Top 10 Meme Characters | Famous Memes & Their Popularity Stories

Do you have the feeling that you’ve already seen those faces? No, no, please don’t hurry up to visit your therapist. You are not trapped in “Groundhog Day.” You could encounter them surfing the internet or checking your social media account as you are viewing the compilation of the ten most famous and funniest internet memes and famous meme characters.

Do you know how quickly they spread over the internet? Would you like to know their secret? Let’s try to find the answer in our post right now.

Look at These Faces… And smile at Them… Why? Because these are the Most Famous and Funniest Internet Memes with Their Popularity Stories! 

Nowadays, it’s safe to say that memes have flooded the internet. They appear here and there on different websites with less serious content.

Some businessmen even use memes as a publicity stunt. We don’t think that all web community members need the term explanation, but we will state it in any case for the users who are not acknowledged with such stuff.

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What Is A Meme?

The term “internet meme” is a neologism that describes a catchphrase or concept that spreads fulminant from person to person via the Internet, much like an inside joke. In simple words, memes are those hilarious pictures, sometimes supplied with laughable text, that make you smile or laugh stiffly, although the concept of memes refers to a much broader category of cultural information.

Memes are viral on social network sites where special dedicated groups of users collect them.

The Goal of Memes: Life and Secrets of Their Stunning Popularity  

Most memes entertain people with their comic content. Whether you like it or not, it’s quite obvious that they have become an essential part of the contemporary virtual world. But what is amazing is how quickly these “funny pics” are popular.

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How Did They Manage To Do That?

Popularity comes quite naturally, that is, without any super efforts from the side of their creators. Just think about how much time, professional skills, and money you need to draw traffic to your website.

Don’t you suppose that there are some tricks we can learn from memes to boost our conversion?

How Do Iconic Internet Memes Spread

The mechanism of spreading internet memes is rather simple. A digital file or link is transferred from one person to another using email, blogs, social networking sites, instant messaging, etc. The content can consist of a saying or joke, a rumor, an altered or original image, a complete website, a video clip or animation, an offbeat news story, and whatnot.

The peculiarity of an internet meme is that it may stay the same or evolve over time, by chance, through commentary, imitations, parody versions, or even by collecting news accounts about itself.

From our viewpoint, the great popularity of internet memes is greatly influenced by the fact that they are spread organically, voluntarily, and peer-to-peer rather than by compulsion, predetermined path, or completely automated means. We believe that this is the main phenomenon of their popularity.

You know, internet memes can be viewed as a certain art form. The existence of websites that collect and popularize internet memes, as well as sites devoted to the spread of specific internet memes, proves this statement. Internet memes show interesting samples, moving from individual web pages and pictures to user-created remakes of popular content.

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Types of Famous Memes & Their Origins

You can’t but agree that nothing on Earth, as well as on the internet, happens accidentally, without any specific purpose. The same story is true for memes. So, what makes people develop them, and how do they use their creations in the aftermath? Let’s look at some aspects of the most famous memes.

1. Self-promotion

Have you ever read the story “Vanity Fair” by William Makepeace Thackeray? The situation with the creation of an internet meme for a person, company, product, musical group, or promotion for its pop culture value resembles it very much. If you are going to reach popularity this way, you have a chance to become an internet meme.

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2. Inadvertent Celebrity Quotation

Take care of what you say or do if you are an object of paparazzi hunt. Otherwise, you take the risk of becoming famous due to the embarrassing video, e-mail, or other act.

3. Urban Rumors and Hoaxes

It’s not a secret that many internet memes are urban legends, fraud schemes, slander, or false news stories that are either planted deliberately to become an internet meme, evolve by mistake or rumor, or jump from an offline source to the Internet.

4. Advertising and Marketing Of Most Famous Memes

Of course, marketing professionals couldn’t miss such a great opportunity to feed much ado about the event or product they need to promote. Yes, internet memes have become an alternative form of viral marketing to create efficient online “buzz” for their product or service.

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5. Image Editing

Modified image memes are perhaps the most popular ones. As you have already guessed, they are created by editing images (pictures, drawings, portraits, etc.). This kind of internet meme acquires a broad significance rapidly because of the ease of sharing it over the internet.

6. References to Pop Culture

Internet memes often include references to current pop culture, such as popular movies, celebrities, or news.

Now that we have an in-depth information background, let’s research this phenomenon more deeply using the examples of the ten most famous and funniest internet memes. (Most of them are comic heroes just because the author of this post is fascinated with comics).

One of the very first memes was the Ttrollface (which we will discuss herein). It had spread all over the internet as a comic character. Tons of comics exist, including Trollface. People who accidentally came across those comics and read them most likely wanted to know more because of their hilariousness, so the Coolface gained popularity quickly.

The variety of memes is really too vast to name them all, so we were to make a pick. Hoping you’ll like our choices and the stories that accompany them. Sure enough, you will find comics with those memes. But let’s start our list better.

