Top TV Memes: The Best Meme Formats From 'Stranger Things'

Stranger Things became an instant classic when it debuted on Netflix in July 2016. It follows an ensemble of characters from Hawkins, Indiana in the 1980s as the town experiences unexplained disappearances and paranormal events linked to a top-secret government lab experiment gone awry. With three completed seasons and more to come, Stranger Things has a huge following among a mostly Millennial and Gen-Z fanbase.

Despite being mostly a horror show, Stranger Things has many lighter moments that have turned into online jokes. From Winona Ryder’s Joyce Byers panicking over the stickiness of magnets to middle schoolers refusing to solve a crisis without performing an accompanying musical number, there are a lot of moments in this show that have been made into memes. Here are some of the best episodes to find them.

Most Popular Memes: Season 3, Episode 1: "Suzie, Do You Copy?"

This episode starts the third season of the show and brings us some great memes. This is largely due to the teenage character Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) working in an ice cream shop, where his friends, who are all children, keep appearing for more ice cream. This leads to his frustrated line, "Again? Seriously?," which has since become a meme that still appears often due to its relevance to any situation from another wave of COVID to America having a societal meltdown of some sort.

At another point in this episode, Steve tries and fails to flirt with a girl. His coworker Robin reacts by holding up a whiteboard where she has kept score of Steve’s failing romantic endeavors. This has also become a viral meme where the text on the whiteboard has been edited in the form of an exploitable. Steve’s new attitude in this episode is also reminiscent of his evolution as a character from a greasy and often creepy high school boy to an odd adoptive father of the neighborhood children, which is another aspect of Steve’s character that’s been memed.

Most Meme Potential: Season 3, Episode 5: "The Flayed"

One plot point of this episode involves two of the protagonists, Joyce and Hopper, trying to communicate with their hostage, a Russian man named Alexei Smirnoff (Alec Utgoff) who speaks no English and is motivated entirely by cherry Slurpees. Despite having the least threatening appearance of all time, Alexei may hold the secrets of a Cold-War-era conspiracy, and much of the episode involves trying to bribe the truth out of him.

It’s a well-known fact that Alexei is one of the greatest characters ever, and when Netflix itself released a 12-hour video of him drinking a Slurpee, there’s plenty of screen time for memes to be made. His childlike innocence and unexplained backstory have led to many memes being made about him, though much of his personality shines in this particular episode as they realize the dangerous man they’ve taken prisoner is nothing like they expected. Alexei’s time with viewers isn’t long, but he makes the most of it, and we all inexplicably come to love him even though we can’t understand most of what he says. From a show with so many characters adored by the fanbase, Alexei is one of the lesser-memed characters out there that deserves more fame.

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