Almost weekly, new Internet memes appear on social networks: on a nationwide, and even global scale. Anything can become an Internet meme: starting from an awkward phrase famous politician, ending with an unusual video. That is, everything that spontaneously gains popularity in the Internet environment, sometimes despite common sense. Let's take a look at the most popular internet memes of 2012.
1. “Who are you? Let's goodbye!"
A video where Azerbaijani meikhanists and Talysh singers sing the song “Who are you? Let's goodbye!" became a real sensation on Youtube. The title phrase from the video was quickly picked up social media, and to date the video has received almost 6 million views! Moreover, from this meme another popular political meme was born: “Putin, who are you? Let's goodbye". The meme entered global Twitter trends.
2. Gangnam Style Single by South Korean rapper PSY
“Gangnam Style” can easily be called one of the most popular memes of the year. In the video, the rapper dances funny in different places to Gangnam. The idea of a funny dance was picked up by all social networks: not only videos began to appear with recordings of gangam style users dancing, but also various kinds of pictures. "Gangnam Style" was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the video with the most a large number of"likes" in YouTube history. In November 2012, the number of likes exceeded 5 million, and the video clip views exceeded 700 million. The only video that was able to overtake “Gangnam Style” in these indicators: the video “Baby” by Justin Bieber.
3. Zhirinovsky
A shocking politician is always at the top of popularity thanks to his eccentric behavior and straightforwardness of phrases. During the election race, a meme depicting Zhirinovsky’s gestures, where he spreads his hands in bewilderment, became popular. And he is still popular!
4. Cats
To say that the “cat” theme became fashionable only this year is incorrect. She has been on the wave of popularity for a long time, and is constantly gaining momentum. Perhaps the most popular “cat” pictures this year were photographs of the short-haired Snoopy, pictures of an adorable kitten taken by Ben Torode, and the grumpiest cat on the Internet, Tard. Meanwhile, there is even a joke among SMM specialists: “If you want to get a lot of likes, attach a photo of a cat to the text.”
5. “You can’t just go and…”
The English meme has invaded the Russian Internet. The picture shows one of the heroes of The Lord of the Rings, Boromir, making a characteristic gesture. The phrase in the picture always begins the same way - “you can’t just take it and...”, and the ending is invented by Internet users themselves.
6. Putin's tears after the election results were announced
We should not forget that 2012 can be called politically tense: after all, no one canceled the presidential elections and rallies. During the election race, a huge number of popular memes appeared dedicated to the presidential candidate. It is impossible to give all the examples; there are too many of them.
7. Video “Should Putin be buried?”
“Should Vladimir Putin be buried? This topic is now being actively discussed on the Internet, and presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov proposed this idea...” Maria Bukhtueva, presenter of the Krasnoyarsk television company TVK, began one of the news stories with this phrase, confusing the names Lenin and Putin. “The slip is obviously based on Freud,” RuNet users noticed and began spreading the video and, of course, the phrase itself.
8. Photo of Barack and Michelle Obama hugging
Russian Internet users are concerned not only with politics home country, but also events in the international arena. The tweet of the newly elected US President, which became the most popular of all time on Twitter, contains only three words: “Four more years” (“Four more years”), as well as a photo of Barack and Michelle Obama hugging. Within nine hours of being posted, it was retweeted more than 600,000 times. The photo, published on Obama’s Facebook account, managed to gain almost 3 million likes in eight hours and became, according to Facebook representative Vadim Lavrusik, the most “like-intensive” image on the social network. In Russia, the meme, oddly enough, also became popular, albeit not as widely as in the United States.
The Google search service has compiled a rating of the most popular memes that Russian users searched for most often in the past year. The main characters in viral videos, comics, and songs were a Hollywood actor, a Rostov singer, a prime minister, and even a piece of plywood.
It is not known for certain what made the meme viral, however, the original phrase, always with a grammatical error, was uttered by dozens of characters in 2016. The main condition was the presence of a hat, which they took off, apparently showing “admiration” to the users.
The skeleton also appears in the ranking of the most popular memes of 2016 twice - first as Mr. Dudts, and now as a flaming skeleton with a guitar in his hands. The meme, which became popular back in the summer, is used with modifications to show the epic nature of a particular situation.
It is not completely known which video became the progenitor of the meme about the lost Lekha. According to some users, this is a video of an overturned boat in which that same Alexey was. According to others, the missing Lekha is a friend of a man who is looking for his friend, to whom he lent money.
Officials often become the targets of users’ jokes, especially when they themselves give rise to a meme of their statements. And again acting character became Dmitry Medvedev, who decided that “Americano” should be renamed “Rusiano”, citing issues of political correctness.
