This Week's Best Memes, Ranked
Here at Digg, we try our best to cover the most important and confounding memes that come across the timeline. But the web is littered with tons of great memes that never quite hit the mainstream, instead bouncing around the weird corners of Twitter or Reddit.
Enter: our recurring feature, Memes, Ranked, where we not only rank the funniest memes each week, we also keep a running top 10 of the best memes of 2019. Skip to that here.
For the week of July 22, we have a handful of contenders: U Scarin The Hoes, White Claws, Oof Yikes and Bigger Than Before.
4. U Scarin The Hoes
The meme: This one has been percolating for a few weeks now but is only just starting to bubble over. It's a meme where you call out your friend's uncool behavior because it is causing the undesirable outcome of "scarin the hoes."
The examples:
Verdict: Fairly misogynist, a little racist, and definitely overly simplistic, there's a reason this meme hasn't really caught on. Its commentary on toxicity among male friendships is interesting, but that doesn't make up for the fact that it just isn't that funny. Not good enough to crack the weekly top 10.
3. Oof, Yikes
The meme: A copypasta meme with room for improvisation, the Oof Yikes meme involves a short monologue canceling a fictional character in the way that over-woke online nerds talk about real people with problematic pasts and large followings online. Stacey Ritzen at the Daily Dot has a nice writeup of the meme that goes further in-depth.
The examples:
Verdict: Another meme about online toxicity, but this one makes fun of online cancel culture in a more interesting way than the above. It's not going to stick around forever, but worth enjoying while it's here.
2. White Claws
The meme: Launched in 2016, White Claws have been around for a while. As a flavorful-but-potent hard seltzer in a can, White Claws are an easy to drink summer cocktail in a can.
Of course, when anything becomes too popular, it becomes a joke on the internet. And summer 2019 is finally that moment for White Claws. All kinds of folks, from bros to preps to e-boys and e-girls, everyone likes White Claws. More crucially, everyone enjoys saying the drink's web-borne catchphrase: "There ain't no laws when you're drinking claws."
The examples:
Verdict: Are White Claws memes pretty funny? Yeah, they are. Are they a commentary on masculinity, consumption culture and America's relationship with alcohol? Also yes! Are they branded content? That's the real sticking point. White Claws memes are powerful, but tools of capitalism have no place atop the meme ranking. Second place!
1. Bigger Than Before
The meme: This one is really, really new. On Thursday, an odd1 Facebook how-to video escaped the platform and went megaviral elsewhere. Here it is on Twitter:
Almost immediately, folks began parroting the phrase "Bigger than before" as well as sending up other odd things about this strangely affecting video.
The examples:
Verdict: Any meme based on such a cursed/blessed internet video is going to perform well. But Bigger Then Before seems… special. Like "Gay Rat Wedding" and "Hot Girl Summer" before it, it's a phrase that echoes around the brain. Add in that you can say it about nearly anything that changes size (and think about the things that change size in your life. Are they ripe for weird internet comedy?) and you have yourself a meme with staying power born over night. Well, actually 72 hours minimum, but still.
The Official Joscoโข 2019 Meme Power Ranking
Click each entry on the ranking to see when it debuted.
- Wife/ Wife Guy Memes
- Bigger Than Before
- White Claws
- FaceApp
- Hot Girl Summer
- "I Think You Should Leave" Memes
- Spelling Coconut With Your Hips
- Bagel Boss
- Area 51
- Oof, Yikes
the best kinds of guys the best kinds of memes
wife guys
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