Happy birthday 2022, happy! We are stuck in an endless epidemic and the earth is burning, but we have our meme.
Let's go back to 2012 and see what happens. It was the year of the London Olympics and presidential elections in the US and Russia. The sound barrier was broken by Felix Baumgartner. Text-based advice animals were the height of comedy as they were the height of comedy on the global platform of YouTube.
The internet was simpler back then and more fun. There are 15 internet moments that will turn 10 in 2022. How many of them do you remember?
The earworms.
She's an icon, she's a legend, and she was the moment. The West loved this bop for its silly music video and horse trot dance that spawned a million imitations. It was an unlikely pop star, and the song's lyrics touch on Korean class struggles, but it has since become a source of national pride. "Gangnam Style" was the first video to reach 1 billion views on the site and is still very popular today.
What is there to say about the earwormiest earworm of the last century? In February 2012 the single got a big boost from the young star, the one who was the subject of the movie "Beauty and the Geek". The USA Olympic Swimming Team and the chatroulette troll covers were inspired by the pop star's parody featuring famous friends. As "Call Me Maybe" came on, Jepsen signed to the management of the singer. "Good Time" was released with Owl City. It was a good year.
Kimbra and Gotye were naked and cold when they shot the stop- motion music video for the song. A visually interesting and technically impressive Walk of the Earth cover in which all five members of the group play the song on a single, shared guitar was one of the most viral videos of the year. Where is Gotye? I am not sure. We used to know him, but now he is just someone we don't know anymore.
You forgot about some of the ones.
This is one of the best meme of all time. The meme of Shit Black Girls Say peaked in January 2012 after interpretations like Shit White Girls Say... to Black Girls, Shit Say. My favorite is the ever-relevant "Shit Single Girls Say" which still feels like looking in a mirror.
Activists unfurl a flag. KONY 2012 is a video.
KONY 2012
The internet was united by KONY 2012. The documentary about the wrongdoings of Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony, including his exploitation of children, was the first video to gain 1 million likes on YouTube. The video caused a mental health crisis for one of the founding members of the nonprofit behind it because of the attention it received. Kony 2012 narrowed the gap between activism and slacktivism, a concept that has only become more familiar with since.
The ones we still don't like.
Looks good to me! Credit: Cesar Manso
The restoration of Potato Jesus.
The artistic interpretation of a Spanish fresco was initially thought to be an act of vandalization, but it was discovered to be an attempt at restoration by an older person. A post comparing the fresco to the woman's update went viral and inspired a wave of trollish behavior. The internet prankers gained more than 20,000 signatures on a Change.org petition to stop a professional restoration so that Potato Jesus could stay with us forever.
The Cinnamon Challenge is simple: just swallow a spoon of cinnamon and beat it in under a minute. It's easy! The challenge existed before 2012 but it was popularized in January 2012 by the attempt by a creator of the video sharing website. The Cinnamon Challenge video is still the most-viewed on the internet, and people still try to do it. If you are reading this and thinking that you could do it, we would like to remind you that it is not safe to do it at home.
Laina Morris may have the most crazy stare of the decade. Her submission to the cover contest was a remake of the song as a clingy girlfriend's anthem. "If I was your girlfriend, I would drive up the wall, you know what I mean," she sang. She used the fervor to start her career on the video sharing site. She told the website last year that she still feels that "Overly Attached Girlfriend is the best thing that's ever happened to me."
The political gaffes.
Kevin LaMarque is a photographer for the Associated Press.
Texting Hillary Clinton.
The original girlboss, who tapped, tapped, tapped away on her phone, snarking at politicians, and confirmed a date with Meryl Streep, is seen here. Hillz created a humanized version of the original photo of Hillary Clinton that was turned into a meme. After a submission from Clinton made them realize they could not continue without girlbossing a little too close to the sun, they decided to call it quits. Clinton used the photo as her first ever icon on her new account and the meme was blamed for increased interest in Hillary's potential use of a personal email address for government affairs.
I could not have lived without watching the Romney debate stage flub, which remains one of the most famous political gaffes of all time. Romney bragged about using "binders full of women" to fill his own state cabinet after being asked about pay equity for women. The Romney campaign was torpedoed by the memeification of the moment. It inspired a new type of informal professional networking groups for women on Facebook. A former Romney aide shared with the Boston Globe what they claimed was the actual physical binders themselves, which weighed in at more than 15 pounds.
The classics are the prevailing ones.
A cat is dressed in bows. Credit: Mashable.
The cat has a scowl.
The cat spoke to an element of humanity deep inside of us all. The original cat, whose name was actually Tardar Sauce, passed away in the year 2019, but her image lives on on the internet and across the multiple trademarked books, toys, t-shirts, and mugs that made up her kitty cat empire.
It's possible that Tweet has been deleted.
It will be May.
Ah, those frosted tips. The hairstyle of *NSYNC's Justin Timberlake has gone out of style, but this meme will never go out of style. "it's gonna be me may" was a meme on the website. The winner reappears like clockwork at the end of April, and was recently adopted by the brilliant minds at Maytag for a funny commercial.
Kyle recreated the school photo that became Bad Luck Brian. The Washington Post has a credit for the photo.
Brian had bad luck.
Ian promised Kyle that he would make him "internet famous," but he didn't know it. Bad Luck Brian, an unlucky dude who can't seem to catch a break, was created by a school photo of a sweater-vest that was purposely showing up on picture day. In March, a Bad Luck Brian NFT was turned into T-shirts and novelty items, as well as an ad campaign with Volkswagen and McDonald's, thanks to the help of a copyright lawyer.
The "spaghetti story" format was leveled up in 2012 by the "Lose Yourself" verse by Emmitt. I don't know why it happened 10 years after the release of "Lose Yourself". Time is a closed loop and pasta is always funny, so I see new "mom's spaghetti" on my timeline fairly frequently. In Detroit, he opened his own "Mom's Spaghetti" restaurant, proving that he's definitely in on the joke.
A silver medal? It's a bit Meh. McKayla Maroney was not happy with the medal podium. Ronald Martinez is the photographer
McKayla Maroney isn't impressed.
The Olympics were broadcast on cable a decade ago. McKayla Maroney was a silver medal winner after a fall on vault, but America was so enamored with the Fierce Five gymnasts that they even made a movie about her. She recreated the look with the president after the games, proving that he couldn't turn her frown upside down. The meme made Maroney the fourth most searched athlete in the world. She recreated it for a cute commercial and put it up for sale as an NFT, and I found myself rooting for her as if she were back in London. McKayla, milk that meme for all it's worth.
