Editor’s Note: This article is part of Know Your Meme’s annual Top Ten Review series looking back at some of the most memorable and popular memes, events and people that defined the Internet culture in 2015 as we know it.
2015 was a year of reckoning with many political realities. The Middle East and the West began to bleed into each other, with hundreds of thousands fleeing ISIS/Daesh in Syria and heading to Europe, and the terrorism beginning to bleed into the West as well, with dual attacks in Paris and another in America. In addition, the United States had its own issues with gun control, abortion, same-sex marriage, and of course, Republicans, and the British had problems as well, mainly with a pig. Not every inflammatory hashtag could make this list, so many like #GOPHatesPoorPeople, #FLOTUSBars, Ronald Raven, and #OPIsis couldn't come to the top ten party. The same goes for photo trends like "Put Out Your Onions" and photoshops like #WhereIsPutin and Make America Great Again. But here, in no particular order, are the top ten political memes of 2015 – We just hope you don't Glitterbomb them.
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Kiyiya Vuran Insanlik, usually used as the hashtag #KiyiyaVuranInsanlik, is a Turkish expression meaning “Humanity Washed Ashore.” The hashtag became popular during the European Refugee Crisis of 2015, when it was used on Twitter, usually accompanied by graphic photos of migrants who died during the dangerous journey from the Middle East to Europe. In addition, the hashtag spawned a mutation on the subreddit /r/imgoingtohellforthis, where users created shock or shitpost edits with the original. |
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Sometime on September 1st, 2015, Turkish Twitter users began tweeting the hash tag #KiyiyaVuranInsanlik, along with a photo of the three year-old Syrian boy named Aylan Kurdi, who died overnight on September 1st by drowning during his family’s failed attempt at a night passage from Turkey to Greece. In the photo, Kurdi is face-down in the sand on the beaches of a town called Bodrum, in Turkey. Later reports said that Kurdi’s family was attempting to eventually find their way to Canada. Kurdi’s his five-year-old brother, Galip, and mother, Rehan also died; their father, Abdullah, survived. |
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European Migrant Crisis, Winter-Chan,
You Ain't No Muslim, Bruv
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After a conservative advocacy group produced a series of secretly recorded video conversations with Planned Parenthood employees where the employees appeared to be suggesting that Planned Parenthood sells fetal body parts it extracts in partial-birth abortions, massive, extended outrage rang through the right wing of American politics. Congress attempted several times to revoke funding to Planned Parenthood as a result of the videos but that wasn't the worst of it: in November, 52-year-old Kentucky resident Robert Lewis Dear allegedly opened fire outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, killing three, including a police officer, and wounding at least nine. After he was arrested, Dear allegedly told the police "no more body parts." |
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On July 14th, 2015, a pro-life organization called Center for Medical Progress posted two videos on YouTube, along with a lengthy exegesis on their web site, detailing a meeting they paid two actors to have with Planned Parenthood doctor Deborah Nucatola. In video, the actors are pretending that they are approaching Planned Parenthood as medical professionals interested in beginning a transaction where they purchase body parts from partial birth abortions. Nucatola appears to nonchalantly explain a process by which this would be possible, while eating salad and having wine. |
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Planned Parenthood, 2015 Minneapolis Black Lives Matter Shooting, Senator Wendy Davis' Filibuster
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At the beginning, everyone thought it was going to be about Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz. But then, the improbable happened: Donald Trump entered the race. And then the more improbable happened: Ben Carson turned out to be almost as entertaining as Donald Trump. Our full coverage of the 2016 Republican Presidential Primary encompasses scores of new entries – everything from #TrumpFacts to Hot Debate Guy – so it's best if you just read the entire entry and all the sub-entries if you need to get caught up. |
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Official candidate announcements began all the way back in March and April, giving candidates plenty of time to prepare for the first debate on August 6th. At that point, there were a whopping 17 potential candidates, split into two programs – the ten candidates with the highest poll numbers got prime time, while everyone else was relegated to a debate beforehand. A month later, on September 16th, another debate was held; by that time, two candidates had dropped out. The competition is still rolling into the next year, when the caucuses (and the actual voting!) will begin. |
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Jeb Can Fix It, Marco Rubio's Water Break, A Small Loan of a Million Dollars
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The outpouring of sympathy worldwide after the Paris Terrorist Attacks was truly massive and heartfelt. #PrayForParis is one of many hashtags, including #parisjetaime and #jesuisparis, that became popular worldwide as a means of support and encompassed all digital methods, which ranged from simple hashtag usage to Facebook profile picture masks, picture retweets, and corporations changing their iconography to reflect the flag of France or orther Parisian imagery, like the Eiffel Tower. |
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#PrayforParis was one of many hashtags in use but was by far the most popular – In the 24 hours after the attacks, the hashtag reached a top rate of use of 64,000 tweets per minute, and was used more than 6 million times. Facebook introduced the ability to create a profile picture overlaid with the blue, white, and red stripes of the French flag, while Uber changed their car icons to the same colors. The action was not without criticism, however; Users asked why there was no similar outburst of social media support for Lebanon, who had suffered a similar terrorist attack a day before Paris, and an op-ed from the Washington Post asked if social media support could be considered as narcissism. |
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2015 Paris Terrorist Attacks, Je Suis Charlie, 2015 Charlie Hebdo Terrorist Attack
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It's best to just come out and say what it is: Piggate, alternately known as The Bae of Pigs, Hameron, or The Snoutrage, is the name of a scandal surrounding the British Prime Minister David Cameron, after an unauthorized biography claimed that he inserted his penis into the mouth of a dead pig during an induction ceremony for a secret society at Oxford University. Social media went wild after this account (completely unconfirmed and univerified, natch) was published. |