Famous Meme Characters On The Internet

1. The Trollface

This meme was originally drawn by a DevianArt user named Wynne. This is a rage comic character with a wicked smile. It is meant to reproduce the facial expressions of “Internet Trolls.” Rage comics often use it to position oneself as a troll.

The Trollface started to gain popularity in January 2009 and reached its peak in March 2012. Here’s an example of the Coolface trolling physics or whatever this branch of science is called.

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2. Yao Ming Face

Yao Ming’s face is a rage, comic-style drawing of Yao Ming, a professional basketball player. This meme is commonly used to show the dismissive reaction to someone’s activity. It originated from Yao Ming’s facial expressions during an interview where he laughs, supposedly saying, “Bitch, Please.”

Also, it is used as a refusal to do something, like work or anything else. It started gaining popularity in December 2010, reaching its peak in April 2012.

3. Rage Face

The rage face is the main character of rudely drawn rage comics, which show situations that bring him rage and annoyance. The Rageguy started a series of comics known as “The Rage Comics.” The comics originated with four panes, where the first three panes described the situation, and the fourth one showed the Rageguy himself.

It started gaining popularity in June 2006 and reached its peak in December 2011. Here’s an example of a rage comic. This is another one of the most famous meme characters.

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4. OMG/Rage Face

This meme is used to show a lot of feelings, from frustration to anger. It is often accompanied by red or white text, depending on the character’s feelings. Its origins are unsure, but there is a comic that is supposed to be the first one, including this meme. Here it is.

This meme was one of the most famous memes in September 2011, quickly reaching its peak in February 2012.

5. You don’t say?

This meme is used to show a sarcastic response to something obvious. It was drawn from Nicolas Cage’s face in a film called “Vampire’s Kiss.” It gained popularity very quickly, starting in October 2011 and reaching its peak in March 2012. Here’s a simple example of a comic with this meme.

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6. Grumpy Cat – Famous Meme Faces

This meme is a really living cat with weird facial (or neutral?) expressions. Everything started when Tard’s (it’s the cat’s name) owner uploaded this picture to the internet, where it got famous insanely fast (1,030,000 views in the first 48 hours!). After that, photoshopped images of this cat with different texts appeared, entertaining the users.

As we already said, the Grumpy Cat gained popularity very quickly, starting in September 2012 and reaching its peak in December 2012. Here’s an example of such a photoshopped image. This is another one of the most famous meme characters.

7. Forever Alone

This meme is used to show loneliness and it is commonly used in four-paned comics, like rage comics. It is a spin-off of the Rageguy. The original “Forever Alone” comic was called “April Fools,” where the meme makes a joke about his ex, but it works on himself, too. You’ll see this comic a bit later.

The most famous meme started gaining popularity in August 2012, reaching its peak in February 2012. Here’s the promised comic.

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8. Famous Meme Characters – Okay Guy

The “Okay guy” is a gloomy character that is used to show hopeless humility. It is commonly seen in four-paned comics or in advice-animal-style images. It originated on a Russian humor website, JoyReactor. Also, there are a couple of real-life equivalents. Here they are.

This was among the most famous memes in August 2007, reaching its peak in February 2012.

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9. Philosoraptor

This meme is a velociraptor thinking about different deep philosophical or scientific questions. It is used to confuse users or to make them think about something deep, too. The original Philosoraptor was just a design for a T-shirt, which grew into the most thoughtful Advice Dog variation.

Being one of the most iconic internet memes, it started gaining popularity in June 2008, reaching its peak in January 2012.

10. Famous Meme Characters – Scumbag Steve

This meme is a picture of a “cool” kid blocking a hallway. It always has a text overlay that centers around drug use, partying, drinking, and unethical actions. It originated from the aforecited picture of a rapper known as “Weezy B.”.

This famous meme faces contender started gaining popularity in January 2011, reaching its peak in February 2011 (quick, huh?). Here’s an example of a Scumbag Steve pic.

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Conclusion

Have you recognized the iconic internet memes and famous meme characters we featured in our collection? What do you think now? Why do internet memes exist and gain such rapid popularity?

If you want to know our standpoint, we guess that, first of all, memes entertain people; they make them smile and raise their mood. That’s why users view them eagerly, without any coercion from anybody’s side. They control the situation and anticipate such content as it’s sent by people they trust.

So, they open the files and follow the links with positive emotions, knowing that now they will see something nice and funny. Besides, sharing a meme costs you next to nothing, so why not? Eventually, it’s a part of your social life.

If you have something interesting to add to this “famous meme characters” blog post, maybe some missed popularity tips or impressive examples of memes usage for attention-grabbing or new amusing memes, we’ll appreciate your feedback in the comment section.

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About The Author of Famous Meme Characters

Wyatt Welch is a freelance copywriter who offers his stories to  TemplateMonster.com when he has something interesting to tell. He is always in good humor when doing things and visiting places. He never parts with his acoustic guitar, which always helps him tune into the inspirational mode.

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