The Memes of 2014
The summer everyone poured water on themselves
The Social Boom, 2011–2015
The Ice Bucket Challenge spread in the summer, raising large sums for ALS charities and putting the question of whether a meme could do good to rest for a while. In March, Ellen DeGeneres’s Oscars selfie was retweeted millions of times.
Underneath, the next platform was forming: Musical.ly, the lip-syncing app that would later be absorbed into TikTok, appeared during the year.
Top memes of 2014
1 meme in the archive peaked this year, and 2 first went viral.
1Doge
63/100+14%Hot2010Peaked in 2013
- 0%Classic2014
Peaked in 2014
3Grumpy Cat
15/1000%Classic2012Peaked in 2013
2014, month by month
The leading memes of the year on one scale, 0 to 100. The yellow dot marks each one’s highest month.
Doge
Doge: Jan 92, Feb 92, Mar 84, Apr 80, May 77, Jun 72, Jul 66, Aug 57, Sep 52, Oct 46, Nov 41, Dec 38 Ice Bucket Challenge
Ice Bucket Challenge: Jun 2, Jul 30, Aug 90, Sep 36, Oct 20, Nov 14, Dec 12 Grumpy Cat
Grumpy Cat: Jan 71, Feb 74, Mar 68, Apr 69, May 67, Jun 66, Jul 64, Aug 64, Sep 62, Oct 57, Nov 54, Dec 52 Trollface
Trollface: Jan 49, Feb 47, Mar 50, Apr 46, May 48, Jun 45, Jul 46, Aug 45, Sep 44, Oct 41, Nov 41, Dec 41 Pepe the Frog
Pepe the Frog: Jan 38, Feb 39, Mar 40, Apr 40, May 41, Jun 42, Jul 42, Aug 43, Sep 44, Oct 46, Nov 46, Dec 48 Rage Comics
Rage Comics: Jan 44, Feb 45, Mar 44, Apr 39, May 40, Jun 38, Jul 37, Aug 35, Sep 34, Oct 32, Nov 31, Dec 30
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.
Cropped and shared. The two-panel crop spreads on Tumblr and Reddit.
Cold-water challenges. Charity challenges involving ice water are adopted by supporters of ALS research.
Advocates take it up. People living with ALS, including Pete Frates and Pat Quinn, help make the challenge visible.
Celebrities join. Politicians, athletes and executives post their own videos.
Over $100 million. The ALS Association reports donations far above the previous year.
Backlash and fatigue. Critics question water use and the idea of “slacktivism”.
Replaced by new formats. Polished image macros and platform-native video overtake the hand-drawn comic.
Overexposure. The format fades after a year of constant use and brand adoption.
Breaking the counter. YouTube upgrades its view counter after it passes the 32-bit integer limit.
What kind of memes
Categories across the memes active in 2014.