Barbie (2023), Woman Dinner, Roman Empires, and yacht-hunting orcas have been microscopic glimmers of pleasure in final yr’s memescape, greedy at relatability, connectivity, and misplaced optimism amid live-streamed international atrocities. This yr, nevertheless, was totally different.
The disparate and chronically unserious nature of virality in 2024 stems from accepting an unsure expiration date for our survival on a burning planet with no extinguisher in sight. Feeble and superficial connections over frequent pursuits and shared notions of 🎀girlhood🎀 have been enjoyable whereas they lasted, however they will not cowl and even fog up the inscrutable fuckery round us, exacerbated by finger-wagging, virtue-signaling keyboard activism in your leftist good friend’s non-public Instagram story.
The phrase “unhinged” has been colloquialized and thrown round quite a bit in the previous couple of years, nevertheless it seems like an particularly apt description for meme traits this yr and the real-life occasions that spawned them. If you happen to had advised me final yr that we’d be clowning on a vice presidential candidate over a rumor about being a sofa violator, or that Charli XCX would put a cork in her Brat summer season by endorsing Kamala Harris, or that an empty plastic water jug would turn into the image of scholar resistance, I most likely would have requested you on your plug’s quantity and presumably a tarot card studying.
Now, after what seems like 1,000 lifetimes and a continuous conveyor belt of evil Mad-Libs-style headlines condensed right into a yr, I get it. We’re falling by the wayside and going straight for the jugular after reaching our bullshit restrict. There’s microplastics in my uterus, local weather change is killing folks by the tens of hundreds, and the gunning down of a medical insurance CEO has gotten extra protection than the umpteenth college taking pictures — there’s merely no room for sensitivity and preciousness anymore. Nothing is off limits.
So with that, listed here are the memes that encapsulated 2024, in (largely) chronological order.
Willy’s Chocolate Expertise
A screenshot from the “Willy’s Chocolate Experience” web site (left) and a photograph from the precise occasion (proper) (screenshot Hyperallergic, photograph by and courtesy Stuart Sinclair)
Kicking off 2024’s meme harvest was the Wonka-inspired nightmare that devastated lots of of Scottish kids and their dad and mom, however entertained hundreds of thousands internationally. AI-generated advertising photographs for an occasion known as Willy’s Chocolate Expertise in Glasgow promised households stay performances, a “pasadise of sweet teats,” “cartchy tuns,” “exarserdray lollipops,” and “catgacating.”
However on the precise occasion, which passed off on February 24, kids cried amid a jellybean shortage and oldsters known as the police. Refunds are nonetheless up within the air and the “experience” organizer Billy Coull has since been placed on the intercourse offender registry. In the meantime, internet customers tapped into their very own world of pure creativeness centering the forlorn Oompa Loompa actress, Kirsty Paterson, the face that launched a thousand memes.
Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” (1942) merged with the world of the “Willy’s Chocolate Experience” in Glasgow (edit Valentina Di Liscia/Hyperallergic)
Whereas we actually pointed and laughed on the time of this unfolding saga, trying again on it now, it seems like your entire yr was a unending Willy’s Chocolate Expertise contemplating the world and life we have been promised versus what we received …
Water Jug of Justice
A viral second emerged when a scholar “bonked” a police officer with an empty water jug. (screenshot Hyperallergic by way of @missladysalad on Instagram)
In the course of the nationwide college scholar encampments in solidarity with Gaza final spring, college students at California State Polytechnic College, Humboldt, went viral in April after one in every of them repeatedly drummed a riot police officer over the helmet with an empty five-gallon water jug. The hole *bonk* sound, revered by many for its slapstick cartoonishness, together with the jug itself, turned symbolic of the plucky scholar solidarity motion all through the USA.
Northern Lights FOMO
Northern lights win; photo voltaic eclipse loses (screenshot Hyperallergic)
The aurora borealis that swept by means of worldwide skies final Might satiated the wanderlust of many throughout North America, Asia, and Europe, however drew immense envy from everybody else. It was a cloudy night time in New York Metropolis when the coveted lights danced above us, shooing away any lingering pleasure from the photo voltaic eclipse as we stewed in new-found jealousy. We received our flip with the beautiful colours on a transparent however frigid night time in October, however the salty sentiments from Might have been the last word coping mechanism.
