Looks At Smudged Writing On Hand Meme

Numerous memes have spread through the site, some original and others finding their way from 4chan and Twitter. Important to note about Tumblr and memes though - because of the site's self-awareness, memes become old quickly ^note Pepe the Frog was an exception, attaining an almost Patron Saint status, but fell out of favor after his widespread adoption by white nationalists. That self-awareness has also led to memes becoming increasingly meta and surreal over time. As most of this has been compiled relatively chronologically, compare the ones at the top with the ones towards the bottom.

By 2016, Tumblr's userbase became less of a broader, unified community and more of a series of smaller, insular communities with little exchange or overlap of communication. As such, major sitewide memes appear less frequently, and tend to pass by more quietly with less self-aware observation or commentary.

Note that it's not always easy to trace a meme's exact origin, so not every popular meme on the site may have originated there.

Please add entries in the following format:

The meme. [[note]]The explanation behind the meme, if not already part of the description.[[/note]] ^note Like this.
- Further mutations and successor memes, if any.

Rule #1 of Tumblr: always reblog the creator. ^note Text added to photos or posts of David Karp in the early years of Tumblr.
- Alternatively, Rule #1: Do not speak of Tumblr outside of Tumblr. ^note Used when Tumblr was still somewhat of a niche site in a failed attempt at isolationism
Everything is x and nothing hurts, often said in response to something incredibly cringeworthy, nerdy, idiotic, or all three.
- The flip side used for TearJerkers: Everything hurts and nothing is x.
WHAT IS AIR?! ^note A bizarrely popular shitpost question for Ask character blogs, or blogs with Ask enabled.
MY CREYS ^note This is used in reference to pictures/gifs of Tear Jerker scenes. Not to be confused with the more intense "MY ETERNAL CREYS" Often used in tandem with ~liek dis if u crai evrytiem~ (and various bastardizations of the sentence).
The so-called "memefaces", aka "rage comics", which spread from Reddit, about various, crudely drawn "meme" reactions to various things in life. Died out a while ago.
One of the more popular posts was a gif from the show The Walking Dead, where one of the characters undergoes a brain scan as they became infected. Someone incorrectly stated that the gif was an MRI scan of a person's brain releasing endorphins as they die, calling it "tragically beautiful".
- Say hello to mechanically-separated chicken. ^note A similar kind of post, labeling Tubby Custard as mechanically separated chicken. The label became applied to many posts, including the Walking Dead MRI.
  - Bitch, that's the Tubby Custard machine.
- There's similar games done with things like horse dildos, claiming that it's a photo of an African-American burn victim (it's hard to see and looks like a pale arm with splashes of pigment on it).
MapCrunch. Users would use it to be "teleported" anywhere in the world and would then chronicle their adventures in finding the nearest airport.
"Listen here, cum-slut" ^note After a user posted an extremely angry reaction to a set of .gifs from the movie Jack and Jill, showing a CGI cockatoo getting drenched in a chocolate fountain. The user had no idea this was fake, and got pissed off about animal abuse and how the bird 'probably died, and was opening its mouth to scream', etc. This started an almost sitewide war where posting the gif could lose you hundreds of followers.
Once upon a time, someone coined the term YOLO ^note you only live once. Not long afterwards, Tumblr grabbed the ball and never stopped running by spamming "YOLO" everywhere - as usernames, as the rallying cry as established by Drake, as completely inappropriate titles (such as character deaths), or just about everything ever, in the vein of ironic usage of "swag".
Ridiculously Photogenic Guy. ◊ ^note The photo is of a runner at the end of a race. Because his face was free of sweat while literally all the other runners were clearly exhausted, people reblogged the heck out of it. It helped that Ridiculously Photogenic Guy was pretty attractive.
Saying the same thing over and over again, but one will be in bold or one will be in italics or bulleted Etc. for emphasis.
- Saying the same thing over and over again, but one will be in bold or one will be in italics or bulleted Etc. for emphasis.
  - Saying the same thing over and over again, but one will be in bold or one will be in italics or bulleted Etc. for emphasis.
Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf. ^note A comedic song about LaBeouf as a crazy cannibal in the woods went viral, inspiring a torrent of jokes, GIFs and parodies.
The normal girl and other girl. The post was meant to be a parody but people mistook it for a shallow jab and started pairing the two girls together. It took off rather quickly - within 12 hours there was tons of fanart, cosplay, fanfiction, and an entire fandom, with a "main" blog here, and now it has its own page. It eventually fell out of popularity, however.
LOKI'D! ^note From an interview with Tom Hiddleston where he would call this out after pranking the interviewer. Used for jokes about Loki's being a trickster god.
"MAGIC ANON!" ^note In the site's roleplaying community, people will occasionally post anonymously in characters' ask boxes to declare that "Magic Anon" has caused some random effect to occur. Could be anything from a minor event to possibly even full-blown transformation. Roleplayers usually humor magic anons by playing along but have the power to deny them if they wish. The length of a magic anon's effect depends either on the anon or the roleplayer.
"Follow this blog! You will love it on your dash(board)!" ^note Archetypal method of promoting the blog you just reblogged from. Posts like this usually receive a good amount of mockery for it.
A picture of "lettuce" written in a cipher or another language, with an inspirational caption about how it says "never give up". ^note Started with an image of a guy holding up a sign with the Japanese for "lettuce," captioned "never give up". Japanese-speaking users pointed out the mistranslation and it snowballed from there.
"I give you a hamburger..."/Cuil Theory. From an infamous Mind Screw audio post that was a measurement of how bizarre and detached something was from reality.
"Go home X, you're drunk". ^note A snowclone frequently used in response to silly situations and/or failures.
The entire concept of "feels", shorthand for sad moments in fiction, happy moments in fiction, and general emotion-evoking moments. Usually expressed by one of the following phrases:
- "SO MANY FEELS"
- "i cant"
- "UNABLE TO CAN"
- "I HAVE LOST THE ABILITY TO CAN"
- "RIGHT IN THE FEELS", usually accompanied by a gif someone getting hit brutally.
- "NOPE."
- "I'M OUT."
- "MY EMOTIONS, MY EMOTIONS"
- "I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO, MY WHOLE BRAIN IS CRYING"
A gold star with "you tried" written inside it in Comic Sans, and its many variations, used as reaction images to failed attempts at... just about anything.
"It was a social experiment." ^note Originated when Cole Sprouse wrote this in his final post before deleting his Tumblr, though it was popular on LiveJournal as a troll justification, as well. Usually used to denote - you guessed it - trolling, and also in vein of the infamous rationalization Sam Pepper made for his "butt pinching prank" video.
"There are two kinds of people on Tumblr." Usually the response to a particularly odd or otherwise abnormal reblog of a post, or one that misses the point or joke entirely.
"Peasants." ^note Fandom blog users would call non-fandom blog users "peasants." This eventually evolved into fandom blog users calling other fandom blog users "peasants" if the two users were focused on different fandoms. This then evolved again to mock the snob-like fandom blog users. Until, that is, the usage evolved into what it currently is: just a stupid joke.
Night Bloggers. If you've ever seen gibberish or other surreal posts pop up on your Dashboard, it's either a night blogger ^note somebody blogging way, way past their bedtime, or someone emulating them.
- "Night bloggers or just the Australians?"
- "Night bloggers, or Night Vale bloggers?" (Due to the podcast's own surreal humor.)
DISHONOR ON YOU! DISHONOR ON YOUR FAMILY! DISHONOR ON YOUR COW!! ^note line lifted from Mulan as an exaggerated display of outrage.
- The reverse, for really popular posts: "Bless this post, bless you, bless your cow" or something along those lines.
"This post is not okay," "Who said this was okay" "Who gave you the right" and "Go sit in the corner and think about what you did." are the traditional responses to intentionally Tear Jerker-y posts.
"Moisturize me," in response to uncomfortable faces. Originated from the Doctor Who fandom.
"[Character I relate to] is my spirit animal."
- "[Such-and-such] is my patronus" arose as an alternative for people who thought the original to be appropriative of cultures featuring spirit animals in their religion.
SWIMMING ANIME. (Based off a commercial for KyoAni featuring some very fanservicey swimming Bishōnen.)
- A popular response is to reblog with a picture from Boku No Pico (Particularly the box art, which features Pico in a speedo and goggles), accompanied by the line "Did someone say Swimming Anime?"
A picture with text next to it that says "People who (insert what they dislike people doing/saying)." Followed by reblogs that slowly remove words while keeping the same picture and eventually ends up as just "People".
- Sometimes followed up with a reblog describing the action taking place in the picture, accompanied by the same picture as preceding.
"before you say i am stoling this art let me explain you a thing..."
The Mishapocalypse of April 1st, 2013. ^note On April 1st, fans of Superwholock began spamming images related to Misha Collins.
- Wait, what are you talking about? The Mishapocalypse never happened.
- Later gained a spiritual successor in the form of the less widespread Thwompocalypse, wherein users started mass-posting audio and picture posts relating to Thwomps. Cue people waking up in the morning to find their dashboard clogged with angry blue cubes.
The Tumblr Code: Calling out "I like your shoelaces!" in person as a covert way of identifying fellow Tumblr users. There's a response, of course.
- Similarly, there was "Can you give me directions to an Olive Garden?", used in the same manner due to the example quotes in the Quotes page.
  - Alternatively now, "chrome-orb 2.jpg"
"Nobody's perf-", followed by an image of someone as an exception to the rule of nobody being perfect.
- Also, "Perfect couples don't exi-"
- "perf" as a shorthand for perfect
There was a long lasting Running Gag of Leonardo DiCaprio and his constant failures at winning an Oscar. Thankfully for him, he's now won an Oscar so these gags are now much happier.
Posts being accurate; meaning posts the user strongly agrees with. Often seen as "ACCURATE", "accurate post is accurate", "never before have I seen a post this accurate", etc.
The traditional expressions of admiration and/or love and/or lust for characters/celebrities:
- CAN U NOT
- FUCK OFF
- GET OUT
The Hetalia: Axis Powers fandom spawned "Doitsuism", a short-lived "religion" based on a parody of Rihanna's "Diamonds".
"Do you love the color of the sky?" *scroll for infinity, then something interesting at the very end* ^note This was a particularly interesting example of Forced Meme. The original post itself was only popular for a short time before a majority of people thought it was annoying and clogged up their dashes. Many parodies were made, but the derivatives and complaints were more seen than anything else, many people hadn't even seen the original until it fell out of favor.
"Found the X," where X is usually a vegan or other political activist with radical views. ^note Users will post pictures that are intentionally disgusting (related to meat products) or offensive (to a specific group of political activists), or they'll post text posts that rant on a similar subject, and as soon as a "vegan" or corresponding political activist responds, someone responds with "Found the vegan" or MRA or feminist or whatever.
"get out" as a stock Lame Pun Reaction.
Any variant on "In [language] we don't say "I love you", we say [obscure arrangement of letters], which roughly translates to [cute phrase]."
- Followed by someone "plugging" phrase into Google Translate & churning out a sexually-charged or disturbing phrase.
- Originally used actual foreign languages and later warped into stereotypical words used in various English speaking countries, as well as fandoms and the like:
Fandomstuck. Created by the Homestuck fandom during one of its many pauses, where they had moirail feels with the Hetalia: Axis Powers fandom, which later expanded to encompass most of Tumblr.
"and in that moment..." ^note A well-known quote from The Perks of Being a Wallflower, often written over a space background or something similar. Eventually became a source of parody.
"If you ever feel like/think you're [insert negative thing about you or something you're bad at] just remember that [insert someone being worse with said negative thing or being worse at the thing you're bad at]."
Who invited Moon Moon? ^note After a user got "Moon Moon" from a "werewolf name generator", posts and comics began to circulate depicting Moon Moon the "special" wolf.
She wears short skirts I wear tshirts she's cheer captain and I'm [insert contrasting thing here i.e. the dark lord satan]
- she wear snort snirt i wear sneep snop

"Thanks, Satan" ◊ (usually tacked onto a post suggesting something especially devious or tearjerking).
"Make John Green find the thing!" When John Green (url fishingboatproceeds) does find the thing, cue "Is that John Green?"
- Jokes about how John Green is the "den mother"/"adult supervision"/"cool mom" of tumblr, back from during the heyday of his time on the site.
After this post, people started adding more and more pictures of a very annoyed Satan's constant "people-falling-into-Hell" problem.
"Recreate a movie poster/cd cover using only comic sans & clip art".
Turning Benedict Cumberbatch's into the silliest phrases possible while still being able to tell who they're talking about.
tumblr-user brolininthetardis: "sometimes this site makes me forget what bendywick candlebatch's real name even is and then i remember that you don't need to know butterburger custardsnack's real name for people to know you're talking about bennyjet crumplebunch"
- One Tumblr user took this to its logical conclusion with the Benedict Cumberbatch Name Generator.
- A similar meme applies to Danganronpa, aka "Dangit Grandpa", "Ding Dang Ron Paul", etc.
Taking a cutesy romantic picture+phrase post and adding a humorous response from pop culture underneath. Example, "when boys give you a cute nickname", followed by a picture of Ron Burgundy and his phrase "Tits McGee".
"Boys with eyes <3". A parody of "relatable teen girl" blogs like justgirlythings, whose content came to be seen as vapid and overly-simplistic, especially their "boys with..." posts (which seemed to obsess over boys with any basic human body part).
"Bitch i might be" to answer basically any question.
Comic Sans in general; find a humorous image a Tumblr user created, preferably a spoof of something, and it's highly likely that any text added will be in Comic Sans.
Shock over the Yahoo! acquisition, including joking about other purchasers (such as Monokuma and Doug Dimmadome), and calling Marissa Mayer their new "mommy".
- Collages of nightblogger posts with the caption "this is what yahoo paid $1.1 billion for"
- One user's outraged (and, admittedly, rather pathetic) reaction to Yahoo buying Tumblr was reprinted in a newspaper article, and unsurprisingly, users had a field day. The original user has since deleted their blog.
A fandom hijacks a generic post, then someone uploads a picture of a cake onto it saying "sorry we made that post about _____"
- A fandom hijacks a post about another fandom, then someone adds a pseudo-rubber stamp image afterwards saying 'This post hijacked by the [X] fandom'

Let me play you the song of my people ^note Popular caption for weird pictures involving instruments, singing, or the like.
Imagine your OTP/favorite character/OC/icon... ^note A common "thought game" trend of making up a stock situation that a One True Pairing or other assortment of characters could be inserted into. Has spun into variations involving original characters or icons (which is what Tumblr refers to "avatars" as).
[screams internally] ^note A common expression of Squick or fear. [Screaming externally] is also seen for more emphasis.

