We’re Holding Space For The Best Memes Of 2024

Campbell Puckett is an influencer who’s been posting lifestyle content for years, but she and her husband Jett went mega-viral at the start of 2024 when Jett started using his favorite phrase, “Pookie is looking absolutely fire today” in their OTTDs.

The way he said it. The way the phrase accompanied Campbell’s fun outfits. The whole thing was just perfect, and soon #PookieTok became a thing.

In an interview with Bustle, the couple talked about how the pet name came to be. “We actually can’t remember a time before Pookie,” Jett said. “I’ve been calling her Pookie a hundred times a day for nine years now, and it happened somehow in the first few weeks of our relationship. Just like I do on social media, I call her Pookie almost constantly. I almost never call her Campbell.”

We should have known 2024 would be a meme-able year when it started with an appearance from The Unknown. This creature was part of a Wonka movie-themed pop-up event in Glasgow, Scotland that was advertised as “The Willy Wonka Experience.”

It was meant to be a fun event for kids, but it quickly went viral online thanks to its weird, AI-generated art and scary made-up characters, like the silver-faced Unknown who had a tendency to emerge eerily from behind a mirror.

The Unknown, played by a young girl named Felicia, was quickly shared on TikToks and other posts across the internet — and she’ll forever live on as a 2024 meme.

“I’m looking for a man in finance. Six five. Blue eyes.” This tune quickly became 2024’s theme song in the same way “girl dinner” tune took over in 2023. The sound went viral after creator Megan Boni, aka @girl_on_couch, shared it in April — and it now has nearly 60 million views.

The way Boni says the word “blue eyes” scratched an itch in many people’s brains. It was also funny, because does a person like this even exist? Certainly not on dating apps. The lyrics were soon turned into a song and it’s been echoing in the collective consciousness ever since.

In May, Bailey Wise of Tampa, Florida posed a question to her family. “Who wants to go to Four Seasons Orlando?” Without missing a beat, her daughter raised her hand and said “Meee!” — and everyone on social media collectively gasped. The video was posted on Tiktok by Wise’s sister Stefanie O’Brien, aka @sobrizzle, and it currently has over 30 million views.

The kid was immediately dubbed a “fully conscious baby” because she seemed so aware of the Four Seasons Orlando and all the luxurious experiences that awaited her. In the video’s comments section one person said, “The baby booked the trip.” Another joked, “I think the baby is in charge of the family finances.”

As soon as Charli XCX released her album “Brat” on June 7, summer 2024 was quickly dubbed “brat summer.” Like the album, the theme of the season was lime green, and Charli’s call was to stay out late, wear fun ‘fits, and do whatever you want. Gen Z and millennials were all about the vibe — and Vice President Kamala Harris even embraced the theme during her presidential campaign. She’s so brat.

Who would have thought a pygmy hippopotamus would take the world by storm? Moo Deng, who was born in the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand on July 10, quickly became the internet’s favorite baby girl when everyone got a glimpse of her cute personality.

When she isn’t biting her caregiver’s knee or getting sprayed down with a hose, Moo Deng can often be found lazying around in the water with her mom or struggling away from a bath. Her chaotic antics have been dubbed “Moo Deng core”. Moo Deng is us, and we are all Moo Deng.

The sad hamster is “just a girl” — and that means she doesn’t want to handle stressful situations. On TikTok, a pitiful-sounding violin plays in the background as the sad hamster takes on life’s many challenges, like going to work, speaking in meetings, and changing the oil in her car.

The big, shiny eyes of the hamster show her sadness while her pink bow signifies her innocence. Do your friends want to go out on a Friday night but you’re already comfy in bed? It’s very sad hamster. The meme has even been made into a car bumper sticker, and it’s quite the mood.

In August, creator Jools Lebron, aka @joolieannie, posted a TikTok that essentially changed her life, and everyone else’s, forever. “You see how I do my makeup for work?” she said in the video, which now has over 27 million views. “Very demure. Very mindful.” The cutesy phrase quickly caught on as a fun trend — and within days it seemed like everything was “very demure, very mindful.”

Lebron later joked about being demure while ordering food. “I’m not like you other girls. I don’t go out and eat Wingstop after work. I get a nice salad. Very demure.” You can also be demure while sitting on a plane, when ordering room service, or while going to the club — you name it, and according to Lebron, there’s a way to be cute with it. The joke, of course, is that half the time these things aren’t very “demure” at all.

There are so many uses for the TikTok sound that says, “Do you know you have 30 minutes?” — and that’s what makes it great meme fodder. The phrase comes from Tiffany “New York” Pollard, who said it while on the reality TV show Flavor of Love , which aired for three years starting in 2006. In August, her words were added to suspenseful music, and thus the meme started its journey on TikTok.

It’s perfect for any stressful situation, like when you drink coffee and know you’ll need to find a bathroom STAT, but it can also be used ironically. It was posted a lot during Scorpio season, for instance, to hint that it’s only a matter of time before a Scorpio speaks their mind. It’s also super cute for pet videos, like when a cat is demanding their food.

Fall 2024 was the season of Wicked as Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande took to the silver screen as Elphaba and Glinda. During their press tour for the movie, Out Magazine journalist Tracy E. Gilchrist told Erivo and Grande that “people are really taking the lyrics of ‘Defying Gravity’ and really holding space with that and feeling power in that.”

Eviro started to tear up before saying, “I didn’t know that was happening. That’s really powerful. That’s what I wanted.” While it’s sweet to watch the actors enjoy their moment, it’s also difficult for the internet to pass up a chance for a good meme, this time about holding space.

One person joked about Carrie Bradshaw’s musings, saying, “I couldn’t help but wonder… if Big could hold space for the lyrics of Defying Gravity, why couldn’t he hold space for me?”