Crumpled up pieces of paper (that just barely missed the trash can), a dartboard with the number "67" on it and a boiling vat of AI slop (for lunch) are just a few vignettes from the Know Your Meme office in the big 2025.

This week, as we all huddled around an open pit fire in the breakroom, tossing iPads in that we stole from iPad babies to both keep warm and save the world (it's a happy hour tradition!), we discussed in great detail the highs and lows of this year in memes.

Like an old tavern conversation, our bellies hurt from releasing all the LOLs pent up over the past 12 months. Ol' Don doesn't let us crack a smile, not even a twitch of the lip, or else we'll never laugh again (he's a wizard with real powers!).

So … let's let loose and get down to business. With all of the new slang and wacky stories, there's a lot to choose from. Here's what we decided on.

Zach

But You Can't Prove It / James Doakes Reaction Images

I’ll admit, I never watched Dexter up until last year, after my wife wanted to rewatch it before the new spinoff started. So, this one is a bit timely for me, too, but my single favorite meme of the year has probably been all of the James Doakes reaction images going around.

I absolutely love these kinds of simple and highly adaptable meme formats where people can use them for all sorts of different fandom and community jokes. It's been really funny to see them continue being edited all year long to fit different fandoms of mine or other real-world events.

This meme has also easily been one of the longest-lasting and most prevalent formats of 2025, and I think it’ll stick around for a long time.

'Polyamorous' 'Not What I'm Called'

Like I said in my other pick, really funny exploitables are often my favorites, so the whole Polyamorous, Not What I'm Called series of memes has been another personal favorite of the year.

I also really like some good wordplay, so it was hilarious to see how many different jokes and references people squeezed out of this relatively simple format. It might've been a bit short-lived compared to some of the bigger memes in 2025, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one as it kept popping up all over the site and other platforms this year.

Clanker

I’m a bit of an AI hater, so "clanker" was a pretty easy pick for me while also trying not to pick anything other staff grabbed here. While I do think some of the AI discourse is really annoying, such as people thinking everything is AI these days without even trying to actually consider it, the internet coming up with an actual term to hate on artificial intelligence and AI bros has been so funny to watch.

Seeing the internet just immediately adopt this term and spread it like wildfire was pretty satisfying, and if it wasn’t for 6-7, I think it’d probably be the biggest slang term most people would’ve pointed to this year.

I also am not a big fan of Star Wars, but knowing this loosely came from The Clone Wars is even better 'cause that's easily my favorite part of the franchise.

Brianna

Italian Brainrot

The weekend Italian Brainrot hit the mainstream, I was on a group trip with friends. We spent three days holed up in an Airbnb, and every morning I was greeted with some new variation of "Bombardiro Crocodilo" before I even got a "good morning."

Between enduring my friends repeating it nonstop and seeing it all across my social feeds, the meme had completely wormed its way into my brain by the end of the trip. Watching it catch on with the masses, despite being AI slop, was akin to watching a virus spread. Kids' toys in Italy were even being made based on the main characters of the "Brainrotverse."

If you're keeping up with the lore and the diverse roster of characters, my favorite is Tung Tung Tung Sahur, an anthropomorphic wooden log almost always shown holding a baseball bat. Often paired with Ballerina Cappuccina in an unlikely but iconic ship, the duo returned in late November for the 67 Rizzmas meme, solidifying Italian Brainrot's role as a mainstay of the meme community.

Pibble

"Wash ma belly! Clean ma belly!" was my go-to vocal stim for far longer than I'd like to admit.

Beyond just the irresistibly robust bellies of the AI (and occasionally real) baby French bulldogs, you can't deny that Pibble dominated TikTok in mid-2025.

What captivated me most about this meme is all the different iterations of it. Pibble had a sort of Pokémon-adjacent evolution, culminating in its final form: getting its belly washed to "Better in the Dark" by Jordana and TV Girl, a song I will now forever associate with this meme.

Seeing the different hijinks Pibble got into was just as entertaining, from run-ins with AI police officers to committing arson with zero remorse, and even dodging their own death allegations.

When I adopted my own dog in October, I probably said "Wash ma belly!" to her so many times, she now thinks that is her name.

@pibbletron2 I love pibbles #pibbles #frenchie #pebbles #fyp #babyfrenchies ♬ original sound – Garlic bread

Autism Announcement

In the era of absurd political discourse, it's important to find humor in certain things. Lately, though, it feels like SNL is scripting real life instead of the other way around.

The day before the press conference where the President and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were set to announce that Tylenol was the alleged cause of autism, Fox News ran a banner reading "AUTISM ANNOUNCEMENT," showing images of the politicians against a blue background.

What was meant to be a straightforward news graphic became a viral meme after an X user snapped a photo and shared it online. None of my group chats were safe. Whenever I needed to declare something, "Autism Announcement" had to precede it.