The Sink Fandom. "SNK" Is a common abbreviation that people use to tag Attack on Titan (with the Japanese name of the series being Shingeki No Kyojin), resulting in a post that basically said (paraphrased) "You people with your SNK fandom, I've got something better: the SINK fandom!". Thus, "Sink Fandom" is a tag full of pretty or interesting sinks.
- A related meme is for people to reply to questions about one "SNK" by answering with things about the other, far older SNK (born mainly out of people growing disgruntled with Titan fans who simply can't abbreviate the series to AOT.)
Twisting life hacks, which used to be interesting methods of MacGyvering with common items in order to make daily tasks simpler, into either obvious, immoral, or surreal actions to make life "easier".
Tumblr users have a habit of creating couples, and sometimes entire fandoms, from inanimate objects or random concepts. The most popular is Creamsicle, listed above, and it in itself has spawned several Spinoffs. The second most popular was arguably "Jupitearth", a fandom originally spawned when news hit that Jupiter "saved" Earth from a collision in 2012. It originally started with humanizations of Earth and Jupiter but warped into using all the planets.
hey r u the moreos guy ^note Tumblr user perchu posted a lengthy rant on how the new 'Moreos' would "destroy the cookie market". He now seriously regrets this.
[X INTENSIFIES] ^note Originated with the closed caption "[revving intensifies]" on an episode of Breaking Bad, quickly snowcloned to various other things ramping up or intensifying. Frequently paired with a related gif quaking/shaking/vibrating.
Using Michael Scott's reaction to the fire drill as a reaction gifset, usually in response to exciting news. The [x] fandom right now: "Oh my God, okay, this is happening. Everybody stay calm, everybody stay calm. Stay fucking calm! Everyone just fucking calm down!"
Posting a suitably paranoid response to the notification that another user has started following you.
The boys of tumblr. ^note In the site's earlier years, it was a running joke that there were no men on tumblr because the most active members of the site's userbase were generally female (although statistically male users have always outnumbered female by a small margin). Occasionally, posts with a chain of male bloggers posting pictures of themselves doing silly/random things would circulate, usually punctuated by a comment like "I love the boys/men of tumblr" or similar.
Skeletons as a whole are beloved on Tumblr. Which means that there is a meme inside of you at all times.

Making fun of the stereotypically lame jokes that dads make, referred to as "dad jokes". (ie: "Dad I'm hungry." "Hi Hungry, I'm Dad.")
Writing "And we'll never be royals (royals)" from Lorde's song Royals on a picture of characters who, well, will never be royals but want to be.
wow so doge/shibe ^note A particular form of mangled English, typically in brightly colored Comic Sans, describing the picture it's captioning; originally associated with a particular Shiba Inu, spread out to be used on just about anything.
much trope
such meme
so format
wow

"The X is strong", a way commenting on a particular quality. Ex. "The nerd is strong with this post".
Bringing back old memes has become a meme. ^note It started with bringing back Rickrolling and spiraled from there.
"None pizza with left beef" ^note Someone made a post on another web site about testing the Domino's online purchase form by purchasing what he referred to as, "a 6-inch individual "NONE" pizza with BEEF (on the left)." He marked everything—including cheese and sauce—as none except for the beef, which he requested on the left side, and got a baked crust with pieces of beef sprinkled on the left side. Naturally, when Tumblr caught word, they ate it up.
"Anyway, here's Wonderwall" ^note A joke (unclear in origin) reflecting the song's reputation as cliche and overplayed by people at parties (usually men) who try to entertain people with a ukulele.
Comic sans powerpoints, which were popular in late 2013. They often featured Danganronpa or Homestuck characters and preached moral messages. Became a source of parody later on.
[Gavin Screaming] ^note It refers to Gavin Free from The Slow Mo Guys and Rooster Teeth's Achievement Hunter.
IT'S BACK ^note Used when an older post starts making the rounds again.
"talk dirty to me" *saxophone riff* ^note from the song "Talk Dirty" by Jason Derulo
"Someone who's never seen X explain what's happening in this screenshot" ^note Tumblr users find the most It Makes Sense in Context heavy screenshot and have people hasn't seen the series to explain it. Hilarity Ensues.
This series of 2chan posts about an... overly-optimistic Stalker with a Crush ended up gaining a ridiculous amount of steam. (´･ω･`)
I've hated Daft Punk since they killed that old man.
2014 April Fools' Day introduced "Tumblr Pro", which would give the user a hat on its icon. Even though it was around for only a day, it quickly became memetic. Trigger warnings about this.
"It's a metaphor, you see..." ^note After a clip from the then-upcoming The Fault In Our Stars movie came out, Tumblr had a field day with the line.
According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway... ^note Posting the entire Bee Movie script is a bizarrely common form of trolling.
Asking "the science side of Tumblr" to explain things. Usually reblogged with some overly simplified or nonsensical response, in turn traditionally answered with "thank you science side of Tumblr".
- "Mitochondria" ^explanation Used as a default response when even the science side has no idea what's going on.
kup teraz ^note "Buy [something] now" in Polish, but became a meme due to a Vinesauce stream involving a polish anti virus.
Hi, I'm X and you're watching Disney Channel *character draws logo and then does something in-character, mostly comedic effect*
Referring to something that is nearly uncountable with a ridiculously small number. Normally worded as "like X whole [whatever the item is]"
Some version of the following where either a gif is added to the end or some other part is edited to an ironic or bizarre level:

Girl: Come over
Me: Not tonight bae
Girl: My parents are out
Me: I'll be right over
Giving credit for a quote to a famous, often historical, person for something they obviously did not say. Normally worded as "[famous person], probably"
- A variation cropped up after JK Rowling's interview about how "she regrets putting Ron with Hermione", where other authors are portrayed regretting who they put their own main characters with.
Spiders Georg. ^note A character invented in response to the commonly-quoted statistic that every person eats an average of three spiders a year. He is said to eat over 10,000 each day, skewing that statistic upward.
"Tag your porn!", usually in response to an image of especially tasty-looking food or other very desirable items. ^note Besides gathering posts about a specific topic into one place, the tags system is used by third-party addons such as Tumblr Savior and Xkit to "blacklist" specific tags. Tagging actual NSFW content is therefore just courtesy, and the joke wouldn't make much sense without it.
free him ^note Tumblr user revengeance posted a picture of a rubber ball with a Pikachu figure "trapped" inside, after this tumblr user estpolis added this caption. Funnily enough, some people have indeed freed the toy from his rubber confinement.
Having a stroke. ^note With all of the nonsense posts out there on Tumblr, someone's bound to end up feeling like they're having a stroke.
Calling a bird a "birb", often punctuated by grammatically-incorrect monologues reminiscent of the doge meme. Fat birds like ptarmigans are especially popular subjects.
u ok dennys?/dennys are u ok ^note The official Denny's blog is notable for being both amusing advertising for the restaurant and disconcertingly weird.
Tumblr prom. ^note An annual sitewide event in which users ask each other out as dates and then post pictures of themselves dressed up, as if actually going to a school prom. Intended as an alternative to going to prom for more introverted and nerdy people, it is sometimes mocked for being overly silly/dorky.
A format once used to call out romanticizing of serious conditions is now used as:
Repeat after me:
X is not "quirky"
X is not "lolrandom"
X is [insert description of choice here]
STOP ROMANTICIZING X.
John Green ecstatically commenting on a gifset on the The Fault in Our Stars movie adaption about how it may have been the first time the girl kissed the guy first in a teen romance movie. This was picked up by people who believed he was self-promoting, who then made satirical posts hailing him as the father of feminism. He later made an apology post clarifying that in the book, it's not clear who kissed who first, and he was commending the filmmakers for choosing to have Hazel kiss first.
OkCupid user papapaka, better know as Squart Guy. He really WANTS TO MAKE YOU SQUART ACROSS THE ROOM AND HAVE THE BEST OEGAMIOM IN THE WORLD EVERY DAY, YEA BABY.... ^note for added effect, read in Macho Man Randy Savage's voice. Expect to see his face photoshopped on just about anything.
Some would find a meme based on passive-aggressive commentary of things using a screencap of Kermit the Frog drinking tea in a Lipton commercial to be rather annoying, but that's none of my business ◊.
Using a comic of a dog sitting in a burning building (this Gunshow comic), saying "this is fine" as a reaction image for situations that are not fine. Often shows up in posts about mental illness.
- And of course the sequel to that in which the dog has a more...realistic reaction to the fire (and the state of the world at the time)
  Dog: THEY SHOT A GORILLA FOR GODSSAKE
"I'm gonna fuck the thing."
- "DO NOT FUCK THE THING." ^note A two-part joke in which one user facetiously proclaims they will have sex with a decidedly un-sexy (often dangerous) but still aesthetically appealing thing, and another user emphatically orders them not to.
Saying 'I came here to have a good time and honestly I am feeling so attacked right now' in response to something negative being said to them. ^note Probably came from the movie 22 Jump Street, though other guesses have included Nick Jonas to drag queen Laganja Estranja of RuPaul's Drag Race (though Laganja really said was "I FEEL VERY ATTACKED!")
- Often inverted as "I came here to attack people and honestly I am having such a good time right now" and applied to antagonist characters.
The Tumblr - 4chan War / "Independence Day Raid" ^note In June 2014, a group of Tumblr users decided to rally the crowds and confront 4chan for its 'problematic' behaviour on the 4th of July that year. This turned into a monumental case of Didn't Think This Through when on the day of the raid, the Tumblr users thought they'd shown 4chan's users they meant business and 'returned home' victorious, only for 4chan to return fire with an attack far greater than anticipated.
- The 4chan/Tumblr back-and-forth raids (stretching all the way back from 2010, culminating in 2014 with the above Independence Day Raid) have spawned loads and loads of fanart and fanfic of the two sites.
  - Apathetic and/or confused reactions from the non-fandom/nerdy/SJW side of Tumblr (usually photography, car, or "I actually use this as a blog" tumblrs) towards the 2014 raids.
"THAT IS NOT THE INTENDED USE, SIR" ^note The preferred response anytime someone reblogs a post showcasing a neat device and expresses desire to use it in some perverse manner.
DashCon 2014: ^note A Tumblr convention originally intended to be a meetup for fandoms, feminists, and Tumblr cultures in general ended up being horrendously organized and poorly executed. Notably, many attendees were conned (pun intended) out of their money after the organizer of the event claimed to need a donation of $17,000 to pay the hotel.
- The Ball Pit:
  - "we are giving you guys an extra hour with the ball pit" ^note Said in this post, as a consolation for reserved users to a panel featuring the creators of the popular online podcast Welcome to Night Vale, which was cancelled due to not having the money to cover WTNV's transportation and performance fees.
  - Posting a picture of the half-deflated ball pit in the empty convention hall as a response to posts about suggested tumblr projects or fantasies such as Tumblr Island or Tumblr University.
Chat posts in which a baby begins stuttering a word, to which a parent asks if they're trying to say some simple word (such as "father" or "mother"), only for the baby to say some famous, often lengthy, quote that begins with the same letter.
The trailer for Fifty Shades of Grey, specifically the line "I don't do romance, my interests are very... singular". In the trailer this leads up to Christian showing off his BDSM paraphernalia, in the meme that image gets switched out with ridiculous things such as brony gear, One Direction-merch and... an inflatable spermwhale.
Editing screenshots of popular, often relatable text posts over pictures from a TV series, movie, game, etc. that the text posts apply to. ^note Here's an example based on Steven Universe, and a shorter one based on Final Fantasy X.
Personal aesthetics, ranging from the mundane ("grunge") to the offbeat ("vintage communist") to the bizarre ("surrealist jock"). Usually "my aesthetic: x" or "new aesthetic: x", sometimes with a spread of related pictures.
"Girls don't like boys. Girls like [x] and [y]." ^note A snowclone based on a line from "Girls and Boys".
Making posts with the Madden Giferator. Ironically, at the height of its popularity it enraged some fandom bloggers who insisted Tumblr was a safe space from "stupid jock sports" without accounting for either the existence of very active (albeit somewhat isolated) sports fandoms on the site, nor the fact that the majority of people using said giferator were fandom bloggers doing it ironically because of how ridiculous it looked to them.
"Was this [x] even real" in response to particularly weird moments in media, now also extended to old Tumblr memes.
no its becky ^note To an old photo of Taylor Swift a user had jokingly purported to be of a friend who died of drug abuse, somebody responded, "pretty sure that's Taylor Swift". Another replied in jest, "no its becky". Swift actually wore a shirt with the phrase on it.
Steal Their Look ^note Posts featuring a memetic character and the extortionately priced items you could "buy" to look like them, inspired by similar pages in magazines such as People.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS GAGA!" ^note An excited Little Monster's reaction to seeing his idol was thoroughly parodied. Now, people say (often long and drawn-out) variations of "yas" whenever they're excited about something.
THIS!!! ^note A concise way to express agreement with a post.
Variations of the phrase "My anaconda don't", such as "My anaconda will consider it", "My anaconda doesn't", etc.
- Also related to Anaconda are jokes about Drake's section of the video, such as using his pose as a reaction image or making a joke about him still being in the chair weeks/months/centuries later.
- It's also become popular to compare a picture of Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion sitting in a similar pose.
Screenshots of two posts on the dashboard accidentally referring to each other.
- Separate posts that are designed to be reblogged simultaneously to create a single image or story, e.g. Cookie in a milk cup / milk in a cookie cup, "I see you shiver in antici..." "pation".
Screenshots of the message icon having a big number of messages with the caption "WHAT DID I DO"
"kill yourself" is an unfortunately popular troll ask. Pictures of reactions to being asked this are a meme.
what is [person] doing?
- their best ^note Usually accompanied by a picture or video of someone doing something strange, embarrassing or disastrous.
Using "Photograph" by Nickelback (or later, Gloria Estefan's "Conga") as a form of audio post Rickrolling.
Coming from 4chan's weird obsession with it is a somewhat ironic fanatic following for Shrek, usually through sexual copypasta, video edits to insert Shrek in other films, or photoshops.
What tumblr has taught me about X ^note A series of images resembling a powerpoint, typically in Comic Sans font, for a particular show/set of characters with information which the user has gathered purely from tumblr.
"[Show name] according to my [friend/family member/etc]". A popular fandom game where you show pictures of the cast from a TV show to a real-life person who's never watched it and ask them to guess names and make comments about them. Users would post powerpoints and picture sets of amusing guesses and comments from their family and friends.
"(I want this) because of reasons" is usually a reply to something (a tool, a celebrity, food, etc.) that the user really wants.
The Hawkeye Initiative is a response to the portrayal of female characters in comic books in fansevicey poses. Artists will post a photo ◊ of a female character and then draw the male hero Hawkeye in the same position, often with comedic intent.
"Is this a pigeon?" ^note Often used a photo reply to any picture showing a butterfly, or when someone mistakes an object or concept for something it very obviously is not.The photo in question ◊ shows an android from the anime The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird gesturing to a butterfly and asking if it is a pigeon.
Pokéfusions were created after a handful of artists were alerted to the presence of a site that can "fuse" two Pokémon sprites together. The result was very, ◊ very ◊ awesome. ◊
Ah, TV Tropes. I love that site. The way they just [clenches fist] trope all those frickin TVs ^note Originally from a tweet about The Catcher in the Rye and applied to a variety of media.
There is a post with over 13 million notes, but the content of said post keeps changing, so much so that no one knows which one was the original (but it's typically the "Let's make Dean in gym shorts the most reblogged picture on Tumblr" post.)
Pepe the Sad frog/ Feels Bad Man ◊
- Exchanging "rare pepes" (edits of the picture).
- 'Well-Known Symbol of the White Supremacist Movement'; "that cartoon frog is more sinister than you realize" ^note Pepe unwittingly became a symbol of the neo-Nazis when they started making edits of it during the 2016 US presidential elections, to the point mainstream news media were reporting on it as a "hate symbol".
"The circle of stupidity is complete" when an entire post makes no sense.
"__"... Hacked ^note Inspired by this gif ◊
- "[hacker voice] I'm in."
The pregnancy test meme: one character showing another character (the presumed father) a positive pregnancy test.
After the dashboard update of October 2014 which removed the visual border between images and the background color, there was an explosion of "bluespace" posts, meant to create the illusion of various things being on the background itself.
"delete this". Usually a response to either a bad pun or a ridiculous sexual joke.
Posts suggesting John Green is the infamous Zodiac Killer in the same vein as Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf ^note The meme died out rather quickly, however, due to the backlash about the Zodiac Killer not being a subject to joke about.
- "John Green being the Zodiac killer is a quality meme to wrap up 2014"
- Then later on, rumors that John Green is actually Banksy.
Comparing Woobies and Ensemble Darkhorses to this beautiful cinnamon roll that's Too Good for This Sinful Earth.
- Related is "let [character name] say fuck", a meme directed at the writers of TV shows and films humorously petitioning for said innocent "cinnamon roll" characters to be seen delivering a Precision F-Strike or even a Cluster F-Bomb. Originated within the Steven Universe fandom when people expressed a desire to see Pearl swear.
Hi, I am Erica! How are you? :) I am a game developer and I and my team are currently working on a awesome game. We would like to ask you a favor. Can you test it out and see how it works? Will take ONLY few seconds! Would appreciate your opinion and feedback. Try it on MY TUMBLR. Thank you very much darling, tell my how it was we can chat later!! Erica :)*~ ^note An incredibly obvious virus spread in the form of an ask that's spammed to people's message boxes. It's become a meme to parody it
- More recently, its many impersonators. Viruses spread in the form of an ask telling someone to "test out their new game on their blog" with their icon as some sort of stock image have been popping up and many people have created parodies and hilarious responses to such obvious viruses.
They crave that mineral. ^note Originally a caption on a picture posted by user sixpenceee of alpine ibexes licking the side of a mountain, it went viral because tumblr.
"Welcome To My Twisted Mind." ^note An overly common blog title that is now often mocked.
"Your fave is problematic". ^note In 2013, a social justice blog called "yourfaveisproblematic" was launched, listing all the allegedly "problematic" (racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic/etc) things celebrities have ever done and said - usually stripped of context or wildly misconstrued. The blog made several (mostly unfounded) attacks on popular figures on tumblr like John Green and thus became an object of mockery.
- My (un)problematic fave.
"What will be the last meme of 2014?":
- "'The last meme of 2014' will be the last meme of 2014"
- Iggy freestyles ^note text posts poking fun at a video of Azalea fumbling a freestyle request on a radio show is actually the last meme of 2014. Therefore, the last meme of 2014 is not the last meme of 2014. Does your brain hurt now?
Bath Bombs. ^note People putting random things into their bathtubs. Became controversial after social justice bloggers saw it as mocking teenage girls.
WHEN WILL PEOPLE FUCKING REALIZE THAT MEN ALSO ARE GIVEN UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS DO YOU HAVE ANY FUCKING IDEA HOW IMPOSSIBLE IT IS TO LOOK LIKE THIS??? ^note With the original images replaced with absurd ones between every few words. People found it funny at first because the images kept changing, but it soon faced significant backlash due to it trivializing male body image issues and eating disorders.
When highly controversial tumblr user communismkills posted a patreon asking people to pay for her to stop blogging, the quote "For $8,000 a month, I will stop" became popular.
"Please go to church", "you need Jesus", etc. in response to highly sexual (sometimes humorous) text posts.
Shipping Petch from Texas and Lonk from Pennsylvania. Inspired a fandom.
"Watch me swooce right in" ^note A quote from The Misadventures of Skooks (a Scooby Doo YouTube Poop). There's not much more to it than that.
- "Am I glad that he's frozen in there and that we're out here" ^note Another quote from Skooks, said by Shaggy as he and Fred stare at a frozen caveman. The full version delves into Surreal Humor very quickly (..."and that he's the sheriff and that we're frozen out here and that we're in there and— I just remembered we're out here. What I wanna know is where's the caveman?")
BOFA DEEZ NUTS. Originally a meme on Vine, it became common for people to bait people who didn't know what the meme was into asking what "bofa" is. Got a resurgence after Richard Dawkins himself fell for it, since as the Trope Namer for Memetic Mutation itself, one would think he would have known better.
Taking random screencaps, usually with Captain America, from any Avengers movie, adding texts in them suggesting a fight or discussion is about to happen, and then at the end adding the Captain America: Civil War logo.
- A variation of this contains Thor instead of Captain America and the "Thor: Ragnarok" logo at the end.
The "MMM Whatcha Say" portion of Imogen Heap's song "Hide and Seek" as a reaction to something sad in a fandom, usually a character death. ^note Inspired by an infamous episode of The O.C. and a famous SNL skit parodying said episode. This is the return of a retro meme, which came back at the same time as a return of the Rickroll, and in an extremely meta situation, it has become a meme to make a video in which the viewer expects the MMM Whatcha Say and instead...We're no strangers to love. An example.
At the start of 2015, all kinds of posts relating to Neon Genesis Evangelion or to Back to the Future Part II circulated due to both occurring during the year 2015.
Putting offensive or crude text on cute backgrounds or in pink pixel text, so that the post appears to be gentle and nice at first but then says something wildly out of place.
"Not all men"? You're right, [Nice Guy the poster likes] would never do that. ^note Probably an extension of Twitter's "#notallmen" meme, where people would get defensive over tweets they felt were painting all men as sexual predators.
A particularly disastrous update caused posts to be able to be "hacked" allowing bloggers to mess with text posts in a way they never had been able to before. Summed up in vine form here.
"There is no war in Ba Sing Se." ^note Used when another user says a Blatant Lie or says something bigoted.
Shakira's Hips Don't Lie
Iggy: How was my freestyle?

