KYM Review: Ironic Memes of 2016

Editor’s Note: This article is part of Know Your Meme’s annual review series looking back at some of the most memorable and popular memes, events and people that defined the Internet culture in 2016 as we know it.

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rony in 2016 was the universe's answer to an extremely chaotic set of circumstances. As the world got weirder, so did the memes. There was new random shit being meme'd daily, which created the need for a meme stock market. Weird Facebook grew into a thriving subcommunity of pages filled with bizarre aesthetics and depressed texts, which Mark Zuckerberg started attacking for reasons unknown. Youtube poops came back. People just read the entire script to Bee Movie, for reasons they didn't understand. It was as though every sad emotion could be shared with the aesthetic and voice of a Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon and that was just how the internet worked this year. It was madness, a chaotic war of meme magic and meme lords. A time traveling meme even showed up in the end. The ironic memes of 2016 were a return to the sort of anti-humor that characterized the early internet, only with a lot more darkness behind them. But we also got wholesome memes, Dat Boi, visions of a more wholesome, positive new day. The meme war may be over, but the battle for meme souls still rages.

Layers of Irony

(Extremely Tim & Eric voice) Layers of Irony… what a concept. Made famous by one Meme Man comic, "Layers of Irony" came to define 2016 meme culture. You don't understand a meme going around? Well then, you're just not on enough layers of irony, my dude. From the deepest levels came some of the most bizarre, short-lived, but weirdly hilarious memes without punchlines or context. They simply appeared, and you had to be in the know. Or not; part of the fun of the ironic meme surge was just going along for the ride. What are we talking about today? Long Boy? Okay, sure. BIG BOY ZONE.

It's absurd yet it makes perfect sense. In the original comic's fourth panel, when Meme Man's eyes light up as he says "SUCC," it is understood that he has seen irony levels you and I could never dream of reaching. He is within the deepest layer of irony, manipulating us little babies by giving us new memes we are too stupid to understand. And we are grateful, for, like nirvana, the deepest layer of irony is impossible to achieve, yet is the most noble of goals.

Dat Boi

Here he is. It is the frog on the unicycle. It is dat boi who says "o shit waddap."

Dat Boi was truly the moment which demonstrated that memes have changed. No longer does a meme need to be a pop culture reference or a relatable joke. Dat Boi proved a meme could be successful as a self-contained entity, shared for nothing other than some strange sense of obligation. And sure enough, soon he rode through social media, brightening the days of those he passed. "O shit waddap," they said. "It's dat boi!" He's like that one car everyone in your neighborhood knows because it looks super weird, or the guy who wanders around dressed like a wizard every day. Dat Boi was just there, no context or meaning behind him, just a jovial little dude on a unicycle who became one of the memes of the year. Now that's a beat we can all O Shit Waddap to.

The Meme Renaissance of Me_IRL

Picture it: October, 2016. It's been a week since the last good meme had quenched the Reddit's everpresent thirst. Forced memes had been trickling through the Me_IRL subreddit, but they could not sustain the populace. People starved. Children wept as their mothers cradled them, praying that God may bless them with a new meme. And then, he came. A savior. A bear. In a Big Blue House.

On October 4th, 2016, redditor Zonemasta8 submitted a post titled [BREAKING NEWS] Bear in the big house meme speculated to be meme of the month during the prolonged meme drought to /r/memeeconomy speculating that Bear In The Big Blue House memes could be the possible solution the the Great Meme Drought of October. And he was. Zonemasta8's post made the Reddit front page that day. But no one could anticipate what would happen next. Soon, the meme economy grew unstable. Memes lived and died in the span of hours. People spent their life savings on Trebuchets memes, only to watch the stock plummet like a 90kg projectile thrown over 300 meters. It was a wild, unpredictable time, but it revived the meme economy by flooding the market. Many memes that may have lived wonderful lives died in that time. Bionicle. Watch Those Wrist Rockets. Today, we honor their sacrifice.

/r/MemeEconomy

With so many memes flooding the market, it can be difficult to tell which are worthy of your time and which are simply flashes in the pan. Luckily, a subreddit community devoted to tracking memes came to help. /r/MemeEconomy became a thriving subreddit in which users debate the long-term sustainability of memes, ultimately asking the age-old question: sell or buy?

