meme-review
The Weekly Meme Roundup: The Return Of Wifejak, Sigma Boy, Find Luigi And More
This week, social media was wrought with memes that made light of some very serious situations, like South Korea's martial law declaration and the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the latter of which has people acting unashamedly unhinged on main.
On the other hand, Wifejak made a big comeback as groypers tried to throw dirt in her face, a Twitter gimmick account had everyone reliving their childhood with the "Find Luigi" game and a Russian song about Sigmas went viral on TikTok.
With only a few weeks remaining in 2024, the meme-verse seems apt to make it go out with a bang. Here are all the most viral memes this week that are worth your time.
Find Luigi
Remember the 2004 Super Mario 64 remake on the Nintendo DS? If you do, you probably also remember the minigames, which quickly became many players' favorite part of the game. Well, one of those minigames made a big comeback this week thanks to the Find Luigi gimmick account.
difficulty: AAAA pic.twitter.com/Gq9mIgyq3f
— Find Luigi 🍏 (@FindLuigi) December 6, 2024
Late last month, the account started making custom versions of the iconic Super Mario 64 DS minigame "Wanted!" that tasks players with finding Luigi among a sea of other characters' faces. The account quickly blew up and took over many users' feeds this week, forcing them to lock in and hunt down the elusive green Mario brother.
The resurgence of the minigame also inspired a lot of memes about the minigame and the lengths people are willing to go to to find Luigi. It also inspired parodies of the minigame, which the original gimmick account is now leaning into heavily. If you want to relive your childhood with a new twist, hit up the @FindLuigi X page and get searching.
Examples
difficulty: madness pic.twitter.com/5smaYOUASD
— Find Luigi 🍏 (@FindLuigi) December 5, 2024
difficulty: lunatic https://t.co/M7W2st6DaD pic.twitter.com/Buia1NS7qi
— Bat Mox 🦇 (@bat_mox) December 1, 2024
difficulty: ??? pic.twitter.com/7Pn3WjSbSE
— Find Luigi 🍏 (@FindLuigi) November 30, 2024
— Find Luigi 🍏 (@FindLuigi) November 26, 2024
Wifejak
Wife guys across social media were having the time of their lives this week with the revival of the all-too-relatable "Wifejak" meme, including some fun new variants like medieval Wifejak.
Wifejak, which is a meme all about the silly, relatable things that wives do, first went viral in April. Since then, it's become one of the most prominent memes of the year for being wholesome and relatable, especially compared to the often cynical nature of other Wojak memes.
Part of the meme's renewed virality has to do with a crusade against the meme helmed by groypers and incels who decided that people who like the meme are betas and that the meme itself promotes male docility in married relationships. This only seemed to make the format more popular, resulting in a wave of new variations on the meme featuring Wifejaks of many eras and appearances.
Examples
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Sigma Sigma Boy
Back in October, Russian pop duo Besty and Masha Yankovskaya released an EDM song called "Sigma Sigma Boy" that took over TikTok recently thanks to its liberal use of the term "sigma," effectively scathing an itch in the rotted brains of many of the app's users.
As of December 6th, the song's original sound has been used over 160,000 times on TikTok, marking what has to be one of the year's biggest viral songs. "Sigma Sigma Boy's" popularity hinges almost entirely on its use of the word "sigma," making it the inevitable subject of memes on an app that absolutely loves its Gen Z slang terms.
The song inspired everything from dance videos to absurd memes this week, reaching across the Russian language barrier to hit English-speaking TikTokers right in the meme center of their brains.
Examples
@cuteanimalvidvid Sigma rat ❤️ #petdance #rat #baby #ai #sigma #sigmaboy ♬ Сигма Бой – Betsy & Мария Янковская
@bobacott sigma boy mari berkumpul 😎
@solemerox Каждая девчонка 💘 #sigmaboy #granny #evilnun #solemerox ♬ Сигма Бой – Betsy & Мария Янковская
@giuyna
South Korea Martial Law Declaration
Earlier this week, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in the country from what seemed like thin air, claiming that it was done to remove "pro-North Korean elements" from the country. Somehow, this didn't quite work out for the President and protests ensued.
People online became a bit skeptical of the President's reasoning, resulting in not only IRL protests but online protests. Many of those protests came in the form of memes, which use classic formats like "Yeonmi Park on Joe Rogan" and "Me When I X Because I'm Bored" to make their point.
Fortunately for South Koreans, the martial law order was shot down only two hours later by South Korea's parliament, making the whole thing just a little more pointless than it already was.
Examples
UnitedHealthcare CEO's Assassination
To end things off on a somewhat dark note, the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson quickly became one of the biggest memes of the winter this week as social media took the opportunity to laugh about the death of a man who represents an industry that many Americans simply loathe.
The internet can be a pretty harsh landscape, so when news broke that a big-time healthcare insurance CEO was murdered, many were eager to pull out those RIPBOZO memes and get celebrating. On top of that, police started hunting for the shooter, who a lot of netizens found kind of dreamy in the purported images of him.
If anything, this reaction can be seen as an example of just how much Americans detest the way healthcare works (or doesn't work) in the country. Will it change anything? Probably not. But at least the memes are good and as they say, laughter is the best medicine, especially when your claim gets denied.
Examples
We'll be back next Friday with another edition of our Weekly Meme Roundup series, so stay tuned!
