The Top 50 Memes of the Decade: 30-21

This month, we asked you to help us narrow down the top memes of the 2010s in our Memes of the Decade community poll. Over the last 10 days, nearly 55,000 votes were cast as users passionately campaigned for their favorite viral phenomena, hoping they might secure their spot among the best memes circulated during this iconic era in internet history.

From now until Friday, join us as we run down the list showcasing which memes had what it takes to be ranked among the top 50 of the decade.

• View #50-41 here
• View #40-31 here

30. Is This a Jojo Reference?

About the Meme: A copypasta meant to parody fans of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure who get overly excited upon seeing a nod to the show in an unexpected place.
Peak Year: 2016
Highlights: The ubiquity of the phrase led to the creation of a Facebook group called "Is This a Jojo Reference?" on November 30th, 2016. The phrase also led to a series of image macros that emphasized the text in a humorous way to parody excitable fans of the series.

29. Bruh

About the Meme: A slang term for "bro" often used to express frustration or disappointment.
Peak Year: 2014
Highlights: The phrase began seeing use in memes in 2013 as a reaction image, but grew more popular following a Vine of a man collapsing after receiving a prison sentence. The severity of the moment led to the coining of the term "Bruh Moment," which trended throughout the rest of the decade.

28. Mocking SpongeBob

About the Meme: An image of SpongeBob Squarepants pretending to be a chicken, often accompanied with text that alternates between capital and non-capital letters, giving the impression that SpongeBob is saying something in a highly sarcastic tone.
Peak Year: 2017
Highlights: The meme peaked in 2017 as people used it to mock common excuses.

27. Big Chungus

About the Meme: A still image of Bugs Bunny with a more rotund design than normal, nicknamed "Big Chungus" and used in shitposts.
Peak Year: 2018
Highlights: After the image began spreading on Reddit, a story about a woman trying to buy a video game called Big Chungus for her child inspired the creation of several video game box art edits featuring the character.

26. Ugandan Knuckles

About the Meme: An illustration of Knuckles drawn by Gregzilla who became a popular meme on Reddit and YouTube thanks in large part to a horde of VR Chat players raiding the game as the character and saying the phrase "Do U Kno De Way?
Peak Year: 2018
Highlights: The meme began trending in late 2017 thanks to the VR Chat raids. It trended through January 2018 before it mostly disappeared from the public eye until January of 2019 when people predicted it would return to public consciousness.

25. You Know I Had to Do It To 'Em

About the Meme: A picture of a boy, identified as Lucky Luciano, standing on a suburban road, which he captioned "You know I had to do it to 'em."
Peak Year: 2017
Highlights: The picture inspired many edits of other characters making the pose, as well as edits of the image itself. In 2018, a series of images on Tumblr hid Luciano in a "Where's Waldo?"-style series of memes.

24. Supa Hot Fire

About the Meme: A parody of rap battle videos in which the main character "Supa Hot Fire" says silly lyrics while his crew reacts as if he's said something devastating.
Peak Year: 2011
Highlights: The video inspired GIFs in which the characters in the video were changed to other characters and were often used to parody current events or media. A reaction image template, I'm About To End This Man's Whole Career grew popular in the late 2010s.

23. Grumpy Cat

About the Meme: A cat named Tardar Sauce which went viral in the early 2010s due to its perpetually angry-looking face. Sadly, Grumpy Cat passed away in May this year following complications from an infection.
Peak Year: 2012
Highlights: The cat was an iconic part of the Meme Generator era, and many memes using the cat were image macros expressing disappointment. Its popularity later inspired a feature-length film.

22. Gabe the Dog

About the Meme: A small American Eskimo/Pomeranian which made a distinctive "Bork" noise. Videos of the dog went viral thanks to a series of remix videos that used the "Bork" in songs and other audio. The internet mourned Gabe's death in January 2017 after it was announced that he had passed away due to heart complications.
Peak Year: 2013
Highlights: In July 2017, a video highlighting the top 10 Gabe remixes was uploaded to YouTube.

21. Virgin vs. Chad

About the Meme: An image of two characters, a "Virgin" and a "Chad." The "virgin" walks with his shoulders slumped and looking down, while the "Chad" is drawn significantly more cartoonishly. Negative characteristics are applied to the Virgin while positives are applied to the Chad.
Peak Year: 2017
Highlights: The template proved a popular way to mock people and was often inverted in edits, depicting the "Chad" as sillier than the "Virgin" character. It was the Know Your Meme fan-voted Meme of the Year in 2017.