Sure, there isn't actual money involved, but that doesn't make the work done at /r/MemeEconomy any less important. Rather than cash, users of the subreddit trade using Good Boy Points (GBP), and GBP is literally invaluable. For example, one may have thought that the recent rise in How Many Upvotes for Our Boys in Blue? memes may have made it a valuable property, but aficionados at /r/MemeEconomy knew that the shelf life of the meme would be short lived. Those in the subreddit who advocated selling shares of the meme likely made a killing.

In all seriousness, the meteoric rise of /r/MemeEconomy demonstrates that memes are something people want to take seriously--while not actually being all that serious about them. That a subreddit which works on the premise of a meme stock market took off in 2016 illustrates that people follow memes extremely closely and likely, if they really wanted to, would buy and sell shares if there was real money involved. That's wild.

Meme Lord

The idea of a Meme Lord grew to prominence in 2016 as memes became a cultural force in 2016. To know memes was to know a language of the internet everyone else struggled to understand. Suddenly, knowing memes garnered cultural credibility. And followers of so-called meme lords responded in kind with devotion and praise to those who deliver daily keks.

The idea of a meme lord underscores the importance memes took on in 2016. It also helps illustrate the seemingly random happenings of the meme universe, making it easy to believe that, like Gods, the meme lords are working in mysterious ways. It's an imaginary title only few can achieve. Even I, who work all day on the memes, cannot yet claim the title of Meme Lord. For There can only be one Lord of the Meme. And he does not share power.

Meme Magic

If you were to tell me in January that 2016 would see a surge in a thing called Meme Magic, I would have laughed in your face, but one election later and suddenly I believe in the Cult of Kek.

The evidence is undeniable. Did you know The Cult of Kek values the number 7? And that the 77777777th post on 4chan said "Trump Will Win"? Do you think this is mere coincidence?

Or maybe people like to invent fun ironic conspiracies to keep themselves entertained in this wild and crazy world. Either way, the magic of kek inspired the internet this year, and considering what transpired, meme magic is as good an explanation for 2016 as anything else I've heard.

Wholesome Memes

Memes undoubtedly became more than just vehicles for jokes in 2016. For many, they became practically a legitimate form of communication. Nothing demonstrated this phenomenon more than Wholesome Memes, a trend where familiar meme templates used genuine, supportive text instead of jokes.

Wholesome Memes achieve the goal of relating positive and intimate emotions while remaining safely behind a layer of irony, which is extremely useful for the emotionally stunted mememakers of the internet. From an outside perspective, the memes provide a much-needed breather from snark, irony, and jokes that punch down, the general modus operandi for memes. It feels weird to add memes whose very point is sincerity to a list of "ironic memes," but a look at the reactions to some wholesome memes will reveal just how many people can't wrap their head around a meme that is genuinely supportive. Love them or hate them, you have to admit it's nice to see some good-natured memes now and again.

Meme Wars

This year brought the greatest meme war of the modern era. The 2016 meme war had genuine, real life consequences. Think about Pepe the Frog, The Deplorables, the alt-right. It was ugly and bloody, and it may have actually helped elect Donald Trump. There will never be another like it.

The Meme War of 2016 proved that people want to participate in politics, even if that participation is as silly as editing swastikas onto a cartoon frog. Memes grew into weapons of counterculture, the trade of trolls who suddenly had the eyes of the mainstream media. The campaign for Hillary Goddamn Clinton wrote a post condemning Pepe after a 4chan guy shouted the name of Matt Furie's frog at her for the lulz. The lulz shook America like they never have before. Our grandparents regale us with stories of when they stormed the beaches at Normandy. We will regale our children with stories of whether we were on the side of Pepe or Kermit.

This Meme Is From the Future

The year of ironic memes, shitposts, and random popular images concluded with one final hurrah: This Meme Is From the Future. A post by Redditor DanknessIn_MemesOut on Me_IRL lampooned the year in irony by posting a photo of an old man falling with the caption "This meme is from the future. You don't get the reference yet."

The joke is a simple wink to the randomness of the year's memes, but that didn't stop it from taking on a lore of its own. Soon the old man was understood to be from the year of 42069 (because of course he is), where he was the meme from December of that year and traveled back to our time. It then inspired a number of variations as folks reveled in the randomness of the future. As a meme, it bizarrely summed up the year in irony. The meme needed no context. Memes this year could have come from any time, with a reference point totally optional. The future looks bright and dank.

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