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Its that time of the year when we are all set to welcome the new year with a bang. But as we replace our calendars, it’s a good time to look back at the memes that entertained people in the virtual world all through last year. Some Netizens can’t stop giving quirky twists to anything and everything, be it pictures of eminent personalities or a scene from a film, their witty captions and relatable takes to even random photos leads to sheer online fun.
As the year comes to an end, here’s a list of memes that ruled social media in 2018. From Maradona’s epic reactions during the FIFA World Cup 2018 to Ariana Grande’s lyrics from her hit song ‘Thank U, Next’ and, closer home, the viral remixes of Anushka Sharma’s image from Sui Dhaaga, we have them all.
Here are the best memes of 2018:
As the trailer for Anushka Sharma and Varun Dhawan’s film Sui Dhaaga was released it got everyone talking online for their ‘de-glam’ avatars. And it was Sharma, whose stills from the trailer led to a meme-fest. Twitterati particularly got hooked to a scene where the actor was seen crying and couldn’t stop captioning it for various situations.
https://twitter.com/Zoomfatak/status/1029332483144331264
Later, it led to an epic photoshop battle and from renaissance paintings to video games, her face was plastered in every possible thing.
https://twitter.com/BabajiKaThullu4/status/1032575255511027712
Netflix India’s first original Hindi series Sacred Games became a turning point for the streaming services in the country. Even as it created a huge fan-base, its peepy dialogues emerged as desi users’ go-to meme fodder for any situation. The most common being, no prizes for guessing, Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s dialogue: “Kabhi kabhi lagta hai ki apun hi bhagwan hai.” (“Sometimes I feel like god.”)
Ariana Grande’s biggest hit of the year, the breakup anthem titled ‘Thank You, next’ took the Internet by storm ever since it was released. While the song itself got her fans around the globe hooked, ruling the charts, one particular line became a hit content for memes and emerged as one of the top global trends. So much so that not only desi users but even the police force joined the bandwagon to convey an important message.
https://twitter.com/MumbaiPolice/status/1060784117040713729
Ever since Marvel Studios released the Avengers: Infinity War trailer, movie buffs and comic fans have lost their calm. With most of the biggest superhero characters coming together, the excitement around the film was unfathomable. It’s scenes and dialogues got meme treatment pretty much from the start. As the studio dubbed it as “historic crossover” to challenge Marvel, Twitterati came up with the other epic crossover of all time. And as the film released and left fans heartbroken, they turned the climax scene into a hit meme to cope up with the loss of their favourite characters.
https://twitter.com/IceSeason101/status/991048272377794562
Although former football player Diego Maradona retired over 20 years ago, the 57-year-old legend continued to be quite a sensation on social media. During the FIFA World Cup 2018, with Argentina not performing up to its potential there were multiple outbursts from the overly expressive manager and in turn, it led to an epic meme-fest online. From his Wakanda forever pose to his video of hurling abuses at fans, Netizens quickly turned his photographs into hilarious memes.
France won the football world cup final but it was Russian President Vladimir Putin who stole the show during the presentation ceremony. Standing on the stage when it started pouring heavily, Putin was the only one who was offered an umbrella, while others, including Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and French President Emmanuel Macron, got drenched. The moment raised eyebrows and started jokes online.
As the world leaders met for the G7 summit in Canada earlier this year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel shared a photo of the US President sitting on a chair surrounded by other world leaders. The Instagram picture which showed her staring down at Trump captured the heightened tension at the summit. As the POTUS was seated with his arms crossed with a grin, others were visibly tense, some with even folded fists and hands down on the table, many dubbed it as the summary of the summit. But then it quickly became a meme and later inspired a photoshop battle online.
Not only did Netflix India rule the cyberspace this year with their quirky posts on Instagram and Twitter, but also their shows. And as most of their original desi content had Radhika Apte, it got them brutally trolled. But instead of shying away, they openly proclaimed their love for the Ghoul actor and said she is ‘omnipresent’ — something that started a whirlwind online and flooded social media platforms with hilarious memes.
https://twitter.com/James_Beyond/status/1034110674853478400
One of the viral trends which grabbed Twitterati’s time and attention was a set of tweets that had ‘positive transformation’ at its core. With photos depicting people at the worse as ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures of them showing their best time, Twitterati captioned it with: ‘If you did not like me at this, you don’t deserve me at this!’ And the results were pretty savage that even got police and celebrities involved.