It wasn't just my personal use that made it stand out. It also perfectly captures the chaotic nature of this year's news cycle, making it one of my top meme picks for 2025.

Owen

Eye of Rah

I was really optimistic about 2025’s meme potential at the start of the year, mostly because of a batch of Instagram Reels originals that brought attention to the TikTok alternative at a time when the Chinese-owned app was teetering on a U.S. ban. Chopped Chin, I Bought a Property in Egypt and Johnnie Walker formed a budding brainrot Frankenstein, spearheaded by my favorite among them, Eye of Rah.

In many ways, the original Eye of Rah video is the perfect post-ironic commentary on reaction stitching. Rashad Bowens, the male subject of the meme, was just trying to give his take on a video he just witnessed, but in an odd parody, he's made into a cyclops cryptid with one red dread, staring blankly at the viewer.

Plus, I got to speak to Bowens and the German kid who made the meme, Jeremiah Springfield, about what happened and why.

@frightenedsheep25937582 #CapCut #fyp ♬ original sound – Jeremiah Springfield

67 Kid

When I went to Six Flags over the summer, I finally understood why the parents of the world were suffering from 67 confusion. I was struck by the real-world effects of everything 67 that I'd written about. Everywhere I looked, I saw the 67 Kid and his floppy Ice Cream Hair.

What I enjoyed most about the meme was watching the materialization of a 2025 archetype in real time. A Mason 67 is a type of kid I wouldn't be aware of without the help of their pessimistic, irony-poisoned classmates making fun of them online.

The 67 Kid is also, in my opinion, the defining symbol of the 67 craze. He's emblematic of its popularity, its downfall and the long tail of its relevancy. SCP-067 is then the black hole at the end of the starship's orbit, absorbing everything and reflecting back nothing except pure horrific irony.

Horse Race Tests

No one can tell me that Horse Race Tests wasn’t the best internet moment of the year. A bunch of blobs, said to be horses, bouncing around a maze in a randomized flurry, captivated Twitter back in April. And of course it did. The simple forms and whimsical design were easy to attach meaning to.

Jovial Merryment was the undisputed G.O.A.T., but that doesn't mean he was my favorite. I was always rooting for Bullet'n Board.

Blake Andrews, the creator of HRT, is also just a stand-up person. They make super cool, ragtag, original video game junk that's been feeding my soul this year. I always like it when a true auteur gets the limelight.

Andy

Ashton Hall's Morning Routine

Ashton Hall’s Morning Routine was one of my favorite memes this year because it perfectly exposed the absurd extremes of hustle culture. What starts as a 4 a.m. grind quickly snowballs into a sequence of increasingly ridiculous moments, each one becoming a meme on its own.

From the mouth tape and face dunking in Saratoga ice water, to banana peel skincare, the routine somehow keeps escalating, peaking with the iconic 7:36 a.m. Pool Dive, where Hall appears to defy the laws of physics by floating in midair for four full minutes.

By the time it all ends with "We gotta get at least 10,000," it feels more like performance art than anything else. Chef's kiss.

Indonesian Boat Racing Kid

Indonesian Boat Racing Kid became an instant favorite because of how effortlessly cool the Pacu Jalur kids looked while directing races. The internet quickly reframed it as elite aura farming, and the kid in the all-black outfit was obviously a standout. At no point in my life have I ever looked that cool, and I never will.

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Sora AI Chiropractor Videos

AI has definitely been divisive this year, but there's something about self-aware AI slop that really gets me. I catch myself watching these videos over and over whenever they show up in my feed. The Sora AI chiropractor clips took things to an entirely new level, especially once grandmas started getting put through the wringer in ways that felt almost engineered to confuse Boomers on Facebook.

What began as fake chiropractic adjustments quickly escalated into elderly patients being launched through drywall, crushed by boulders, or tossed out of skyscraper windows. The clips fit neatly alongside other 2025 AI-video hits like the rock-breaking glass bridge videos and the monkey flying into a tornado.

@brainrot.stories888 Medical bill #doctor #chiropractor #ai #chiropractic #funn ♬ original sound – Sora slop

Jaimie

Lizard, Lizard, Lizard

Throughout the year, plenty of templates and short-form videos went viral, but some of them resonated with people more than others. The Lizard, Lizard, Lizard meme showed up suddenly, and people quickly found themselves relating to the silly green critter in many ways.

The way his eyes drifted from one another, and the mindless button-pressing emitting the same, monotone "lizard" repeatedly, felt so real, and reminded everyone of all the times they've had to do something over and over again, whether it was necessary and sane, or not. I still find myself quietly saying, "Lizard," from time to time.

@that4door_vette Every day atp #fypシ #fyp #tiktok #Meme #MemeCut #Meme #MemeCut ♬ Lizard – I Green Screen Things

100 Men vs. 1 Gorilla

The 100 Men vs. 1 Gorilla debate is a topic that still has not found a conclusion, depending on who you ask. The question came out of nowhere, and I don't think anyone expected the whole world to chime in.