Shakira: It was fire

Shakira's hips: It was terrible

Shakira: Son of a
Katy Perry's Superbowl Halftime performance, particularly her outfit and the sharks (mainly the one on the left).
shitpostgenerator ^note Someone set up a java program to automatically post inane, nonsensical textposts, aka shitposts. The surge in popularity has led to discussions, ironic or not, about mass-production of shitposts and 'Meme Capitalism'.
Posts about Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars's "Uptown Funk" and the fact that it is evidently the most universally loved song in existence.
- Girls hit your Waluigi! WAH! ^note "Hallelujah" and "Waluigi" have the same number of syllables.
Mocking the Disney movie Frozen... or mocking the mockery/backlash the movie got.
Inappropriate audition songs.
"hi im auditioning for the role of elphaba and i'll be singing "it's not easy being green" by kermit the frog"
"SJWs ruined my crops/[some other ridiculous thing]" or jokes about SJWs controlling things such as water companies.
- Replacing frivolous uses of "SJW" with skeleton. ^note Came after a plugin that changes all instances of "SJW" to "skeleton" was released.
is that an example or a reaction ^note When referring to an image/gif response to a text post that can serve as both an example or a reaction to said text post.
- yes
The Dress. ^note Tumblr user "swiked" posted a picture of a dress in which the lighting makes the color of the dress ambiguous. This post sparked a huge rivalry between those who believed the dress to be white and gold and those who thought it was blue and black, with the latter turning out to be right about the color. It got so big so fast that it made it onto the mainstream media and inspired a parody by Chuck Tingle.
"I love [X], especially *looks at smudged writing on hand* [mangling of Y]"
"Oh yeah Gorillaz I love that band! 2D, Noodle, Russel, and [looks at smudged writing on hand] mudkip."
- Naturally, somebody combined it with the "silly names for Benedict Cumberbatch" meme.
Absurd "aesthetic" posts reblogged alongside a commentary post about said aesthetic.
- General format:
Mom: Why is there an octopus on your head?
Me: Aesthetic
- and then next post is a picture of someone wearing an octopus on their head.
- Bonus points if the first post contains an additional comment along the lines of "I swear to god if I scroll down and see someone with a fucking octopus on their head..." and the same person makes an appropriately angry comment on the actual picture
hoe don't do it
- oh my god ^note A common caption to denote begging someone not to make an incredibly predictable joke or do something obnoxious, only for them to of course do it anyway.
Natalia Kills' rant at Joe Irvine in The X Factor: ^note This went viral as Kills was overly mean towards Irvine after his performance. Especially egregious as all Irvine did was wear a suit.
Natalia Kills: I, as an artist who respects creative integrity and intellectual property, I am disgusted at how much you have copied my husband, from the hair to the suit, do you not have ANY value or respect for originality?
Who should you fight ^note Posts listing various characters from a fandom and the reasons you should/should not pick a fight with them.
The signs as X ^note Horoscope posts are popular on the site, which led to fake horoscope posts that listed the signs as any random, ridiculous thing, e.x. "The signs as tropes". Often combined with an irrational (mostly) hatred of Geminis. Also often combined with Homestuck references.
"We all know why we're reblogging this." ^note The Steven Universe fandom's love of posts containing precious stones and gems rose, mostly for references on Original Characters or Fusions.
"[Character X] no" ^note Standard reaction to an image of a character about to do something that's unwise at best. Generally applied to those who are Crazy Is Cool or Creepy Awesome.
- "[Character X] YES"
We'll never forget you Coppy. ^note Coppy was a Clippy-esque copy machine icon that appeared on the side of the dashboard during April Fools 2015, who would spout rather unhelpful advice from time to time. Many tumblr users found him annoying, yet strangely endearing, and, after he "died" after April 1, they mourned his loss.
#ThisGeneration/#LastGeneration ^note In response to a set of posters which are very condescending towards younger people, many users are making their own posters that praise the younger generation, slam the previous one, or simply highlight the hypocrisy of making an anti-digital poster series using digital means and giving it a hashtag to be promoted through social media.
"SAVE US X-KIT GUY!" ^note There was a Tumblr user and coder who is beloved by the users because whenever the Tumblr staff made an update to the site (almost always a negative one), he would make an X-Kit tool that set the site back to a more functional state. Thus whenever there was an update, there was always a massive flurry of posts shouting for his help. However...
- "WE'RE SORRY X-KIT GUY" ^note When "X-Kit Guy" failed to respond to a major tumblr update, someone dug up an obscure anon ask on another blog accusing him of sexual harassment, and assumed that he was bullied off of the site by false accusations. In reality, the accusation (now believed to be false due to a lack of corroborating stories from other victims, which normally happens when actual abusers are outed) was almost completely unknown until it was dug up for this reason, and he quit maintaining X-Kit because it was a stressful task and he was overwhelmed.
_____ Gothic ^note Text posts listing things/ideas/events native to certain parts of the world (e.g. "New York Gothic"), only warped to be incredibly surreal and bizarre.
- Some users have compared these posts to Welcome to Night Vale, a podcast with a narration style and content similar to the one in these posts. There are also a couple of Welcome to Night Vale Gothic memes which presents Night Vale as an ordinary town, in contrast to what we know of it.
Vladimir Putin memes. ^note News spread on April 13, 2015 that Russia had banned memes of their president. This turned out to be not entirely true, but Tumblr went and ran with it.
Complaining, jokingly or otherwise, about "allies". ^note People sympathetic towards equal rights, in most cases the rights of LGBTQA people. Many of them satire behavior of so-called 'allies' who either ask for special treatment for engaging in behavior they should be doing in the first place, "speak over" the voices of the minorities they claim to be trying to help, or otherwise just approach the social justice conversation in a tone-deaf or clueless manner. Jokes in the vein of the 'SJWs did [cartoonishly horrible thing]' meme abound, or controversy about the A in LGBTQA being for "ally" (it's usually taken to mean "asexual", which leads into flame wars whenever someone makes this mistake) leading into bizarre replacements for the various letters, such as "Quentin Tarantino" or "Transformer".
"Snake people, or 'sneople'" and derivatives. ^note A character on the show Steven Universe, Ronaldo, has conspiracy theories about snake people, and mentioned "snake people", which he called "sneople." Frequently confused with a popular text post, "Take me to snurch (snail church)", referencing the Hozier song.
There was an inexplicable surge of Dada-style, Duke Nukem-related shitposting that came as fast as it went, as seen here, here, and here.
Texts From Last Night mashups, casting the characters of a work as the senders of the texts in a similar style to the "relevant text post" meme.
"Feudal lord and handmaiden". ^note A post bashed the ship Korrasami and claimed that Korra was portrayed as "the male/masculine/feudal lord of the relationship". Once the backlash died out, it became a running joke to consider the terms an alternative to seme and uke, even crossing over with the Imagine your OTP-meme.
What she says: I'm fine
What she means: [lengthy rant or one sentence (usually Fandom-related) expressing disappointment, or another meme]

