50 famous memes and what they mean

Merriam-Webster defines “meme” as “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture” or “an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media.” That definition hasn’t been around forever—it hasn’t even been around for five years. The dictionary editors officially added the entry along with “emoji” and “clickbait” to the formal dictionary in May 2015.
Memes have always come with an air of mystery, intriguing and confusing even the most computer literate. Where did they come from? More importantly, what do they mean? Even modern science is hopping on the meme train. A team of scientific researchers from University College London, Cyprus University of Technology, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and King’s College London came together in September 2018 to research the internet’s most popular memes. Apart from assembling a definitive list of the world’s favorite memes, the academic study also explored the influences (both positive and negative) that memes have on different communities. Some memes are created just for fun by creative or bored internet users, but others are made with the explicit intention of going viral to promote political ideas.