![Who's The 'Hawk Tuah' Girl? The 'Spit On That Thing' Girl, Meme And TikTok Video Explained](https://i.kym-cdn.com/featured_items/icons/wide/000/024/753/hawk_tuah_explainer.jpg)
![2021 In Memes: The Viral Trends Of A Very Unusual Year Two memes from 2021 in the following collection.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/editorials/icons/mobile/000/003/748/2021_in_memes.jpg)
2021 In Memes: The Viral Trends Of A Very Unusual Year
Weâre almost at the end of a very eventful year that many of us wish we could forget. We were so hopeful that 2021 would be better than 2020, and it was, if only a little. But while weâre still getting used to a world where people endlessly debate about wearing a mask, our viral jokes and memes have kept us going.
The world started to end last year. Unless youâve been unfortunate enough to get sick, you probably havenât had to quarantine anymore due to the vaccine ⌠well until the most recent resurgence in cases. This pandemic has ruined our already limited social capabilities. If youâre like some of us, maybe you painted a face on a volleyball back in April 2020 and youâve been talking to it ever since.
In this time of isolation, memes have helped us cope, and when schools and offices reopened, theyâve helped us cope with the agony of going back to the real world too. Take a walk down memory lane with some of the big events of 2021 that led to huge memes and viral trends this year.
![Get Ready Halloween 2021 be like Posted in r/memes by u/Lewandabski710 Oreddit](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/217/195/eed.jpg)
Winter
The year didnât start horribly. We had much higher expectations than weâd like to admit. It was the end of 2020, and now that a new year was starting, we really hoped weâd be able to return to what once resembled normal civilization. In a way, we were right, as some of the earliest vaccines began to be distributed. On January 20th, Joe Biden was inaugurated as President of the United States, and because we just canât take anything seriously, we cared more about an image of Bernie Sanders sitting in a chair, wearing mittens. No one really can explain why the picture is so funny, but itâs one of the most recognizable memes of the year.
![What was funny about Bernie sitting in the chair raina @quakerraina I feel like enough time has finally passed that I can safely ask this. What was funny about Bernie sitting in the chair 10:15 PM ¡ Oct 20, 2021 ¡ Twitter for iPhone 653 Retweets 113 Quote Tweets 21.7K Likes](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/235/190/0ee.png)
Vaccination rates started to increase more drastically in February. This (predictably) gave rise to more anti-vaxx memes because â let's not get into it actually. Anti-vaxx memes have always been a huge part of internet culture, but now theyâre bigger than ever.
Then, early in March, Oprahâs interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry premiered, which provided us with many more completely irrelevant memes than comments about the actual content of the interview. Some people engaged in online debates about Meghan and Harryâs reveals, while most insisted on making memes about Oprahâs exaggerated reactions to everything the couple said.
![Oprah Reacts](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/040/064/5cc.png)
Spring
By late March, things werenât looking so promising. The Ever Given got stuck sideways in the Suez Canal, halting much of the worldâs trade for nearly a week. Weirdly enough, this happened a second time later this year. The sheer absurdity of the situation was enough to generate thousands of memes, from those about the lone excavator trying to dig the giant ship out of the canal to petitions to add a second ship.
![Pirates of Madagascar Leaked footage from inside the ship stuck in the Suez Canal MermeZila.com](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/196/547/d3e.png)
In April, it was time for the long-awaited Josh Fight. Due to the failure of the Area 51 raid, which was arguably similar in planning, no one really expected anything from it. Surprising everyone, the Josh Fight had a turnout of nearly one thousand people, both competitors and spectators. The event was also livestreamed to a vast and very confused audience. The original Josh Swain, who arranged the event, won the right to keep his name against a challenger, but 5-year-old âLittle Joshâ was declared the supreme Josh by the end of the day.
