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2023: The Year In Memes

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2023: The Year In Memes
A trip down memery lane.
· 70.9k reads ·
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Another year down, another chapter in the meme annals complete. As the internet has evolved, so too has the way we communicate, and memes are now the universal language with which those online share ideas and respond to world events. What better way, then, to tell the story of 2023 than to look back at the year's best memes?

From the occasional celebrity roast and an innovative approach to posting citizens online to collapsing financial institutions and girl dinners, these are the most defining meme moments of the past 12 months.



January

Prince Harry oversharing

At the start of the year, Prince Harry released a tell-all book that honestly told too dang much. "Spare" became the fastest-selling non-fiction book to date, because he simply wouldn't shut up about moments like smearing something on his genitals that reminded him of his dearly departed mother.

The internet took it upon themselves to meme the book immediately, and Harry's face quickly became representative of oversharing anything and everything.


Here's everything else that happened in January.


Grant Brunner



February

Yassifying a stranger

Comedian Michelle Collins was kicking it at an airport one day in February, and spotted a complete stranger squirting mayonnaise from a tube that seemed to be brought from home. Presumably, that means she's packing 3.4 ounces or less of mayo, but that's still more than you'd expect anyone to have at the ready.

Michelle wanted to share this odd sight with the internet at large, and had the good sense to hide the mayo lady's true identity for privacy reasons. However, her decision to do so through yassification immediately had folks embracing this new, improved method of anonymization.


Here's everything else that happened in February.


Grant Brunner



March

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a financial institution previously used by roughly half of VC-funded startups, collapsed very quickly in March of this year. Panic ensued, normal folks were scared that this was a cascading event like the 2009 financial crisis, but the damage ended up being mostly contained to a handful of institutions worldwide that made some very questionable decisions.

The US government ended up saving the bacon of the very wealthy customers of SVB, and the internet collectively rolled its eyes as some of the people who are the loudest advocates against government programs for normies benefited by being bailed out by Uncle Sam.


Here's everything else that happened in March.


Grant Brunner



April

Elon's blue check chaos

The app formerly known as Twitter has undergone many ridiculous changes since Elon Musk took over last year (it's called X now, for example). Back in April, though, one of Musk's most ludicrous moves yet was to strip celebrities and other verified accounts of their blue ticks, and make the tick available to just anyone — provided they were willing to pay for Twitter Blue.

Then, as if that wasn't chaotic enough, some accounts were randomly given their blue ticks back for free, whether they wanted them or not. The whole situation was, of course, ripe for the memeing.


Here's everything else that happened in April.


Darcy Jimenez



May

The blue NYC sidewalk couch

Arguably the most polarizing online discourse topic this May was not related to politics, or even the Hollywood strikes, but a blue, pre-owned couch. Someone shared a video in which a TikTok user came across a supposedly designer couch on an NYC sidewalk, cleaned it and kept it in their home — and a meme was born.

Lots of people were grossed out by the idea of sitting on a couch that had seen god knows what during its time on the city street, while others got busy inventing stories about the furniture's past life.


Here's everything else that happened in May.


Darcy Jimenez



June

'Barbie' marketing

Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" was the biggest film of the year, and along with raking in over $600 million at the US box office, it sparked a million memes. In June, fan reactions focused on the movie's wildly impressive (and ludicrously expensive) marketing stunts.


Here's everything else that happened in June.


Darcy Jimenez







July

Girl Dinner

We were in peak summer around this time, and were in the deep-end of the the entire Barbenheimer phenomena and its many jokes — from CGI dresses to Cillian Murphy fancams. It was also a tumultuous time for the company formerly known as Twitter, which was nearing the half-year mark since Musk's takeover, and the NYT Opinion page was trying to find a cure for male loneliness.

However, among the sea of memes — from Cocomelon parents and Kirsten Bell's dinner photo to Skyler Gisondo's hypothetical life as a restaurant worker — Girl Dinner was the unprecedented winner. It erupted, created a chain-reaction of events in quick succession and is definitely still relevant enough to joke about today.