Presidential Debate #1
Grant Wooden’s masterpiece reimagined for the 2024 election season (edit Valentina Di Liscia/Hyperallergic)
So we’re as much as the primary Presidential debate for the 2024 race. That went about in addition to it may have, with Trump referring to “Black jobs” being stolen by unlawful immigrants (a declare that has been extensively debunked) and calling Biden a Palestinian (🥴). Trump and Biden additionally exchanged some bizarre snipes about one another’s golf prowess, and there was an inadvertent commercial for Adderall prescriptions, amongst different fever-dreamlike statements. In case you forgot, it solely will get worse!
Donald Trump’s Ear
What healed quicker — your Claire’s ear piercing performed by a 15-year-old with a poorly sanitized piercing gun, or Trump’s gunshot wound? (screenshot Hyperallergic by way of @CopyOfACopyofJen on X)
As an apart, I’ve had papercuts that took longer to heal and left greater scars than Trump’s ear damage. Make of that what you’ll.
JD Vance Sofa Allegations
Totally different that means to breaking out the leather-based tonight … (screenshot Hyperallergic by way of @kayteterry on X)
All of us heard the rumor that Vice President-elect JD Vance had intercourse together with his sofa as a sexy teenager primarily based on a troll publish on X the place some man alleged that Vance recounted the story, together with the usage of an inside-out latex glove between two cushions, between pages 179 and 181 of his memoir Hillbilly Elegy (2016). Regardless of being fact-checked virtually instantly, the meme was cemented to Vance’s fame — a lot in order that Democratic VP candidate Tim Walz even referenced it in a speech to attendees at one of many Harris rallies final August. Yikes …
Summer season Olympics 2024
The 2024 Summer season Olympic Video games have been rife with iconic moments. From the Turkish and Korean shooters eliciting each sheer impression and homosexual panic to the Australian breakdancer Raygun doing her 0-point-worthy routine that includes kangaroo hops, the cramp, and SpongeBob-like choreography, to the French pole vaulter whose ample nether areas value him a medal, and swimmers getting sick from the Seine River, there’s actually an excessive amount of to ruminate on on this fever dream.
Justice for Jordan Chiles, although.
Coconut Tree Meets Brat
Boomers have lead poisoning, Gen X has asbestos, millennials have microplastics, and Gen Z has ~coconut tree~ … (screenshot Hyperallergic by way of @CantEverDie on X)
It’s mid-to-late July. Biden is out, Harris is in. The childhood Coconut Tree story from a 2023 speech resurfaces in full power as a meme, after which goes triple platinum on the social media platforms after British hyperpop artist of the second Charli XCX grinds Brat summer season to a halt with three phrases: “kamala IS brat.”
The world stops for a second. The report scratches. We do a double-take. We ask why Charli XCX getting concerned with this? We ask why is the Harris marketing campaign operating with it? The music begins once more, the Hearth Island Gays™ print t-shirts expeditiously, the memes stream like contemporary water from a child coconut plucked from the content material farm, and a few persons are deluded into considering this can assist Harris win the election.
Oops.
Hey ChatGPT, who’s the other of Cassandra the Seer? (screenshot Hyperallergic by way of @M1das_OW2 on X)Demure
We’ve reached August, a time after we’ve been instructed to turn into “very demure, very mindful” and “cutesy” about our office look by TikTok influencer Jools Lebron. The phrase exploded in each feedback part of each publish in each nook of social media, in advert campaigns, merch, talking, and publicity alternatives for Lebron, and different avenues. The perfect half is that the virality of the video truly helped Lebron fund her transition! Dictionary.com even named “demure” as its 2024 Phrase of the Yr.
Possibly it’s as a result of I do business from home an excessive amount of, or as a result of I’m merely not conscious sufficient to get it, however I used to be all the time puzzled by the best way the web latched onto this specific pattern.
