Meme Culture: The Most Iconic Meme-able Moments in Pop Culture
American comedian Katt Williams has made fingers twitch and stomachs numb with laughter after his latest interview with Shannon Sharpe on Club Shay Shay. Now sitting on over 40 million views in only eight days on YouTube, the charismatic Emmy-winning funnyman’s interview saw him go on a shocking exposé of prominent comedians and movie stars such as Kevin Hart, Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, and Ludacris.
Katt Williams on Club Shay Shay
Laced with inside info and scathing allegations, he touched on the existence of the secret society – the Illuminati – and the horrors of rape as a means to move further up the ladder of fame.
Since his interview, memes of Katt have mushroomed on every social platform, from TikTok green screens of his now-iconic phrase (“You having an unnatural allegiance to losers is not like you”) to pictures of him giving a side eye while holding a glass of whiskey on X and Facebook. Much like every other meme in pop culture, Katt Williams’s snippets and sound bites have become a staple in expressing truths people would rather keep in their hearts rather than speak about for fear of public reproach or blatant cause of controversy.
The first meme cartoon from The Judge
The first-known meme dates back to the very early 1900s in a magazine called The Judge. Although the cartoon pictured above (originally credited to The Wisconsin Octopus) isn’t technically a meme because there haven’t been variations that spawned from the template, the format of “Expectation vs. Reality” and the humour makes it similar to memes of the present age.
Memes have, through the years, evolved from being basic and cartoonish to being complex and strangely lifelike in their uncanny realism. There’s now a meme for every occasion housed in designated meme pages which cater for specific beats whether it’s wholesome love content and funny pranks or dark humour and morbid contemplations.
Here’s a compilation of some of the most iconic meme moments in pop culture:
Michael Jordan In Tears
In 2009, basketball legend Michael Jordan was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The moment culminated in MJ crying, which would eventually become a snapshot immortalised in meme history.
Drake Shunning and Pointing Meme
The Toronto superstar has had his fair share of the spotlight as a meme, but his most famous perhaps comes from his “Hotline Bling” music video. The meme sees two frames of Drake from the music video; on the one above, he is pictured holding up his palm to shun something undesirable, while the one at the bottom sees him smiling while pointing at something in favour.
The meme has become popular to use a template of shaming something in favour of another alternative. The template can be used by someone to throw shade while trying to cast something else in a positive light in comparison.
Nick Young’s Confused Face With Question Marks
NBA player Nick Young’s confounded face with question marks has been one of the longest-running memes still in use to date. Originally from 2014, the template is one of the most widely recognised and circulated meme templates on all social media platforms, mainly Facebook and X.
Andrew Garfield Grinning at Spiderman Awkward Moment
Oscar-nominated actor Andrew Garfield went viral at the 2023 Academy Awards ceremony after Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about his Spider-Man character at the show. The meme template shows Andrew staring awkwardly at the camera with a weird grimace.
This was the second time Garfield found himself being a meme during an Oscar night. The year before, he was photographed while texting on his phone immediately after the Will Smith-Chris Rock Slapgate.
Woman Yelling at a Cat Meme
The woman yelling at the cat meme came from a scene from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in 2011. The actress Taylor Armstrong can be seen in the picture having a meltdown, and the meme has been modified to have the cat sit on the table, looking on incredulously at Armstrong.
The meme has been famous in particular for scenarios where there are blatant differences in opinion, which could otherwise be humorous.
Ha ha ha ha Yho Laughing Girl
One of the most viral memes on TikTok, sitting on 3.4 million views, is from an account called @princessruska2. In the video, a South African baby girl can be seen laughing, before she gasps, turns away and says “Yho”. Her signature about-face and pursed lips and sarcastic attitude has made her an international sensation, with her video being green-screened and used as a template with various captions.