Most Popular Memes Trending on Social Right Now (Updated August)

While it’s important to share product releases, sale reminders and more, memes are an incredibly effective way to gain engagement on platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. 

Not only do they provide fun and fast entertainment for your audience, but they also help develop your brand’s voice, identity and infuse personality into your social profiles. Memes can be an impactful way to engage your community — when done right.  

In this blog, we discuss:

• August 2024 trending memes. 
• Monthly trending memes.
• What are memes?
• How to find trending memes. 
• Should brands share memes? 

With Summer ending and the Olympics in full swing, the Paris 2024 games are providing audiences with a variety of funny memes, whether you work in sports or not.

Silver-Medal Olympic Sharp Shooters

The contrast between South Korea’s Kim Yeji and Turkey’s Yusuf Dikeç took the internet by storm, with creators and meme accounts everywhere posting the silver medalists side-by-side and poking jokes at the juxtaposition between their styles. While Turkey’s Dikeç took a laid-back approach to his Olympic event, Kim’s style leaned futuristic, providing great material for ‘comparison’ memes, like the example below. 

The Muffin Man

Henrik Christiansen might not have won a medal, but he did win over audiences on TikTok with his Olympic food reviews, particularly for the chocolate muffin. This positive reception has spawned memes from Christiansen himself, others in the Olympic Village and more.

Trending Memes: June 2024

As Summer enters our lives, here are trending memes this month, along with the fully-conscious baby, looking for a man in finance trend and more covered in our monthly TikTok trend round-up. 

I Shall Hold My Post

This trend involves using this sound, and either lipsynching to it or simply letting it play in the background. In your TikTok or Reel, describe a situation where you’re standing guard or have a duty to fulfill, from watching kids by the pool or even saving a seat for someone.

Three Tickets To Challengers, Please 

This is a fun meme making the rounds on X and is quite easy to partake in. The trend involves sharing a photo of three people, particularly two men and a woman — bonus points for a trio that feels surprising, fun or a bit different — and sharing it with the caption ‘Three tickets to challengers, please’. If you know, you know.

Here’s what’s making users laugh across the internet this month. 

You Wouldn’t Last an in Hour in the Asylum Where They Raised Me

This trend is making the rounds on X, TikTok and Instagram — on video-based social platforms, this is paired with the Taylor Swift song ‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?’. On platforms like X, simply write the lyrics then post your ‘asylum’, which can be a place, game, activity or anything from your past or present you’d like to share (or poke fun at). 

Met Gala Memes 

Despite being just one night of looks, the Meta Gala is the internet gift that keeps giving all month (and maybe more) — brands should look for opportunities to engage with relevant Met Gala content, or create your Meta Gala laughs on your own social profiles. 

Brain Rot

This simple trend involves using a template with two characters having a conversation — the left, asks a simple question (for brands, this can be something related to your brand or a product you’d like to highlight). The character on the right should reply with something in ‘TikTok language’ — for example. “I love your new outfit!” the character on the right could reply, “It’s giving hot girl summer,” an example of slang originating from the internet.

I’m Looking For

This trend caught on from a girl who sang the words, “I’m looking for a man in finance, trust fund, 6’5’, blue eyes’ while jokingly asking, ‘did I just write the song of the summer?’ From there, DJ’s remixed this into real songs, while the rest of the internet ran with it, using related sounds in their content or creating their own funky versions, like the influencer below who used it to plug going-out outfit recommendations at her link in bio.

Curious which memes are trending memes this April? Here’s what’s trending across social media this month. 

Solar Eclipse

The solar eclipse happened on April 8, 2024 — with that, comes memes, published both before and after the eclipse. This meme pokes fun at people who stared directly at the eclipse, who predicted major events and more. 

Social Media is Fake 

This trend involves using either a carousel or a video, and sharing a selfie with a text overlay that says ‘social media is fake, so here are some things I’m ashamed to admit.’ Next, share a few different frames (in either a video or carousel) with things you’d like to admit — these can be personal, relatable, or even humorous. Some users choose to get vulnerable, while others like to poke fun with an obsession or other quirk they have. This trend is happening across TikTok and Instagram, so feel free to play around with both earnest and comedy content. 

Which One Reminds You Of…

This meme has been making the rounds for awhile now, but is really taking off this month. For this meme, simply upload a chart, carousel or video montage of various animals, characters or even inanimate objects, with a title card that says ‘Which one reminds you of your friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, etc.?’

Trending Memes: Updated March 5,2024 

What memes are making users laugh this March? We’ve rounded up a few of the most popular memes making the rounds. 

Silly Goose

This meme involves using a TikTok or Instagram carousel post to share an image of you and a friend or another duo, and a pair of geese on the next slide that represent the duo. On the first, write ‘you better not act like a silly goose tonight’ to drive the point home.

World’s Best

This meme can be done by nearly anyone, and involves talking about a competition to be the best at something you or your brand does well, but a specific person or even stereotype you believe does it better. In the example below, a nurse pokes fun at her belief that other nurses who wear clogs, baggy scrubs and have pixie cuts are often the best nurses around by saying “me arriving to the world’s best nurse competition but my opponent has on baggy scrubs, a pixie cut, and is wearing clogs.”

Small Mouse, Smaller Violin

This meme is quite similar to the ‘I’m just a girl’ trend — rather than vocalize this, this meme requires you to share a situation posed as a question that you don’t want to do. On the first slide, include a statement or question — the example below says ‘Your car will need an oil change’. On the next slide, include a photo of this big-eyes mouse with a bow and a few images that misinterpret the question or statement on the first slide. In this example, a variety of lip oils and hair oil are included to illustrate the ‘oil’ you’re most familiar with.  

