The Memes of 2012
A horse dance reaches a billion
The Social Boom, 2011–2015
“Gangnam Style” was published in July and reached one billion YouTube views on 21 December, the first video to do so. Facebook announced it would buy Instagram in April, and a grumpy-looking cat began her climb in September.
Success Kid, Trollface and rage comics all hit their peaks this year. It was the high point of the classic image macro.
Top memes of 2012
2 memes in the archive peaked this year, and 2 first went viral.
1Gangnam Style
20/100−1%Classic2012Peaked in 2012
2Rage Comics
10/1000%Classic2008Peaked in 2011
3Trollface
24/100+1%Classic2008Peaked in 2011
2012, month by month
The leading memes of the year on one scale, 0 to 100. The yellow dot marks each one’s highest month.
Gangnam Style
Gangnam Style: Jul 14, Aug 60, Sep 79, Oct 90, Nov 95, Dec 98 Rage Comics
Rage Comics: Jan 85, Feb 84, Mar 83, Apr 83, May 83, Jun 81, Jul 82, Aug 78, Sep 79, Oct 69, Nov 69, Dec 68 Trollface
Trollface: Jan 81, Feb 82, Mar 81, Apr 80, May 79, Jun 80, Jul 77, Aug 75, Sep 72, Oct 73, Nov 74, Dec 69 Grumpy Cat
Grumpy Cat: Sep 14, Oct 56, Nov 67, Dec 75 Success Kid
Success Kid: Jan 58, Feb 61, Mar 64, Apr 64, May 67, Jun 66, Jul 67, Aug 64, Sep 65, Oct 63, Nov 64, Dec 61 Creeper? Aw Man
Creeper? Aw Man: Jan 59, Feb 61, Mar 62, Apr 61, May 62, Jun 60, Jul 62, Aug 59, Sep 53, Oct 55, Nov 53, Dec 51
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 piece of web history. Remembered as an early blueprint for the viral video, usually cited in histories of YouTube-era culture.
February 2012. Search interest in rage comics, Rage Guy and Trollface peaks together.
Peak search interest. Search interest in “troll face” and “rage comics” peaks together in February 2012.
Copyright and licensing. The family registers the copyright and begins licensing the image for products and advertising.
A video from Seoul. PSY releases the video for “Gangnam Style”, a song poking fun at a wealthy neighbourhood.
Celebrity retweets. Pop stars and actors share the video and attempt the dance.
Everywhere at once. Flash mobs and parodies spread through schools and television shows as the song climbs charts around the world.
A frown on Reddit. A photo of a cat with a permanent scowl is posted to Reddit.
Captions everywhere. The image is captioned and shared on Facebook and image boards.
One billion views. It becomes the first video on YouTube to reach one billion views.
What kind of memes
Categories across the memes active in 2012.