You know, it’s been a decade full of dramatic prairie dogs and Kanye West on the Internets. Some might call them a complete waste of time (okay, most people) but I know for a fact me and Timi love them, so here you go Timi. Here’s a summary of my favourite Internet memes of the decade. =]
2000
The Internet was really just getting on it’s feet at this point, but already it was developing some of the cornerstones of its eventual popularity.
This was the year George Bush first used the term ‘internets’ in a debate in the Bush-Gore battle going on in October of this year. Although the term didn’t pick up popularity in 2004, I know that I’ve used the word about three times today. Well done Bush. Cementing your name in the Internets so early on.
It’s also the year photographer Noah Kalina began his Photo-a-day project on January 11th, and didn’t stop until July 31st 2006. That’s a long time and rightly earned its place in Internet meme history.
This year also fathered the ever-popular quote from an SNL sketch in April of this year. Ever since the sketch was aired, the Internet never got enough cowbell, and the saying has spread ever since.
2001
Not a lot happened in the Internets in 2001, apart from people fretting about another Y2K bug happening again.
Perhaps one of the most influential to happen, although you may not have heard of it, was the mass popularisation of Chin2 – a lip sync version of the song ‘Jung Hwa Ban Jum’ which is a song about Korean cuisine. It was said to pave the way to the more popular lip syncing videos, and to the popularity of the song itself in Korea. One of the first true viral Internet hits.
This was also the year 2Chan – 4Chan’s older brother – was born. I know I’m opening myself to mass DoS attacks for even possibly getting some of their history wrong, but it was the first anonymous message board in popular usage. Obviously, this led to other… less favourable shenanigans later on, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Tourist Guy made his appearance in light of the 9/11 terror attacks. The Photoshopped image made its way around the Internet faster than chlamydia in a boarding school. Once it was announced as fake, José Roberto Penteado – the guy in the picture – was Photoshopped himself into other amusing situations. Nothing was beyond him now, be it Independence Day or making George Bush happy.
2002
Things were beginning to kick off about now. People were beginning to find out the wonders of this thing called ‘the Internet’ and found out exactly what that box on their computer that made strange noises actually did.
Ahh, right in there with a classic. Everyone knows It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time, or must have seen the lovely dancing banana somewhere round the Internet. The original Flash animation of the emoticon was made by Ryan Gancenia Etrata and Kevin Flynn and posted on the website offtopic.com, but found most popularity when carted over to Newgrounds. I remember watching this as much as I did The Hampster Dance, but they were a good four years apart.
2002 was also the year you started playing The Game – Y’know, the one you just lost? It was started by Paul Taylor, who you may know as ‘theaardvark’ from a blog post I did a while back. He was the first person to link to my blog who was outside people I knew, so I thank him for that (and apologise for calling him a ‘weird fellow’. 
). Anyway, I only caught onto it a good six years later, but then it was born on t’internet. It’s actually dated back to 1977, but let’s not go there.
The first Internet impression of the iconic Every Time You Masturbate… image featuring Domo was posted on Fark. The line comes from a card made in the 90s, but was made popular by the Fark website. It’s been said that the picture was the sole reason Domo came into Western culture and even onto channels such as Nickelodeon.
One of my favourite old-school memes of yesteryear, which you might not know of, was Gellieman and a song about a girl called Aicha written originally by Jean-Jacques Goldman. It just made me laugh how… 90s it was, even then. It really only became popular in late 2003 thanks to AlbinoBlacksheep.
2003
2003 saw the year of Badger Badger Badger. