128 Fun Facts About Internet Memes

Who coined the word 'meme' in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene?

Richard Dawkins coined 'meme' in The Selfish Gene (1976), shortening the Greek 'mimeme' ('imitated thing') so it would rhyme with 'gene'.

Who first used the phrase 'Internet meme', in 1993?

Mike Godwin is credited with first using the term 'Internet meme' in Wired in 1993; he had already formulated Godwin's law in 1990.

Godwin's law says the odds of a comparison to whom approach one as an online discussion grows?

Hitler or the Nazis: Mike Godwin formulated the law in 1990, holding that as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

A rickroll bait-and-switches you into the video for which 1987 Rick Astley hit?

It grew out of a 4chan prank called 'duckrolling'; the first rickroll in 2007 replaced a Grand Theft Auto IV trailer.

Rick Astley took rickrolling mainstream by lip-syncing on a float at which 2008 event?

He appeared on a Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends float after Cartoon Network paid him handsomely; many 4chan users then declared the joke dead.

The Doge meme features which breed of dog?

The original dog, Kabosu, was photographed by her owner Atsuko Sato in 2010; the meme peaked in 2013 and spawned Dogecoin.

Doge captions are traditionally written in which font?

The broken-English text ('such wow') represents the dog's inner monologue.

Which cryptocurrency launched in December 2013 as a joke based on a Shiba Inu meme?

Dogecoin, created by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, launched on December 6, 2013, with the Shiba Inu from the Doge meme as its mascot.

What was Grumpy Cat's real name?

Her permanent scowl came from an underbite and feline dwarfism; she was first posted to Reddit in September 2012.

The Distracted Boyfriend meme comes from a stock photo taken in which country?

Photographer Antonio Guillem shot it in Girona in 2015; its Shutterstock caption began 'Disloyal man walking with his girlfriend'.

The Dancing Baby, one of the first viral videos in 1996, was originally a demo for what?

3D animation software: the 'sk_baby.max' file shipped as a demo with Character Studio, a plug-in for 3D Studio Max, before the baby danced through Ally McBeal in 1998.

Nyan Cat flies through space with what for a body?

A Pop-Tart: Chris Torres drew the Pop-Tart-bodied cat as a GIF in April 2011; a YouTuber set it to a Japanese Vocaloid song and it became one of 2011's most-viewed videos.

The 2013 Harlem Shake craze was set to a track by which producer?

Baauer's 2012 track 'Harlem Shake' powered thousands of uploads a day at the craze's peak, and Billboard's newly added YouTube-view counting sent it to number one on the Hot 100 in February 2013.

The Ice Bucket Challenge of 2014 raised money to fight which condition?

ALS (motor neurone disease): the summer-2014 challenge gave nominees 24 hours to douse themselves in ice water or donate, and the ALS Association saw a record surge in gifts.

Which cartoonist created the green frog character from the 2005 comic Boy's Club that became a meme?

Furie later sued groups that turned Pepe into a hate symbol; the 2020 documentary Feels Good Man tells the story.

Keyboard Cat's original footage was filmed in which year?

1984: Charlie Schmidt filmed his cat 'playing' the keyboard in 1984; the 'Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat' meme only took off in 2009, long after the cat had died.

Success Kid is actually clutching a fistful of what?

Sand: the August 2007 beach photo shows toddler Sammy Griner clutching the sand he had been trying to eat; the White House later used the image to promote immigration reform.

The 'woman yelling at a cat' meme pairs a Real Housewives star with a cat named what?

Smudge, from Ottawa, was photographed glaring at a salad; the combo was first tweeted in May 2019.

Which was the first YouTube video to reach one billion views, in December 2012?

'Gangnam Style' by Psy crossed one billion views on December 21, 2012, and stayed YouTube's most-viewed video until 'See You Again' overtook it in July 2017.

The Bernie Sanders mittens meme came from a photo taken at which event?

Joe Biden's 2021 inauguration: Sanders was photographed bundled up in a folding chair on January 20, 2021, and the image was pasted into thousands of scenes within hours.

The 'This is fine' dog sitting in a burning room comes from which webcomic?

