5 Most Popular Memes of 2016

While the world keeps listing things like technological advancement, political happenings and what not, let us dab in something that really matters—memes. It's time to look back and maybe cringe a little.

5. Dat Boi: Ever looked at a frog and thought to yourself "You know what? That would look hilarious on a unicycle"? Well neither have I, but memes work in mysterious ways. Dat Boi is, well, a frog on a unicycle whose arrival is greeted with the enthusiastic greeting "O $@!# waddup". No one knows why this was a thing, no one knows how far down the hole of insanity we have to be to find this funny, but that didn't stop us from saying "O $@!# waddup" with legitimate enthusiasm whenever we saw him.

4. Evil Kermit: With the resurgence of interest in Star Wars and people's general love for anything with frogs, Evil Kermit was a match made in heaven. You know what they say, a two line conversation between yourself and your inner dark side is best expressed through a frog talking to another frog in a hoodie. Err. I think.  

Oh, memes. 

3. Spongegar/Caveman Spongebob: Spongebob has always been a gold mine for potential memes. Why caveman Spongebob in particular suddenly rose to fame is a matter of discord among most memeologists. Some say it's an outburst of our dormant primitive instincts. Others say "ayy lmao spongegar". Spongegar's popularity was particularly noticeable in Bangladesh as half the content in most Bangladeshi meme pages ended up being Spongegar. 

2. Hotline Bling: Unlike Dat Boi, this didn't really come off as a surprise. The moment Drake appeared on that video with that sweatshirt and those unique dance moves, it was only a matter of time. And the internet didn't disappoint as we now finally have a way to show the world our disdain/approval with Drake's glorious gestures. 

Before we move on to number one here's a special shout out to a few other memes that didn't quite make the list:

Arthur's Clenched Fist 

Barney or Hillary? 

Rick Harrison's Pawn Shop

The Bee Movie Script/ We Are Number One/ The Nutshack Theme

And of course, 

The United States Presidential Election 

And now for the most popular meme of 2016, you guessed it—

1. Harambe: To properly give an idea about how unbelievably popular Harambe was in 2016 I will just point to the fact that my father kept sharing Harambe memes without even realising that it was a joke. One fateful day in the Cincinnati zoo, an inattentive mother, a clueless child and a brave gorilla all aligned to make Harambe a cult figure that covered our newsfeed for months. The fanaticism around Harambe made the Cincinnati zoo administration close their social media accounts. We even had a memorial for the brave gorilla in our country at Rabindra Sarobar. Despite growing stale at the tail end of the year, Harambe already nailed his place as a legend… just like the security nailed him down with bullets. Those monsters. 

Nuren Iftekhar is your local basement dweller who dreams of a better world where the concept of elachi is non-existent. Send him obscure memes at n.iftekhar18@gmail.com