All That Work 

To do this meme, simply use text to describe something that you spent a lot of time or work on, that wasn’t necessarily ‘worth it’. Use the ‘all that work and what did it get me’ audio to drive the point home.

Do memes and jokes connect with your audience? Here are the memes trending this February.

Rat Hole 

A rat-shaped hole — yes, a rat-shaped hole — appeared in Chicago, taking the internet by storm. From 3D printing their own version to even proposing by the hole, the hole has attracted thousands of visitors. Users from Chicago and beyond are delighting in this unique sidewalk fixture. Despite being there for about 20-30 years, its recent virality caused someone to fill the hole with plaster — yet the rat hole meme lives on. 

Taylor Swift ft. The Chiefs 

Despite previously featuring Taylor in this list, it’s undeniable that she continues to trend — and be extremely ‘memeable.’ While there’s not one specific joke or punchline, nearly any image of Taylor Swift in the Chief’s box can make an incredible meme if you find the right joke. Don’t overthink it, and use something that resonates with your brand or audience — Betches, for example, used multiple photos of Taylor whispering to make a simple joke about gossiping with friends. 

All Things Pookie

With Valentine’s Day nearly upon us, the Pookie trend will no doubt continue — while using the TikTok audio to lipsynch and act out Jett and Bennet’s speaking lines is a great way to use this trend, creators have been incorporating the ‘pookie’ trend into carousel posts and more, using their own jokes to make an impact. One creative way users are doing this trend is to film themselves or share texts asking or convincing their partners to call them ‘Pookie.’

Trending Memes: January 2024 

These memes are trending as we enter 2024.

Golden Globes Memes

With the Golden Globes kicking off the 2024 awards season, celebrity red carpet-moments and reactions from the audience are making their way to our For You Pages, Explore Pages and Twitter feeds. Use images and video from the awards show make relatable jokes and puns, or react to moments from awards shows themselves with a funny quip or GIF. 

I’m Your Uber Driver 

This audio is a great example of a potentially dark moment being transformed into something funny. This trend — where a man forcefully tries to tell someone who hasn’t ordered an Uber that their driver is here — has made its way to TikTok and Instagram, with the original video being used to describe a situation or users reenacting the scenario.

Again!

This trend is present on Instagram and TikTok, and is very simple to replicate. Simply use the trending ‘again’ audio, and lip synch, act out or describe a situation or thing you just can’t stop doing.

So, what are memes, exactly? Memes are often funny copy, images, videos or other online content that usually spread rapidly and are reproduced by other users in the form of jokes or incorporating the original joke or visual in online content.

Why Are They Called Memes, and What Makes a Meme?

Memes earned their name from Richard Dawkins, who used the term in his book 'The Selfish Gene'. The word ‘meme’ is derived from the Greek word ‘mimema’, which means ‘imitated’ — this name fits memes perfectly, as they transcend a joke when they become duplicated, edited and widely shared.

If a meme is something used and widely spread, is a GIF a meme? Not necessarily — GIFs could be derived from a popular meme, but since users can’t edit GIFs for reproduction in the same way they can text and video, GIFs aren’t the exact same as memes. 

Luckily for social marketers, there are many ways to find trending memes — sharing outdated memes (even by 1-2 months) can make your brand or social team appear out of touch or out of the loop. To prevent this, your social media marketing strategy should leave room for agility so your team doesn’t rely on pre-scheduled memes that could become irrelevant quickly. 

To find trending memes, social marketers should:

• Follow a variety of meme accounts. Popular accounts include @daquan and @epicfunnypage. Some of the most popular aggregate meme accounts contain profane names, so take a peek around Instagram and follow a few accounts that share a variety of funny content. 
• Bookmark blogs like this that are regularly updated with round-ups of the latest memes. 
• Utilize Reddit for marketing — Reddit is a trove of funny, humorous content and trending memes that are often shared there before anywhere else. 

Should Brands Share Memes?

Overall, depending on your industry and audience, entertaining content can help drive conversions and engagement — but this isn’t always the case. One way to discover if memes would resonate with your audience include creating buyer personas. Buyer personas involve diving into existing and target audience demographics, researching their likes, dislikes, online habits and more to help inform your content marketing strategy. For example, if you plan to target Gen Z, including memes is likely beneficial for your content mix. Insider Intelligence reports Gen Z is more likely to stay on platforms that embrace memes, illustrated by just 2.4% of Gen Z planning to leave Twitter (or X), compared to 9% of users from other generations.

Why are memes so popular?

Memes are so popular because they’re a form of social entertainment that’s quick and easy to read and digest. Entertaining audiences is paramount to attracting them and engaging on social media, and memes are one of the most common ways to do this, that also let social marketers express their brand’s humor and personality. 

How to make a meme popular?

It can be challenging to make an original meme popular, as the nature of memes are quite organic. 

However, there are some tips you can use to increase your chances of creating popular content: 

• Dive into competitive insights and use custom reporting to discover what memes competitors share and set benchmarks for your own meme performance. 
• Revisit your buyer personas biannually or annually in case the content your target demographic engages with has changed.
• Take time weekly to explore what memes are taking over TikTok and Instagram — even if you don’t incorporate these into your content schedule, it’s helpful to know what type of humor and jokes resonate with a wide range of users. 

What is the most popular meme ever? 

When it comes to determining the most popular meme, this is a little tricky as the platforms and type of memes commonly shared have changed over time.

Some of the most popular memes of all time include: 

• Keep calm. 
• Woman yelling at a cat during dinner. ‍
• Troll-face meme.