Here's everything else that happened in July.


Adwait Patil



August

'Planet of The Bass' drops

August was all about Trump's indictment and an assortment of celebrity cameos (Kim K's haircut, Selena Gomez's shawl-draped look, Scooter Braun's managerial career), innocuous jokes about youths vaping and an AI generated mouse. Then, right when things were seeming normal enough, content creator Kyle Gordon released "Planet of the Bass," a parody of '90s europop.

While Gordon never achieved the same heights of success with any of his other videos, this one-hit wonder is worth the hype. A deftly executed release with assists from other creators (Audrey Trullinger, Sabrina Brier), Gordon will never be able to capture this kind of magic again.


Here's everything else that happened in August.


Adwait Patil



September

That Kevin James photo

Things got international this month with a beef between European minds and the rest of the world, Burning Man, alien corpses, a betrayal of broskis on "Love Island" and an evolution of Girl Math, naturally called Boy Math.

There were also celebrity breakups (Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner) and new relationships (Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner), among other points of discourse, like what $100-worth of groceries can get you. But amid all the noise, it was the familiar face of Kevin James that stood out. A stock photograph of the actor resurfaced online and a harmless meme was born.


Here's everything else that happened in September.


Adwait Patil



October

Jimmy Butler turns emo

October's best memes poked fun at a lot of actors and athletes. The whole month was preoccupied with the likes of Timothee Chalamet as Wonka, Cam from "Modern Family" serving as the new Kevin James, two Davids — Beckham and Byrne — and Kevin McCarthy's foibles in Congress.

But come October, aka start of the NBA season, Miami Heat superstar Jimmy Butler was the meme subject of the moment. Butler has been known to kick the year off with a brand new haircut, and he normally premieres his new look at the introductory press conference, because that's when players get their official photos taken.

Jimmy's stunning new vibe this year? Emo. Is he known for being an emo kind of guy? No. Did Emo Jimmy turn into a meme immediately upon the world seeing him? Yes.


Here's everything else that happened in October.


Jared Russo



November

Travis Kelce's old tweets

October and to a greater extent November were sort of the encapsulation of 2023, because we were obsessed with even more dudes and their follies. Daniel Craig's weird photos, Sam Altman being fired, Mike Johnson and his son’s weird porn agreement, golden retriever boyfriends, boy math, Sam Bankman-Fried's trial, Andre 3000's album, hell, even the sentence "trust men or…" were all examples of dudes in the meme spotlight. But no one man was more memed than a particular football player.

The year Taylor Swift had in 2023 is rarely seen by pop stars, let alone famous people of any ilk. And swallowed up in the storm of publicity, headlines and awards was her new boyfriend. No, not that one, the other one. His name is Travis Kelce, and it turns out he was already famous! He's arguably the best tight end in the history of the NFL, and has hosted "SNL" too.

The Swiftie army inevitably descended upon his old tweets to check he's good enough for Taylor, and what they found were just adorably stupid musings from a meathead football player.


Though Kelce was our pick for November, we would be remiss not to mention another significant meme moment from later on in the month: reactions to controversial foreign policy figure (read: war criminal) Kissinger finally dying.

Here's everything else that happened in November.


Jared Russo



December

Panera's Charged Lemonade

2023 has been relentlessly weird, so it's only fitting we round off the year with an equally surreal meme: Panera Bread's energy drink allegedly causing people to die.

Between October and December, two separate lawsuits claimed that Panera's ludicrously caffeine-heavy Charged Lemonade was responsible for the deaths of two people. These deaths are, of course, deeply tragic; the memes sparked in response aren't so much a mockery of them, but more a collective reaction to the bewildering idea that a popular café chain could be selling "lemonade that kills people."


Darcy Jimenez


So that's it: the story of 2023, told in memes. Who knows what nonsense January, and indeed the rest of 2024, will bring? Whatever happens, you can count on us to continue providing you the very best of it.

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