Gunshow: KC Green drew the two-panel 'On Fire' strip for his webcomic Gunshow in January 2013; the comic ran from 2008 to 2014.

The house burning behind Disaster Girl was actually what?

A firefighter training exercise: local firefighters had set the house ablaze as a controlled drill in January 2005 when Dave Roth caught his four-year-old daughter Zoë smirking in front of it.

The girl in the 'Ermahgerd' meme is gleefully clutching which books?

Goosebumps books: the photo shows Maggie Goldenberger, dressed up for a game, clutching several of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps paperbacks; 'Ermahgerd' spells 'Oh my God' with a retainer lisp.

'Kilroy was here' graffiti became a worldwide meme during which conflict?

World War II: American GIs scrawled the bald, big-nosed doodle across Europe and the Pacific; in Britain the same figure was known as Mr Chad.

What is the deliberately mangled grammar of 'I can has cheezburger' captions called?

Lolspeak: the broken-English dialect of cat-picture captions ('I can has cheezburger?') took its name from 'lolcat', itself a blend of the acronym LOL and 'cat'.

'All your base are belong to us' comes from the botched translation of which video game?

Zero Wing: the line appears in the 1991 European Mega Drive port of Toaplan's 1989 arcade shooter, in its clumsily translated opening cutscene.

Leeroy Jenkins became famous for ruining a carefully planned raid in which game?

World of Warcraft: the 2005 video shows Leeroy charging into Upper Blackrock Spire mid-plan; Blizzard later added him as an in-game character and a Hearthstone card.

Hide the Pain Harold is a stock-photo model from which country?

Hungary: András Arató, a Hungarian retiree, posed for a 2011 stock-photo shoot whose pained smiles were later captioned as 'Hide the Pain Harold'.

Gary Brolsma's 2004 'Numa Numa Dance' video had him lip-syncing to a song by which band?

O-Zone: Brolsma uploaded the clip to Newgrounds in December 2004, lip-syncing 'Dragostea din tei', the 2003 Romanian-language hit by the Moldovan pop group O-Zone.

In real life, what colours was 'the dress' that divided the internet in 2015?

Blue and black: the dress photographed in February 2015 was a royal-blue lace dress with black trim; washed-out lighting in the photo led many to see white and gold instead.

The photo of 'the dress' was taken ahead of a wedding on which Scottish island?

Colonsay: the bride married on the Hebridean island of Colonsay in February 2015; her mother, Cecilia Bleasdale, had photographed the dress at a Cheshire shop to show her, and the debate spread from there.

The Overly Attached Girlfriend video was an entry in a fan contest run by which pop star?

Laina Morris's clingy 'Girlfriend' parody of Bieber's Boyfriend was later sold as an NFT for $411,000.

Trollface was drawn in 2008 in which program?

Microsoft Paint: an Oakland college student drew Trollface in MS Paint in September 2008 and posted it to DeviantArt in a rage comic mocking forum trolls.

'Chuck Norris facts' most often reference his fondness for what?

Roundhouse kicks: the absurd 'facts', which took off in 2005, most often hinge on a lethal roundhouse kick, with side jokes about his beard and Walker, Texas Ranger.

The planking fad, peaking in 2011, involves doing what?

Lying rigid face-down in odd places: the stunt was known as 'the lying down game' in Britain in the late 1990s before going global as planking in 2011.

Which company's Baby Shark video became the first on YouTube to hit 10 billion views?

Pinkfong: the South Korean company's 2016 'Baby Shark Dance' overtook 'Despacito' as YouTube's most-viewed video in November 2020 and passed 10 billion views in January 2022.

Which YouTube personality's 2013 'Filthy Frank' video kicked off the Harlem Shake meme?

Miller, later the musician Joji, uploaded it on his DizastaMusic channel; the videos never featured the real Harlem dance.

Which activist group's 2008 anti-Scientology protests helped push rickrolling into the mainstream?

That April, YouTube rickrolled everyone for April Fools' Day and fans voted the song as the New York Mets' rally anthem.

Bad Luck Brian's real name is what?

