This Week's Top Memes, Ranked
Here at Digg, we try our best to cover the most important and confounding memes that come across the timeline. But the web is littered with tons of great memes that never quite hit the mainstream, instead bouncing around the weird corners of Twitter or Reddit.
Enter: our recurring feature, Memes, Ranked, where we not only rank the funniest memes each week, we also keep a running top 10 of the best memes of 2019. Skip to that here.
For the week of Septmber 16, we have a handful of contenders: Keke Palmer, Sam Darnold, Aliens at Area 51 (and elsewhere), Tekashi 69 and the exploding semen factory.
5. There Was An Explosion At The Semen Factory
The meme: Starting off with a bang. On Tuesday, a real thing happened involving an explosion at a bull semen factory. You can read a real news story about this real event here. You can also enjoy the many jokes and memes that came out of a real life news event involving the word "explosion" and the phrase "bull semen factory."
The examples:
Verdict: Simple, juvenile fun. The memes never really crystalized into anything particularly memorable or iconic, so this meme will be forgotten before the next ear-pleasing meme phrase rolls around. But until then, a fine fifth-place finish, if you will.
3. Sam Darnold Is Out Indefinitely
The meme: The New York Jets' starting quarterback is benched indefinitely. This happens all the time to athletes, due to some terrible injury or unfortunate event. In Darnold's case: Mononucleoses. He's got the kissing disease, folks. Here's a graphic from the official Monday Night Football broadcast to prove it:
Obviously, this got meme'd to hell. Sportswriter Tim Burke made a special Darnold meme generator and put it on his website. The rest is internet history.
The examples:
Verdict: Simple fun had at a millionaires expense, this is a fun meme because Sam Darnold is a goofy but lovable budding NFL star and mono is a pretty funny (but also fairly serious) reason to miss football games. Fourth place in a weird week for memes.
3. Tekashi 69 Is Snitching On Everybody
The meme: Whew, okay. I'm hardly qualified to tell the story of Tekashi 69. For that, I suggest you read Michael Blackmon at BuzzFeedNews. But the simple gist is as such: the 23-year-old rapper known as Tekashi 6ix9ine, 6ix9ine, Tekashi and by his birth name Daniel Hernandez is currently on trial for racketeering, drug trafficking and other crimes. In order to skirt a heavier prison sentence, he has agreed to cooperate with the justice system, which means snitch on other members of his gang, a set of the Bloods called Nine Trey.
Tekashi has named a handful of famous members of Nine Trey, including fellow rappers Jim Jones and Cardi B. This snitching struck a lot of folks on the internet as humorous and a meme was born: Tekashi snitching on anybody and everybody.
The examples:
Verdict: Funny, if a little dark. This is a good meme that has legs. if rap memes have taught us anything, Tekashi will likely be synonymous with this sort of behavior for a long time. Look out for Tekashi memes, and more importantly look out for Tekashi. That dude will blow in anyone.
2. Aliens
The meme: The alien memes have invaded once again. This was always going to happen. The original "let's all storm Area 51" meme from earlier this summer proposed September 20 as the date for the event. Of course, this week was going to stir up old alien memes. But things got brought to another solar system entirely when this week a report surfaced about former Blink 182 frontman Tom DeLonge fighting with the US Navy over the right to release images of UFOs to the public. We live in weird, intergalactic times.
The examples:
Verdict: Tom DeLonge says the aliens are here. I can't confirm it, but I can confirm that the memes are good.
1. Keke Palmer Doesn't Know Who Dick Cheney Is
The meme: Earlier this month, Vanity Fair published one of their "X Takes A Lie Detector Test" interview videos, this one featuring actress and former child star Keke Palmer. In the video, Palmer is shown a photograph of former Vice President Dick Cheney. She immediately fires back an incredible line:
"I hate to say it. I hope I don't sound ridiculous. I don't know who this man is. He could be walking down the street, I wouldn't know a thing. Sorry to this man."
The line has since been meme'd over and over again.
The examples:
Verdict: I kinda messed this one up. This should have been the top meme last week. It's a huge internet moment and I didn't grasp it. First gaining popularity on Black Twitter and Gay Twitter, it has since reached a lot more of the meme-osphere. It's a great meme with a ton of uses, most of which are positive and fun. Excellent meme. Number one this week and in our hearts last week.
The Official Josco™ 2019 Meme Power Ranking
Click each entry on the ranking to see when it debuted.
- The Girl Drinking Kombucha Reaction GIF
- UR Single To Me
- Cultural Impact
- Keke Palmer Doesn't Know Dick Cheney
- Aliens
- Caroline Calloway
- Tekashi 69 Ratting Everybody Out
- SpongeBob Heading Out
- Wife/Wife Guy Memes
- Sam Darnold, Out Indefinitely
I thought about making number something other than Kombucha Girl and then, well, you know…
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