These memes mesmerized the world this past year. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for memes that defined 2023.
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00:00 Happy birthday, Grimace. I love you.
00:02 - Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:03 And today we're counting down our picks for memes
00:06 that defined 2023.
00:08 ♪ Angela Bassett did the thing ♪
00:10 - Number 10, eggflation.
00:12 Prices have skyrocketed across every grocery aisle,
00:15 but the going rates for eggs
00:16 officially broke the internet in 2023.
00:19 - We used to get a case for about $27,
00:22 and now we're getting them for about $150.
00:25 - Based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
00:27 egg prices grew 70.1% within a year
00:30 due to labor shortages and the avian flu.
00:33 $7.37 for a dozen eggs may be highway robbery,
00:38 although you can't put a price on the memes
00:40 this crisis inspired.
00:41 While the earliest memes can be traced to December 2022,
00:45 it was in the new year when they really took off
00:47 with rumors of a chicken revolution.
00:49 Suddenly, a single egg looked like a diamond engagement ring
00:52 while a stack of cartons resembled Walter White's money pile.
00:56 At this rate, we could buy a chicken and save a fortune.
00:59 - Roy, we'll need a chicken then.
01:02 - No, I will need an egg.
01:03 - Number nine, Pedro Pascal's sandwich.
01:06 The Mandalorian and The Last of Us are great and all,
01:08 but let's be honest,
01:10 the Pedro Pascal-issance reached a new peak
01:12 with his sandwich.
01:13 - Oh, peanut butter and jelly. - Peanut butter and jelly.
01:15 - Versus. - Now what do you got?
01:16 - Appearing on an episode of "Snack Wars" with Jon Favreau,
01:19 Pascal lent his taste buds to American and Chilean delicacies.
01:22 And by delicacies, we mean Reese's, McDonald's,
01:25 and Five Guys.
01:26 Yet it was a tiny PB&J sandwich that captivated the world.
01:29 - Mm, peanut butter's really good.
01:31 - Although Pascal preferred the maraqueta sandwich,
01:33 TikTok ate up the image of him
01:35 casually biting into the PB&J,
01:37 green-screening him into offices, classrooms,
01:39 and other everyday locales.
01:41 Between the size of the sandwich,
01:43 the nonchalant look on Pascal's face,
01:45 and that brown sweater,
01:46 the internet's dad turned a small meal
01:48 into a bountiful feast.
01:50 Number eight, Rihanna featuring Super Bowl 57.
01:53 Rihanna created no shortage of iconic and memeable moments
01:56 with her halftime performance,
01:58 making that silly football game an afterthought.
02:00 ♪ We'll do half each other ♪
02:02 ♪ You can stand under my umbrella ♪
02:04 - Charging down the field in puffy coats,
02:07 Rihanna's backup dancers channeled Nick Cannon's soldiers
02:09 on their way to work,
02:10 and white people when sweet Caroline comes on at a wedding.
02:13 The show's floating platforms mimicked UFOs
02:15 in Super Smash Bros. stages.
02:17 As for Rihanna herself,
02:18 a brief moment when she adjusted her makeup was a highlight,
02:21 but nothing topped the reveal of her baby belly.
02:24 While half of the internet was concerned
02:26 about how high up Rihanna was,
02:28 others were flabbergasted by the quick turnaround
02:30 after giving birth to her firstborn
02:32 less than a year earlier.
02:33 They don't call her hubby ASAP Rocky for nothing.
02:36 Number seven, the devil wears big red shoes.
02:39 Rihanna's red Super Bowl outfit would have been perfection
02:42 if she had just went with different footwear.
02:44 Of all the fashion trends to take off in 2023,
02:47 giant cartoon boots hit us like an anvil out of nowhere.
02:51 Priced at $350, the black boots are fine, we guess,
02:55 but the big red boots are where it's at.
02:57 - I mean, you look like a cartoon, God bless you, but.
03:00 - Don't hurt yourself.
