Being an “internet boomer” (I’m 26), I have witnessed memes evolve from poorly drawn stick figures to relatable and distorted photos anchored together by Hanna-Barbera-style sound effects. Having unfiltered access to the internet as a child both warped and enhanced my content-creating ability with a blend of early 2000s humour and new age chaos.
I started making TikToks in the platform’s golden age – lockdown – and now I have more than 500,000 followers (wtf). Being on TikTok has unveiled a mysterious world of humour I was totally unaware of. Welcome to my tour of the internet!
1. Look dude it’s a bird
The simplicity and execution of this vintage meme is outstanding. Whether it’s the relatability or the sheer jump scare, this meme has proven its longevity; forever on repeat in my mind.
2. Sketty noodle
Where would society be without cat videos?! They exploded on to the scene in the mid-2000s with a video titled “Pajamas and Nick Drake” posted by the co-founder of YouTube, Steve Chen. Safe to say, cat videos have mutated far beyond this point. Sketty Noodle portrays an array of distorted cats in contorted positions which never fail to generate a good laugh.
3. Bondulance
"The bond's Name. James Name"
— Sean Leahy (@thepunningman) December 2, 2014
Pleased to... what?
"Bond Name's the james"
Are you alright?
"Bames Nond's having a stronk, call a Bondulance"
During the peak of the James Bond hype train, this tweet emerged out of the blue, teetering on plausible conversation. The lingo is a true reflection of the 2014 era of absurdity, still circulating to this day.
4. I’m very ugly
I can directly blame SpongeBob’s early episodes for my sense of humour. This scene from season two has been reformatted time and time again to fit new meme templates. Timeless.
5. The average English individual
There are many animals that embody traits similar to those of the human race; the internet has categorised any animal with protruding teeth as English. Being English myself, I can say this is a very accurate categorisation.
6. That guy who shows you a song he made
At some point during your mid-20s you’ve more than likely encountered the upcoming artist who always seems to have “big things coming”. This archetype dwells within the party/rave scene and often during brief conversations will drop the phrase, “Bro, check out my new mix, it’s dope” – to which they’ll proceed to hold their iPhone 10 to your ear and blast the most heinous tunes, eagerly awaiting your reaction.
7. Jet
The perfect mix of cutting-edge humour and wacky cartoon soundbites.
8. Songs that Elvis wrote
Maybe the only good thing about AI is its meme-spawning ability. Having used similar software to generate this type of inane content I can personally say it’s hilarious to hear Elvis cover the Rick and Morty theme song.
9. Meme imitates life
In his 1889 essay The Decay of Living, Oscar Wilde opined, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” This continues to hold true with the corniest rapper of our age, Drake. This vintage meme template prophesied a layout of events that emulated Drake’s reality, with both fellow rapper A$AP Rocky and our queen Rih Rih.
10. Crab factory
If you showed this to anyone who wasn’t chronically online you’d probably get some questionable looks. Nevertheless, this concept of reversing a video totally changes the context and creates a hilarious dystopian reality that we could witness in our lifetime.
• Alistair Fawcus is a creative content director. Follow him on Instagram and TikTok