Down With Cis ^note One tumblr user wrote an absurd anecdote about being beaten up by a gang of thugs wearing "Down With Cis" shirts. The phrase has since spread around in social justice circles by people who perceived the story as a weak attempt to demonize trans people. For the record, yes, it's fake; the originator has since admitted to fabricating the story in an attempt to prove a point.
- Down With Cis vs. Down With Hate. ^note After fanart of a Steven Universe character wearing a shirt labeled "Down With Cis" began circulating, an even wider rift occurred between several Tumblr factions due to its perceived hostility against cis people, leading to a trans blogger's counter-creation of the less inflammatory "Down With Hate" - which in turn led into even more arguments about whether the original post was just a "joke", whether "Down With Hate" is transphobic, etc. etc.
- Down with Communists In Seattle ^note A Perspective Flip post mocking the original by giving the attackers an implausible sympathetic motivation and being, in general, even more obviously fake.
- Down with CIS ^note Confederacy of Independent Systems, Count Dooku's Separatist faction in the Clone Wars. Another instance of Fun with Acronyms making fun of the original post.
You STOLE Fizzy Lifting Drinks!, from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, where Wonka has an explosive outburst. Similarly, the also hamtastic "YOU LOSE! GOOD DAY, SIR!", transferred over from YTMND and 4chan.
Reblog if you are [X minority], support [X minority] or are [something completely absurd].
Other Timelines/Multiverse Theory ^Explanation Tumblr loves pointing out some random inconsistency or strange behavior that could be explained using the multiverse theory, such as an old man coming into a fast food joint and ordering something they don't and never have had. This has also led to jokes about other timelines encroaching on ours, or our being the absolute worst possible timeline imagineable.
Flork: Get the fuck out of here, other timeliner!
Other Timeliner: Nah, this timeline's ours now, native.
in the tags put:
- where u live
- ur first language
- what u call this [picture of a random object]
Saying a post would make a good Disney movie, occasionally followed by art of a hypothetical poster for it (one example here).
Giving the list of people in a cast of characters saying who you should fight or possible outcomes of fighting a certain character.
The anti-SJW blog Sonic For Real Justice, which quickly became infamous for kicking a moderator off for closing the askbox when they were overwhelmed with asks, and then changing the rules list to include sending him hate as a new rule. It's gained attention from sympathizers, while others follow the blog ironically to riff on the other cartoonishly assholish mods. Yet others suspect the whole fiasco is staged, mainly because most of the drama on the blog happens through constant posting where everyone can easily read about the mods' beefs with each other and the fact all of the drama happened in less than a week.
Superwholock. ^note From 2011 to roughly early 2014, geek-chic drama shows were universally popular across tumblr to the point of being a major part of the site's culture. The site held a reputation as a haven for young, exuberant fangirls, and over time the Friendly Fandoms of "the big three" - Doctor Who, Sherlock and Supernatural - started uniting their shared fandoms under one huge mega-fandom, "SuperWhoLock". This often involved crossovers between the three shows and sometimes with other Friendly Fandoms, like Harry Potter and The Avengers. Over time, however, as the site gradually shifted its focus from fandoms to social justice and the three shows fell out of favor (to the point where "Is Doctor Who over, or did I just cut the right people out of my life?" became a sentiment popular enough to get hundreds of thousands of notes), tumblr collectively began to turn on the remaining "superwholock" fans, who by then had developed a reputation for being overly-defensive, taking themselves too seriously, and having a sense of entitlement over the website due to certain behaviors that came to be seen as obnoxious (such as "hijacking" unrelated posts with gifs from their shows). Posts deliberately provoking the superwholocks into an over-the-top reaction and jokes about "stuffing nerds in lockers" ran abound, and it took about a year for the superwholocks to finally shift out of tumblr's punching radar.
- In a similar vein, Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons, a similar conglomeration of fandoms created by animation fans on tumblr. Mostly consists of nifty screencap and gif edits combining the universes of the four film franchises, and shipping the various protagonists together. Sometimes Frozen joins in on the fun.
- Bee Shrek Test in the House. ^note A parody fandom, partly a response to Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons, poking fun at the idea of mega-fandoms and fandom culture as a whole. The combination is not because the works are related, but because they're all infamous on Tumblr; Bee Movie (for "beestiality", itself a running joke on Tumblr), Shrek (due to Shrek being a Memetic Molester), Johnny Test (for being the go-to example for terrible cartoons), and Cory in the House (for the impossible-to-live-down anime jokes about it). Widespread enough to get a joke page on this wiki.
- Dangan OFFstuck as well, with the added distinction of having been more of a very widespread suggestion than anything that ever happened. Bee Shrek Test In The House, while a response to mega-crossovers as a whole, was also more specifically a response to this, which makes it hilariously ironic that it has remained in the tumblr consciousness so much longer.
"bad and naughty children get put in The Pear Wiggler to atone for their crimes" ^note Tumblr user fruitsoftheweb posted a GIF of a simulation from a study on the packing of fruits to reduce vibrations during transportation ◊, which someone responded to with the above sentence. It became memetic quickly, with a template of "bad and naughty X are put in Y to atone for their crimes".
Are you [character] af? ^note Applied to gifsets of characters demonstrating their personality, with each gif labeled "[trait] af" ("af" meaning "as fuck").

👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀 good shit go౦ԁ sHit👌 thats ✔ some good👌👌shit right👌👌th 👌 ere👌👌👌 right✔there ✔✔if i do ƽaү so my selｆ 💯 i say so 💯 thats what im talking about right there right there (chorus: ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ) mMMMMᎷМ💯 👌👌 👌НO0ОଠＯOOＯOОଠଠOoooᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒ👌 👌👌 👌 💯 👌 👀 👀 👀 👌👌Good shit ^note User "wunkolo" made a post about birds that was followed by this paragraph. Soon afterward, users picked up the format by making posts about things they liked followed by the paragraph.
Drawings of characters with added muscles and a speedo ^note Created by tumblr user dairyqueenofficial
graphic design is my passion ^note Posting this image ◊ or an edit thereof in response to bad graphic design. Usually done in response to a new graphical update that Tumblr made.
Do it! ^note A YouTube video of Shia LeBeouf giving a Rousing Speech, which replaces other rousing speeches or just the words "do it!" Naturally, and hilarously, this sees tons of crossover with the Emperor Palpatine "Dewit" meme.
Yarny ^note For E3, developer Martin Salih presented the announcement of Unravel, a platformer puzzle game. He was somewhat socially awkward, but his presentation instantly gained fans in Tumblr, especially due to the fact that (during a summer camping trip) he literally made a yarn and wire version of the main character in the game.
Parodying Harry Potter's decision to name his son Albus Severus by making posts with the scene with the names changed to something else, more than partly owing itself to the widespread dislike for Snape on the site.
Performative disgust directed at Minions and their absurd popularity, as well as corny "minion memes" stereotypically popular with middle-aged moms on Facebook.
Outlandish explanations for why same-sex marriage was legalized, usually containing the phrase, "Coincidence? I think not."
- Or alternatively, crediting it to Macklemore.
"I was the X." "I was the Y." "I was the Z." ^note This is becoming a popular response to outrageous and/or made-up stories
"hello naughty children it's ______ time" has become a stock method of explaining harsh character actions or plot twists, especially when they occur in media with child or teenage characters.
"What's better than this? Just gals being pals / guys being dudes." ^note A reference to Steve Addazio's vine. Used to mock scenes of blatant Ho Yay by allegedly straight characters. Sometimes escalated to "I now pronounce you gal and pal", referring to multiple gossip sites referring to Kristen Stewart's relationship with Alicia Cargyle as "gal pals".
The Fat Controller laughed. "You are wrong!" ^note A picture of the Fat Controller from Thomas the Tank Engine with the above caption, often utilized in response to a food or weight-related post.
Dan Nicky your Bobbie s ^note Comes from a screencap of one of Nicki Minaj's instagram posts with a comment saying "Dan Nicky your Bobbie s".
Using Zoobe to make video rants on an infinitely diverse range of topics, usually using the white rabbit character.
This:
me on a date: so what do you think of X (show/character/person/etc)?

them: [insults X/unpopular opinion about X]

me, shoving breadsticks into my bag/purse/pockets: i have to go home right now immediately/my mom said i have to go home right now immediately, don't contact me ever
The Discourse: a meme that started in leftist/social justice tumblr to describe particularly bad theory and discussion; closely related is the Discourse Chef image ◊. Both are commonly used as reactions to poorly thought out political posts. By extension, it's also meant to parody the common complaint that the "discourse" on the website is terrible, usually made by people criticizing social justice on tumblr. It tends to be framed as a jaded acknowledgment that the quality of discussion on tumblr will always be terrible and that there's no saving it, so you might as well joke about it.
- Spongebob discourse ^note An extension of the above, poking fun at Tumblr's tendency for pseudoacademic analysis and jargon to reach ludicrous levels by applying it to a children's cartoon which runs primarily on Rule of Funny. Discussed here.
The Notevoid ^note On 7/23/15, the note system abruptly went down. Anger, memes, and jokes immediately flooded the site. The lack of notes lasted about 40 minutes; the memes lasted much longer.
Making a text post with a detailed title, or a title that's the beginning of a well-known phrase, but the only content of the post itself is "gun". ^note The bait and switch is the joke. Why "gun"? Who knows.
young man ^note Taking the "young man" part of YMCA and turning it into something bizarre that still rhymes.
Young man, take the breadsticks and run

I said young man, man door hand hook car

gun
An extension of the "cinnamon roll" meme, listing which characters fit into these categories:
Looks like a cinnamon roll but could actually kill you

Looks like they could kill you but is actually a cinnamon roll

Looks like a cinnamon roll and is actually a cinnamon roll

Looks like they could kill you and could actually kill you
- Another derivative is known as a "sinnamon roll," referring to a character treated as a cinnamon roll while simultaneously being problematic, villainous, or evil.
Reminiscing over old infomercials and recreating them in text post form. Started with a post about Shirley Temple DVD Infomercials.
You've heard of [x], now get ready for [a phrase that is the exact opposite of x] ^note You've heard of the big bad wolf, now get ready for small good cat
- You've heard of Elf on the Shelf, now get ready for... ^note A variation that became popular in September 2017, wherein an image is posted that displays a Stealth Pun of a similar snowclone ([x] on the [y], or [x] in the [y])
Draw your OTP/squad like this. ^note This caption is accompanied by a image of 2+ people doing something either heartwarming or utterly ridiculous.
One person in a two-person group (often the poster's favorite ship) finding the other person like this:
X: [can't find Y in a crowd]

X: [loudly insults someone/something Y loves]

Y: (from across the room/street/etc.) WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY?!

X: Found them.
- Oddly enough, there is at least one reported instance of this working in real life.
JOHN CENA ^note Using video and audio clips of John Cena as an Interrupting Meme.
- It leaked out of Tumblr and onto other sites, leading to this beautiful Vine.
Beatles dragging ^note Making false (negative) claims or stating unpopular opinions about The Beatles in order to bait overzealous fans into making angry responses.
This conversation, courtesy of iCarly, with other characters in the place of Alice and Bob.
Alice: Hey, Bob, remember the time you dared me to X?

Bob: No, I said "Alice, don't X." And then you said "Don't tell me what to do, Bob." And then you X.
This exchange between an OTP:
X: I lost my dear spouse Y.

Y: Quit telling everyone I'm dead!
20 minutes into "Netflix and chill" and he gives you this look ^note Poking fun at the notorious trend involving innocuously asking someone over just to watch netflix with the hopes of it eventually leading to something sexual. Eventually lead to "netflix" being substituted with something else increasingly surreal.
This chat:
psychic: *reads my mind*

my mind: *something complex, disturbing, or fandom-related*

psychic: what the fuck
The racist cancer child. ^note A black blogger received an anon asking if it would be okay for a child with cancer to say the n-word as his dying wish. It was instantly mocked site-wide for the bizarre and unlikely situation presented, not to mention the mere idea of attempting to justify racism.
This
me: *takes a deep breath*

me: i lo-

anyone who has spent five seconds around me ever: yes, you love X, we know, you love X so much, they're the light of your life, you love them so much, you just love X, we KNOW, you love X you fucking love X ok we know, we get it, YOU LOVE X. WE GET IT.
ʷʰʸ ᵗʰᵉ fᵘͨᵏ ʸºᵘ ˡʸʸʸ'ⁿ, ʷʰʸ ʸºᵘ ᵃˡʷᵃʸˢ ˡʸʸʸ'ⁿ, ᵐᵐᵐᵐᵐᵐ ºʰ ᵐʸ ᵍºᵈ ˢᵗºp fᵘͨᵏ'ⁿ ˡʸʸʸ'ⁿ ^note From this song.
Chat posts centering around people breaking into various places or interrupting activities in order to catch Pokémon in Pokémon GO.
Me: *starts walking out of the classroom*

Teacher: what's so important that you have to leave right now?

Me: there's a bulbasaur in the hallway

Teacher: holy shit class dismissed
The Sandsverse. ^note Back in 2014, a blogger called sandsvendor100 appeared, claiming to be a tapir named Seymour who sells sand. He was later joined by similar bloggers, including fishboy100 (a fish), fruitsoftheape100 (an advice blogger claiming to be a proboscis monkey named Elmer who sells fruits), and boarofthenorth100 (a boar named Horace who sells ice and protects the Sandsverse from outside threats). This sparked an influx of animal vendor blogs until a miniature universe (complete with its own wiki) took shape. Most of the other blogs didn't really live up to the surreal humor of the original blogs, and some of the original blogs took a hiatus until the craze died down a little.
Explaining one's strange impulses in this format.
brain: *suggests doing something irrational/stupid/harmful*

me: why?

brain: you gotta
Why undertale is shitty and why all of you are shitty for liking it ^note The header of an infamous post declaring that Undertale was racist, sexist, etc. It quickly started drama and was roundly mocked, with various posts copying the header only to have something nonsensical underneath (such as an unrelated picture, or complaining about the lack of wavedashing).
Kinkshaming ^note Originally a concept in social justice circles about making fun of people and shaming them for their fetishes, the word was adopted by shitposters and is now mostly used ironically. People will talk about how they need to be kinkshamed or act mock-offended by something they perceive to be "kinkshaming" them.
- Similarly, you can't fuck Osmosis Jones. ^note Making fun of absurd Rule 34 by explaining why, logically, you'd be unable to fuck characters from the film. Later expanded into "you can't fuck (x), with x being basically any fictional character under the sun. Related to kinkshaming.
I know he ate a cheese ^note A picture of Jerry with serious Dinner Deformation after eating a wedge of cheese went viral after it received this caption.
Poot Lovato ^note Bizarre edits of Demi Lovato's face, often turned into a potato or an extremely tiny head.
Variations of this exchange for OTPs, courtesy of iCarly:
Bob: In 20 years, I guarantee you I will be Alice's second husband.

