25 Of The Most Iconic Twitter Memes To Remember If The Platform Actually Does Shut Down

For many internet users, it's hard to imagine a world without Twitter. Would humanity be better off? Would your unemployed friend finally get a job, or would the world just be pushed out to the outskirts of the internet, forced onto Tumblr and TikTok, forced out to breathe the cringe of a Twitter-less void?

It's difficult to wrap one's head around the last few weeks of Elon Musk's new ownership of Twitter, and many are scrambling to document and preserve all sorts of culture from the platform as worries of it being lost forever swirl online.

Luckily, should worse come to worst, one shouldn't be too concerned about the history of great memes that have come from Twitter being completely lost, as Know Your Meme and its many invaluable users have spent over a decade documenting and preserving all sorts of viral phenomena from Twitter since its inception.

So, before we take a walk down memery lane, let's first address the elephant in the room.

Is Twitter Shutting Really Down?

Without all of the poetics, it's impossible to say if Twitter is shutting down, even if that's what countless users on Twitter have been saying in the last 24 hours.

After Elon Musk's long-winded acquisition of the company that finally went through in October, it's easy to see why the series of controversial changes and layoffs have both intrigued and disparaged Twitter's userbase.

From the fake firings of Ligma and Johnson to the real firings of CEOs, CFOs and thousands of staff, Musk was at centerstage with his vision and direction going forward — which seems to be anyone's guess as to what will happen next.

What did he do? He decided to let that sink in, make blue checkmarks cost $8 and ramp up the Twitter Blue subscription service so that scammers and impersonators could fool millions with unofficial verifications.

Rumors started to manifest on Thursday night that Twitter was in bad shape, mostly due to a memo that Musk sent his employees that read like an ultimatum to many. It was titled "A Fork In The Road" and told staff that the website was about to go "extremely hardcore," in that, any employee who wasn't prepared for "working long hours at high intensity" would be laid off on the afternoon of November 17th, 2022, with three months severance.

Many memes started surfacing on the night of as reports came in stating most employees had not said "yes" to Musk's ultimatum. What could be next? The memes imagined …

Of course, it's unknown if Twitter will actually go down, but if it does, Know Your Meme has luckily collected countless, classic Twitter memes over the years that won't be lost for good.

So, just in case you're feeling down about the potential of Twitter going down, here are 25 of them to reflect on some of the gems the social platform's given us over the years.

Milkshake Duck

Milkshake Duck is an internet slang term referring to a representation of a viral internet star who is briefly adored by the public prior to the discovery of their distasteful or offensive past. There are a lot of "milkshake ducks" out there and there will only be more. We have Twitter user @pixelatedboat to thank for this term, who first uttered it on June 12th, 2016. It eventually won "Word of the Year."

Dril

Out of all of Twitter's gimmick accounts, Dril might be one of the most iconic, founding the building blocks for Weird Twitter. Whoever they are, they gained a large fan following through seemingly nonsensical tweets, similar to the Horse_ebooks Twitter account. Their identity is suspected to be Jacob Bakkila, a former Buzzfeed employee. Dril posted its first tweet on September 15th, 2008, with a simple message only reading "No."

Corn Cobbed

One of the most iconic Dril tweets was the Corn Cobbed tweet, which became a slang term meaning to lose a social exchange and insist that you have not lost the exchange. It is used synonymously with owned. It gained notoriety in 2017 when centrist political pundits, accused of being "corn cobbed," decried the term, misunderstanding it as homophobic. It has also become a pejorative for political centrists for this reason.

The Ratio / Ratiod

Yes, Twitter came up with The Ratio, also known as Getting Ratioed. It refers to an unofficial Twitter law that states if the amount of replies to a tweet greatly outnumbers the number of retweets and likes, then the tweet is bad. Additionally, "to ratio" a tweet means to make a quote retweet or reply that manages to get more likes and retweets than the quoted post.

Woke Toddler

The Woke Toddler is a series of Twitter jokes where the poster makes up a fantastical story about their precocious child asking them a question about politics. Don't believe these stories of a toddler being woke? Well, good because they're not real. Again, this was a huge Weird Twitter trend that blew up in 2014.

Tyler, The Creator's Cyber-Bullying Tweet

Out of all of Twitter's famous users, rapper Tyler, the Creator was one of the most savvy. He always tweeted in all-caps, as if he was screaming every joke. His most famous tweet is arguably his Cyber-Bullying Tweet, that turned into a copypasta that mocked anti-cyberbullying sentiments.

Quirked Up White Boy Goated With The Sauce

Quirked Up White Boy Goated With The Sauce was the zoomer, slang overload that a new generation of Weird Twitter users needed. It became a trending copypasta reading, "quirked up white boy with a little bit of swag busts it down sexual style.. is he goated with the sauce?" The bizarre combination of words led to jokes on Twitter and other platforms in late 2021 after appearing in a viral tweet.

Damn Daniel

Damn Daniel changed Twitter and the internet in one of the most forgettable ways known. That's not taking anything away from the viral video. The video montage features a voiceover of a teenager complimenting his friend Daniel on his fashionable attire on a number of different occasions. Due to the narrator's particular obsession with Daniel's sneaker shoes, the video has drew comparisons to the 2015 viral video sensation "What Are Those?!"

Ninja’s "Braless Wife" Tweet

Ninja's 'Braless Wife' Tweet is one of the most egregiouly strange tweets that came from none of than streamer Ninja where he wrote that his bra-less wife brought him a sandwich (not asked for) while he was carrying a League of Legends game and getting a double kill bot lane. The tweet was posted in May 2021 and became a copypasta and the subject of memes in the following year, many finding its braggadocious and revealing tone cringey.

