The 22 best memes of 2022
Take a fun trip down memory lane with us in fond remembrance of the treasure trove of memes that 2022 has blessed us with.
In (somewhat) chronological order, here are the viral trends, the dankest memes and the funniest internet sensations of 2022:
Morbius
The 2022 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character stars Jared Leto as Dr Michael Morbius. Determined to cure the disease that has plagued him his entire life, Morbius conducts a drastic experiment, which bears unforeseen consequences.
Upon release, the film was widely panned by critics and fans alike, leading to a wide range of jokes, parodies, memes and even Letterboxd reviews about its quality, with hashtag #MorbiusSweep going viral in early 2022 and the catchphrase “It's Morbin' Time” following shortly after.
Wordle
The web-based words game owned and published by The New York Times involves players receiving six attempts to guess a five-letter word, with feedback given for each guess in the form of colored tiles indicating when letters match or occupy the correct position.
Wordle implemented a feature that allows players to share to Twitter their score along with the grid that represents their success in the puzzle. This helped the game grow to hundreds of thousands of players in a short amount of time.
Euphoria
Memes and tweets that reference the outlandish nature of the high school experience portrayed in the show blew up during the series’ weekly episode releases. The students and characters in Euphoria are often dressed provocatively and engage in activities associated with adult discourse, like sex and drug use. Euphoria memes started online in 2019 but picked up in 2022.
The Slap
Will Smith Slapping Chris Rock refers to a moment from the 2022 Oscars in which the King Richard actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock over a joke he made about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. The slap was televised and quickly became an object-labeling and an exploitable meme template. The still image of Smith hitting Rock in the face also became a source for redraws where the two were replaced with pop culture figures.
My Brother in Christ
My Brother in Christ is a meme trend that uses the slang as a term put on top of words in other meme captions to enhance the original meaning by adding a flair of politeness for humorous effect. The trend is mostly used as an enhancement on existing images where creators replace the text with the phrase but also spread to become a standalone catchphrase or punchline online in early 2022.
Running Up That Hill
"Running Up That Hill," refers to the 80s hit by pop icon Kate Bush. The song received increased attention in memes in mid-2022 after the premiere of Stranger Things 4 this year, when it was revealed to be the character Max's favorite song. The song was used in memes as well as referenced alongside differences between Boomers and Gen Z online.
Gentleminions
Gentleminions is a slang term that refers to the young men and high schoolers that came to watch the 2022 movie Minions: The Rise of Gru in theaters wearing suits, ties and smoking cigars to show ironic adoration for the film. Multiple videos documented their arrival, as well as the riots, mosh pits and disruptive cheering they did that often resulted in police shutting down the theaters and showings. The term was coined by the official TikTok account of the Minions in early July 2022.
Anya Forger
The popular Japanese anime series Spy X Family follows a spy who has to "build a family" to execute a mission, not realizing that the girl named Anya he adopts as his daughter is a telepath, and the woman he agrees to marry named Yor, is a skilled assassin.
Anya's "Heh" Face or Smug Anya Face refers to a manga panel of character Anya Forger with a smug face and saying "Heh." Her expression has been used in redraw memes throughout 2022.
Negroni Sbagliato
Negroni Sbagliato With Prosecco In It refers to a viral video of actor Emma D'Arcy reciting their favorite drink order during an interview for HBO's House of the Dragon. The clip became popularized on TikTok with many posters finding D'Arcy's voice and overall demeanor very attractive, and oddly ubiquitous on their ‘For You’ pages.
Homelander
Homelander is the main character and antagonist in the comic and Amazon Prime series The Boys. He is seen as a sinister version of Superman in that he has similar powers and abilities, but is noticeably unhinged and evil. In both the comics and show, various scenes and expressions associated with Homelander have become memes, such as the Stressed Homelander, Homelander Gets Applause and Homelander At the Movies formats depicting actor Antony Starr.
Don’t Worry Darling
The 2022 film directed by Olivia Wilde stars Harry Styles, Florence Pugh and Chris Pine and takes place in the 1950s. It follows a married couple played by Styles and Pugh moving into a seemingly ideal community defined by its very traditional gender roles, only to find that all is not what it appears to be.
The film gained notoriety in the summer of 2022 because of purported on-set drama and tensions involving Styles, Pugh, and Wilde - which quickly became a subject of memes and speculations from fans and cynics around the internet.
