The 21 Most Defining Memes of 2023

TikTok influencers have long been known for hawking cheaper versions of popular luxury products, oftening referring to the knockoffs as “dupes.” In December 2022, TikTok user @keylimeleah posted a video in which she and a friend browsed Target, holding up various clothing items, and sarcastically labeling them “dupes.” It went viral and became a huge meme in January, prompting a slew of people to make increasingly absurd versions, typically putting an exaggerated flair on their pronunciation of the term — dooooop!

No one slayed harder in 2023 than the doll who literally couldn’t stop slaying. Memes about M3GAN, the killer doll from the horror movie of the same name, first became the subject of memes upon the trailer’s release in October 2022, but entered full meme status when the movie hit theaters in January. Much like the Babadook in 2017, M3GAN was declared a queer icon, with fans recreating her trademark dance, calling for her to judge Drag Race, and crowning her mother.

It’s been about a millennium and a half since the fall of the Roman Empire, but in 2023, Rome rose again — well, as a meme at least. In September, a trend emerged on TikTok in which women would ask their male partners how often they think about Rome. Many answered that they thought about it quite frequently — once a week, or even daily, to the women’s perplexed amusement.The meme first emerged in Sweden a year earlier, according to Know Your Meme, when influencer Saskia Cort posed the question to her followers. It gained traction in the US after @gaiusflavius, another Swedish influencer who cosplays as a Roman warrior, had an Instagram reel about it go viral. In the weeks that followed, the phrase “my Roman Empire” became a meme in and of itself, with people using it as shorthand for the things they can never stop thinking about.

“This is my dinner — I call this girl dinner,” said Olivia Maher in a TikTok in May, showing off a delicious spread of bread, cheese, grapes, and pickles. It went massively viral, and the concept took off like wildfire, with tons of women using the trend to show off their own “girl dinners” — the chaotic mishmosh of bites they were eating for their evening meal, instead of the typical meat-and-potatoes fare usually thought of as a proper dinner.Many extolled the freedom they felt the trend symbolized — it represented the joy of a night to oneself, of saying “screw it” to the traditional gender norms that demand women expend their labor to feed their husband and family at the end of a long day. Girl dinner meant ripping open a piping hot bag of microwave popcorn, haphazardly slicing a log of salami, and enjoying your damn life.“Girl dinner” wasn’t without its criticisms — some TikToks showed off extremely meager portions, which led some to warn the trend could promote disordered eating. But others, including dietitians, praised it for encouraging intuitive eating.

This summer, amid reports of a sharp uptick since 2020 of orcas attacking boats off the coast of southwestern Europe — possibly as an act of revenge for a pregnant orca who’d been injured by a boat, experts theorized — people began declaring their allegiance in the so-called “orca wars.”And as “Team Orca” ranks grew, the memes came with it. “If you’re an orca whale reading this, I am on your side,” tweeted writer Anne Donahue. “They’re beginning to orcanize,” George Takei said. “Give them guns,” tweeted Jaboukie.

One of the biggest songs of the summer — and definitely the raunchiest — was inspired by an unlikely source: a staunchly pro-abstinence preacher. In May, a video went viral of Cynthia Smock (aka “Sister Cindy”) delivering an impassioned sermon at Louisiana State University in which she warned students of the hidden dangers of Mexican restaurant happy hours. “If you buy her one margarita, she will spread her legs!” Smock told the crowd of students, who erupted in cheers, before proceeding to decry the effects of two, three, or even six margaritas (to increasingly raucous applause).On her podcast Here’s The Thing, actress and comedian Angel Laketa Moore joked that the speech sounded like a rap song, then launched into a freestyle: “Give one margarita, I’mma open my legs / Give me two margaritas, I’mma give you some head / Give me three margaritas, I’mma put it in my puss, give me four margaritas, I’mma put it in my tush / Give me five margaritas, I’mma have some fun / Give me five margaritas, I’mma put it in your bum!” After the clip took off, producers Steve Terrell and Carl Dixon remixed it into a sex-positive banger that soundtracked everyone’s hotgirlsummers.

Pedro Pascal. Jeremy Allen White. Kendall Roy. Did we mention Kendall Roy? 2023 was the year that everyone became babygirl. To be “so babygirl” eludes definition. It does not necessitate being a baby, nor a girl — in fact, the endearing moniker has most typically been seen applied to adult men. Though often used as a sort-of-synonym for “cute,” it became particularly popular as an ironic descriptor, bestowed upon some of the darkest or even downright villainous of TV characters.

2023 was the year “cunt” went mainstream. What was once deemed the granddaddy of curse words, so offensive even the most casually swear-y might wince at it (at least in the US), cunt had a big moment this year.Cunt’s reclamation — not as a crude synonym for vagina, but rather as a term of femininity and empowerment — has its roots decades earlier, originating with trans women of color in the New York City ballroom scene. In recent years, shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race and Pose have taken drag culture mainstream, bringing its lexicon with it into the popular slang vernacular (e.g. “slay” and “it’s giving”). In particular, the phrase “serving cunt” became ubiquitous as a meme in 2023, appearing in tons of viral tweets that asked how to do so in a “god-honoring way,” “elderly way,” or “a way that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion,” to name a few.

Everybody, movement!!! “Planet of the Bass” — the Europop parody song by DJ Crazy Times and Ms. Biljana Electronica (aka TikTokker Kyle Gordon and vocalist Chrissi Poland) — dropped in August and became an instant smash hit. Reminiscent of novelty songs like Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” and Eiffel 65’s “Blue (Da Ba Dee),” the viral earworm featured such poetic lyrics as “When the rhythm is glad / There is nothing to be sad” and “Life, it never die / Women are my favorite guy.” The role of Ms. Biljana Electronica, performed in the original video by TikTokker Audrey Trullinger, was played by a rotating cast TikTok stars in subsequent videos, parodying the genre’s proclivity for swapping out their female stars without explanation.

On June 12, McDonald’s began selling the “Grimace Shake,” a berry-flavored milkshake honoring the 52nd birthday of their furry purple mascot. The shake was an instant hit… though probably not in the way McDonald’s had intended. A trend emerged on TikTok in which users would taste the frozen treat, then suddenly collapse in a scene straight out of a horror movie, often convulsing as the lavender liquid spurted from their prone bodies. Some even showed Grimace himself, lingering in the shadows, basking in the grisly aftermath of his apparent kill. In response to the meme, McDonald’s tweeted an image of a stricken-looking Grimace, writing, “meee pretending i don’t see the grimace shake trendd.”

Barbie was the unmatched star of 2023, spawning so many memes it could practically have its own list. Before the movie even came out, stills from the trailer (e.g. “Do you guys ever think about dying?”) exploded online, and posters featuring the film’s cast members became a hugely riffed upon meme format. Due to its shared release date with Oppenheimer, the two movies, though wildly different from each other, became collectively known as “Barbenheimer” and launched even more memes.After its record-breaking opening weekend, iconic phrases from Barbie — including “just Ken,” “Kenough,””my job is just beach,” “mojo dojo casa house,” and “long-term long-distance low-commitment casual girlfriend” — entered the mainstream lexicon, and had everyone saying “Hi, Barbie!” all summer long.