There were so many approaches to this meme, and some people got pretty serious about it. At the end of the day, the meme sparked some pretty deep conversations about community and some heated arguments from those who felt strongly about one side or the other.

Any meme that gets that many people talking is something I find truly entertaining.

Astronomer CEO Andy Byron's Coldplay Concert Affair

This had to be one of the wildest stories of the year. Who would have thought Coldplay would make huge news this year? It was one of those things that people think could happen, but never actually imagined would.

The insane timing of that camera, the investigating that people did to find out who they were, and the inevitable responses from the parties involved were all so … stunning.

Stories involving CEOs seem to be happening more and more, but this one was so different because of how real and random it was. Of course, the memes that were created because of the event were just the cherry on top.

PHam

Frieren Looking Up

There's something very wholesome and endearing about the Frieren Looking Up meme. What could have easily turned into an opportunity to dunk on someone for a goofy drawing took a very sweet turn when the internet banded together to instead celebrate the drawing and the genuine search for improvement.

Not only was it probably the best redraw meme of the year, inspiring tons of interpretations, it was also a learning experience not just for the artist, but for artists everywhere. You don’t have to be a great artist to know that the angle looks tough, and it's nice to see everyone online agree on something for once.

Also, Frieren is a really good anime, and you should watch it. That is all.

Hasan Piker Shock Collar Controversy

Without taking any side in any political matters whatsoever, I will boldly say that all the memes about Hasan Piker (allegedly) shocking his dog on stream were hilarious. I still get a kick out of them whenever they inevitably appear under any post about Hasan that pops up on my Twitter feed.

You can think that he shocked his dog, or you can think he's an innocent little bean who would never do such a thing. That's your call, and there are a billion opinions you can sift through. But all those photoshops of Hasan as Raiden, or Zeus, or those AI-videos of the dog shocking Piker as revenge, are peak internet.

Even Hasan has shared some of the memes, a move that could be interpreted in a bunch of different ways depending on what side of the aisle you fall on. Again, I won't be offering my opinion, but the Hasan Piker shock collar saga, the confusing narrative around it, and (most importantly) the memes are something we can all look back on with a hardy "hmm," a head scratch and a modest chuckle for years to come.

When The Fajitas Come Out Sizzling

You know that feeling when the fajitas come out sizzling? Well, you should, because it was a pretty big meme this year, and it was great.

The meme started going around when the caption was attached to a joyously low-res image of a dancing Link (of Rhett and Link fame). Then, it hit a new, unexpected peak when JacksFilms recreated the meme, arguably improving upon it in every way. Honestly, it's crazy how this man breathed life into the meme.

Now, people are calling him the "Fajitas guy" all over the timeline, as if he's not already the Emoji Movie guy, or the guy that destroyed SSSniperwolf's career.

There have been many recreations and riffs on the meme since, but nothing will ever top the originals, which perfectly convey that feeling of when the fajitas come out sizzling. Truly, this is a meme that speaks to the soul, unlike any other this year.

Don

AI Lady With Rock Breaking Glass Bridge

This video is so aggressively stupid and absurd that I can't help but adore it. Her mischievous smile gets me every time. Additionally, I love the idea that some people may have taken it at face value and failed to identify it as AI. Granted, I remain skeptical that the Boomer accounts posting grave, concerned reactions were anything other than bots talking to other bots.

Opened Facebook and Reels autoplayed. First reel had 57k likes and 12,000 comments.

Comments were overwhelmingly impressed old people praising a dog.

This is the reel. I’m not joking.

Facebook is dead. pic.twitter.com/EUFBr9M1KM

— Josh Brooks (@F530Josh) September 26, 2025

The Great Meme Reset

As a geriatric memer, I am instinctively drawn to anything that deliberately calls back to the internet's past. I'm also a sucker for meta commentary about memes, so this one was right up my alley. Whether anything substantive actually comes of it remains to be seen, but I'm choosing to remain cautiously optimistic.

@zzzxrees3001 the great meme reset spread the word #thegreatmemereset #edit #memes #spreadtheword #tuff ♬ som original – TERRIFIER | SETUP

Performative Male

The Performative Male / Matcha Male works so well as a meme because it finally names a recognizable archetype that has always been with us. He's the type of guy who is all about signalling his virtue as a form of social currency, often with more performance than substance.

Seeing this type crystallized into meme form, right alongside matcha lattes and Labubus, feels like the internet doing what it does best: flattening social behavior, branding and identity into something anyone can quickly identify at a glance.

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Looking for more of this year's best viral phenomena and memes? Be sure to check out our other 2025 meme roundups below:

• Meme Of The Year: The Top 20 Memes Of 2025
• The Top Slang Terms Of 2025
• The Wackiest Stories of 2025