Kyle Craven: his friend Ian Davies posted Craven's deliberately goofy high-school yearbook photo to Reddit in January 2012, and every caption since has described a fresh catastrophe.

Where did the Leeroy Jenkins clip first appear in May 2005?

Warcraftmovies: the guild Pals for Life uploaded 'Leeroy!!' to Warcraftmovies.com on May 11, 2005, when YouTube itself was only three months old.

Which meme character did the Anti-Defamation League add to its hate-symbol database in 2016?

The ADL noted most uses were not hateful; in 2019 Hong Kong protesters adopted Pepe as a pro-democracy symbol.

The Nyan Cat song 'Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!' was originally sung by which virtual singer?

Hatsune Miku: producer daniwell uploaded 'Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!' to Niconico in July 2010 with the Vocaloid Hatsune Miku; the Nyan Cat video used a later cover by the UTAU voice Momone Momo.

The Ice Bucket Challenge was co-founded by Pat Quinn and which former college baseball player?

Pete Frates: the former Boston College baseball captain, diagnosed with ALS in 2012, spread the challenge with Pat Quinn in summer 2014; both men later died of the disease.

Grumpy Cat, Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat all shared what?

The same 'meme manager': Ben Lashes, a former musician turned meme agent, represented all three; Grumpy Cat's owner Tabatha Bundesen quit her Red Lobster waitressing job to manage the cat's schedule.

Harambe, the western lowland gorilla shot in 2016 after a boy climbed into his enclosure, lived at which zoo?

Cincinnati Zoo shot Harambe after a three-year-old boy climbed into his enclosure, and his death spawned countless memes.

Harambe's name came from a 1988 song by the widow of which reggae legend?

Bob Marley: his widow Rita Marley's 1988 song 'Harambe (Working Together for Freedom)' inspired the winner of a naming contest; 'harambee' is Swahili for 'all pull together'.

What is the real name of the man in the Scumbag Steve meme?

Blake Boston: the 2006 photo of the Millis, Massachusetts teenager in a sideways cap and fur-trimmed coat was reposted in 2011 and captioned as every friend who borrows and never returns.

Who took the original photograph that became the Scumbag Steve meme?

His mother took the photo at the family's Millis, Massachusetts home in 2006; the teenager posted it to his own Myspace page, and it exploded on Reddit and 4chan in January 2011.

Salt Bae, the meme-famous meat-seasoning chef, is from which country?

Turkey: Nusret Gökçe, a Turk of Kurdish origin, left school in the sixth grade to apprentice as a butcher in Istanbul, where he opened his first steakhouse in 2010.

Salt Bae's steakhouse chain is called Nusr-Et; what does "et" mean in Turkish?

The chain has branches from Dubai to New York, and his salt-sprinkling clip went viral in January 2017.

Wojak, the bald "that feel when" cartoon man, is named from a Polish word meaning what?

Soldier: 'wojak' is a Polish word for a soldier; the image first surfaced on the Polish board Vichan as ciepłatwarz.jpg ('warmface') and took its name from a Krautchan poster called wojak.

The endlessly parodied four-panel comic "Loss" comes from which gaming webcomic?

Ctrl+Alt+Del: Tim Buckley's June 2008 strip depicted a miscarriage, a jarring tonal shift that readers mocked and abstracted into the four-panel line pattern.

In the viral 'Damn Daniel' clips, what is Daniel Lara praised for being 'back at it again' with?

White Vans were the shoes; Vans gave Daniel Lara a lifetime supply on Ellen, which he donated to a children's hospital.

Left Shark stole the show during whose Super Bowl XLIX halftime performance?

Katy Perry: during her February 2015 halftime show, dancer Bryan Gaw's offbeat shark beside her on 'Teenage Dream' and 'California Gurls' became Left Shark.

Chewbacca Mask Lady Candace Payne bought her famous mask at which retailer?

The mask sold out everywhere and Kohl's rewarded her with gift cards, Star Wars toys and reward points.

On which platform did Candace Payne post her Chewbacca mask video in May 2016?

Mark Zuckerberg invited her to Facebook headquarters after the video passed 140 million views.

Ken Bone became a meme after asking a question at a 2016 debate while wearing what?

