The Memes of 2008
A bait-and-switch goes mainstream
Forums and Image Boards, 2006–2010
On 1 April, YouTube sent every featured video to a Rick Astley song, and in November he appeared in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. A prank from an anonymous board had become a shared joke people performed in public.
That autumn the Trollface and the first rage comics appeared, rough drawings made for others to reuse. Earlier in the year, protests organised by the group Anonymous showed the same communities could move offline.
Top memes of 2008
2 memes in the archive peaked this year, and 2 first went viral.
2008, month by month
The leading memes of the year on one scale, 0 to 100. The yellow dot marks each one’s highest month.
Rickroll
Rickroll: Jan 36, Feb 53, Mar 64, Apr 74, May 81, Jun 84, Jul 87, Aug 84, Sep 91, Oct 87, Nov 88, Dec 86 LOLcats
LOLcats: Jan 83, Feb 84, Mar 85, Apr 85, May 83, Jun 85, Jul 81, Aug 78, Sep 81, Oct 77, Nov 79, Dec 73
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.
A genre with its own grammar. LOLspeak and endless user submissions make the cat macro the default format for Internet humour.
YouTube joins in. YouTube rickrolls every featured video link on its homepage as an April Fools’ joke.
Feels good man. A panel in which Pepe says “feels good man” circulates on 4chan.
A toilet splash. The first Rage Guy comic appears on 4chan, ending in a scream of capital letters.
A face in MS Paint. Carlos Ramirez posts a rage comic called “Trolls” to DeviantArt; its final panel introduces the face.
Official recognition. Blizzard adds a “Leeeeeeeeeeeeeroy!” achievement to World of Warcraft, following a 2006 trading card.
4chan adopts it. The face is lifted into other comics and threads as shorthand for provocation.
The parade. Rick Astley performs a surprise rickroll on a float at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
What kind of memes
Categories across the memes active in 2008.