03:02 - Developed by the Brooklyn-based art collective Mischief,
03:05 the boots became a viral sensation,
03:07 with users linking them to the likes of Astro Boy,
03:10 Pac-Man, and Saitama of One Punch Man.
03:12 They might not be the easiest shoes to walk around in,
03:15 or to get off.
03:17 (laughing)
03:19 (laughing)
03:22 - Okay, all right, come on Cinderella,
03:24 if the shoe fits, let's go.
03:26 - Cartoons are not practical, however.
03:28 Neither are fashion or the internet,
03:30 so it only makes sense that all three would come together
03:33 in one loony package.
03:35 Number six, Angela Bassett did the thing.
03:38 When you put BAFTA awards and hip hop performance together,
03:41 you know it's gonna be dead on arrival.
03:43 - ♪ Hey mama, I'm so fine ♪
03:44 ♪ And Anna girl, you look great in blonde ♪
03:46 - What's DOA, however, always has a chance
03:49 to live forever among meme culture.
03:51 Ariana DeBose's opening rap number
03:53 was the stuff that memes are made of,
03:55 but people gravitated toward one line in particular.
03:58 ♪ Angela Bassett did the thing ♪
04:00 ♪ Viola Davis, my woman king ♪
04:01 - So what exactly is the thing that Angela Bassett did?
04:04 Maybe it's a reference to her award-winning performance
04:07 in Black Panther Wakanda Forever,
04:08 or maybe the songwriters desperately needed a rhyme
04:11 for woman king.
04:12 In any case, DeBose deactivated her Twitter account
04:15 after the performance,
04:16 but she left behind a hashtag fit for royalty.
04:19 Bassett even referenced the thing
04:21 when she won an NAACP Image Award days later.
04:24 - I guess Angela Bassett did the thing.
04:26 (audience laughing)
04:29 - Number five, the coronation/roast of King Charles.
04:33 Charles III's entire life
04:35 has been building toward becoming king.
04:36 That day finally arrived on May 6th, 2023,
04:40 when he was crowned at age 74.
04:42 - God saves the king.
04:44 - God saves the king.
04:46 (triumphant music)
04:51 - How did social media react to this historic moment?
04:54 Users turned Charles and Camilla into memes, of course.
04:57 The redundant rituals and over-the-top outfits
05:00 contributed to the meme-worthy nature,
05:02 but it's the royals themselves
05:04 who provided the most material to work with.
05:06 Reading his vows, people weren't sure
05:08 if Charles was learning his lines or ordering lunch.
05:12 We especially love one meme
05:13 making it look like Charles is reading Prince Harry's memoir.
05:16 Harry notably attended the coronation without Meghan,
05:19 although this meme suggests otherwise.
05:21 In addition to his memorable reactions,
05:23 Charles got in a housewives tagline,
05:26 as Josh Feldman tweeted.
05:28 Number four, American horror story, Grimace Shake.
05:31 - Apparently it's Grimace's birthday,
05:33 and I've seen a lot of people drink this shake
05:34 and weird stuff happens,
05:36 but I've had half of it and I don't feel anything.
05:38 - Grimace was introduced
05:39 as McDonaldland's resident shake-stealer,
05:41 but he's since flipped over a new burger, or has he?
05:45 After years of pretending
05:46 to be Ronald McDonald's bumbling pal,
05:48 Grimace set his master plan into motion.
05:51 - We're all invited to the party
05:53 with a special shake to celebrate.
05:55 - Distributing a special shake
05:57 to commemorate his 52nd birthday,
05:59 Grimace left unsuspecting customers in purple puddles.
06:02 You thought COVID spread quickly?
06:04 It was nothing compared to the purple plague
06:06 that Grimace unleashed.
06:07 - I just got the new Grimace milkshake from McDonald's.
06:09 I'm so excited to try this.
06:11 Happy birthday, Grimace.