A red sweater: Bone's cable-knit red sweater was a last-minute substitute after he split the seat of his suit trousers; the Illinois power-plant worker gained hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers within days.

Ken Bone posed his viral question at a debate between Donald Trump and whom?

Hillary Clinton: Bone, an undecided voter from Belleville, Illinois, asked about energy policy at the October 9, 2016 town-hall debate between Clinton and Trump in St. Louis.

Which organisation produced the viral 2012 short film Kony 2012?

Invisible Children: the San Diego charity's 30-minute film aimed to make Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony famous enough to be arrested by the end of 2012, and drew 100 million views within a week.

Which actor's face from a 1971 film is used in the sarcastic "Condescending Wonka" meme?

Gene Wilder: the still comes from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), where Wilder's Wonka is dreamily anticipating the chocolate room rather than being sarcastic.

Slender Man was created in 2009 by a user of which forum?

Something Awful: Eric Knudsen, posting as Victor Surge, created the tall faceless figure in June 2009 for the forum's 'Create Paranormal Images' photo-editing thread.

Which Minecraft mob was inspired by Slender Man?

The Enderman: Minecraft creator Markus 'Notch' Persson said the tall, dark, teleporting Enderman, added in 2011, was partly inspired by Slender Man; the figure also appears as The Operator in Marble Hornets.

Bongo Cat first went viral drumming along to a track from which video game?

Super Mario World: the May 2018 edit by Twitter user DitzyFlama set StrayRogue's cat-like blob drumming to the 'Athletic' theme from Super Mario World's 1990 soundtrack.

Big Chungus is a still of Bugs Bunny from which 1941 cartoon?

The meme began as fake video-game box art shared by a GameStop manager in Colorado Springs in December 2018.

Ugandan Knuckles avatars flooded which virtual-reality game in late 2017?

VRChat: the squat Knuckles avatars swarmed VRChat lobbies in December 2017 and January 2018, chanting 'Do you know da wae?' in an accent modelled on the 2010 Ugandan film Who Killed Captain Alex?

Which talk show launched Danielle Bregoli's "Cash me outside" catchphrase in 2016?

Dr. Phil: Bregoli's September 2016 Dr. Phil appearance as an out-of-control teen produced the line, and her 2017 single 'These Heaux' made her the youngest female rapper to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.

What was the first popular caption on the Success Kid photo, before it meant triumph?

I Hate Sandcastles: the early caption implied the boy had just flattened another child's sandcastle; only later did the clenched fist come to mean triumph.

In 2015 the Success Kid family used the meme to raise money for what?

A kidney transplant: in April 2015 the Griner family launched a GoFundMe, fronted by Sammy's famous photo, to cover the costs of a kidney transplant for his father Justin.

Disaster Girl's photo was taken in which US state?

North Carolina: Dave Roth photographed his four-year-old daughter Zoë in Mebane, North Carolina, in January 2005; the shot won a JPG magazine contest in 2008.

Hide the Pain Harold, András Arató, was a retired what before becoming a stock model?

Electrical engineer: Arató had retired from a career as an electrical engineer when a photographer spotted his holiday photos on the social network iWiW and invited him to a shoot.

Which teenager drew Trollface in 2008?

Carlos Ramirez, an Oakland college student, drew Trollface in September 2008 and posted it to his DeviantArt page 'Whynne' in a rage comic about forum trolling.

The milk crate challenge went viral in August 2021 on which platform?

TikTok, where the trend took off, later removed search results for the milk crate challenge under its policy against dangerous acts.

Which company makes Tide Pods, the detergent at the centre of a 2018 meme challenge?

Procter & Gamble (P&G) had already made the tubs opaque and added a bitter-tasting coating after young children ate the pods, years before teens filmed themselves biting them in January 2018.

Which song usually played in the background of Mannequin Challenge videos?

Black Beatles: Rae Sremmurd's 2016 single became the default soundtrack, and the trend is believed to have started at Edward H. White High School in Jacksonville, Florida, in October 2016.

A 2016 talent-show clip of Mike Senatore popularised which fad?