Alice: What happened to my first husband?

Bob: Nothing you can prove.
Due to the way reblogs work, with answers appearing right below the initial comment, it's become popular to respond with an image with a character and a speech bubble leading to the answer above, like a sort of visual version of "You sound exactly like [x]" and similarly used for often insulting comparisons.
This exchange:
Bob: Wow, the stars are beautiful tonight.

Alice: Yeah, they are.

Bob: You know who else is beautiful?

Alice: *blushes* Who?

Bob: Me.
Editing John Green's posts. ^note Until mid-2015, it was easy to change the content of a post you're reblogging to look like someone said something they didn't. Eventually, it became popular for John Green's Hate Dumb to edit his posts to make it look like he said something raunchy or bigoted. The most famous of these was one that graphically described loving oral sex with men, which got so popular that some people started to think that Green actually wrote it, prompting him to respond clarifying that it wasn't him. While he disapproved of someone trying to use homosexuality to "shame" him, pointing out that liking oral sex with men was nothing to be ashamed of, many misinterpreted his verbose response as him taking personal offense, prompting scornful jokes about him having a fragile ego and being offended by teenagers on the internet.
- Jokes about how the tumblr staff is trying to protect John Green from having his posts edited by making posts uneditable and removing the comment function on posts.
"you cn't see it. but im flipping you off. i am flipping you off with both my hands. im typing this with my middle finger.i am flipping you off right now. flipping you off so hard right now. you can't see it, which is a true pity, but take my word for it. i am. i am flipping you off right now. because you can't see it, let me describe it for you. my pinkie and ring fingers are folded down on both hands, a little past the second crease in my hands. my middle fingers are extended. they're pointing to the sky. then my thumbs are crossed over my index fingers, also folded down on my hands, but to the freckle on my left hand. my thumb nail on my left hand has a black triangle on it. now, i'm waving my both my hands vigorously, still flipping you off." ^note A copypasta unintentionally made by a social justice blogger who was called out for being against artistic freedom for various uninformed reasons. In some circles, it has reached the same level as the "what the fuck did you just say about me, you little bitch?" copypasta.
Yikes! ^note A common condescending response to a reply that is extremely misinformed/horrible/flawed in the social justice community.
As a lesbian...supporter ^note Dialogue from an episode of Orphan Black. Tends to be inserted into screencaps of other shows.
Clarke the husband, Lexa the wife and Fish the dog ^note Tumblr user clarkegriffintexts posted a fictional convo between the fictional characters Clarke and Lexa from the TV show The 100, which depicted an alternate universe in which the two women were married with kids and Lexa bought a dog instead of a goldfish for their kids and named him "Fish". This quickly went viral on Facebook, with people assuming that these were real people and that Clarke was a man. This then became an inside joke in the fandom.
Sofa Positions ^note Many derivations based on this post.
Anything about fucking robots/insisting people don't fuck the robots. ^note Several very popular fandoms as of November 2015 have robot or cyborg characters who have been, ahem, very well received.
How to draw X: Oversimplified obviously jokey instructions poking lighthearted fun at a character's design. Nearly always responded to with someone following the instructions to an absurdly literal degree, which occasionally actually looks like the character in question.
[x]-tubbs-the-cat ^note Around the time Neko Atsume became popular on the site, a large amount of focus was put onto Tubbs, a fat cat that would eat all of the player's cat food and then lounge for a while. People quickly gained strong opinions of him, with one blog, "i-hate-tubbs-the-cat" being created to portray him as a Fat Bastard. Soon, blogs like "i-love-tubbs-the-cat" and "im-ok-with-tubbs-the-cat" popped up to counter it, and it eventually exploded into dozens of blogs proclaiming their opinion of the cat, all with titles ending in "tubbs-the-cat". It helped Tubbs become a Memetic Troll, and his satisfied pose is often inserted into pictures.
"Touch my butt and buy me pizza" (alternately "Touch my butt and buy me tacos"). ^note A popular Tumblr post expressing many twenty-something women's thoughts on the ideal relationship, which ended up becoming a rather popular t-shirt Stock Phrase. Implicitly, it's a reflection of changing ideas about sexuality, class-consciousness and body positivity in The New '10s (i.e. it's okay for women to openly crave physical affection, simple pleasures are just as gratifying as expensive ones, and you should never be so weight-conscious that you're afraid to enjoy a pizza with your lover). May also reflect changing ideas about relationships - mainly that they don't have to be these complicated affairs full of arbitrary traditional rituals, and what matters is that you really love someone and that you're both comfortable enough with each other to be total dorks together.
- "No, cook me a delicious filet mignon, pop open an expensive bottle of wine, and bang me into next week. I AM AN ADULT!" ^note A bit of a tongue-in-cheek rebuttal to the above, reminding millennials that they won't be poor, sexually awkward twenty-somethings forever. Possibly also a reflection of financially struggling millennials' desire for greater independence, so that they can actually afford some of the finer things in life from time to time.
"Destroy the idea that x"; "protect and defend x at all costs"; "spread this like wildfire"; "say it louder for the people in the back" ^note Frequently-seen phrases in posts related to social justice and world issues that gained a notorious reputation for being clichéd, obnoxious, melodramatic, overly-inflammatory and guilt-tripping to anyone reading the post, and generally characteristic of the clickbaity, knee-jerk-anger side of internet social justice. The phrases were rapidly parodied and quickly became ironic stock phrases.
- "Friendly reminder that x" is an older one that was used in a variety of contexts beyond social justice before people started using it ironically.
Loss.jpg ^note Concerning the infamously Narmy Ctrl+Alt+Del strip "Loss". The comic is often parodied with simple four-panel images of completely unrelated things, often fixating on hands (relating to the odd hand gestures the character makes in the original strip).
The expository text for Star Wars: The Force Awakens being replaced with a copypasta or other ridiculous-sounding chunk of text.
Hobo, Glunkus, and Shitty Bitz. ^note A popular text post describes a blogger's dream about Neko Atsume, in which a new food item called Shitty Bitz attracted two cats named Hobo and Glunkus, the latter of whom was a demon with More Teeth than the Osmond Family. The two cats have been hailed sitewide as the first Neko Atsume OCs, and Glunkus has been especially well-received despite his horrific description.
I just want to reblog this and stress this: Levi lost his entire squad. He didn't lose 20% of his squad. He didn't even lose 50%. He lost his whole squad. Look at what it's done to him. You can see the death in his eyes, but he keeps on going. This is why Levi is one of my favorite characters. ^note A copypasta taken from a post referring to Attack on Titan, usually paired up with goofy pictures that have nothing to do with it (most famously this).
"That was my alter ego, Countess Boochie Flagrante." ^note A post went around trying to defend some of Eminem's rapping by arguing that it wasn't really Eminem because he was rapping as Slim Shady. A reply to the post pointed out how terrible the argument was by giving him a new name. Some time later, a similar post was made defending Anakin Skywalker's actions in Revenge of the Sith, arguing the whole murdering 30 children thing "wasn't really Anakin because Vader took over", and an astute user referenced the original Eminem post. Before long, every photoset of Anakin doing stupid things in the prequels would include use of the aforementioned quote.
- This has seen a resurgence in 2019 Star Wars fandom, in mockery of people who treat Kylo Ren and Ben Solo like two separate people.
Harold, they're Lesbians. ^note here
"If a dog wore pants would he wear them like this or like this?" ^note A post on Facebook was posted asking which style a dog would wear pants in. After a news appearance, it has spread quickly before the end of 2015.
Post lampooning obviously faked anecdotes posted online (usually through tumblr chat posts), often with a patronizing moral or social justice-themed message veering into Glurge territory and ending with everyone in the area bursting into applause.
"This is true, I was there. I was the sound of the clapping."

"And that X? That was Albert Einstein."
Got called racist in greggs earlier lads
- tell us what happened lad
- I got called racist in greggs
- ye but why
- I was being racist
- in greggs?
- yeah it was in greggs ^note Deriving from an exchange ◊ on an ImageBoard where a poster told an extremely self-explanatory tale. The format generally replaces "got called racist" with some obviously predictable thing, and "I was being racist" with the reason the thing was predictable.
This exchange:
Person A: I have created Y!

Person B: You fucked up a perfectly good X is what you did. Look at it, it has anxiety. ^note Snowcloned from this joke: "God: I have created man!" "Angel: You fucked up a perfectly good ape is what you did. Look at it, it has anxiety."
hubris ^note Usually said after something loathed/hated fails spectacularly.
The Eurovision Song Contest, which is stereotypically portrayed as a bizarre European ritual that Americans are completely unaware of. Mainly because, to an extent, it is.
- And then there was everyone's favorite act from 2013, the "gay opera dubstep vampire"
Jared Leto is too Edgy for the Director. ^note In response to the Suicide Squad (2016) trailer released on 01/19/2016 and various articles surrounding it. Similar to the response to Banksy's 'Dismaland'.
Jared Leto: (Something "edgy")

Director: (massive overreaction)
tag yourself i'm X ^note "Personality test" posts with a collection of various surreal and poorly-drawn characters (sometimes derived from celebrities or fictional characters) with vague and random social archetypes applied to each. Users are asked to put which character they identify with most in the tags.
... but first we need to talk about parallel universes. ^note This commentary on a tool-assisted challenge for Super Mario 64 goes into the 'science' of parallel universes in a video game.
- Half A-press ^note The tool-assisted challenge is specifically to beat a certain level in zero presses of the "A" button (the jump button); however, due to some techniques, it's actually required to hold the button down when entering levels, hence the title of "0.5 A Presses". A person named TJ "Henry" Yoshi who didn't read video descriptions commented that the existence of half a-press of a button is impossible, and was highlighted in the video. People have since made "Henry" into an Arch-Enemy of the video creator.
- 12 hours ^note The commentary mentions that Mario has to run backwards against a wall for 12 hours to gain enough "de-facto" speed.
- Scuttlebug/Scuttlebug raising ^note A major part of the challenge is transporting a Scuttlebug to a door in the area by getting hit by it and moving its "home", then abusing game mechanics to make it levitate, all so a Goomba Springboard can be performed later. It's ridiculous enough to make a minor enemy an Ensemble Dark Horse. And Moe Anthropomorphism ensued as well, for whatever reason.
buy violent things on iTunes ^note A meme that originated in the small fandom of the band The Brobecks where the phrase is put in various formats (lockscreens, "cool things to do in 2016" lists) or used as a punchline in order to convince more people to buy what the fans consider to be the band's best album.
The Fine Bros' subscriber count. ^note In late January 2016, the eponymous YouTube channel announced "React World", a program by which the Fine Brothers would license their brand of reaction videos and provide resources to people so they could make their own videos under that brand. However, since they had filed a trademark for the word "React" (which is, in fairness, the name of one of their channels), people believed that they wanted to put a trademark on the entire genre of reaction videos, prompting a swift and surprisingly vicious backlash which resulted in their subscriber count dropping from 14 million to 13.5 million.
- The words "react" or "reaction" being followed by Trade Snark.
- Scenarios involving the two words above (for example, chemical reactions) being interrupted by the Fine Brothers demanding to see the participants in court.
A vine of Squidward doing a dance called the Dab has proven to be quite popular as of the start of 2016.
Marge krumping. ^note In late January, a screenshot of Marge Simpson dancing in the episode "Little Orphan Millie" ended up taking off due to how silly and exploitable it was.
the jeme ^note The concept of things covered in or made from denim, and giving them names in a similar manner to jorts. For example, denim boots would be joots, a denim-covered stool would be a jool, and so forth.
pull the trigger piglet ^note Similar to "yikes", this is a stock response to things considered cringeworthy or otherwise repugnant. Taken from this ◊ comic about Winnie-the-Pooh.
Smart Ass, Badass, Great Ass ^note Three different pictures of the same character somewhat relating to the words, taken after one poster for Deadpool.
Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer. ^note A revival of the 2014 meme about John Green being the Zodiac Killer. And of course, the "logical" conclusion that Ted Cruz is John Green.
- Ted Cruz isn't the Zodiac Killer yet, but we're all giving him the idea. ^note Ted Cruz was born too late to be the Zodiac Killer; the first confirmed murder happened two years before his birth and the first suspected murder even earlier than that. Therefore, Ted Cruz "must" have used Time Travel to commit the Zodiac killings. But once Time Travel is involved, there's no reason to assume things happened in chronological order.
damn that's some @sixpenceee shit ^note Popular horror blogger sixpenceee is well known for the creepy stories they post. This phrase is used as a reaction when something creepy happens
The Triggering ^note A group of self-proclaimed "anti-sjws" organized The Triggering, an event across social media platforms to make offensive/politically incorrect posts to mock social justice movements... and tag it all as #thetriggering.
"This dipshit definitely doesn't have PHD's in English. I'm a writer and just those few sentences you posted have shown you are literally incompetent and you don't know and will never know what true literacy is because you have too much pride in yourself to admit when someone has actually put you in your place like you deserve. Go and take your "7gfs" and go f your self because those 7gfs aren't real and any girl interested in someone like you is just as much of a piece of shit as you because they don't have the self respect to tell this piece of shit to go f off because any man who claims to have SEVEN GIRLFRIENDS is the biggest piece of shit around because he has shown he has no respect for the female form. Now, seriously get off tumblr because all you're doing is wasting data on the Internet thanks to you. You're an absolute piece of shit guy and I really hope you go f yourself. Done." ^note Popular troll/shitpost blog thebootydiaries made a post about having 3 Ph.Ds and 7 girlfriends. One of the many people to take it seriously spouted off this rant, which thebootydiaries' fans pretty much instantly turned into a copypasta.
The History of Japan. ^note A more or less factually accurate summary of the history of Japan, told through amusing one-liners and jingles.
- A little over a year later, there's a sequel: History of the Entire World, I Guess
The McDonald's lesbian anime. ^note A Japanese animated commercial for the restaurant, specifically aimed at prospective employees, had quite a bit more Les Yay than you would have expected. Fanart ensued, as well as comparisons to The 100 and The Walking Dead, both of which had recently suffered a bad case of Bury Your Gays.
Sausage Party ^note An R-rated animated film about sentient food. Shortly after the first trailer was released, word got out that an early version of the script was leaked. Tumblr seems to be at a general consensus that the script is equal parts snark and Nausea Fuel, the latter of which is mainly due to the infamous "food orgy" that takes place towards the end. Aside from script reactions, there are also the inevitable Food Fight comparisons, plus the creation of "foodsonas".
Parodies of this conversation from an SNL skit combining Undercover Boss with The Force Awakens:
Bob: *disguised as someone else* A friend of mine said that Bob had an eight-pack. That Bob was shredded.

