Let’s be honest, we all love a good meme and in recent years memes have exploded into an amazing art form that has helped shape today’s society. Whether it be a silly joke from your friend or a slew of them on your social media, there is no doubt that they have had an effect on your life. They are a great outlet for people to connect with one another and express emotions and feelings that are otherwise hard to describe with words. Memes are a very flexible media and you would be surprised that some of your beloved memes may even have some disturbing backstories. Bring your attention here and discover the dark truth behind some of your favorite memes!

10 Times Memes Got People In Trouble

10 Deflated Garfield

To start this list off, let’s take a look at the Deflated Garfield meme. It takes the final panel of an original Garfield comic and takes it out of context to make a surprisingly funny meme. Though the image is used to create joy, the original picture depicts the limp and lifeless corpse of Garfield with Jon practically begging him to be alive. The actual imagery is often overlooked as we just see a flat Garfield, but the comic in which it first appeared is actually Jon going through a horrific experience. Though, the reason this image is able to be turned into a meme is through the overexaggerated facial expression of Jon and Garfield’s very uncaring manner. This secretive meaning allows for a greater interpretation and the access into meme culture. Garfield’s complete deadpan state works as a great punchline.^[1]

9 “You’re Finally Awake, That Fall Looked Bad”

This meme makes fun of all of the current issues in society and pretends to take you back in time when things were simpler and happier. In this format, it usually takes a certain niche from the past, something very prominent in the time it is trying to represent (Usually the early 2000’s). We all know that 2020 has had many downs and this meme gives a bit of a reprieve from it, hitting you with a wave of nostalgia that does all but physically bring you back to the good old days. While this meme may seem innocent enough, it is only successful due to the terrible times that we are currently in. It is built off of the backbone of our distress and misfortune but tries to make it better. Although it has good intentions, it is definitely hard to overlook exactly what makes it so popular.^[2]

8 Going To Brazil

This next meme is the perfect example of jokes having some truth behind them. The Going to Brazil meme is a case of scary funny, the same way we laugh during horror movies or as a defense mechanism. This meme is a satirical take on a rather awful occurrence in real life. Kidnapping is a real thing and Brazil is somewhat known for it. This meme often depicts a 1st person view of a rather crazy scenario that is supposed to represent the journey to Brazil. So while this meme is rather funny, it is definitely based on something much more serious. Its dramatic and exaggerated portrayal is key to its success and is reminiscent of some more recent and popular memes as well.^[3]

7 Demotivational Poster

The “Demovitational Poster” is next up and this meme has a lot of history behind it. The beginning of this format dates back as early as the late 1990’s. Since then, this meme has warped and changed with the times, to a point at which it is almost unrecognisable from its first iterations.
This meme was created by a company by the name of “Demotivators” and its goal with this format is to criticise and make fun of the motivational posters that are usually hung up around an office. Since it is well known that those posters do not do their job very well, a group decided to go against the current and poke some fun at the depressing nature of the workplace. These demotivational posters bring to light real issues with working a 9-5 and the hopelessness one may feel when stuck in one.^[4]

6 Sirenhead

Sirenhead originated back in 2018 as a piece of art by Trevor Henderson. His goal was to essentially design a new monster and since then has gained quite some popularity. Memes featuring Sirenhead usually poke fun at his design or in some cases have him dancing to popular music. The stark contrast between what he’s supposed to be (dark and scary) and his presentation in meme culture (fun and lively) make for a great joke and has potential to continue in many different environments. You may not know this but Sirenhead also has a darker past, being involved in some creepypastas, which are scary stories found on the internet. These stories depict him in a much darker light with him being the main antagonist, causing mayhem and misery.^[5]

Top 10 Internet Memes and Phenomena

5 Declined Credit Card

In this meme, if your credit card declines, whatever you may have purchased is automatically refunded. Now this meme probably wouldn’t have made it to this list if what was purchased was only items like skittles or soda but instead it is something a lot more serious. In most cases of this meme, it shows someone’s credit card declining after they have ordered a rather large hospital procedure. For example, a doctor may remove a bullet from a patient’s body, but when his credit card declines, the doctor simply shoots the patient as a sort of refund.

This meme usually takes images from popular media to relay this message such as Star Wars or Looney Tunes to create a sort of familiarity between the meme and the observer. While this may seem over the top (for which it is), it also highlights the unfair and harsh nature of the U.S.A’s health care system. While a lot of countries have free health care, the States are quite the opposite and charge quite a premium for basically any procedure. In a lot of instances, these bills are unable to be paid by the patient and can lead to debt that is almost worse than the “refunds” in the memes.^[6]

4 WW3 Memes

WW3 memes were brought to light in the first few months of 2020. These memes were making fun of the current political climate at the time, as tensions were high between countries and the threat of a third world war had a scary potential. Looking back on it now, this meme seemed to be a coping mechanism for us as a whole, a way to vent and cope with our concerns through humor. So while they are rather humorous, they are built upon the fear of a very dark and scary reality. Luckily WW3 did not come at this time, or else these memes would have a lot darker of a memory. These memes did not stay around for long either as they quickly faded as the months passed and they became stale as tensions eased.^[7]

3 Gender Reveal Party

Gender reveal parties have been a rather new staple being seen as early as the late 2000’s. Since then they have changed and evolved, first starting out as a small gesture to reveal the gender of a new baby. Early examples of this may be a cake made out of pink or blue dough so that you recognise the gender only after cutting through the cake. Through the years this did not remain the norm as young parents kept on going for bigger and louder ways of announcing their child’s gender. As time went on people started experimenting with popping balloons with guns or using fireworks to celebrate the big reveal. With this, you of course had fires start to break out and cause some serious damage to the surrounding area due.