Bottle flipping: Senatore's May 2016 flip of a water bottle at his Charlotte, North Carolina high-school talent show landed upright to a roar, and the thud of copycat flips soon got the fad banned in many schools.

"Tebowing" imitates a quarterback dropping to one knee to do what?

Tim Tebow's habit of kneeling to pray on the field became 'Tebowing'; he led the Broncos to a playoff win in 2011 before being traded to the New York Jets.

Which NFL quarterback's touchdown celebrations in 2015 turned the dab into a global craze?

Cam Newton: the Carolina Panthers quarterback dabbed after touchdowns throughout the 2015 season, taking the Atlanta hip-hop dance popularised by Migos to a worldwide audience.

Cinnamon challenge participants try to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon in under how long?

Interest peaked abruptly in January 2012, with Twitter mentions nearing 70,000 per day.

Roughly how many people actually turned up at Area 51 on "Storm Area 51" day in 2019?

About 150: while more than two million had clicked 'going' on Matty Roberts's joke Facebook event, only around 150 people turned up at the base's gates on September 20, 2019.

The Crying Jordan photo was taken at what 2009 event?

His Hall of Fame induction: AP photographer Stephan Savoia caught Jordan tearing up during his September 2009 Basketball Hall of Fame induction speech; the cut-out head later became a stamp for sporting failure.

The head-tapping "Roll Safe" meme features actor Kayode Ewumi from which web series?

Hood Documentary: Ewumi played the hapless Reece Simpson in the 2015 mockumentary web series #HoodDocumentary, later picked up by BBC Three; the head-tap still peaked as a meme in January 2017.

The Coffin Dance pallbearers come from which country?

Ghana: Benjamin Aidoo founded the pallbearer service in Prampram, near Accra, in 2003 and added choreography later; their dancing funeral processions became the 2020 meme.

Which EDM track soundtracks the Coffin Dance meme?

Astronomia: Vicetone's 2014 remix of Tony Igy's track 'Astronomia' was paired with 2017 BBC footage of the dancing pallbearers in early 2020, becoming the meme's signature sound.

Whose TikTok cover of 'Wellerman' sparked the 2021 sea shanty craze?

Nathan Evans, a Scottish postman, posted his TikTok 'Wellerman' in late December 2020 and it exploded in January 2021; the 19th-century New Zealand song concerns the Weller brothers' whaling supply ships.

Star Wars Kid Ghyslain Raza swung which object as a lightsaber in his 2002 video?

A golf ball retriever: Raza swung the telescoping retriever like Darth Maul's double-bladed lightsaber in November 2002; classmates found the tape and uploaded it without his consent in 2003.

Star Wars Kid was a high schooler in which Canadian province?

Quebec: Raza was a high-school student in Trois-Rivières, Quebec; he later spoke publicly about the bullying the video caused and went on to become a lawyer.

Which caption in the "Chocolate Rain" video explains why Tay Zonday keeps stepping back?

'I move away from the mic to breathe in': the on-screen caption answers why Zonday keeps leaning back; the April 2007 song is a metaphor for racism against African Americans.

Paul "Bear" Vasquez filmed his ecstatic "Double Rainbow" video near which national park?

He was a prolific uploader who published thousands of videos from his Mariposa County property.

Which question does 7-year-old David famously ask in "David After Dentist"?

'Is this real life?': David DeVore, seven, asked it groggily in the car after a 2008 procedure to remove an extra tooth; his father posted the clip in January 2009.

The "Dramatic Chipmunk" is actually which animal?

A prairie dog: the rodent is a prairie dog filmed for the Japanese variety show Hello! Morning; the 2007 clip adds a dramatic sting from the 1974 Mel Brooks film Young Frankenstein.

The Hampster Dance page was created on which free web-hosting service?

GeoCities: Canadian art student Deidre LaCarte built the page on GeoCities during a web-traffic contest with her sister and a friend; it exploded in early 1999.

The Hampster Dance's sped-up song comes from which Disney film?

Robin Hood: the loop is a sped-up sample of Roger Miller's 'Whistle-Stop' from Disney's 1973 Robin Hood; CNET ranked the page the number-one web fad in 2005.

