The Week's Best Memes, Ranked
THAT'S THE BUFF
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In our recurring feature, Memes, Ranked, we not only rank the funniest memes on the internet each week, we also keep a running top 10 of the best memes of 2019. Skip to that here.

Our colleague Joey Cosco has moved on to new challenges, so the rest of the Digg editorial team will be curating the weekly meme rankings, starting this week.

For the week of November 4th, we have a handful of contenders: hymen memes, history TikToks, Kidz Bop Karen and the wholesome buff guys..


4. Hymen Memes

The meme: This one needs a little context. In light of the extremely horrifying fact of just how many terrible parents still take their daughters to get "virginity tests" (please note: these are entirely bullshit and have been legitimately discredited), rapper T.I. shared that he makes his daughter participate in this, too.

Reactions online have been appropriately disgusted, but there's also been some general discussion of anatomy:


In response to the above came the tweet that launched, well, a thousand other tweets:


In a rare moment of synergy, Twitter joined ranks to carry on the impromptu game:

You get the idea. It's unclear how far this has gotten, but as of last night, we'd gotten to here:

Verdict: On the one hand, the origin of the joke isn't very funny. But this extended bit turned something awful into something silly and entertaining, and redirected focus away from T.I. and other terrible parents in the process. It's not exactly turning water into wine, but turning mud into…not-mud?…is something!

Molly Bradley


3. History TikToks

The meme: There's been a recent flood of TikTok videos that perfectly encapsulate historical events, from the German occupation of Belgium to the attack on Pearl Harbor, using snatches of songs, movie lines and different bits of pop culture. Twitter user Nadia Jaferey has curated a Twitter thread of some of the best historical re-enactments she's seen on TikTok, including these:

Verdict: It's a pretty great font of creativity, this trend. We love the blend of the educational with the satirical, and if history class had been anything like this, we're sure we would all have gotten A+. Overall, it's a good, solid meme that makes you chuckle while also realizing a lot of history is, um, pretty upsetting when you think about it.

Pang-Chieh Ho


2. Kidz Bop Karen

An unidentified woman was caught on camera berating a Lyft driver in a bizarre road rage incident after the driver reportedly cut her off on New York City's West Side Highway. While stopped at a stop light, the woman came over and began chewing out the Lyft driver. After noticing she was being recorded in the backseat, the woman began hurling insults at the passenger. When the passenger responded by telling her to set an example for her kids, the woman replied that her kids couldn't hear her because "they're listening to Kidz Bop." The video instantly went viral and, in the spirit of other nicknames spun out of other infamous public freakouts, netizens began calling the woman "Kidz Bop Karen."

The examples:

Verdict: This is a meme that has no winners. It's still unclear whether the woman involved in the road rage incident was justified in her anger or was just having a really bad day. The Lyft passenger, who recorded the video, wasn't having a good time — and neither was the driver. But the internet got a kick out of the ensuing chaos and made the best out of an extremely uncomfortable situation.

James Crugnale


1. The Wholesome Buff Guys

The meme: A multi-panel classic in the tradition of the American Chopper and Drake yes/no memes, the wholesome buff guy meme is a celebration of unexpected wholesomeness on the internet. There's not a whole lot to it apart from the air of surreality that pervades each example. The civil, friendly conversations shown in the meme are rarely seen online and overlaying the exaggerated physiques of the buff lads enhances the weirdness:

The examples:


And it has, like American Chopper, reached the point of self-awareness:


And it's started to spawn some spin-offs:


Verdict: We still can't quite our finger on why this meme works, but folks, it works. As American Chopper flourished, we look forward to seeing the buff lads continue to grow.

Dan Fallon


The 2019 Meme Power Ranking

Click each entry on the ranking to see when it debuted.

  1. OK Boomer
  2. Vibes
  3. Wholesome Buff Guys
  4. The Girl Drinking Kombucha Reaction GIF
  5. Fucking Mint
  6. Untitled Goose Game
  7. If I Were
  8. There Are Two Wolves Inside You
  9. No One Can Have Both
  10. Kidz Bop Karen

OK Boomer should enjoy its time at the top, because it's peaking fast and will tumble soon:

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