Alice: Bob is a punk bitch.
Princess Bernie/Birdie Sanders/"The birds have spoken!" ^note In March 2016, a Vine began circulating of a finch flying up to U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders while he's giving a speech and perching on his podium. Sanders' supporters and others began joking that Bernie Sanders was a Disney Princess. Others compared and contrasted the incident with an image from a few months earlier, when a bald eagle brought in for a photo-shoot threatened Donald Trump.
me as an airline pilot ^note Or more accurately, things you would never want to hear from an airline pilot over the intercom. For example: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I have an announcement to make but first you have to promise not to get mad."
HE RUINED MY DREAM JOURNAL!!!
- ＩｄｉｄｎＡＵＧＨＴｔ！ＭｉｓｔｅｒＥｌｅｃｔｉｃｓｅｎｄｈｉｍｔｏｔｈｅｐｒｉｎｃｉｐａｌ＇ｓｏｆｆｉｃｅａｎｄｈａｖｅｈｉｍＥＸｐｅｌＬｅｄ！ ^note This exchange from The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl was delivered with a huge side of Large Ham.
dark [website] show me the [Evil Counterpart of that website's normal content] ^note A revival of an older meme about the "dark web", originally the joke was about using shady means for frivolous reasons.
- dark [website] show me the [content that would be perfectly reasonable to expect on that web site but inexplicably isn't there] ^note The next step is having it be used as a Take That!; e.g. "dark tumblr app show me any images at all"
Cathy Brennan is a fake goth. ^note A user made a few facetious tweets accusing the notorious anti-trans advocate of being "fake goth", to which she actually responded, with an amusingly disproportionate amount of vitriol. But the joke didn't really get big until a few weeks later, when someone noticed that Facebook was deleting posts about it. Apparently, Brennan isn't familiar with the Streisand Effect.
Memes involving The Dover Boys briefly became popular after a tongue-in-cheek "call-out post" appeared in late March/early April of 2016.
It's gonna be May. ^note A meme based on a mishearing that pops up every April, most often towards the last few days; the Title Drop in N Sync's "It's Gonna be Me" is misheard as a declaration of the new month.
Variations of this exchange (from here):
Bob: Alice is [insert activity away from home here] so while she's gone I'm gonna cut the sleeves off of all my shirts.

Carol: Why?

Bob: She's like 85% of my impulse control.
This image being applied to any archer/bowman from a series.
Art vs Artist ^note Recently, it has become popular for Tumblr users to post a 9x9 grid featuring some of their drawings, and a picture of themselves in the middle square.
Users responding to things they view as exceptionally good or pure with variations of "This cleared my skin, watered my crops, cured my depression," etc.
- Conversely, "My crops are dying"
sorry mom, i can't go to school tomorrow, it's a national holiday ^note An image then reveals the "holiday" to be a significant fandom-related date - a character's birthday, the anniversary of something's release, etc.
This ◊ image of Caveman Spongebob from the episode "SB-129" ^note though sometimes erroneously called "Spongegar" after a similar, but different version of Spongebob from a later episode being used as a reaction image to the poster being in a situation where they are taken off guard or given an unpleasant surprise by something or someone else.
Stating a shocking fact and ending your point by saying "let that sink in" has hit Schmuck Bait levels; somebody will respond with "what does it want now" and a photoshopped image of a bathroom sink standing at somebody's front door.
Comparing popular media and characters to screenshots from various episodes of Spongebob Squarepants.
- A similar thing has also been done with The Simpsons.
"Me, a furry X", where X is a (typically well-respected) career. ^note The post describes how a person with that job would act or what they would say if they were a stereotypical internet furry.
RANDY YOUR STICKS ^note A tumblr user made a joke post asking to be reminded to flip his French toast sticks. Somehow the format was appealing enough to become a meme.
"Dicks out for X", where X is something the author wants to show appreciation for ^note all thanks to Harambe
"The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math." ^note Based on the caption of a print from Etsy, in 2013, the image was posted to Tumblr by the deactivated account oshawott-princess and snowballed rapidly. Commonly used as a reaction image to instances of Didn't Think This Through.
"Wa-oh, we're halfway there. Wa-oh, X on a Y." where X rhymes with living and Y rhymes with prayer. ^note reddit did this and tumblr ran with the idea
You: *crude statement*
Me, an intellectual: *essentially the same statement but with fancier language*
Slip
Unexpected
Catchphrases
Creepily ^note spell out weird words like vore or succ with normal statements
- * "Yes I [X, spelled out in all-caps letters like an acronym], I [Acronym spelled out but the statement is the opposite of the original acronym'd word]
- An alternative version goes the same way, but the words composing the acronym don't even match up with the letters.
Userboxes in the style of the ones on The Other Wiki. Fandoms, aspects of personal identity, memes, and anything else you can think of is fair game for being made into a userbox.
"Anyone remember X? Them wild sons of guns they loved Y." ^note From this post.
Making shitposts and meme mashups that reference the plot of The Cask of Amontillado. ^note A trend that took off during the latter half of 2016 and disappeared as quickly as it started.
self care is [incredibly unhealthy behaviour] and [implausible feat] ^note Seems to have started with this post. Later versions of the meme added a surrealist bent.
Sign labeled "Do It For Her/Him" featuring pictures of an especially lovable character. ^note Template derived from this Simpsons post.
[current meme] is just [old meme] ^note "Me, an intellectual" is just Joseph Ducreux, userboxes are just DeviantArt stamps, etc...
Screenshots of Google results for a notable person's birthday, often with a caption stating that the post can only be reblogged that day.

Images of Barack Obama and Joe Biden annotated with funny conversations, mostly about pranks they want to pull on Donald Trump after he enters the White House.
X was the original Shitpost Generator ^note Shitpost Generator is what the name implies- a bot that spits out vaguely memetic-sounding phrases. X is another user or character known for nonsensical statements.
*a blurry image of the definition for the word "perfection"* *a photo of someone cleaning their glasses* *an image of something or someone the OP considers perfect*
Bode. ^note Started when tumblr user loghains made a post about a dream they had the night before about a new meme where people would post zoomed-in pictures of fat cats simply captioned "BODE" (short for "bodacious"). Naturally, after the post got spread around tumblr collectively decided to make the meme a reality.
No X, we die like men. ^note Another memetic snowclone, apparently starting with this picture of a car with the sticker "No Airbag, We Die Like Men". Sometimes "die" is replaced by something else as well, e.g. "No blacklist, we scroll through bad content like men."
X, but every time Y happens, Z happens. ^note Video editors on tumblr taking clips or songs with repetitive words or themes, and causing something to occur each time that the theme or word happens. For example,The entire Bee movie but every time they say bee, it gets faster.
Hi, my name's Catrina! ^note Derived from this bizarre, British children's show opening.
Phrases wrung by Christmas lights. Similar to Stranger Things and Retro Wave memes.
[to the tune of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"] you better watch out, you better watch out, you better watch out , YOU BETTER WATCH OUT ^note From this vine, which has been adopted by Tumblr as a seasonally fitting expression of fear or anxiety.
Anish Kapoor can't have the world's Xest X, where X is a color/arts and crafts supply. ^note Anish Kapoor is a famous artist who received the exclusive right to use Vantablack, the world's blackest black, for art. Another artist by the name of Stuart Semple created "the world's pinkest pink" and went to great lengths to forbid Anish Kapoor, specifically, from using it. Now all of Semple's pigments — including, naturally, Black 2.0, a fractionally less black shade of black than Vantablack — are specifically forbidden to Anish Kapoor. Much drama ensued, to the amusement of Art World.
The Hollywood sign photoshopped to say various phrases. ^note Tumblr's response to pranksters doing this.
Saying "big mood" to signify that you find a particular post especially relatable.
Bernie Sanders Giant Tweet ^note Sanders spoke in front of the US Senate using a floorchart of one of Trump's tweets, people made edits.
i lik the bred ^note A post by user Poem_for_your_sprog on Reddit inspired by an enterprising cow took off around Tumblr, begetting various sequels and parodies, including one by Ann Leckie.
some people???? [unjustifiable action]???? to cope???? ^note Believed to have come from... certain shipping discourse, several mentally ill people have taken this defense and parodied it, often with characters that are wildly reviled for being horrible, those that have crossed the Moral Event Horizon, or with silly and bizarre things in general.
Unnecessary Confetti ^note on tumblr's 10th anniversary users' screens were filled with confetti upon opening the website. memes ensued.
Roll Safe Meme (can't X if you don't Y) ^note Taken from a mockumentary following around a supposedly ultra-gangsta named "Roll Safe", using a screencap of him looking smug and pointing at his head in a "common sense" sort of way... accompanied by text that ISN'T common sense, such as "can't screw up a sequel if you never release it" or "can't ruin friendships if you don't have any".
Calling minor inconveniences homophobic because u gay.
2meirl4meirl memes, often cross-pollinating with Reddit - extremely depressed/depressive and very self-deprecating, suicidal posts delivered in the nastiest black comedy way imaginable. Imagine Shinji Ikari, Eeyore, and Marvin the Paranoid Android asking for death as part of a stand-up comedy routine.
"when daddy cuts my French toast for me", "when daddy gives you cummies", and/or posts talking about daddy-doms in general, mocking the daddy-dom, or DDLG subculture. ^note DDLG, or Daddy Dom Little Girl, is a BDSM subculture revolving around the dominant male in the relationship being treated as a father figure. DDLG is parodied frequently due to their (often cringe-inducing) behavior on Tumblr. Especially popular are snowclones of the french toast post, which includes indignant responses to the mockery by the original poster.
- i never should have made her eat the doo-doo ^note Apparently, the daddy-dom of the "cuts my french toast for me" post had an acrimonious, tear-filled break-up after he forced his sub to perform corprophagia. Tumblr's response, and the original poster's defensive remarks, went viral.
"cursed post" ^note A comical post that incorporates certain ideas that most Tumblr users do not like.
- Certain specific responses are becoming memetic in of themselves:
  - "hey OP do you accept constructive criticism?" ^note The common answer from OP tends to be "no".
  - "thanks! i hate it"
  - "hey, quick question: what the fuck"
  - "good morning to everyone except the person who made this"
he scream at own ass.. w
- :V ^note Spun from two highly-bizarre non-sequiturs captioning a possum snarling at its own tail. Also tends to pertain to any images involving agitated possums.
"don't talk to me or my son ever again". ^note Originally a shitpost of Spike with an incredibly poorly-drawn midget version of himself, it's now used for characters paired off with shitty fanart, Off-Model animation, bootleg toys that look nothing like the real thing, objects or characters next to smaller versions of themselves, and characters generally thought to be similar to each other.
Façade, a game with AI-powered dialogue, spun into reaction images featuring the strange, stiff animation and the utterly bizarre responses the characters can give you, such as suddenly hostile reactions to "watermelons". ^note The game's AI takes any word containing "melon" as a derogatory remark referring to breasts. As a result, even casually mentioning the word "melons" in any form or context within the dialogue results in the player immediately being kicked out.
"BORN TO DIE / WORLD IS A FUCK / Kill Em All 1989 / I am trash man / 410,757,864,530 DEAD COPS" ^note Taken from a horrifically Engrish bootleg shirt that's at odds with the cutesy characters that grace said shirt. Snowclones and appending the phrase to out-of-context screencaps were popular.

