We live in an era defined by memes. True, meme-modifying images is a practice as old as humanity itself, but the advent of the internet has made that process much… danker. Whether repurposed from YouTube videos, movie screengrabs, or catchphrases, these golden viral nuggets shape how we consume, criticize, and communicate through cultural touchstones. But which ones achieved lasting greatness? To answer that, we looked for memes with universality and malleability; a dank meme exists in many permutations, and can cross-cultural and linguistic barriers.
We confined ourselves to the internet; only symbols and phrases that crossed from traditional media to the web qualify. We also considered the ubiquity and persistence of a meme in determining its position on this list, which means more Famous funny iPhone memes tend to wind up lower in the ranking. As you’ll soon see, though, this ranking is perfect and indisputable.
1. “That’s what she said”
The phrase may date as far back as Saturday Night Live’s “Wayne’s World,” but it’s still riotously funny to 13-year-olds the world over (and Michael Scott from The Office). Anything can become sexual, and these four words are proof.
2. Star Wars kid
Parodied by such comedy stalwarts as Stephen Colbert and Arrested Development, this 2002 video of a kid wielding a ball fetcher like a lightsaber exploded onto the pre-YouTube internet, repurposed by any and every internet user with video-editing skills. The bittersweet twist is that viral fame took its toll; after suffering emotional damage, Star Wars kid slapped the cyber bullies who leaked the video with harassment lawsuits.
3. Obama’s “Hope” poster
Shepard Fairey’s reproduction of an Obama portrait quickly became one of the most iconic images of the 2008 presidential election. It wasn’t long before several parodies, imitating the style and minimalist message spawned.
4. Philosoraptor
Animals make excellent internet fodder, and “Philosoraptor,” a popular image meme where a quizzical dinosaur thinks deeply absurd thoughts, is the perfect example of what even an extinct creature can accomplish. Where did this Jurassic meme hatch from? While you’d think this particular joke was cooked up on a web forum, Philosoraptor actually debuted as a T-shirt sold on the website Lonely Planet by a designer named Sam Smith. Yep, that’s right: Novelty clothing can still be funny.
5. “Bye, Felicia”
It’s hard to think that when Ice Cube was shooting Friday, his classic 1995 stoner comedy, he had any idea that a throwaway line like “Bye, Felicia” would go on to become a popular dismissive catchphrase — much less the source for countless GIFs, Twitter put-downs, and even the title of a VH1 show. But that’s how the internet works. Once people latch onto a piece of culture, it takes on a life of its own. This particular phrase went from the movies to the internet and then back to the big screen: Friday director F. Gary Gray incorporated the line into his N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton, where Cube’s actual son O’Shea Jackson Jr. delivered the line while playing his father. Whoa.
6. It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time!!!
What time is it? It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time. Before this was a goofy Family Guy gag, this delightfully silly meme started on forums as a piece of Flash animation where a chipper banana dances around as “Peanut Butter Jelly Time,” a track from the Buckwheat Boyz, blares in the background. Don’t question it. Submit to the banana.
7. “You’re the man now, dog”
No one could have predicted that a mildly problematic line from Sean Connery’s earnest drama Finding Forrester would become the emblem for repetitive internet nonsense, but hey, here we are! In 2001, Max Goldberg slapped Connery’s line-reading with a tiled mosaic of the man’s face and cast it off into an infinite loop. Goldberg would open the site up to user-created “YTMND” memes, both bite-size and epic, mesmerizing and irritating as hell. No other platform could support such gifts as the Master Control Program from TRON singing Katy Perry’s “Hot N Cold.”