06:12 (upbeat music)
06:16 - As millions fell victim to the purple madness,
06:19 Grimace assumed control of McDonaldland
06:21 with the world on the horizon.
06:23 His end game?
06:24 To drink all of our milkshakes.
06:27 Well, at least that's how the memes made it look.
06:28 - I drink your milkshake.
06:32 (slurping)
06:34 I drink it up!
06:36 - In reality, the Grimace shake was pretty rad,
06:38 but imagine how the internet will react
06:40 to the Mayor McCheese shake.
06:42 - Lily, let go!
06:42 (snorting)
06:43 (dog barking)
06:44 Lily!
06:45 (thunder rumbling)
06:46 Lily!
06:47 - Number three, RIP Twitter.
06:51 Elon Musk has made some controversial moves
06:54 since acquiring Twitter,
06:55 although few actions have inspired more memes
06:57 than his baffling decision to change the service's name
07:00 to the infinitely less catchy X.
07:03 - We're cutting the Twitter logo off the building
07:06 with blow torches.
07:07 - Out of the blue, the bird was out
07:09 and memes ridiculing the rebranding were in.
07:11 Some users joked about how PayPal was predated
07:14 by the now defunct X.com.
07:16 - I think X.com could absolutely be
07:18 a multi-billion dollar bonanza.
07:20 - Others imagined Twitter as a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
07:23 The memes were further fueled by the launch of Threads,
07:26 Meta's answer to Musk's social media service.
07:28 The Twitter versus Threads rivalry was tailor-made
07:31 for old favorites involving SpongeBob SquarePants
07:33 and Grant Gustin, among others.
07:35 You can change the name,
07:36 but to borrow another meme from Regina George,
07:39 stop trying to make X happen.
07:41 It's not gonna happen.
07:42 Number two, "Barbenheimer," a meme of pink and black.
07:46 Even before being released on the same day,
07:48 Barbie and Oppenheimer became a sensation
07:51 of counter-programming.
07:52 Matt Neglia of Next Best Picture has been credited
07:54 for popularizing "Barbenheimer,"
07:56 a term that epitomizes the pink explosion.
07:59 Artists created posters in which Barbie's colorful world
08:02 collides with J. Robert Oppenheimer's bleak outlook.
08:05 The unlikely pair was also reflected
08:07 in the black and pink houses meme,
08:09 which has actually been around for years,
08:10 but found a new life with "Barbenheimer."
08:13 Even if you took Oppenheimer out of the equation,
08:15 Barbie still would have owned social media,
08:17 with a selfie generator that everybody got in on,
08:20 from Meghan to Kendall Roy.
08:21 Still, it's the combo of Barbie and Oppenheimer
08:24 that made us all feel like Zendaya in "Challengers."
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08:42 Number one, Kevin James, the king of memes.
08:47 Some know Kevin James from "The King of Queens."
08:49 - Doug Heffernan, I thought that was you.
08:52 Hey.
08:53 Hi.
08:54 - Others associate him with cinematic treasures,
08:57 such as Paul Blart Mall Cop.
08:58 For those who came of age in 2023, though,
09:01 it'll forever be known as the year
09:03 of the Kevin James shrugging meme.
09:05 With the world divided, the internet called upon
09:07 the online gods to deliver a symbol of hope,
09:10 the powers that be answered in the form
09:12 of a green flannel shirt, the Getty Image logo,
09:15 and a sitcom star smirking.
09:16 James might not have realized it when Tony Esparza
09:19 took this photo in the late '90s,
09:21 but he was planting the seeds of a phenomenon
09:23 that would unite a society overrun with problems,
09:26 and yet way too much free time on everyone's hands.
09:30 Which meme changed your life in 2023?
09:33 Let us know in the comments.
09:34 - Shut it off!
09:36 - Did you enjoy this video?
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09:44 (upbeat music)
09:47 (upbeat music)
09:49 (upbeat music)
09:52 (upbeat music)
09:55 [MUSIC]