Editor’s Note: This article is part of Know Your Meme’s annual Top Ten Review series looking back at some of the most memorable and popular memes, events and people that defined the Internet culture in 2013 as we know it. And brace yourselves, the grand finale list Best Memes of 2013 is coming soon. In the meantime, check out Cheezburger's year-in-review of internet memes over at Memebase!
C
elebrities lived larger-than-life on the Internet more than ever before in the year 2013, with a select few world-famous pop stars like Miley Cyrus, Drake and Taylor Swift regularly finding themselves at the center stage of viral hoaxes, the breakout of new media darlings like Jennifer Lawrence and Tom Hiddleston who saw their stocks rising for their "down-to-earth" reputation, while old school Internet favorites like Wil Wheaton and Arnold Schwarzenegger solidified their legendary status by knocking on the Internet's door first.
On Tumblr, the British invasion continued make inroads with numerous UK actors and actresses dominating the fandom scene, boosted by the ever-growing popularity of Doctor Who, Sherlock and Downtown Abbey on Netflix, while a few Hollywood actors and actresses behind this year's sci-fi and live action superhero films like The Avengers, Star Trek and The Hunger Games also enjoyed their share of newfound internet fame.
On 4chan, Will Smith's son and child actor Jaden Smith was crowned the new “king” of the /b/ (random) board for his sometimes profound and other times indecipherable philosophizing on Twitter. On Reddit, a handful of well-known celebrities like Beyonce, Jay-Z and Scarlett Johansson landed their first lead roles in instant photoshop memes after being caught on camera in some of their least glamorous moments.
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Profile: Known for his portrayal of Castiel on the television drama series Supernatural.
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Highlights: In April, the Mishapocalypse online flash mob was launched, in which hundreds of Tumblr users changed their profile avatar to a photograph of Collins taken during a panel at the 2009 Comic Con.
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Social Media Stats: Facebook: 452,733 Likes | Twitter: 1,188,517 Followers
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Celebrity Benchmarks: Google Trends | (Jensen Ackles > Jared Padalecki > Misha Collins)
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Profile: Known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes on the British television series Sherlock.
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Highlights: Cumberbatch is listed as one of the most reblogged actors on Tumblr for 2013.
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Social Media Stats: Facebook: 227,786 Likes (unofficial)
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Celebrity Benchmarks: Google Trends | (Benedict Cumberbatch > Chris Pine > Zachary Quinto > Martin Freeman)
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Profile: Known for his portrayal of Loki in the superhero films Thor and The Avengers.
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Highlights: Inspired the "Get Loki" Daft Punk parodies and the "Tom Hiddleston accidentally groping people" photoshop meme.
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Social Media Stats: Facebook: 674,304 Likes | Twitter: 917,025 Followers
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Celebrity Benchmarks: Google Trends | (Chris Evans > Chris Hemsworth > Benedict Cumberbatch > Tom Hiddleston)
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Profile: An accomplished rapper and producer for Roc-A-Fella Records.
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Highlights: His daughter North West was born, he participated in a feud with Jimmy Kimmel and his song "Gone" was prominently featured in Marina Shifrin's "I Quit" video.
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Social Media Stats: Facebook: 13,086,381 Likes (unofficial) | Twitter: 10,130,469 Followers
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Celebrity Benchmarks: Google Trends | (Drake > Kanye West > Gucci Mane > Tyler the Creator)
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Profile: Known for her Oscar-winning performance as Tiffany Maxwell in the 2012 romantic comedy Silver Linings Playbook and her portrayal of Katniss Everdeen in the science fiction film series The Hunger Games.
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Highlights: During the 2013 Oscars, Lawrence won the Best Actress award for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook, after which she fell down tripping on her floor-length dress. She discussed the fall in a highly circulated video and several photoshops and GIFs of the accident were posted across the web.
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Social Media Stats: Facebook: 4,047,729 Likes
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Celebrity Benchmarks: Google Trends | (Kristen Stewart > Jennifer Lawrence > Bradley Cooper > Josh Hutcherson)
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Profile: Canadian pop musician who was discovered on YouTube in 2008.
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Highlights: Several online hoax campaigns were launched against the popstar on 4chan, including the "#CuttingForBieber" and "#Jail4Bieber" hashtags. In addition, rumors that Bieber had been sleeping with prostitutes began circulating online during his tour in Brazil, during which he was filmed by Brazilian bodybuilder Tatiana Neves Barbosa while sleeping bed.
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Social Media Stats: Facebook: 57,766,258 Likes | Twitter: 47,533,017
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Celebrity Benchmarks: Google Trends | (Justin Bieber > Chris Brown > Justin Timberlake > Jaden Smith)
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Profile: American singer-songwriter who rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the R&B group Destiny's Child.
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Highlights: Beyoncé's performance during Super Bowl XLVII spurred many online conversations surrounding her triangle hand gesture, as well as a series of unflattering photographs that her publicist attempted to have removed from the viral content site BuzzFeed.
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Social Media Stats: Facebook: 52,672,767 | Twitter: 12,984,784 Followers
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Celebrity Benchmarks: Google Trends | Rihanna > Beyonce > Lady Gaga > Katy Perry)
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Profile: American actress and recording artist known for her portrayal of the title character in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana.
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Highlights: Cyrus was involved in several online controversies this year, centering around a drug reference in her single "We Can't Stop," her performance with singer Robin Thicke at the MTV Video Music Awards and her highly sexualized music video for the song "Wrecking Ball." Rumors about the pop star began circulating that she was pregnant or had contracted AIDS, and a pair of programmers managed to knock her to the top of TIME Magazine's "Person of the Year" online poll.
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Social Media Stats: Facebook: 35,122,923 Likes | Twitter: 15,836,202 Followers
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Celebrity Benchmarks: Google Trends | Britney Spears > Miley Cyrus > Lindsay Lohan > Nicki Minaj)
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