![King Of The Joshes Little Josh Dad Bod Josh Spider Man * Josh Jedi Josh OG Josh Ĺwain Imposter Josh Swain](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/084/453/226.png)
In May, Samsung Sam made her first appearance. Some wish this hadnât become such a big deal, but an unofficial Samsung âpersonal assistantâ concept went viral nonetheless. Not for any good reason, of course, but rather for the Rule 34 artists to use their "creative" imaginations. The whole internet saw some things it didnât want to ever think about (or did), and now weâre sure Samsung will never make Sam a real thing.
Summer
June 2021 was memorable for having dozens of huge memes. While these memes didnât necessarily coincide with any particular event, the spread of formats and trends such as Anakin and Padmeâs "For the Better, Right?" and Sadam Husseinâs Hiding Place, more formats from Invincible and the famous TikTok meme "Thereâs No Such Thing as a Coincidence."
![Two races of extraterrestrial invaders. One wants to save us, one wants to enslave us](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/143/183/8c7.jpg)
In July 2021, Jeff Bezos launched himself into space in a rocket shaped like human genitalia, then returned wearing a cowboy hat, so we donât need to explain why this became such a famous meme. The postponed 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan also started this month. Along with it came numerous viral rumors about the allegedly âanti-sexâ cardboard beds the athletes slept on, pleas for Hatsune Miku to star in the opening ceremonies and memes about Annika Schleuâs horse. As usual, there were also a lot of memes about how no one seemed to have any fun watching the Olympics, and itâs just something theyâre socially expected to do instead. Either way, at least we found humor in it somewhere.
August was a politically charged month, with many memes about the U.S. removing troops from Afghanistan. On the internet, weâre mostly terrible people, so itâs not particularly surprising that the chaos that ensued in Kabul was memed constantly. Thereâs one of these memes every year. We canât say weâre surprised the worldâs response was a bunch of dark humor memes.
![Hurry Up Amazon workers running to use the bathroom while Jeff Bezos is in space uvkarvina 42](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/162/693/459.jpg)
Fall
September was when the second ship got itself lodged in the Suez Canal in a move that was somehow funnier the second time. It didnât last long, and instead, we focused on the return to schools, which happened at approximately this time all around the U.S., and everyone was eager to complain about it through memes. Weâd forgotten how inconvenient it was to leave our beds for the commute and wear normal clothes instead of pajamas to a class that occurs in person instead of through a Zoom call. We could no longer mute our classes when we got bored either.
In October, we had a lukewarm Spooktober. Not all of us were in the spooky spirit, and thatâs not particularly surprising given the circumstances. But this is also the month when Squid Game gained a massive following, becoming one of Netflixâs most popular shows of all time, as well as a frequent source of new memes, such as the many screenshots and reenactments taken from Red Light, Green Light.
![Otis the Cow in Squid Game @brusnos](https://a.kym-cdn.com/assets/blank-b3f96f160b75b1b49b426754ba188fe8.gif)
November saw the return of a particular meme holiday tradition we're sure you're familiar with. So instead, weâll mention the Two Guys on a Bus meme and the trend of screenshotting NFTs to claim them as your own. Itâs also that time of year when Mariah Carey thaws out and retail workers hear so much Christmas music they would rather gouge out their eardrums with a candy cane than tolerate it for another minute. Festive memes began to take hold, as well as COVID-themed festive memes.
Aside from a December full of our frustrations about holiday shopping and finals week in the U.S., we learned how to ponder our orb thanks to a new wizard-themed meme format that rapidly took over the month. The Omicron variant also took off, leaving us frustrated and largely back to where we were in early 2020. Overall, weâve had a bad year, but some pretty good memes that came out of it. At least itâs not 2020.
![Smudge The Cat Pondering Its Yarn - Pondering My Orb Meme wwwe RGA](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/267/175/11a.jpg)
At the very least, we have a couple of Marvel shows and movies, The Book of Boba Fett and many other time-killing things to look forward to in the near future, as well as the long-awaited Lord of the Rings television series. In theory, things will be brighter next year, but as long as itâs not like 2020, weâre not complaining too much.
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