How many badgers do callisthenics in the "Badger Badger Badger" animation?

Twelve: Jonti Picking (Mr Weebl) animated twelve badgers doing callisthenics, interrupted by a mushroom and a snake, in the September 2003 Flash loop.

Which phrase is the standard "O RLY?" reply meaning "Yeah, really"?

YA RLY: the snowy owl's 'O RLY?' is answered by 'YA RLY', followed by 'NO WAI!!'; the owl photograph was taken by nature photographer John White in 2001.

Know Your Meme began in 2007 as a video series within which vlog?

Rocketboom: Know Your Meme launched in December 2007 as a video series within the Rocketboom vlog, whose hosts styled themselves the 'Rocketboom Institute for Internet Studies'.

Longcat, the famously lengthy white cat, was from which country?

Shiro reportedly measured 65 centimetres and had a colour-inverted nemesis called Tacgnol.

Whose "worst video ever made" tweet sent Rebecca Black's "Friday" viral?

Michael J. Nelson, the Mystery Science Theater 3000 alum, tweeted on March 11, 2011 that it was the worst video ever made; with a Tosh.0 blog feature, views surged within days.

Kermit's tea-sipping "None of My Business" meme comes from an ad for which brand?

The 2014 "Be More Kermit" ad was adapted by comedians on the Tumblr blog Kermit the Snitch.

Which New Zealand MP said 'OK boomer' in parliament in November 2019?

Chlöe Swarbrick, a 25-year-old Green MP, shot back 'OK boomer' at a heckling older MP during a climate-change speech in New Zealand's parliament on November 5, 2019.

The 'Karen' meme surged after a 2020 birdwatching confrontation in which park?

Central Park: on May 25, 2020, Amy Cooper called police on Black birdwatcher Christian Cooper in the Ramble after he asked her to leash her dog; the video made 'Karen' shorthand for entitlement.

Before his name was revealed, Baby Yoda was officially credited as what?

The Child: the credits of The Mandalorian's first two seasons listed the character only as 'The Child' until Ahsoka Tano revealed the name Grogu in a November 2020 episode.

Impact, the classic meme font, was designed in 1965 by whom?

Geoffrey Lee drew Impact in 1965 for Sheffield's Stephenson Blake foundry; it shipped with Windows from Windows 98, which made it the standard caption face for image macros.

Bernie Sanders' famous inauguration mittens were made by whom?

A Vermont schoolteacher: Jen Ellis, an elementary-school teacher from Vermont, knitted the mittens from repurposed wool sweaters; AFP's Brendan Smialowski took the photo on January 20, 2021.

Which Real Housewives star is the "woman yelling at a cat"?

Taylor Armstrong: the still shows Armstrong crying and pointing in 'Malibu Beach Party from Hell', a 2011 episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, as a castmate holds her back.

Which Spanish city was the Distracted Boyfriend stock photo shot in?

Antonio Guillem's Shutterstock caption read "Disloyal man walking with his girlfriend and looking amazed at another seductive girl".

What is Pepe the Frog's signature catchphrase from his original Boy's Club appearance?

It also became the title of the 2020 documentary about Matt Furie's fight to reclaim the character.

Since 2014, collectible Pepe images traded like cards have been called what?

Rare Pepes: from late 2014, 4chan users began posting unusual Pepe variants as 'rare Pepes', and in 2015 some were listed for sale on eBay before the listings were pulled.

What was the name of the Shiba Inu in the original Doge photo?

The 2010 photo took off in late 2013, when Know Your Meme named Doge its top meme of the year.

Which single word most often ends a Doge utterance?

Wow: Doge captions open with 'so', 'such', 'many', 'much' or 'very' and almost always end on a lone 'wow'.

Grumpy Cat's scowl was caused by feline dwarfism and what other condition?

An underbite: her owner Tabatha Bundesen said the permanent frown came from feline dwarfism and an underbite; the cat was otherwise healthy and died in 2019 aged seven.

Rickrolling grew out of an earlier 4chan bait-and-switch trick called what?

Duckrolling was a 2006 4chan prank that tricked users into clicking a picture of a duck on wheels; a word filter that turned 'egg' into 'duck' gave 'duckroll' its name.