"Tomorrow's the sixteenth! EUREKA! We're saved!" ^note A clip from the Adventures of Tintin episode "Prisoners of the Sun" that tends to get reblogged on the fifteenth of every month.
Crytyping. ^note Posts made during emotional breakdowns have a distinct, typo-ridden quality, as the physical act of crying makes typing coherently rather difficult and the emotional state makes one less inclined to correct typos before sending. Of course, this quality is trivially replicated by people who are just trying to fish for undeserved sympathy, and parodies appeared almost immediately. Example:
"John C. Miller, CEO and President of the Denny's Corporation, is a capitalist running dog and his wealth must be seized and redistributed to the people". ^note Created as an experiment by user leviathan-supersystem. The official Denny's tumblr is known for engaging with memes /almost/ authentically compared to later-created corporate blogs, and this was an intentional challenge to turn overt communist language into something they could appropriate for brand advertisement. Pretty much died after Denny's posted a version of the meme in the vaguest possible, barely coherent terms:
tumblr: we are a capitalist running dog and

dennys: your memes must be seized and redistributed to the people? on it.
- "Denny's is racist and no amount of dank memes will change that". ^note The Denny's tumblr co-opted the John Miller meme, leading people to search for a meme that Denny's would be unable to recycle, ultimately resulting in this.
Thrussy ^note A portmanteau of "throat" and "pussy", spun off from more random blogs' usage of "bussy", or "boy pussy" (take a guess as to what it refers to)
- Calling lozenges "thrussy lube"
- "[X] is one thicc bih. Lemme see that [X]ussy." ^note People started making videos using the Ditty-app, in which a text-to-speech voice sings the above line to the tune of "Good Day".
"Covfefe" ^note After returning from his trip abroad, US President Donald Trump posted an odd tweet in the early hours of the morning which only said "Despite the constant negative press covfefe" with no context added. Reactions range from trying to find a secret hidden meaning to some suggesting the president was partaking in his own form of "crytyping."
Tonight we dine at [X]. ^note A post that satirized Tumblr's Wendy's fandom by making up a hypothetical scenario where two people see McDonald's make a clapback on Twitter and say "Tonight, we dine at McDonald's." Since then it's spread to show approval for pretty much anything, usually with more absurd choices like Doctor Who or Samsung. On occasion, it's sometimes a throwback to 300's memetic "TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELL" that was popular back in 2006.
"Always remember: You/X! Are! Valid!" ^note Parodying the deluge of feelgood text posts which are meant to encourage inclusivity and boost people's self-esteem but are often seen as Glurgey and ineffectual. Often X is replaced with something ridiculous like Minecraft YouTubers or an embarrassing Overly Narrow Superlative.
- Has since led to "valid" being adopted as a generic term of approval, as in "[X viewpoint] is valid".
Minnesota Fats Pool Legend ^note Vine flagged a clip of the Minnesota Fats video game logo as NSFW, leading to people posting it in response to warnings about disturbing or mature content.
The Woody Collective ^note The Woody Collective is a group of users who take URLS from blogs who are aggressively bigoted/rude/etc. and turn them into a bizarre Hive Mind of blogs based on Woody from Toy Story, specifically with a picture of an early animation test for the first film being used as their profile pictures.
The floor is _____. ^note The original phrase being "the floor is lava" in reference to a game kids play where they can't touch the floor. "Lava" is replaced with various things like "hating my friends" or "being alive" and the altered phrase is supplemented by still images of someone jumping high above the floor. Sometimes it's changed to being the exact opposite, where the floor is something like "loving my friends", with an accompanying picture of someone face-flat on the floor, or exaggerated by the accompanying picture being an astronaut in space.
"H... hewwo?" ^note Excessive usage of Elmer Fudd Syndrome, among other things, to make shitposts sound cutesy to enhance the comedic value. Use of Japanese emoticons in these posts is common.
- "Then Perish" [image of Obama's eyes with red filter]. ^note A joking role-play over text message using the above "Hewwo?" style, where a person finds themselves tied up in a dark chamber that is slowly filling with water. "Obama" eventually arrives, and the person begs him to save them, eventually offering to do anything "Obama" wishes in return. "Obama" responds with "Anything?" followed by a closeup of his eyes with a red filter, and the message "Then perish". It has reached high enough memetic levels that any closeup of someone's eyes with a red filter is immediately recognized.
"And this is a classic gaming emotion." ^note During a speech on the popular TED Talks YouTube channel, a woman utilizes a picture of a young man with an...interesting expression in a dark room, illuminated only by the computer screen in front of him, and cites the image as an example of "someone on the verge of what is called 'an epic win'" The image of the woman on stage with the picture on a screen behind her and the above quotes as the caption quickly became a new exploitable, with users replacing the image of something humorous or irrelevant.
"Not You/Tú No" ^note A form of image macro, originating on Netflix Latino, featuring nine panels depicting different characters. The outer eight panels spell out a fandom-positive message, with the center image being a counterexample labeled "Not You". A more positive version has the center example labeled as "Especially You", implying either the user thinks the "counterexample" was judged unfairly and needs more love, or they just love it the most.
"Do Not Interact" Banners ^note People started posting banners of people they didn't want interacting with them, ranging from understandable (e.g. bigots, fetish bloggers, roleplayers) to groups they personally dislike (white/bisexual/communist/capitalist/meat eaters/trans men/etc.) to the nonsensical (people who ship a certain pairing or hold a particular headcanon about a character). Sometimes made with series-specific characters on them acting as mouthpieces. The often exclusionary, slacktivist, or cheesy nature of such things leads to a lot of parodies (e.g. a Lapis Lazuli banner stating "Jasper don't interact", a Jon Snow banner stating "White Walkers don't interact", or a version saying "Everyone please interact").
Mind Size/Mind Expansion ^note An exploitable image of a two-column diagram. The right-side column depicts a human brain in increasing levels of size or intelligence (up to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence) while the left hand side usually depicts actions or events of increasing insanity or outlandishness, being a tongue-in-cheek jab that the more insane actions are done by more intelligent people. Some users apply an extra dose of Stylistic Suck by skipping the images entirely and just writing out "little brain", "big brain", "galaxy brain", etc.
"The fuck are you looking at? Keep scrolling." ^note Comments on image posts where the image contains a person or character staring directly at the camera, usually with contempt and/or something creepy, like a skeleton (which usually ties into the skeleton war stuff)
"Advanced Country/Screaming Cowboy" ^note A clip from the bizarre music video for Kirin J Callinan's equally bizarre song "Big Enough", wherein Jimmy Barnes is seen as an cowboy floating over the mountains screaming for an extended period.
Videos that follow the start-up screens of older video game consoles (Such as the Playstation or Gameboy Advance) with the first second or two of the opening cinematic from Hotel Mario.
- Adding onto this, photoshopping the image of Mario and Luigi from the opening cinematic into iconic or irrelevant images a la Where's Waldo?
Russian cat captions. ^note Around the second half of 2017, images and videos of cats started trending to have user replies in Russian about them, for reasons unknown.
"Deep Fried Memes" ^note Posting memes that have been heavily edited and put through excessive JPEG compression to the point that the images take on a grainy, washed out coloration that looks as if the image has been dipped in frying oil, hence the name. Example ◊ Tons of crossover with Reddit, which has lead to some weird arguing.
"WHY WEREN'T YOU AT ELF PRACTICE?!" ^note References to this line from Rankin-Bass's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer started becoming popular in December of 2017
"I Will Survive" ^note a Zootopia fan comic that many read as anti-abortion propaganda, became highly infamous. The original creator of the comic actually denies that it was meant to be anti (or pro) abortion, but the heavy-handed drama and adult themes for a comic based on a movie meant for kids still attracts a lot of criticism.
(jazz music stops) ^note A reaction image carried over from Imgur and Reddit depicting an upright bass player with a perplexed expression on his face, usually used in reaction to something startling or suddenly taking an unexpected turn.
Sharing unpopular/controversial opinions like this:
"[Unpopular opinion]," I say into the mic. The crowd boos. I begin to walk off in shame, when a voice speaks and commands silence from the room. "They're right," I hear. I look around for the owner of the voice. There in the fifth row stands [X, usually Common Sense.]
This exchange ^note began as the either uplifting or just Glurge-y "she's beautiful", before "beautiful" started getting replaced with all sorts of traits. "The girl reading this" can also be exchanged for something else, such as the blogger's Favorited character. One example started with "she's reading this", and continued to the regular conclusion.
Blogger 1: she's X

Blogger 2: who is?

Blogger 1: the girl reading this
Forbidden Snacks ^note Contemplating eating aesthetically-pleasing but inedible objects — most often Tide Pods laundry detergent.
you know he dead ^note A phrase commonly associated with an image of a man grinning as a bottle of soda hurtles at his face, taken just before impact, though it is also sometimes used on images of a similar nature, e.g. a freeze-frame taken right before a collision.
Original vs. Untumblrized ^note A likely troll image from 4chan, originally showing a character from Fortnite alongside an "untumblrized" version with paler skin, normal hair, thinner proportions, skimpier clothes, and a cross necklace, implying that video game character designs had been corrupted and sanitized by fears of offending left-wing circles. Of course, Tumblr users took this as an opportunity for jokes, comparing a deliberately stylized character to an exaggeratedly simpler version, or vice versa.
Connect Four edits. ^note A popular meme has spread around Tumblr that mostly involves photoshopping the Connect Four box art to be ridiculous. Examples include Connect One ◊, Connect Four Thousand ◊, and Connect Connect Four.
"I may not know flowers, but I know a BITCH when I see one!" ^note A clip from the 1969 film The Gay Deceivers, about a pair of draft dodgers who pretend to be a Camp Gay couple to avoid military service.
"That's how it is on this bitch of an earth". ^note Taken from an art piece showing a Testosterone Poisoned, grossly over-muscular Luigi lifting weights, with the phrase (originally from Waiting for Godot) as the image's caption.
"This image has been removed for violating one or more of Tumblr's Community Guidelines." ^note A string of images, all of them being the image takedown notice...with the exception of one, leaving the reader to try and figure out what happened based on the context from the single untouched image. Sometimes done in the inverse with only one image removed leaving the reader to imagine what happened in the missing image.
Photoshopping or greenscreening Drake & Josh into scenes from various anime, video games, etc., usually with some humorous commentary from the two of them regarding the situation.
"(CONTROVERSIAL OR RIDICULOUS IDEA); CHANGE MY MIND" ^note An image of Stephen Crowder sitting at a desk ◊ with a sign inviting people to argue with him about male privilege quickly gained traction on Tumblr and has spawned forth many edits. It sometimes gets edited to "You can't change my mind"
Fantasy Painting Object Labeling ^note Editing fantasy portraits (usually those of giant monsters) to add in labels that describe either incredibly mundane or relatable situations.
"You guys are just mean" ^note Pretty similar to "Change My Mind", often prefaced with an unpopular and/or wholesome opinion. Occasionally the ending phrase is changed to "you guys are just idiots" or something similar.
Jolene is gay ^note Tumblr noted that in this song allegedly about how the singer loves her man so much, and is scared that Jolene will seduce him, the entire song is about how beautiful and amazing Jolene is. Conclusion: Dolly is head over heel in love with Jolene.
Gru's slideshow. ^note The scene in the movie where Gru shows off his evil scheme, only to realize that his adopted daughters added another slide to it without him noticing beforehand, has become another popular one to edit, usually demonstrating when things don't go as planned.
PORN BOTS ^note Starting in 2017, there's been a long string of random blogs consisting of nothing of pornographic images, videos, and gifs, along with links that are blatantly virus infested. Appropriately named "porn bots", Tumblr users have widely mocked them and have tried everything they can to remove them off the site, mainly due to the Tumblr staff's lack of response to the porn bots.
- "My [moderately large number] Porn Bot Followers" ^note Aforementioned porn bots have a way of randomly following users on Tumblr, ostensibly to lure them into clicking their links. Given the sheer number, it isn't surprising for users to find themselves followed by 10 or more at a time.
JOHNY JOHNY
- YES PAPA?
  - EATING SUGAR?
  - NO PAPA
  - TELLING A LIE?
  - NO PAPA
  - OPEN YOUR MOUTH
  - HA HA HA! ^note A rather odd nursery rhyme about a father confronting his son for eating sugar, it caught popularity after several....odd and poorly-made attempts to animate it appeared on Youtube and Tumblr.
"Pearl Hates the Irish" ^note After a user named "peteseeger" made a post ◊ sarcastically criticizing a fictional episode of Steven Universe called "Pearl Hates the Irish" in which the titular character apparently expresses rather xenophobic views towards the people of Ireland, much to the confusion and chagrin of the fandom, several others quickly jumped on and confirmed the "episode"'s existence and the responses quickly went viral.
In November 2018, Tumblr, in response to the site app's deletion from the Apple app store for failing to delete child pornography fast enough, attempted to remedy the aforementioned Porn Bot issue with an algorithm made to automatically delete said blogs. Not only did the algorithm fail spectacularly (typing "SFW" as a tag makes any post bypass the censors), but it experienced a "glitch" where it deleted several non-bot blogs and banned other blogs without telling them. Not only did this cause a resurgence in the porn bot memes, it also spawned several other memes:
"Kung Pow Penis" ^note Kung Pow Penis is a nonsensical phrase from a political cartoon edit, but is more well known for being used to harass a controversial tumblr user, trilllizard666. It's gotten to the point where they are spammed with the phrase even off Tumblr. The phrase is itself a subject of deep controversy, as many see it as unjust harassment while others see it as karmic trolling, but the less said about that, the better.
"silence, brand" ^note A phrase commonly accompanied by a picture of a spider crab blowing something up with laser vision. Used as a retort to corporate social media getting a little too friendly.
"JUST LIKE BIDEO GAME" ^note Since early 2019, popular blog "Just Shower Thoughts", a collection of random quotes taken from r/showerthoughts, began having more and more of its quotes be an overused video game metaphor. Many users quickly began to lampoon this, leading to this meme as a catch-all response to video game metaphor posts.
Subverting expectations ^note A reference to the increasingly widespread backlash against modern media's increasing tendency to use Ass Pulls, Sudden Downer Endings and otherwise "shocking" events in their finales, purely for the sake of having a twist and/or one-upping fans who correctly theorize the original endings. While the phrase originated from a supposed interview with Rian Johnson where he claimed that he intentionally wrote Star Wars: The Last Jedi so that it would subvert or twist all the plot threads JJ Abrams had set up in The Force Awakens (said interview was eventually proven to have never happened and Rian had never made such a claim), the phrase saw an explosion of popularity in 2019 in the wake of a string of popular shows ending on shocking, zero buildup twists and events seemingly just for the sake of being shocking, such as Voltron: Legendary Defender, Tangled: The Series season 2, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, and, most infamously, Game of Thrones.
In late July of 2019, a bizarre glitch occurred that caused images alongside audio posts to be stretched out. Users quickly made the most of this, with some even crossing it over with other memes, such as "Do you love the color of the sky?" or Mettaton's leg.
In 2019, Verizon sold Tumblr for less than 3 million, whereas they originally had bought it for 1.1 billion. Everyone were quick to blame Tumblr for being such a bad website that its owner lost well over 1 billion dollar on it. Particularly bad posts soon got notes that said "This cost Verizon 1.07 billion".
- Porn is worth 1.07 billion dollars. ^note The porn ban being the last major thing before the sale and the single biggest hit to Tumblr's userbase resulted in people joking that by banning porn, they made the site drop from 1.1 billion to 3 million.
"God, I wish that were me" ^note A comment by DeviantArt user bigJB21 where he writes said quote. The picture of the comment is often added whenever there's a situation the Tumblr user would want to be in, such as benchpresses by a very muscular lady or not knowing what "I will survive" is. Often edited with other variations of "God, I wish..."
There is a surprising amount of jokes about Julius Caesar getting stabbed, and whenever the Ides of March (March 15th) rolls around, the memes come out of the woodwork as well.
"Mods are asleep, post X" ^note Typically used by "Night Tumblr" as a prompt to start putting up bizarre or disturbing memes and posts, since the "moderators" are not online to filter it (Nevermind that Tumblr doesn't have moderators that monitor individual posts) Like the "En garde fuckboy" meme above, this fell out of use when it was discovered that the phrase originated from 4chan threads as a way to request pornographic media of minors.
"X has been dead for Y slutty, slutty years." ^note Originally from a post about slut-shaming Alexander Hamilton (who, at the time, had been dead for 210 years). It's now used whenever someone brings up the sexual escapades of a historic person, like Julius Caesar, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, or Jesus of Nazareth.
"I'm A Lesbiab. Lesbiam. Less Bien. Girls." / "It's okay, take your time." ^note Originated from a series of posts made by Tumblr user glindatheokay where she tried to say she was a lesbian, but kept misspelling it and eventually just settled on "Girls", followed by another person replying "it's okay take ur time". Often added to screenshots of various lesbian fictional characters (the most common being screenshots of the anime Princess Principal. The line "It's okay, take your time" is frequently put before "Girls." whenever the meme is used or referenced, despite originally coming after.
"I'M FGUCKING SHAKIGN, WHERE IS HE!!?!?!!??!" ^note Originating in the "You know I had to do it to them" meme, tumblr's deep loathing of Lucky Luciano has taken on memetic life on its own; a popular shitpost variant is to take a picture that has nothing to do with Luciano but put a reference to him in the caption, then watch as users go ballistic trying to locate him hidden in the post.
- Where in the fuck is Lucky Luciano?
My cousin Throckmorton, the skateboarder ^note Originally from twitter, where user @Chibburs posted a picture of a physics textbook that used "your cousin Throckmorton" as an example. Since then, any picture of cool skaters or ramps have been accompanied by some reference to my cousin Throckmorton, the skateboarder
Out Of Touch Thursday ^note A clip from the opening credits of Lucky Star, except the opening theme "Motteke! Sailor Fuku" has been replaced with a clip of the chorus from "Out Of Touch" by Hall & Oates.
"Y'all'd've" ^Explanation "You All Would Have". Southern accents makes it perfectly possible to construct entire sentences consisting of a single word with a lot of apostrophes, which lends itself to abuse very easily.
Twitter is early tumblr ^explanation Those who follow what's going on in communities on Twitter have noticed some disturbing similarities with what happened on Tumblr in the early 2010s. One shockingly on the point example included someone proposing a Twitter prom.
- They moved to Twitter/Pinterest ^explanation A supposed explanation of the above phenomenon that proposes that everyone who made Tumblr what it was in the early 2010s moved to Twitter because they found tumblr so annoying, thus bringing everything annoying about tumblr with them to twitter. Likewise, the Superwholock fandom is apparently still alive and kicking, only on Pinterest instead of tumblr. Pinterest being pinterest, it mainly consists of screenshots from tumblr.
- Tumblr is awful... but at least it's not Twitter! ^Explanation While Twitter was always known for its knock-down drag-out cancel culture and fandom wars, it's wildly seen that Twitter's current wave of angry cancel culture, receipt-blogging, and fandom vs. fandom flamebait that devolves into doxing is due to Tumblr users moving to Twitter in the wake of the porn ban - and is far more vitriolic and nasty than any of Tumblr's wars could hope to be.
Get stick bugged lol ^note Similar to the rickroll, but with a video of a stick bug moving from side to side.
Not Like Other Girls WLW ^Explanation An art trend where an artist takes old pictures comparing a nerdy, messy girl to a stereotypical blonde bombshell, and redrawing it with the two (or more) girls in a relationship
Heritage Posts ^Explanation Tumblr user heritageposts reblogs posts from pre-2016, adding the date of origin to each one. This has caused many an old post to be put back in circulation, much to the embarrassment of older users.
I wish all [X] a very pleasant [Y] ^Explanation A picture of Bugs Bunny in a suit with a black background and the aforementioned text. Sometimes the word "pleasant" is removed to express a negative wish. Oftentimes, the [Y] content does not grammatically fit within the context of the sentence. (For example: "I wish all [haters] a very [go away]")
Ray-Ban Charity Event Sale ^Explanation In October 2020, many users were hacked and a post about a Ray-Ban sale appeared on their blogs, which tagged other users. The advertised sale was obviously fake and the link in the post a virus. Memes ensued.
Destiel is canon ^Explanation While more of a love confession from Castiel that Dean didn't reciprocate followed by Cas's immediate death, the absurdity of this situation when paired with world events (the US presidential election, rumors of Putin stepping down) was enough to make the ship trend in November 2020 and get associated with the other events.
- Just the whole November 2nd-November 8th, 2020 week in general
- Sent to turbo hell for gay crimes ^Explanation To those unfamiliar with the show, fans summed up Castiel's condemnation to the Empty as "super" or "turbo hell". Seeing as how he got doomed for confessing his love (The Empty is specifically posited to only come for someone in their happiest moment), LGBTQIA+ folks with a good sense of humor about it started joking that they were being sent to Turbo Hell for their gay crimes.
[x noun] (derogatory) ^Explanation Used to express distaste, sometimes ironically. Sometimes flipped on its head with "(derogatory)" replaced with a different adjective, like "(affectionate)".
I hate getting my news like this ^Explanation After the aforementioned Destiel incident, many users started seeing people talking about news that they hadn't heard about yet. Expect to see this on posts talking about major world events, especially if it's a meme/shitpost.
- A common reply to posts delivering said news consists of "wake up babe, [news]", "new [thing] just dropped", or a combination of the two.
You know what? Fuck you *un-Xes your Y* ^explanation A common joke in fanbases is to remove certain key elements of a title of a franchise or a character, leaving just the Y remaining (for example: *un-Sonic's your hedgehog*).
Mishapocalypse 2.0 ^note The events of "Despair" from Supernatural led to people constantly posting screencaps of Castiel's Inelegant Blubbering during his confession scene all over Tumblr, which people joked about as being a second Mishapocalypse. Sure enough, the constant posting eventually got it to trend on Tumblr, meaning it really did reach Mishapocalypse status in earnest.
The Gift of Prophecy. ^explanation Tumblr users making jokes about future events that end up being completely true has resulted in a whole lot of jokes about how Apollo (Greek god of prophecy, among other aspects) has been making Tumblr users prophetic for shits and giggles
- Apollo NO/Apollo YES
"people who celebrate fictional character birthdays are annoying pass it on" "FUCK this post and happy birthday [character]" ^explanation A post by one poster expressing disdain for people who celebrate the birthdays of fictional characters got a vehemently contrarian response from another celebrating Sonic's birthday, and screenshots of the exchange have become exploitable for celebrating any fictional character's birthday.