Kendrick vs. Drake Beef
An overarching saga of 2024 has to incorporate the meat between rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake, which at a cursory degree, I’ve boiled down to 2 grown males writing poems and fanfiction vexing one another. Drake has all the time been ripe for selecting on within the meme-o-sphere for being cringe, however Lamar dumped kerosene over the hearth with the discharge of “Not Like Us” (2024) in Might. The only topped the charts for weeks and received a number of awards, and Drake finally filed a go well with towards the report label Common Music and the streaming service Spotify for allegedly artificially boosting the monitor with bots, and for defamation for streaming content material that “falsely alleges” that he’s a intercourse offender.
Secure to say we all know who received right here …
Moo Deng (ft. Pesto)
The fad and fantastic thing about the world-famous hippo Moo Deng (edit Shari Flores/Hyperallergic)
September has rolled round, and meaning we’re as much as the lady of the hour — Moo Deng, the constantly moisturized Thai child pygmy hippo whose scampering, biting, pool time, and silent screams captured of their compulsory blurriness, goes triple platinum on all social media platforms. A global sensation by 10 weeks previous, the spritely child was at one level liable for at the least 40% of our collective well-being within the lead-up to the election. Many adored her, some wished to eat her, and she or he turned ubiquitous by means of memes, merch, ads, and extra.
Moo Deng had a quick rival — Pesto, the large King penguin chick from Melbourne, Australia, whose fuzzy physique weighed in at greater than that of his dad and mom mixed inside months of his hatching. Pesto finally shed the infant weight throughout his transition to adolescence.
Somebody has to pay for this political turmoil … Sadly, it’s the fallacious goal. (screenshot Hyperallergic by way of @aidanthereup on X)
She did have a slightly abrupt fall from grace, as most girls within the highlight do. A nefarious setup led to Moo Deng (precisely) predicting Trump’s win, and the world turned on her.
True followers will wait till she is able to enter the general public eye once more … Good issues come to those that wait.
Transgender Surgical procedures on Unlawful Aliens in Jail 
What number of political correctness factors did your trans unlawful alien rating on their woke take a look at? (screenshot Rhea Nayyar/Hyperallergic by way of @anderscjay on X)
September 10, 2024, may need been one of many strangest nights of my life. My roommate and I begrudgingly watch the second Presidential debate with Harris and Trump, and switch to one another after we hear the uttering of “transgender operations on illegal aliens in prison,” considering it was a glitch within the matrix. Stranger issues have occurred, however nope. The Coconut Tree Stare continues as we get hit with the extraordinarily false rumor that Haitian immigrants are consuming folks’s pets in Springfield, Ohio, the declare that Democrats assist “after-birth abortions” (to not be confused with college shootings), and a word-salad story about “Abdul from Afghanistan.”
Eric Adams Indictment
And so they’re spreading the phrase (screenshot Lisa Yin Zhang/Hyperallergic by way of @yosoymichael on X)I Hate Homosexual Halloween, What Do You Imply You’re …
It’s all in regards to the dedication to the bit. (screenshot Hyperallergic by way of @chrisfrostwho on X)
It’s late October, and Homosexual Halloween rams into the environment of the Queer Canon with a slew of DIY costumes referencing a hyper-specific area of interest facet character from a nostalgia-inducing piece of media, or another such neglected or momentary presence or idea nested deep throughout the thoughts’s eye. We noticed outfits impressed by the Passenger Seat from a Chappell Roan track, the POV tennis ball from Challengers (2024), the Brat live performance tour curtains, iconic references from the defunct seven-second video app Vine, and a lot extra to ruminate on in a campy vogue. “What I find interesting is how many of these supposedly forgettable moments resonate with others,” mentioned Hyperallergic Editor-in-Chief Hrag Vartanian in our report on the pattern. “One of the best parts of contemporary queerness is looking for the glitter in something others have disposed of or devalued.”
Patron Saint Luigi Mangione
Luigi Mangione portrayed because the “patron saint of health care justice” (screenshot Hyperallergic by way of @commiepsychologist1 on Threads)
I communicate confidently after I say that no one, and I do imply no one, 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 attractive people hero throughout social media as he faces extradition to New York on first-degree homicide and terrorism costs after being apprehended at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
There’s a lot to say about this, and but, I’m speechless — as a result of the general public reverence of Mangione units the tone of 2025 flawlessly.
Anyway, that was quite a bit, so go lie down, and I’ll see you subsequent yr.