Covfefe

Of course, Covfefe (pronounced "cuv-fey-fey") has to be in here because Trump was an avid Twitter user and when he mistakenly posted this odd tweet in May 2017, it was left up for more than six hours before being deleted, leading to a slew of puns, jokes, and confusion, resulting in #covfefe becoming the #1 trending hashtag in the world and prompting coverage from multiple news outlets.

Green Line Test

The Green Line Test Don't Lean In is a Twitter trend originating from parodies of a thread on the platform which argues that men leaning toward women in pictures betrays the man's neediness and weak mindset. Many criticized the tweet as having a flimsy argument, while others posted parodies using pictures showing "weak" leaning by drawing green lines over images of various people, often celebrities. Twitter user Rivelino the Artist is behind the trend.

Twitter Reenactments

Twitter Reeneactments are text-based simulations of a factual event or a fictional story on the microblogging platform. Each project typically involves employing one or more novelty Twitter accounts to publish a series of "real-time" status updates that correspond to the chronological timeline of the original event.

This Nigga Eatin Beans

This Nigga Eating Beans was a deleted tweet by Twitter user @alaskancarl1. The full text reads, "I spilled baked beans all over myself watching Cars 2 in theaters & a black teenager shouted 'this nigga eating beans' & everyone laughed." Online, people post either the full text verbatim or just the phrase "this nigga eating beans," which serves as the punchline to various jokes.

Ted Cruz "Likes" a Pornographic Tweet

One of the biggest Twitter blunders happened in 2017 when Texas Senator Ted Cruz 'Liked' a Pornographic Tweet. It was visible for an hour or so on September 11th, 2017 visible in his "likes." Yikes, the video was not safe for work or his political career. He denied that it was him who liked it.

Tommy Needy Drinky

Tommy Needy Drinky refers to a copypasta inadvertently started by Twitter user @TomJorgenson12 who complained about Bernie Sanders, his ex-wife, and a "tenant from hell." The copypasta reads, "Between B*rnie, my ex-wife, the tenant from hell, and general chumpfuckery, this has been a cromulent fuckcrustable of a day. Tommy needy drinky." After the tweet was first posted, it slowly became a copypasta on Twitter.

Emoji Sheriff

Emoji Sheriff refers to a snowclone popular on originally posted by comedian Brand Wardell in2017. It's when a person creates the likeness of an old American West law enforcement officer using various emojis. The character then introduces itself with "Howdy. I'm the sheriff of X. I'm gonna X," with X changing depending on the emoji used.

You’re Telling Me A Shrimp Fried This Rice?

You're Telling Me a Chicken Fried This Rice? refers to a snowclone in which a person intentionally misinterprets a phrase, such as "chicken-fried rice," and asks a question about it in the format "You're telling me a (x) fried this (y)?" Though it originated in the early 2010s, the format grew popular in the latter half of 2019.

Guys Literally Only Want One Thing And It’s Fucking Disgusting

Guys Literally Only Want One Thing And It's Fucking Disgusting refers to a series of tweets which pair various humorous images with a tweet that reads "Guys literally only want one thing and it's fucking disgusting." It's one of those trends and sayings that's felt like it's been around forever.

You vs. The Guy She Told You Not to Worry About

You vs. The Guy She Told You Not to Worry About is a series of captioned images comparing two male subjects or fictional characters side-by-side, with the one on the right being the more desirable suitor of the two. In August 2016, the meme spawned hundreds of iterations after going viral on Twitter.

Yes, We Exist

Yes, We Exist refers to a snowclone jokes which grew popular on Twitter in late February of 2018. In the snowclone, a person states a facet of their identity, then says they do something which completely contradicts that identity, and ends the tweet with "We exist."

This Is the Ideal Male Body

You may not like it but This Is The Ideal Male Body. Also known as “This is the ideal 'male' body,” refers to a series of jokes parodying a tweet posted by Canadian-American conservative media personality Steven Crowder that highlighted a picture of Russian heavyweight MMA fighter Fedor Vladimirovich Emelianenko as an example of the ideal male physique.

Pondering My Orb

Pondering My Orb, also known as Ponder Orb, became the biggest meme of 2021 and refers to a series of exploitables that feature a drawing of a sagely figure looking into a crystal ball. After being posted to Twitter in October 2021 with the caption "pondering my orb," users online edited the picture to feature different characters or used the image in other meme templates. In late November 2021, the meme saw a further resurgence and appeared across social media and the internet more prominently than the month prior.

Wife Guys

Wife Guys refers to a phenomenon originally portrayed in male Twitter users who post devotedly about their wives, often to a suspicious degree, as though they were doing so for some means of personal gain. The term grew in popularity after a string of humorous controversies involving men and their wives happened within a few years in the late 2010s.

@Wendys

The official Twitter account of Wend's fast food @Wendys changed the game of branded accounts on the platform. The account is known for its funny and sarcastic responses to customer complaints and questions. Some highlights were "Fresh Never Frozen," "Wendy Pepe" and the "McDonald's Feud."

You Know I Had to Do It to Em

You Know I Had to Do It to Em was maybe the greatest selfie shared on Twitter. It shows user LuckyLuciano17k standing on a sidewalk wearing a light-colored shirt and shorts with the caption "You know I had to do it to em." It was photoshopped en masse following its upload.

These are just a sample of the many iconic memes Twitter has given us over the years, so if you want to see even more, you can check out all of KYM's extensive Twitter entries here.