This meme makes fun of the serious issues and damage such a simple idea such as a gender reveal has caused. Again, this contrast between the intention and result make for some great irony, but as you can see this meme in particular is steeped in rather dangerous, and potentially life endangering activities.^[8]

2 Dad From Coraline

The Dad from Coraline is another great example of taking a dark concept and turning it around so that it’s funny. The beautifully detailed depiction of the Dad lets you fully understand how he feels and in most cases, people on some level can relate to it. This meme attempts to take that hollow or depressive feeling we all get sometimes and turns it into a joke. Reminiscent of using our humor to deter our concerns for a third world war. While this image has been used in numerous ways to make a joke, it is unavoidable to recognise the darker, empty feeling that it was created with and shows. It makes fun of the nature of this generation, with our general confusion and sadness that we internalize, but this meme allows for some relief as we can relate to it rather well.^[9]

1 Don’t Turn Me Into Marketable Plushies

Now this is a rather niche meme, one that is not as widespread as the others, but is still very interesting. This meme takes popular characters from across all media and uses them to satirize capitalism and the greed of the corporations that have created these characters. This meme takes the character and has them beg not to be turned into a stuffed animal, effectively stripping them of their personality. These stuffed animals do not at all capture the spirit of the character they are created after and is a great comparison to how a big corporation will abandon their personality for monetary gain. It goes to represent the real values of these companies, which is rather disturbing.^[10]

10 Memes And Trends That Are Secretly Centuries Old

It was evolutionary biologist (and real love-him-or-hate-him guy) Richard Dawkins who coined the term “meme” in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. He wrote that in the same way that a gene is a self-replicating unit of biological evolution, a meme is a self-replicating unit of cultural evolution. That is to say, it’s an idea that spreads and changes the more it spreads. And, not to get too meta, just look at how the idea of a meme (itself a meme) has changed. Nowadays, when the average person says the word, they mean a funny image someone shared online. 

And they’re partly right. 

Funny online memes are like digital genes, carrying information from person to person, being altered and progressed as they go. Except instead of carrying the blueprints for life, they carry doges, Shreks, and Sean Beans. Sometimes, memes—be they pictures, hashtags, challenges, or not digital at all—have had a huge cultural impact. Here are ten such memes, those that were so dank they changed history.

10 Pooh Bear

The meme—in this case, really any image of Pooh Bear—is heavily censored in China. The country even went so far as to ban the release of the film “Christopher Robin” within its borders just to prevent showing any image of the cuddly ol’ bear. And why? It all dates back to 2013 when President Xi Jinping visited the U.S. and some memers compared him and President Barack Obama to Pooh Bear and Tigger.

Xi was not a fan and considered being memed an affront to the dignity of himself and his office. He is particularly touchy as, in part, his goal to be the figurehead of both a cult of personality and an authoritarian regime. This has made the meme—again, just any image of one simple cartoon bear—into both a symbol of Chinese governmental corruption and protest.

9 ALS Ice Buckets

In 2014, a challenge trend emerged online, organically and gradually growing from a series of unrelated charitable ‘cold-water challenges’ to a massive worldwide meme dedicated to raising money for ALS (also commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease). Raise money they did: over $220 million in 2014 alone.

And the trend—which operates by one poster challenging another to post as well—has made multiple resurgences in the years since. Though none have attained 2014 levels of success, they have generated more and more revenue for ALS-related charities and organizations. The meme has shown an incredible ability to produce grassroots funding and demonstrates the potential memes have to change finance going forward.

8 Radium

Nowadays, even the scientifically illiterate understand that radiation can be dangerous. But in the first half of the complicated 20th century, newly-discovered radioactive elements like radium were thought to be safe. More than that, they were all the rage.

Radium in particular was used in every product imaginable, from makeup to clocks to clothes to medicine. Between being considered a cure-all and its fun self-luminous quality, radium became the catchword of quality in its day. You can find the word on/in all sorts of product labels, commercials, posters, and signs. It was a viral buzzword that brought the dangers of radioactivity worldwide fame.

7 Memento Mori

It is impossible to pick the single most influential and widespread meme today, but in the Medieval and Renaissance periods, the winner is clear: the memento mori. Memento mori, meaning ‘remember that you will die,’ is a motif that appeared in a huge amount of paintings over hundreds of years (and is still in use today).

