The Memes of 2007
Captioned cats and the first pocket Internet
Forums and Image Boards, 2006–2010
The first iPhone went on sale in June, and Tumblr launched in February. The image macro, a picture with bold white text across it, was becoming the default form for a joke, and cats were the default subject.
Two future staples appear in the record this year: the bait-and-switch link that would become the Rickroll, and a photograph of a toddler with a fist full of sand.
Top memes of 2007
No meme in the archive peaked this year. These were the strongest still circulating.
1LOLcats
9/1000%Classic2005Peaked in 2008
2Leeroy Jenkins
11/100+1%Classic2005Peaked in 2005
2007, month by month
The leading memes of the year on one scale, 0 to 100. The yellow dot marks each one’s highest month.
LOLcats
LOLcats: Jan 24, Feb 28, Mar 33, Apr 38, May 47, Jun 50, Jul 55, Aug 60, Sep 65, Oct 73, Nov 74, Dec 83 Leeroy Jenkins
Leeroy Jenkins: Jan 31, Feb 31, Mar 31, Apr 31, May 31, Jun 28, Jul 30, Aug 29, Sep 27, Oct 29, Nov 27, Dec 29
Attention index, 0 to 100 on one scale for the whole archive. Estimated from each meme’s key dates, not measured.
Timeline
Dated moments from the memes above, in order.
I Can Has Cheezburger. The first image is posted to the site that will turn lolcats into a mass hobby.
The bait. A link promising a game trailer leads to Rick Astley instead. The first rickrolls spread on 4chan.
Uploaded to YouTube. The tape surfaces online as “charlie schmidt’s cool cat” and draws little attention.
Posted to Flickr. Laney Griner uploads a beach photo of her son under the title “Why I oughta...”.
Forum etiquette. Being rickrolled becomes a rite of passage on forums, and spoofs of the video start to appear.
What kind of memes
Categories across the memes active in 2007.