Posts from a darker timeline. ^explanation In late 2020, a new blog gained notoriety on Tumblr for making false posts that referenced extremely absurd and terrifying events, that nevertheless were likely enough to potentially happen. The joke quickly ended up being the same as One-Time-I-Dreamt, where people read the posts without realizing they were from a joke account. Similarly but somewhat worse, people reading shocking posts and realize they're not from the joke account.
"My child is fine". "Your child is [doing action]". ^explanation A post trend that started in late 2020/early 2021 and became popular due to just how relatable they were to most of Tumblr's userbase. Naturally, this caused many variants where the actions were more surreal or fandom-related.

Eeby Deeby ^explanation From a photoshopped image of an elevator with the destination displayed as "EEBY DEEBY." Since this meme happened not long after the Supernatural finale, many comments posited that eeby deeby is another name for 'super hell', or somehow related to super hell.
"We're not dead". ^explanation For some reason, users on Twitter and Tik Tok keep saying that they "miss Tumblr" or write essays on the death of tumblr, despite tumblr still being very alive and well. Oftemtimes it will be tied back into the "Quit telling people I'm dead" meme by having a user comment "Sometimes, I can still hear their voices".
"[X], my beloved" ^explanation A 3D gif of a heart-shaped locket that opens up. On one side, it displays the aforementioned text, and on the other, there's a picture of the person/thing the text refers to. This one originated from the Dream SMP fandom.
"Change your URL Jeff". ^explanation A general response when the joke blog badjokesbyjeff posts a funny joke.
Gaslight. Gatekeep. Girlboss. ^explanation Three stock discourse terms that are often seen together due to Added Alliterative Appeal and a shared reputation for being abused by Know-Nothing Know-It-All types to describe situations where they don't apply. Frequently used to Snowclone existing phrases, or to describe characters' actions as a kind of mock Ron the Death Eater.
Ea-nasir and his copper ^explanation History wonks on Tumblr have elevated the archeological finding from Ur to a running joke, painting the crooked copper merchant Ea-nasir as a Honest John's Dealership and often comparing modern businessmen and companies to him - unfavorably.
The Suez Canal blockage. ^Explanation On March 2021, a very big container ship called the Ever Given got itself stuck sideways on the Suez Canal, causing many problems to global maritime trade. Tumblr ran with it and made many memes alluding to the popularity of shipping in the website. And when the Canal finally got unblocked on March 29th, there were just as many jokes about putting it back and blocking the canal again.
Evil [musician] [modification of one of their lyrics] ^Example Evil Beatles all you need is hate ^note This meme has now appeared in other social media sites such as Twitter, with the slightly modified text ("evil [musician] be like [modification of one of their lyrics]") pasted onto edited pictures of said musician (for example, with the colours inverted to show that this is the "evil" version of the artist).
The death of Prince Philip was widely celebrated across Tumblr in the form of memes.
The TRAMP STAMPS/industry plant band ^Explanation A TikTok video went viral pointing out how a so-called 'indie' band had started posting videos on TikTok and had a professional looking website despite supposedly only forming several months ago. Others also pointed out how their songs used very early 2010's Tumblr buzzwords and phrases, and many began to believe that the band was either an industry plant or completely manufactured group aimed at shilling towards Tumblr and Twitter users specifically. When Tumblr found out they had a blog, they started spamming their posts with mentions and reblogs with the phrase 'bug ass', leading to the band deleting their blog after only one night
Diversity win! [Description of morally dubious character] is [minority] ^Explanation A sarcastic jab at corporate attempts at diversity via Token Minority, and instances of Draco in Leather Pants-motivated Misaimed Fandoms who overlook a character's more questionable actions due to them being a minority.
Shoutout to [x] gotta be one of my favorite genders
A pack of [x] pushed my parents off a cliff. ^Explanation In the 2021 Cruella live-action movie, Cruella's mother dies because a pack of Dalmatians pushed her off a cliff. It's explained in the movie, and Cruella herself doesn't blame the dogs for her mother's death, but the sheer absurdity of the concept was memed to hell and back as the perfect embodiment of the current trend of justifying a villain's actions with a tragic backstory.
Post+. ^Explanation On July 21, 2021, Tumblr revealed that a brand-new subscription service paywall feature was in the beta testing stage, called post+. The user response was immediately and near-unanimously negative, pointing out the many flaws in the proposed system (which includes users of the service being unable to block people subscribed to them and reblogs being visible to all users, which means that people could easily copy and paste a paid post into the reblogs so everyone could see it), and memed the concept of paying to see certain posts to hell and back.
- You trust this site with your credit card information? ^Explanation A major criticism was the fact that Tumblr has a history of being... less-than-competent with its code (notably, the fact that searching for a post word-for-word can come up empty, along with the aforementioned content-flagging system and infestation of pornbots), so entrusting them with one's credit card information was generally considered to be an unwise decision. Cue jokes about the site immediately having a security breach, or the site publicly posting your credit card information.
- Tumblr getting sued into oblivion. ^Explanation One of the more frequent criticisms of post+ was the fact that paywalling fan content of copyrighted materials (such as fanfiction and gifsets - the former of which was mentioned as an example in the site's official post) could qualify as violations of Fair Use, which could easily cause companies like Disney to sue Tumblr for copyright infringement. Considering that the site has a reputation for being centered around fandoms, users memed this specific point, joking about this being how the site finally shut down.
gothicprep's green cat ^Explanation An anon asked gothicprep "why is your cat green?" to which they incredulously responded with a picture of the cat and an insistence that the cat was clearly not green... despite the fact that, due to the lighting, their cat looked very green indeed. Another user eyedropped the cat to prove that it was green, and several other users responded with drawings, such as a tree drawn with only those eyedropped colors, the eyedropped cat with the color swatches reinterpreted as mushrooms, a "moldy forest cat" inspired by both...
There are many benefits to being a marine biologist ^Explanation this image, which came to tumblr user pixellcutie in a dream, soon spiralled into a phrase pasted on various images of underwater scenes
- Sometimes flipped on its head with "benefits" replaced by "cons", pasted on images which depict unfortunate underwater scenes.
Color Theory ^Explanation this post, which started with a picture of a children's hospital with poorly thought-out color choices on the floor and soon spiralled into an conversation about how such decor isn't as bad because of color theory. Despite the image and subsequent commentary on the color choice first appearing on Tumblr in January 2019, it didn't get really memed until August and September of 2021 - many dark or violent looking images will be declared "friendly" or "lively" because of color theory.
NICE LEGS, DAISY DUKES, MAKES A MAN GO (inappropriate sound effect or quote)
- LOW CUT, SEE-THROUGH, SHIRTS THAT MAKE YOU GO (continuation of inappropriate sound)
Oh wow yikes unfollowing now :/ I was a huge fan of their work [description of a horrible and possibly illegal action], I didn't know they [mildly problematic action/trait or normal human flaw].
Tumblr Sexyman ^Explanation Certain kinds of male characters who manage to acquire a bafflingly-to-others enormous Perverse Sexual Lust fanbase despite being conventionally unattractive, with the Onceler having been the Trope Codifier. While nobody can fully agree on what exactly makes up a Tumblr Sexyman, they tend to share enough traits in common, such as moral ambiguity, dapper fashion, and slender build (or, if they lack those traits in canon, like Bill Cipher, are often given those traits in Fanon), that a fan Wiki was made to document them. The idea has since taken off enough that some fans will deliberately create fake Tumblr sexymen out of characters who don't apply to parody the trend.
Joke Pride Flags ^Explanation The site's large LGBT demographic's tendency to focus on quantization of many aspects of identity results in well-meaning attempts from many users to create custom pride flags for niche queer identities for the sake of representation, but sometimes including examples that would be tenuously related to LGBT issues at best, or even identities that parts of the community would find outright offensive. The site's culture also places a lot of emphasis on assigning characters with headcanons, especially LGBT ones, both seriously and sometimes facetiously (e.g. a username of "lesbiandumbledore"). Some of the more ridiculous instances of both resulted in the creation of parody blogs assigning favorite characters with fictitious marginalized identities such as "Himbo", "Brusher of Teeth", or "going to Superhell, with Stylistic Suck pride flags for each.

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