Top TV Memes: The Best Formats From 'Breaking Bad'

Breaking Bad is a popular TV show starring Bryan Cranston as Walter White, a middle-aged high school teacher who becomes a methamphetamine supplier after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. He enlists the help of one of his former students, Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman, and begins cooking meth in an RV in the hopes of bringing home enough money for his family and treatments. However, over time he loses control and his situation progressively spirals into something much worse, until he ultimately becomes known as an infamous drug manufacturer named "Heisenberg."

This show was incredibly popular during its time on the air (2008 through 2013) and is often labeled by critics as one of the best TV shows of all time — though this has been debated among many audiences, mostly due to conflicting levels of hatred for Walt. Recently, the show has increased in popularity after memes about Dean Norris, who plays DEA agent and Walt’s brother-in-law Hank Schrader, went viral. Of course, there are many other memes to stem from this show due to its massive cult following. Here are some of the best episodes to find them.

Most Popular Memes: Season 1, Episode 7: "A No-Rough-Stuff-Type Deal"

In this episode, Walt makes the bad decision to sell several pounds of meth to a distributor named Tuco Salamanca (Raymond Cruz) without his partner’s consent. Neither of them has anywhere near the amount of meth they promised, and since they don’t have the supplies, they break into a warehouse for a barrel of methylamine. Upon learning Walt’s plan to use materials such as this to create mass quantities of meth, Jesse exclaims, "Yeah Mr. White! Yeah Science!" and Walt awkwardly ignores him. This is frequently misquoted as Yeah Science, Bitch! and has become one of the most popular memes in the show.

However, there’s a lot more to this episode that could be made into memes, but for some reason hasn’t. Perhaps the best example is Walt and Jesse’s means of stealing a giant barrel of methylamine, which involved trapping a security guard in a port-o-potty and then very slowly shuffling away with both of them holding one end of the giant cylinder, apparently unaware that round things roll, which would make their lives infinitely easier. Later in the series, the DEA even mocks them while watching the two masked figures stumble around on video. Ironically, this isn’t even the worst of the decisions made by Hank and Jesse in this episode, as the two soon discover.

Most Meme Potential: Season 3, Episode 2: "Caballo Sin Nombre"

At this point in the series, Breaking Bad is funnier than it’s supposed to be. In the following episodes, you’ll be blessed with views of Walt trying to kiss his boss for literally no reason at all, throwing a potted plant through his wife’s boss’s window and more, none of which make any sense. In this fateful episode, the shift first starts to occur when Walt harasses a highway patrol officer and finds himself pepper-sprayed and arrested. Eventually, he breaks into his own home for a dramatic shower, but before that, he tries to reconcile with his angry wife through the offering of an unsliced pizza. This fails, and he responds by hurling the entire pie onto the roof of his house, where he leaves it to dry out and melt for the rest of the day.

It’s a spiritual experience watching a drug lord have a nervous breakdown and a pizza-filled temper tantrum. In a way, the pizza, left to rot in the New Mexico sun, represents all of our expectations for this series. But many devoted fans took it upon themselves to appear at the house used in filming the show (which was occupied by unsuspecting new owners) and throw their own pizzas on the roof in a ritual that’s become a vile, borderline-illegal waste of pizza. It’s all absurdly ridiculous, and for a show that’s nowhere near a comedy, this episode is perfect in showing just how far off the rails Breaking Bad and its fans can go.

---

Meme Insider is a Know Your Meme publication and the world's leading internet culture magazine. Find out how to get your first print copy for free, and check out the Meme Insider website for more info.