It seems over the past ten years the humble meme's popularity has grown and grown, with new trends and hilarious tweets being posted minute after minute.
The term "meme" was first coined all the way back in the 1970s by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, who wrote about transferring "an idea, behavior or style from person to person within a culture" in his book The Selfish Gene.
In 2013, he spoke to Wired about how the internet had hijacked the word – "The meaning is not that far away from the original. It's anything that goes viral," he said.
And as we head into another decade, it's time to pay homage to Dr Dawkins and take a look back at the most enduring memes of the last decade, and we have to say, researching for this content has been SO funny. Enjoy.
CHECK OUT the absolute best memes of the last ten years
Funniest memes of the decade
Taylor Armstrong shouts "at a cat
In 2011, Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star Taylor Armstrong got into a fight with her fellow cast members, which led to Kyle Richards attempting to told Taylor back. Hilariously, a Twitter user then photoshopped the image so it looked like Taylor was shouting at her cat, and the internet actually exploded. It is has become a meme for literally anything, from "When your mum shouts at you and you just sit there trying not to laugh", to, "When your girlfriend asks you 'Does my bum look big in this?' and you say 'yes'." Hilarious.See some of the best below.
Taylor Armstrong shouts "at a cat"
We love our cats, but sometimes we just long for the faithful, loving loyalty of a dog who would NEVER cheat on us.
Taylor Armstrong shouts "at a cat"
What, because I have tattoos and blue hair and am wearing a stained T-shirt, I can't be the manager? Shame on you.
Taylor Armstrong shouts "at a cat"
To be fair, video games DO cause violence. But they're also a window into the pet ownership we'll not allowed to have in real life.
Roll Safe from #HoodDocumentary
In 2017, BBC Three released #HoodDocumentary, a parody of urban-culture documentaries. This scene of the main character Roll Safe tapping his head and looking into the camera knowingly went viral, after fans of the show thought it was gold meme standard, coining it the "Think About It" meme. The screenshot is posted alongside captions like, "You can't be broke if you don't check your bank account" and "Have you noticed the 'men are trash' tweets have gone down by 70% now February is approaching."See some examples below.
Roll Safe from #HoodDocumentary
That's true, but we'll take scrubbing the loo and doing the dishes over the alternative ever day.
Roll Safe from #HoodDocumentary
See above.
Roll Safe from #HoodDocumentary
This one is our fave. It's especially helpful over the festive season when being drunk at work is basically acceptable.
What the f**k" blinking man
In 2013, Drew Scanlon was going about his daily life as a gamer when he pulled a face which resembled someone saying "What the f**k?" and it seems to have stuck ever since. It is now used every time someone makes a confusing comment online and can be used alongside captions such as "My reaction when my man's invited me round but starts to play on FIFA" or "When my dog doesn't want to be stroked and walks away from me."The most hilarious ones are below.
"What the f**k" blinking man
This thing keeps happening where the more stuff we buy the less money we have? Totally not fair.
"What the f**k" blinking man
We're still advocating compulsory naptimes factored into the working day. Keep your eyes peeled for a petition near you.
Kermit serving shade
Commonly titled "the serving shade meme", Kermit's appearance in Lipton Tea's advert went viral, after someone screenshotted the advert when Kermit was serving some real shade. Captions alongside the image include, "You said that would be your new year's resolution five years ago, but that's nothing to do with me..." and "You said you'd get some tea from the shop but it's OK, I guess I'll just starve."See Kermit serving shade below.
Kermit serving shade
To be fair, if someone said this to us in the ladies loos in da club we'd be pretty grateful. Girl code for the win.
Kermit serving shade
Yeah okay Kermit, I'm just having a little break and THE TEST ISN'T EVEN UNTIL TUESDAY OKAY. Sheesh.
Conflicted Steve Harvey
One Twitter user combined two images of Steve Harvey laughing, then looking extremely concerned, to show how the emotion conflict looks. But, instead of the photo being used to help people with their emotions, it actually went viral due to Twitter users turning it in a meme, with the hilarious captions, "When someone says 'tell me about yourself' but you have no idea who you are" and "When you're telling your family a funny story and almost say too much and snitch on yourself."See more below.
Conflicted Steve Harvey
Self deprecation is the only way to make other people laugh, right?We are so alone.
Conflicted Steve Harvey
This is kind of the same thing as when we buy stuff and our money disappears and we're starting to notice a pattern here tbh.
Distracted boyfriend
This photo is arguably the most famous meme of all time - a photo used to describe being distracted. The things people come up with using this photo are hilarious, with one saying the woman in orange represents junk food, while the other woman is the offended healthy option. LOL. A mood.
Distracted boyfriend
We KNOW we shouldn't do it, but hey it's just so pretty isn't it (and those sunglasses things look weird)?
Gemma Collins
There are literally too many memes of Gemma Collins. There's dedicated accounts to the GC, making memes out of her TOWIE days, her stint on Celebrity Big Brother as well as her very short appearance on I'm A Celebrity.See some more below.
Gemma Collins
It's the biggest tragedy on earth that WhatsApp's delete for all function only works if the message hasn't already been viewed.
Gemma Collins
This image of the GC just couldn't NOT be made into a meme, right? This is why we never look!
Gemma Collins
It's fine, no really, don't even worry about. I'm not angry, I'm just dissapointed, but no really, you do you hun.
Evil Kermit
Kermit really is the King of Memes isn't he? This meme was taken from the 2014 film Muppets Most Wanted, which shows the puppet dressed as a Sith Lord from Star Wars. But fans were quick to adapt this scene, suggesting it was everyone's inner devil trying to persuade their good self to do something bad. For instance, "When you're holding a baby and the devil inside you says to drop it" or "When you only go to buy one chocolate bar and your evil twin says buy four."See more Evil Kermit memes below.
Evil Kermit
We'll never forgive Netflix for the perpetual state of utter exhaustion that we're in for not going to bed until waaaaay past our bedtimes.
Evil Kermit
This old chestnut. We HATE it when it happens to us, but it's just so easy to do, isn't it? Moral of the story - wake up earlier.
Confused Nick Young
NBA basketball player Nick Young went viral in 2014, after he appeared in a Cassy Athena's vlog, which documented his day to day life. Nick's bemused facial expression had fans howling as it made them think about all the times they were left confused by stupid comments made by their friends.
Confused Nick Young
Ok, so we're no Mexican drugs lord but we should at least be able to get passed a half asleep dad on the sofa at 1am.
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But what is it like actually being the star of a meme? Well Drew Scanlon, the star of the "What the f**k?" meme told The Guardian back in 2017 that it's pretty intense.
He said, “People have passed around gifs of us for as long as I’ve worked at [American video game company] Giant Bomb,”
“I first got messaged about that biology tweet – which is still my favourite –[and] since then, pretty much it has been non-stop.
“A lot of people have said that it’s ‘relatable’ which is a bit weird because of course I am, I’m human.”
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“I like what memes can do for people. They’re such fun, throwaway things I see. These memes have been generally positive.
“It’s a little scary because there’s always the danger someone could change it to something different.
“It’s not like I’ve got a say in what the internet does with a gif of my face. But I’m pleased to see people are enjoying it."
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