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On September 20th, 2015, The Daily Mail published an excerpt from an unauthorized biography of British Prime Minister David Cameron by Lord Michael Ashcroft. In the book titled Call Me Dave, Ashcroft alleged that during his college years at Oxford University, Cameron was to be inducted into the infamous Piers Gaveston Society, a secret campus group known for excessive drug-taking and sexual parties. Ashcroft interviewed Cameron’s classmates, one of whom spoke about the induction ceremony for the society, which, apparently, involved a bit of a porcine dalliance. Curiously, this story was scarily similar to an episode of the popular television series Black Mirror, a fact that did not go un-noticed on Twitter. |
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Choppergate, David Cameron, I'm Ronnie Pickering
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No more Putin on the Ritz: In April of 2015, the Russian government placed a ban on impersonating or sharing doctored images of public figures that are deemed out-of-context in relation to their personality or reputation in real life. Of course, in a classic bout of the Streisand Effect, the massive amount of attention the law's passing received only caused people in other countries to make even more memes of Russian public figures. |
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The policy was introduced in early April 2015 as a direct result of a court decision in Moscow which ruled the unauthorized use of Russian singer Valeri Syutkin's images as an internet meme to be an infringement of his privacy. The meme? Well, it was a photograph of the singer with a crude phrase, image macro style:
Meanwhile, both the court ruling and the anti-meme policy were met with heavy scrutiny from the news media in the West, while prompting an upsurge of Putin-related memes from the critics of Vladimir Putin in the social media overseas.
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#WhereIsPutin, Milo Yiannopolous, Blyat
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After a 14 year-old Irving, Texas high school student was suspended for bringing a self-assembled digital clock to school because administrators thought it was a bomb, #IStandWithAhmed trended worldwide in September 2015, often accompanied by a photograph of the twitter user holding a clock. Many have speculated that the incident is an example of Islamophobia and racial profiling, and the hashtag was used to indicate support for the teen, including by many Islamic and minority celebrities, and President Obama.
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The evening that Mohamed's story began to get worldwide publicity, Twitter user Amneh Jafari posted a tweet speculating that Mohamed would've been "labeled as a genius" if he had a different name along with the hashtags "#doublestandards" and "#IStandWithAhmed" (shown below). In the next 72 hours, the tweet gained over 1,000 retweets and 690 favorites.
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Ahmed Mohamed's Arrest, Brussels Lockdown, ISIS-Chan
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Although the movement began in 2013, #BlackLivesMatter, as both a hashtag and a slogan, continued in earnest throughout the year, inspiring many to create hashtags and movements of their own after continued incidents of police brutality and racism, and bringing figures like Shaun King and Deray McKesson further into prominence. In addition, protestors representing the movement interrupted other political events, like a Bernie Sanders presidential rally in July, and caused other controversy online, and may have perhaps led to a shooting at a Minneapolis Rally. |
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Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi began Black Lives Matter as a response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2013. Alicia Garza, writing in The Feminist Wire, explained
Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of Black folks’ contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.
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Police Brutality Controversies, Shaun King, Bernie Sanders
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When the Kentucky state county clerk Kim Davis became a subject of controversy in September 2015 after repeatedly refusing to issue licenses for same-sex marriages based on her religious faith in Apostolic Christianity, the Internet responded with Still Does The Job, an image macro series featuring various fictional characters from TV shows, films and video games with captions highlighting their dedication to professionalism despite the conflict of interest with their personal beliefs. Everyone has to do stuff they don't like, Kim. Get used to it. |
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The first instance was tweeted by San Francisco-based graphic designer Shaun Osburn and his partner Michael. The image macro – based on the X-Files protagonist Dana Scully – had a caption praising the character's work ethics in the style of Good Guy Greg, along with a note to the actress Gillian Anderson asking for her reaction. The actress later stated that the meme was "Brilliant!"
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"Kim Davis Marriage License Controversy":Kim Davis Marriage License Controversy, Indiana and Arkansas Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, Good Guy Greg
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Emotions can be a powerful motivator in the comment section. "I Will Destroy ISIS" is an anti-terrorism comment posted by Disqus user Linda Glocke, which quickly began circulating online as a generally relatable (and ironically humorous) sentiment towards the growing threats of the Islamic jihadist group. Screenshots and photoshops of the comment went truly viral in November 2015, after the ISIS claimed responsibility for yet another wave of deadly terrorist attacks in Paris. Linda: It's up to you now. You've got to destroy ISIS. |
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On January 21st, 2015 Disqus user Linda Glocke wrote "I Will Destroy ISIS" in a comment to an article titled "Islamic State Group Threatens to Kill 2 Japanese Hostages" on ABC7.com, the website of ABC's affiliate channel based in Los Angeles. About an hour after Glocke's post, Redditor Jamesnufc took the earliest known screenshot of the comment and submitted it to the /r/me_irl subreddit as a commentary on the Charlie Hebdo Terror Attacks that had recently taken place in Paris, France. The user tried to scrub Glocke's name from the post, but the blur tool used was not enough to prevent Linda's identity from becoming known worldwide. |
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I;m Thinking About Thos Beans,
Operation ISIS / #OpISIS, Make America Great Again
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