The gist of the meme is simple: include some object in your work to remind the audience that death is inevitable. This was most often either some timekeeping device set to a penultimate time, some living thing clearly on its way out, or simply a skull. 

Even limiting the meme to just skulls, you can easily find hundreds of examples from paintings. Some are hidden—perhaps a small skull on a shelf whose contents are otherwise normal—and some are the central focus, as in Holbein’s “The Ambassadors.” It’s safe to say that no Renaissance nobles ever forgot that death was drawing nearer.

6 Graffiti-Memes

Before the internet, perhaps the single most common way to spread visual memes was graffiti. With obvious placement on or around high-traffic and high-visibility areas, many graffiti phrases spread from creator to viewer to creator, just as online memes do today.

A notable example is the phrase ‘Frodo Lives!’, which was spray-painted across the world in the ’60s and ’70s as a slogan for the hippie movement, green movement, and Vietnam protests. Another is ‘Clapton is God,’ referencing musician Eric Clapton, which went up across the U.K. and U.S. during the guitarist’s tenure with the band Cream. Another still would be the ‘Kilroy was Here’ drawings that soldiers spread across the world during World War II, bringing a connectedness and levity to soldiers’ bleak tours in combat.

5 Tide Pod Challenge

Like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge’s idiotic, malicious twin, the Tide Pod Challenge arose to show us the power that memes have to effect change. Only this time, the change is stupid and harmful. In 2018, videos began to be posted online in which people—usually teens and 20-somethings—ate Tide Pods. Ate them. They ate Tide Pods.

Tide Pods, compact packets of laundry detergent, are colorful and bite-sized and became increasingly compared to candy. They are, however, incredibly unsafe to eat and the challenge, as well as the flurry of memes surrounding it, led to a spike in injuries from Tide Pod ingestion and even a few deaths. YouTube has since banned the videos, though the phenomenon is undoubtedly not the last meme-generated epidemic of stupidity.

4 Alfred E. Neuman

Mad Magazine is a comedic institution, influencing and even defining satire for generations. The bucktoothed, big-eared mascot that so frequently graces its cover actually has a name: Alfred E. Neuman, and the character has a long and winding history.

In short, the image’s creation is still unknown, but it quickly spread to become a catchall mascot for turn-of-the-20th-century advertisers, being used to sell food, appliances, and services. Its other prominent use was in racist propaganda. Pamphlets and posters from the time show the character, with his exaggerated features, smiling dumbly alongside slogans like, “Irish Need Not Apply” and “Kill the Jews.” As Mad Magazine (before that a comic) gained popularity, they gradually gained control over the character and now his catchphrase has become the much-less inflammatory, “What, me worry?”

3 Trump Wrestles CNN

In 2017, Donald Trump tweeted a short meme video edited to look like he was beating up a personification of news network CNN outside a wrestling ring. It ends with the CNN logo being replaced with one that says “FNN: Fraud News Network.” The clip stirred up a great deal of concern and anger and changed the way memes are perceived in politics for a number of reasons.

For one, it is unprecedented for a sitting leader of a first-world nation to spend so much of his day paying attention to memes. For another, the meme was created by a Reddit user with a long history of racist and anti-semitic posts. For another still, newly-positioned leaders attacking the integrity of the free press has historically been a common tactic of authoritarians. Trump’s oft-repeated ‘fake news’ slogan has drawn many comparisons to Hitler’s ‘lying press’ slogan. 

Both Trump and the clip’s creator apologized for posting the video.

2 Pepe the Frog

The story of Pepe the Frog is a tragedy. The meme began as innocently as possible. Pepe was a character in the online comic Boy’s Club, where the frog mostly just hung out, smoked weed, and joked about silly nonsense. He then became a meme, his face used as a blank canvas to convey a million different ideas and emotions. And then…

We lost him. From 2015-2017, there was a snowball effect, centered at first around Donald Trump and then later around 4chan culture, which took Pepe from the “feels good man” frog to a central symbol used by the alt-right. He has become enmeshed with hate speech, Nazism, and even the 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol. Pepe’s creator, Matt Furie, has been very outspoken about his dislike of Pepe’s cooption and has sued multiple parties and organizations who have profited from using Pepe as a symbol of extremism and hate.

1 Doge

Unlike Pepe, the doge meme began as pure as fresh snow and has remained that way ever since. Doge is easily one of the most popular memes of the internet age and has taken on countless variations over its lifetime. It has appeared in ad campaigns, video games, phone apps, and every corner of the internet. The doge was most famously used as the name and symbol of one of the largest cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin.

Dogecoin is currently valued hundreds of times beyond its initial price, and thanks to repeated endorsements from personalities like Elon Musk, is becoming almost as renowned as Bitcoin. Doge has done more for Dogecoin than lend its face, however. The doge embodies the philosophy of the currency’s creators, who wished to create a fun, relaxed cryptocurrency with an equally fun, relaxed community. Serving as the inspiration for a major currency system, the doge meme proves the potential of memes to effect sweeping change on previously stagnant systems.