The character, known on the foreign Internet for several years, moved to Russia in 2016. The animation of a skull and bony hands playing a trumpet became known as Mister Dudetz. The meme was actively used for communication in comments and calling other users to action. There's even a ten-hour GIF version of it on YouTube.
The hero of the film "Pulp Fiction" in the image of a gangster who cannot find his companion at her home was added to hundreds of videos and photographs. Travolta was looking for who and what. The characteristic gestures of the already famous character played by John Travolta did their job and the meme spread with viral speed.
The rise in popularity of e-cigarettes has met with mixed reactions from the online community. The character, who combined the main negative traits of e-cigarette users, was called a vaper.
The mythical character, whom netizens saw in the saw-cut patterns of one of the boards, took an honorable third place in the ranking. Simultaneously with the viral spread of the kratinka, the spontaneous nickname “Dratuti” began to accompany the hero of the meme.
The phrase, which has already become iconic, was uttered by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The words addressed to a pensioner from Crimea, spoken by an official, immediately became the subject of jokes. By the way, “There is no money, but you hold on” was already based on the song by the famous KVN player.
Rostov resident Vitaly’s song “Patimemaker” quickly acquired the status of a viral video. The catchy beat and vocabulary of the hit gave rise to many memes; the song was even covered several times by popular bloggers. The peak of popularity of “Patimemaker” occurred in May 2016.
The Internet community loves to use memes; they spread across the Internet like a virus. Surely, you have repeatedly encountered the most popular memes of the outgoing year.
No. 10. My admiration
The my admiration meme supposedly appeared in 2015 with the launch of the “Leva” sticker pack on VKontakte. The paid package contains stickers with absolutely an ordinary person performing different actions or showing different emotions. One of these actions is removing the hat, most likely as a sign of greeting.
According to some reports, the original source of the spread of the meme, in which Leva takes off his hat with the caption “My admiration,” is a certain person with the nickname “Save the Greeks,” who distributed it only among 1,500 of his friends. Initially, what most likely made the meme viral was a grammatical error - intended as a tribute to the fact that most Runet users, due to their age, often write incorrectly.
No. 9. Rusiano
Dmitry Medvedev became the hero of a meme twice in a year. His proposal to rename “Americano” to “Rusiano” blew up the Internet community.
No. 8. Where is Lekha?
Meme "Where is Lekha?" became popular on the Internet after a video about Lekha capsizing on a boat. The reasons why the video became popular remain unknown. There is an assumption that people liked the emotions of the “operator”, who was afraid for Lekha.
No. 7. Mister Dudets
Some memes, after wandering abroad for several years, reach Russia. This happened with the "Mr. Dude" meme - an animation of a skull and bony hands playing the trumpet. The meme is actively used for communication on the Internet as a call to action for other users.
In Russia, Mr. Dudets became popular only recently, while the image of a skull with a pipe appeared in America as early as 1995. Based on this image, a lot of parodies and memes appeared on the Internet, for example, the song by rap artist Pharaoh - “Black Siemens”. In general, a photo of a skull with a pipe was turned into a cult on social media. networks.
No. 6. Vaper
The rise in popularity of e-cigarettes has met with mixed reactions from the online community. The character who combined the main negative traits of e-cigarette users was called a vaper.
Vipers claim that the vapor they inhale along with nicotine is much safer than the tar and chemical alloys in tobacco cigarettes. And this new subculture of smokers is obsessed with e-cigarette technology. Some vapers are willing to spend thousands of dollars on their fancy “cigarettes.”
No. 5. Partymaker
The video "Patimemaker" quickly fell in love with Russians. It was created by Vital Pika from Rostov. The viral hit spawned many memes, famous bloggers covered it, and the peak of the clip’s popularity came in May 2016.
No. 4. Dratuti
On the fourth line is the “Dratuti” meme. It appeared after someone posted a photo of a cut of wood with a pattern in the shape of a dog on the Internet. The picture was signed - "Dratuti". The picture quickly spread throughout the online community.
No. 3. No money, but you hold on
The bronze ranking was taken by a meme from Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev. The Prime Minister said a phrase to pensioners in Crimea: “There is no money, but you hold on.” The Internet community immediately picked up the phrase to create ironic posts.
No. 2. In St. Petersburg - drink
No. 1. Louboutins
The most popular meme of the past year is “Louboutins” - a premium brand of women's shoes. "Louboutins" became known throughout Russia thanks to the song "Exhibit" by the group "Leningrad", which became a hit in January 2016.
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