The Top Internet Memes of the Last 15 Years

Viral Humor, Bizarre Curiousities, and Infectious Storytelling

By Paul Gil, About.com Guide

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February, 2012

"Memes" are cultural symbols and social ideas that spread virally. In the same way that a flu bug travels from person to person, memes travel through social media and email.

Memes are often things of minor consequence: jokes, urban legends, human and animal oddities. But in some cases, memes are art and music curiousities, and even philosophical ideas worth repeating.

Modern memes commonly take the form of photos and videos/animations/songs.

Here are the most popular modern internet memes today.

1. The New Old Spice Guy

screen capture of YouTube

These preposterous commercials are exactly that: preposterous. Yet these commercials have a real charm that makes women grin and men guffaw. Take a look at the number of hits that these Old Spice commercials get on YouTube... that should give you a sense of how viral these commercials are.

See the Old Spice Man here

2. NONONO Cat

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NONONO Cat is a special long-haired cat from Russia. In this video, he cowers in fear at seeing a young child for the first time. This feline begins to speak in seeming English, repeating the word "no" for several minutes. This is a much-loved meme video, especially amongst animal lovers.

Click to see NONONO Cat

3. The Double Rainbow

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You'd swear the cameraman was on some kind of acid trip when he shot this video. But Paul Vasquez claims that he was having a spiritual experience at the sight of this Yosemite Park rainbow. People have since flocked to his YouTube page to leave comments. Take a look for yourself, and decide if this home video is all just an act, or a sincere life experience.

See Hungrybear9562's 'Double Rainbow' home footage here

4. Numa Numa Dance

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This chubby lip-syncher, Gary Brolsma, has won the hearts of viewers everywhere. He lip-synchs an amateur webcam video to the song 'Dragostea" by the Romanian group, 'Ozone'.

5. OK, Go! The White Knuckles Music Video

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"OK Go" is an internet music group who specializes in sharing their music through oddball choreography. These artists made the famous "Treadmill" video meme (see later in this list), as well as this adorable music video of dogs and plastic furniture. Animal lovers should really enjoy this meme!

6. Rickroll Someone

Getty Images

A prankster meme: people will pretend to send critical business email links in emails, but are actually sending links to Rick Astley music videos from the 1980's.

See for yourself

7. Bad Romance, by Lady Gaga

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This catchy song by artist Lady Gaga is paired with some surreal costumes, and some mesmerizing dance moves. Whether you like Lady Gaga's music or not, you'll want to watch this video and decide for yourself what you think. This is the #1 most watched YouTube video of all time, with over 413 million views to date.

8. Epic Fail!

This photo and video blog is mesmerizing! Here are pictoral essays on the tragic mistakes of people around the world. Bad drivers, stunts gone bad, public faux pas embarassments... this website is absolutely hypnotic in the way it depicts human folly. The idea of "schadenfreude" (delighting in other people's misfortune) has never been so humorously done. Be warned: once you visit this site, you will be addicted to checking it every week for new additions...

9. LOLcats

icanhazcheeseburger.com

The absurd gallery of people attaching human behaviors and captions to photos of housecats. If you like Gary Larson's 'Far Side' cartoons, you are bound to like LOLcats/Cheezburger...

See for yourself

10. Star Wars Kid

screen capture of YouTube

The doctored video of a youngster twirling a golf ball retriever staff. This young Canadian lad eventually earned money online as people donated funds to him. Fans of Star Wars should get a good kick out of this meme.