19 Most Epic Internet Memes of All Time

This is my latest effort to distract myself from the mountain of crap that is me packing. Below is a list, unordered, of the top 19 greatest memes ever. If you've heard of 5, you're average. If you've heard of 10, you're net-savvy. If you've heard of 15, you're online way too much. If you've heard of all 19, you go on 4-chan and should say something so I know there are other /b/tards out there.

1. Star Wars Kid



You can't have a meme list without mentioning the Star Wars kid. It all started out as a school project back in the 90's, with this kid swinging around a golf club and pretending to be Darth Vader. I should mention that he's a fat ass, which makes the video extra funny. According to Wikipedia, this video is the most popular of all time with an estimated 90 million views (more thanks to YouTube). The kid actually sued his friends in 2003 for a shitload of money, claiming the video had ruined his self-esteem or something like that.

2. All Your Base



This animation is from a bad Japanese-to-English translation from a crappy videogame called Zero Wing that made in like 1989. The animation and making fun of it actually caught on sometime in 2000 or 2001. It's legendary. It's epic. If you haven't seen it, you're automatically disqualified from connecting to the Internet. Go watch it or GTFO, man.

3. Badger Badger Badger




Awesome flash video that that nerd was watching in your 7th grade Word Processing class. That was me. The basic concept? A video with badgers doing calisthenics, mushrooms, and a snake put into legendary song version. Everyone should experience this song long enough to be able to sing it later without a problem.

4. The End of the World Cartoon


A friend and I at one point in life has this cartoon memorized. It's a very simple concept. What would happen if everyone fired missiles at each other? What would the reactions be? Best of all, the cartoon is narrated in a kickass accent. Awesome.

5. Hamster Dance



I think this damn animation page went up in like 1995. Let's check Wikipedia... 1998. Close enough. All this page consisted of was rows upon rows of animated gifs of hamsters dancing to a sped-up version of "Whistle Stop". It was the result of a bet between two sisters to see who could generate the most web traffic. If this won, I hate to see what the other sister made, sheesh. In 2007, Cnet voted this the most popular Internet meme.

6. Numa Numa Video



This video always reminds me of the Star Wars kid. Instead of a golf club lightsaber and a fat kid, we have the song Dragostea din tei and... well, a different fat kid. In the clip, an American named Gary Brolsma lip-syncs to this song. And he does a fairly good job of it too. Isn't it weird what becomes viral on the Net?

7. Chuck Norris Facts

Chuck Norris is a famous marital artist/actor who played Walker on the show Walker, Texas Ranger. I'm sure he appreciates all the attention from his fans on the Internet today, many who have never seen the show. They don't need to. The Chuck Norris Facts are an epic meme that will make you laugh no matter what. Check out the following few examples.

• The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.
• Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
• There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of animals Chuck Norris has allowed to live.
• Chuck Norris is the reason Waldo is hiding.
• When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the Earth down.

8. Line Rider



A toy born in 2006 that sounds simple but requires skill to master. The object: draw a line that a little man on a sled can slide down. If you draw it too steep, he might not make his way up. If you draw it at an impossible anger, he's going to crash and die. There are an incredible number of videos online with complicated stunts and loops all set to music. EPIC, my friends.

9. Giant Enemy Crab

This meme originates from Genji: Days of the Blade at the 2006 Sony E3 press conference. Straight from Wikipedia, which tells the story best:

The producer Bill Ritch claimed that Genji 2's battles were based on "famous battles which actually took place in ancient Japan". The gameplay shown after contained a "giant enemy crab" seemingly indicating that the game had a more fantasy-based premise, rather than history-based. Popular memes from the portion included "You attack its weak point for massive damage" and "Real-time… weapon change" (which was not a large advancement by any means). Memes were also created from Kaz Hirai saying "PS3 means real change" directly before, and the quote "Genji is an action game based on famous battles which actually took place in Ancient Japan"; the quote was ironic because action games based on Japanese history are quite numerous, and obviously no "Giant Enemy Crabs" exist in Japan, ancient or otherwise.