Queen’s Dead
Queen Elizabeth II, the UK’s longest-serving monarch, died at her summer retreat at Balmoral, Scotland, aged 96, after having reigned for 70 years. Most media has taken an approach of offering tributes and condolences to the Queen, however the internet had an entirely different approach.
Online, the news was treated both with grave seriousness and as the biggest laugh of the year, with the internet positively exploding with reactions and memes.
Adam Levine
The Adam Levine Cheating Scandal refers to allegations that the Maroon 5 singer cheated on his wife, Victoria's Secret model Behati Prinsloo, with Instagram model Sumner Stroh and others. Levine later admitted to having flirtatious conversations with women over Instagram DMs but denied having an affair. The allegations sparked condemnations of Levine on social media, as well as jokes and memes about his flirtatious texts, particularly the messages "I may need to see the booty" and "That body of yours is absurd."
Elon Musk Twitter
Some of the biggest news breaks in 2022, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk acquired Twitter having made moves to buy the website's shares in early 2022 after not joining the board and theories about him attempting an impending "hostile takeover" appearing online.
Multiple memes and reactions surfaced on Twitter following Elon's acquisition of the company. A predominant amount of humorous notions centered on Musk's alleged reversal of lifetime Twitter bans, such as Donald Trump's, and his push for "free speech" on the platform, in that, any form of speech would be tolerated on the website.
The Bear
The FX original follows a young chef from the fine dining world who comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop after a heartbreaking death in his family. As he fights to transform both the shop and himself, he works alongside a rough-around-the-edges kitchen crew that ultimately reveals itself as his chosen family.
An image of Chef Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto, played by actor Jeremy Allen White, in The Bear, looking pensive and serious in the kitchen while wearing a blue apron. The image is typically paired with various captions related to cooking simple meals, then contrasted by the difficult nature of Carmy's emotion.
Girl Explaining
Girl Explaining, also known as Girl Explaining To Guy or simply Bro Girl, is a photo of an Argentinian woman named Denise "Dinu" Sanchez at a 2018 concert appearing to loudly talk or screaming to her boyfriend with a blank expression while wrapping one arm around him and gesturing off towards the distance in the direction of the camera. The reaction image is typically used to circulate the ‘Bro Explaining’ meme with the sexes swapped.
Spirit Halloween
Fake Spirit Halloween Costumes refers to a series of memes in which people create parodies of Halloween costume merchandise, specifically targeting Spirit Halloween. Though the trend originated in 2019, it saw a significant spike in usage during the 2022 Spooktober season.
Blue Lobster
Blue Lobster, also known as the Blue Lobster Jumpscare or Getting Lobstered, is an image of a blue lobster that appears as a jumpscare at the end of viral videos, being a bait-and-switch media trend called getting "Lobstered." Additionally, when the blue lobster appears, a high-pitched version of Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" plays. Blue Lobster videos became prevalent online throughout the year.
World Cup
The 2022 FIFA World Cup came to a nail-biting finish this month. And it's been a wild ride, to say the least. Along with longstanding controversies involving human rights violations, drinking restrictions and other problems the World Cup this year has been packed with surprising twists and matches that have ranged from exciting to completely mind-numbing. People have been sharing their opinions on the big event through memes on every social media platform imaginable.
Ghost Gazing
Ghost Gazing, refers to images and videos of the 2022 video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II character Simon "Ghost" Riley looking at the player (Soap) from behind his skull face mask. The images went viral online shortly after the game's release as reactions in memes, with one clip of Ghost sitting in a car also spawning a ‘Bruh Moment’ video caption format.
Spotify Wrapped
Spotify Wrapped refers to the annual, personalized and statistical compilation of a Spotify user's music listening history, released by the company every December. Ever since the company started the viral marketing campaign in 2016, it has consistently received meme attention across Twitter and Instagram most notably. Spotify displays the user's statistics to them in a streamlined and corporate-stylized fashion, giving them insights into what genres, artists, podcasts and playlists (etc.) define their personality. Spotify Wrapped parodies and Spotify Top Fans are two of the most notable meme trends based on it
Zoolander
The 2001 comedy film directed by Ben Stiller and starring Stiller, Owen Wilson and Will Ferrell follows the exploits of the male model Derek Zoolander, has gained a cult following due his satirical approach on the fashion industry.
In the latest memes, Zoolander strikes his signature "Blue Steel'' pose staring into the camera. The meme format often uses a mashup of the songs ``Who Is She?" by I Monster and "The Perfect Girl" by Mareux with text captions overlaid on the clip. The template was popularized in December 2022 as one of the final viral meme trends of the year.