The Memes of 2009
Interruptions, and a cat who plays people off
Forums and Image Boards, 2006–2010
Facebook added the Like button in February. In September, Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards with “I’ma let you finish”, and the line was remixed and re-captioned within hours.
The year also gave the archive a cat at a keyboard who plays people off, and, in December, a sad bald face drawn in MS Paint that would be reused for more than a decade.
Top memes of 2009
1 meme in the archive peaked this year, and 2 first went viral.
1Rickroll
34/100+2%Classic2007Peaked in 2008
2LOLcats
9/1000%Classic2005Peaked in 2008
3Keyboard Cat
8/1000%Classic1984Peaked in 2009
Also circulating
2009, 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 83, Feb 83, Mar 72, Apr 72, May 66, Jun 62, Jul 60, Aug 58, Sep 58, Oct 56, Nov 53, Dec 56 LOLcats
LOLcats: Jan 72, Feb 71, Mar 70, Apr 69, May 68, Jun 66, Jul 62, Aug 64, Sep 58, Oct 56, Nov 57, Dec 52 Keyboard Cat
Keyboard Cat: Jan 13, Feb 20, Mar 31, Apr 45, May 58, Jun 68, Jul 67, Aug 67, Sep 62, Oct 58, Nov 59, Dec 54 Trollface
Trollface: Jan 32, Feb 36, Mar 39, Apr 39, May 42, Jun 47, Jul 49, Aug 48, Sep 48, Oct 48, Nov 50, Dec 52 Rage Comics
Rage Comics: Jan 18, Feb 20, Mar 22, Apr 24, May 26, Jun 28, Jul 30, Aug 33, Sep 34, Oct 38, Nov 42, Dec 40
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.
Play him off. Brad O’Farrell’s February 2009 remix spreads in May, covered by the Associated Press.
A cast of faces. Characters for disbelief, happiness and loneliness give the format a visual alphabet.
Urban Dictionary. By 2009 it has its own dictionary entry, and appears in comics, forums and Facebook pages.
A franchise. The cat is referenced on television and in countless fail videos.
An image on Vichan. The earliest archived copy of the face appears on a Polish imageboard.
What kind of memes
Categories across the memes active in 2009.