The first rickroll replaced the trailer for which video game?

Web users later voted "Never Gonna Give You Up" the New York Mets' rally song in an April 2008 poll.

Nyan Cat's creator drew the Pop-Tart cat during a fundraiser for which charity?

Christopher Torres drew the Pop-Tart cat on April 2, 2011 during a Livestream drawing session raising money for the Red Cross, after two viewers suggested a Pop-Tart and a cat.

What was the name of the original Keyboard Cat?

Charlie Schmidt of Spokane manipulated the cat's paws under a blue T-shirt on an Ensoniq Mirage keyboard.

Whose music video did "Gangnam Style" overtake as YouTube's most viewed in November 2012?

'Gangnam Style' passed Justin Bieber's 'Baby' on November 24, 2012 to become YouTube's most-viewed video; it held the record until Wiz Khalifa's 'See You Again' overtook it in July 2017.

Which retailer sold "the dress" and made a white-and-gold version for charity?

Roman Originals, a Birmingham-based retailer, sold the £50 bodycon dress; after the February 2015 viral debate it made a single white-and-gold version, auctioned for Comic Relief.

Vine videos were limited to how many seconds?

Vine clips looped at six seconds; Twitter bought the app for about $30 million in October 2012, four months after its founding, and shut it down in January 2017.

Which Filthy Frank Show character appears in the video that began the Harlem Shake meme?

Pink Guy, Filthy Frank's pink-bodysuited alter ego, dances in the February 2, 2013 'Do the Harlem Shake' video that spawned the meme; the name is borrowed from a 1980s Harlem street dance.

Which 1996 PBS kids' series became a meme source in July 2016 through a still of its title character's clenched fist?

Arthur's clenched fist comes from the episode 'Arthur's Big Hit', in which D.W. breaks his model plane; the still spread as a frustration meme on Twitter in July 2016.

Which Pokémon appears with a blank look and open mouth in a popular reaction meme?

"Surprised Pikachu" is used when an entirely predictable outcome nonetheless catches someone off guard.

Which animation tool, published free by Valve, is used to make every Skibidi Toilet episode?

Source Filmmaker, Valve's free animation tool, is what DaFuq!?Boom! (Alexey Gerasimov) uses for Skibidi Toilet, borrowing character models and assets from Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike.

Which blockbuster director, with producing partner Adam Goodman, was reported in July 2024 to be in talks to adapt Skibidi Toilet?

Michael Bay and his Invisible Narratives partner Adam Goodman were reported in July 2024 to be in talks with creator Alexey Gerasimov to turn Skibidi Toilet into film and television projects.

When did the Mocking SpongeBob meme make alternating caps the standard way to mock in text?

May 2017 is when a still of SpongeBob clucking like a chicken, from the episode 'Little Yellow Book', spread on Twitter with alternating-caps captions, a style since nicknamed 'spongecase'.

What was the mishap that angered the author of the very first rage comic, posted to 4chan in 2008?

The four-panel strip ended on a zoomed-in Rage Guy screaming 'FFFFFFUUUUUU-', and users quickly remixed it into new scenarios.

What are rage comics known as in China, where artist Wang Nima's site was banned in 2018?

Baozou Manhua, often shortened to Baoman, was Wang Nima's rage-comic brand; Netflix's 2018 animated film Next Gen adapted his comic '7723' from the site.

How old was Kabosu, the Shiba Inu behind the Doge meme, when she died in May 2024?

A monument to her had been installed in Sakura, Chiba, in 2023, followed by a manhole cover bearing her image in 2024.

How much was Grenade Beverage ordered to pay Grumpy Cat Limited in a 2018 verdict?

$710,000: a Los Angeles federal jury found in January 2018 that Grenade Beverage had exceeded its 'Grumppuccino' iced-coffee licence by selling other Grumpy Cat products, adding a symbolic $1 for breach of contract.

Which actor's Boromir from The Fellowship of the Ring became the 'One does not simply' meme?

Sean Bean: the image is Boromir at the Council of Elrond in The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), saying 'One does not simply walk into Mordor', captioned with the Impact font.