have disposed of or devalued.\u201d<\/p>\nPatron Saint Luigi Mangione<\/h2>\n\n
Luigi Mangione portrayed as the \u201cpatron saint of health care justice\u201d (screenshot Hyperallergic<\/em> via\u00a0@commiepsychologist1\u00a0on Threads)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nI speak confidently when I say that nobody, and I do mean nobody, had this on their 2025 Bingo predictions card. Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has erupted as a revered sexy folk hero across social media as he faces extradition to New York on first-degree murder and terrorism charges after being apprehended at a McDonald\u2019s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
There is so much to say about this, and yet, I\u2019m speechless\u00a0\u2014 because the public reverence of Mangione sets the tone of 2025 flawlessly.<\/p>\n
Anyway, that was a lot, so go lie down, and I\u2019ll see you next year.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\n\t<\/div>\n