Much like the previous meme pattern, this too echoed the same thought of ‘before’ and ‘after’ but with a desi twist that captured the horror of our daily commute in the country. The relatable and hit tweets showing what happens when you leave the house and finally arrive at your destination, resonated with all online in various aspects and emerged as one of the top meme patterns in India this year.
https://twitter.com/SuneiLLogical/status/995685072727523328
Towards the end of the year, the meme that got Twitterati hooked was one in which they share things they regret saying. People on Twitter started using the ‘Don’t Say It’ meme to share conversations they have in their minds, in which the brain warns them against saying something, but the words always find a way out.
Remember those circular Venn diagrams from mathematics that showed all possible logical relations between a finite collection of different sets? Netizens across the globe became obsessed with them this year and used it to explain some of the most relatable situations. Probably, the only mathematics theme trend that didn’t leave netizens scratching their heads.
https://twitter.com/chelllssseeea/status/1032053635776167936
Kim Kardashian West’s photoshoot for Paper Magazine in August, featuring a pair of Yeezy sneakers and outfit from her husband Kanye West’s clothing brand. But what caught Twitterati’s eye was the awkward pose and Kardashian’s expression, it did not take much time to convert the picture into a viral meme.
https://twitter.com/calamauriii/status/1026907594496135169
On May 31, 2018, during game one of the NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors, American professional basketball player Lebron James with his arms stretched to the side and speaking to teammate JR Smith with great emotion garnered a lot of attention online. After the nail-biting finals of NBA Championship, in which Golden State survived a playoff-career-best 51-point explosion from LeBron James and beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 124-114 in Game 1 — the basketball world seemed to be in total shock. And his reaction quickly turned into a hit meme, worldwide.
As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg answered questions about the Facebook data privacy breach scandal during testimony before a United States Congressional Committee he was also at the receiving end of the meme-fest that was simultaneously unwhirling, ironically, on the Internet itself. One particular photo of him surrounded by scores of photographers in the Congress went onto become an iconic image of the year.
Not just Priyanka Chopra’s Met Gala looks, her bridal look for her grand wedding in India this year too got memed. Among all her regal attires during the various ceremonies, her epic 75-ft-long wedding veil designed by Ralph Lauren stunned everyone online. While some couldn’t stop talking about how beautiful the gown and veil was, others quickly turned it into a meme.
The trailer of Kedarnath, starring Sushant Singh Rajput and debutant Sara Ali Khan, created a huge buzz online. The film’s plot, an interfaith love story set in the backdrop of the 2013 Uttarakhand floods featured many interesting dialogues, but one particular one became fodder for desi meme makers. The scene where Nitish Bharadwaj vehemently opposes the union of the lead actors and says, “Nahi hoga yeh sangam, phir chaahe pralay hi kyun na aajaye (This union will not happen, even if it leads to devastation)” was turned into a meme.
Much like the ‘Ghar se nikalte hi’ craze, desi users on Twitter got hooked to Atif Aslam’s song from film Batti Gul Meter Chalu, which stars Shahid Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor in lead roles. And quickly started putting photos supporting the lyric ‘Sochta Hu Ke Woh Kitne Masoom The…Kya Se Kya Ho Gaya Dekhte Dekhte’ — mirroring the ‘expectation vs reality’ meme. As the original was a famous song sung by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the meme even became popular in Pakistan.
In March, when PM Modi went to welcome the French President, one of Emmanuel Macron’s expressions got everyone talking on social media. The photo, which showed Macron grinning as he hugged the Indian PM, grabbed the attention of many, especially on Twitter and they couldn’t have enough of it. Many couldn’t help but wonder what was the reason behind the “evil smile”, while others saw resemblance that of “Frank Underwood” and “Lord Voldemort”!
Ryan Reynolds’ sweater meme
Hollywood superstar Ryan Reynolds ugly sweater Christmas photo with friends became a meme in no time, thanks to his brilliant expression. The Deadpool actor posted a photo of himself wearing an ornate Christmas sweater with a huge golden bow on the front, alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman. Netizens found it relatable to describe situations when they are caught between vexing things.
https://twitter.com/enjoythelaughs/status/1076054205415211008
