The internet continued producing wonderfully bizarre ideas and memes throughout 2013, with Reddit – the self-branded “frontpage of the internet” becoming even more prevalent in pushing videos and pictures viral than in 2012.
Here we break down to the top ten internet memes of the year that was 2013.
10. Charles Ramsey
Charles Ramsey is an Ohio resident who shot to fame in May this year after giving his colourful account of how he helped three women escape from captivity after being abducted by his neighbour Ariel Castro. Ramsey was instantly heralded as a hero online, and his interview was songified/remixed into the catchy “Dead Giveaway”
9. Unflattering Beyonce
Beyoncé may be a musical superstar that has produced one of the most unexpected and finest pop albums of the year, but that doesn’t mean that she can be perfect from every angle all the time. In 2013 the internet had some fun in pointing this out with the Unflattering Beyonce meme, where one particularly unflattering image grab of the popstar was photoshopped everywhere.
8. Thumbs and Ammo
In a year in which gun control remained a talking point in the US, one blog was determined to share the message that “Real tough guys don’t need guns, they just need a positive, can-do attitude”. The Thumbs and Ammo blog (and copycat meme) photoshopped out the guns of famous movie scenes and posters, such as Al Pacino in Scarface above, and replaced them with a thumbs up. Good vibes.
7. Doge
Doge, a slang term for dog, rose to prominence in the last few months of 2013, with pictures of a Shiba Inu dog, nicknamed “Shibe”, with its internal monologues photoshopped onto the image in Comic Sans. Sometimes the inner working of the internet remains a mystery.
6. Hadokening (Makankosappo)
マカンコウサッポウ！！！！！ pic.twitter.com/SKyVwJUyAI
— ちゃんまん (@mkpiiii9) March 25, 2013
Taking style cues from Street Fighter and Dragon Ball, Hadokening is a meme from Japan that involves the recreation of a “Ki attack” knockout sequence, where one person appear to blow back those surrounding them. The photo above is the image that started it all of by Twitter user @mkpiiii9.
5. Astronaut Chris Hadfield in space
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield spent a good part of 2013 orbiting the earth in the International Space Station, but managed to connect with people on the ground better than almost anyone since Neil Armstrong with his clever use of social media. He answered the questions everyone wanted to know about space, from how to go to the toilet or how to cry, and then in a final goodbye he recorded a rendition of David Bowie’s Space Oddity from up in the skies.
4. Dashboard camera videos
In Russia, people regularly mount video cameras on their car dashboards to avoid scams where people claim they hit them with their car or caused an accident. These always-on devices, however, mean that they capture all kinds of outrageous moving pictures from near-misses and crashes to meteors streaming through the sky.
3. Twerking
Twerking as a dance move had been gaining popularity for a while, but it was Miely Cyrus’ provocative performance at the VMA’s, rubbing herself up and down Robin Thicke. The performance resulted in a number of claims that she was corrupting today’s youth, as well as many instructional videos and a fake twerking fail video produced by Jimmy Kimmel Live.
2. What does the fox say?
No breakout internet hit quite reached the level of success found around the world with Gangnam Style in 2012, but the tongue-in-cheek EDM video from Norwegian comedy duo Ylvis about the sound a fox makes made a huge impact with the video receiving over 300 million views.
1. Harlem Shake
Who didn’t do the Harlem Shake in 2013? What started off a a small internet meme of people dressed up and dancing to Baauer’s Harlem Shake track soon exploded with everyone from office workers around the world to underwater swim teams to the Norwegian army getting in on the action.