Also included in this section is the infamous shout of "Riiiiiiiidge Racer!" It felt silly to put that as #10 by itself. This whole presentation was just amazing. And by amazing, I mean complete ass.

10. Evolution of Dance



I saw this video maybe two years ago. My goddamn grandmother sent it to me, but for once, it wasn't a completely worthless email. The guy in the video dances in every style you can imagine to different music. Really, really cool.

11. Chocolate Rain



Though only recently posted (April 2007), Chocolate Rain is already a meme in a big way. It's performed by Tay Zonday, and though he looks like he's maybe 10, he's actually 25. I'm warning you- this song will get stuck in your head FOREVER. The remixes are amazing, and I suggest you go out and find one. Not that the original's that "bad". I love how this weirdo leans out from the microphone to breathe in and alerts viewers of this fact, haha.

12. Peanut Butter Jelly Time



Okay, you should all know this video. It came out in early 2000 and made use of the Banana Man (also known as the Dancing Banana). It took the basic animation, which had been used on messageboards for a while already, and set it to music called "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" (repeating the chorus) by the Buckwheat Boyz.

13. Goatse.cx

(I'm totally not showing you this image. I have children reading this blog, for god's sake.)

Perhaps the first shock meme (and slightly more infamous than the zombie car commercial), Goatse.cx was a link posted on forums that was designed to lure innocent, unsuspecting people to a web site with the picture hello.jpg. It's an extremely rude, and funny, image of some guy with an enormously stretched asshole with his junk and tool hanging in plain view. Gorgeous. Goatse.cx was officially taken down sometime in 2004, but it made reemergences later on. Right now, I think the domain's up for sale.

14. Banana Phone


A gruesome, poorly drawn Flash video straight from Ebaum's World that tells the story of 3 roommates driven insane by a Banana Phone song. I definitely have this video memorized. According to Wikipedia, the original song was made in 1994. It has some strange lyrics.

"Cellular, modular, interactive-odular!"

15. Do a barrel roll!

And now starts the shit you may never have heard of before. Originating from Star Fox 64, the phrase "do a barrel roll!" is a popular meme on places like YTMND and 4chan. Often, it's given as advice to problems that require quite a lot of thought.

16. Lol Cats

Involving cat pictures with lowercase badly-spelled captions. Often featured on 4chan on Saturday (known as Caturday- "post some fucking cats!"). All you get are the following examples.

17. Raptor Jesus

The not-quite-serious belief that Jesus was in fact a being with a raptor head and a human body. The phrase "Raptor Jesus went extinct for your sins" is rather common.

From Encyclopedia Dramatica:

There came a day when Raptor Jesus walked with His disciples in a city. They passed many people, and Raptor Jesus would state "They are Anonymous, they are the masses. They are many, and yet they are one. They are quick to judge, and their wrath is terrible." Then Raptor Jesus and His disciples came across a man painting a mural. Raptor Jesus studied the man's work for a time, and then turned to his disciples.

"Animated," he said.

18. Snakes on a Plane

This movie (which rather sucked) became famous online thanks to Internet hype. Much of the initial publicity came from the fact that Samuel Jackson got to say "Enough is enough! I've had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!" And the supposed rumor that Jackson threatened to quit when the producers changed the title from Snakes on a Plane to Pacific Air Flight 121. According to Jackson, "That's the only reason I took the job: I read the title."

19. 300

300 is an epic movie that is supposed to be a colossal retelling of the Battle of Thermapylae. I heard it was good. Before that, I heard the following:

And last, but not least:

I hope you all enjoyed that presentation. It took me about 4 hours to put together (literally) only because I had to watch each video all over again as I was putting it together. Like I hadn't seen them all about a zillion times before. I'm sure there are other memes that I've missed, but those are the biggest ones I could think of. What other memes do you think should be included in this list? Comment away.

Tomorrow I'll try to post a myth for you to bust/argue in favor for. 'Try' is the key word because it's the day before I leave for school and I need to shop, finish packing, see relatives one last time before I leave, and so on and so forth.