Few things can provide both amusement and comfort at the same time the way memes do. Covering nearly every aspect of life, they have become an internet phenomenon like no other, as their number is arguably impossible to count and they tend to spread faster than wildfires do.
That’s why now there is an abundance of meme pages for netizens to choose from, some better than others. But far from all of them can pride themselves in millions of followers and decades of existence.
With a history half a year short of a decade, this Instagram account has been providing its followers—more than seven million of them—with hilarious and relatable memes since the spring of 2014. Today, we have put some of them on this list for you to enjoy, so scroll down to find them and see for yourself just how amusing memes can be.
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Even though very amusing, memes have become way more than just a source of entertainment. Nowadays they tend to be used in brand-creator partnerships, typically resulting in some quite unique and often fruitful advertising.
The Drum pointed out that meme pages represent a subset of the creator economy worth $105 billion dollars. Reid Hailey, the creator of the Instagram account, the memes of which you are currently scrolling through, said that what he enjoys most about being part of such an economy is the position owners of such pages find themselves in.
“What I’m most excited about is where we sit in the creator economy,” he told The Drum. “We’ve always been creators, but we don’t have a face. We’re more behind-the-scenes.”
In addition to the Instagram account with well over seven million followers, Reid Hailey is responsible for 35 more content brands under the wing of Doing Things Media, The Drum reports.
The story of Doing Things Media started in 2017, when, after winning early deals to work on ads for Gucci and the dating app, Hinge, Hailey started working together with a fellow meme connoisseur, Derek Lucas.
The two created numerous well-known accounts such as ‘Drunk People Doing Things,’ ‘Animals Doing Things,’ and ‘Recess Therapy,’ just to name a few, and set on the course of becoming the “one-stop shop for anything viral,” as Hailey told Forbes himself.
It used to be the British. There was this incident in Cairo airport where there were two signs for new arrivals - one said 'Egyptians' and the other said 'Foreigners'. A British gentleman stood there not knowing where to go. He knew he was not an Egyptian, but he most certainly wasn't a foreigner either!
Forbes pointed out that Doing Things Media has worked with numerous well-known names over the years, including but definitely not limited to Bud Light, Crocs, and Netflix, creating roughly $10 million in revenue in 2020.
Such numbers show that using memes the right way must be working. And it’s not difficult to see why; some are often so widespread it might be harder not to be familiar with them if you are a somewhat regular user of the internet.
Some memes are so viral, even establishments you would least expect to use them actually do. Take the White House, for instance, which used the image of ‘success kid’ to promote immigration reform.
It’s arguably safe to assume that for avid internet users, the name ‘success kid’ alone is enough to make them think about the little human clenching a tiny fist. That’s because some memes, such as the ‘distracted boyfriend,’ the expanding brain,’ or the ‘this is fine’ dog, just to name a few, have become internet staples recognized all over the world.
One of the likely reasons for the rapid spread of memes is the fact that they transcend the barriers of territories and languages. That’s because some things are so universal, they can connect people even from the most different of cultures; just think about the ins and outs of relationships, the joys and worries of parenting, or the headaches of studying, for instance.
With the help of the internet, a meme can be shared with someone on the other side of the world in a matter of seconds. What is more, even if that someone doesn’t speak the same language, one can alter it by adding a language they know, thanks to online meme generators, and make it accessible to an even wider audience.
Threw my printer out because of this and got a black and white one.
YPulse pointed out that meme generators used to be mostly full of images containing a single character in a colorful background. But as the times change, so do the trends of the entertaining, captioned images. Nowadays, it’s screenshots of people commenting their reactions to something or posts on platforms, such as X (formerly Twitter), that seem to take the lead.
Imagine walking on these at 3 in the morning, holding a cup of water that is too full
According to YPulse, as much as 75% of those aged 13 to 36 share memes regularly nowadays, and most do it using social media. But no matter the age or the frequency of the action, by sharing memes, people not only help keep the meme advertising businesses going, but add to the creation of folklore, too.
It might come as a surprise, as folklore is typically something that’s associated with quilting or apocryphal stories, as folklorist Lynne S. McNeill points out in her TED Talk. However, in reality, folklore studies relate to the things the majority of people can do or are interested in.
“We can’t all paint like Van Gogh or Monet, but we can all manage a pretty decent stick figure or come up with some good bathroom graffiti,” the folklorist said, adding that that’s the folk culture side of things right there. “The types of artistic, expressive cultural production that everyone is capable of engaging in,” she explained.
They missed out the part where they go "I've been gambling for 44 years despite what my family wants. Thanks, but I'd know what an addiction was if I had one" or something like that
McNeill suggested that the internet has been described as the world’s largest unintentional folklore archive. She pointed out that all of the lame jokes we share, the slang we use, or the rumors that are floating around “are shared in a venue where the act of sharing it turns it into documented cultural data.”
That’s why by taking a picture, “slopping some text” on it, and posting it on Facebook, as the folklorist suggests, we all get to take part in creating the folklore of the current society. Just like meme pages with millions of followers do.
We in Germany say "Eat up and the sun will shine tomorrow" - And look where that brought us, a lot of fat kids and droughts
… Some escape rooms have that? And you can run while being chased by zombies!
Legit. My neighbors took down their Halloween decorations on 1 November, and put up their Christmas decorations that same day.
Note: this post originally had 85 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
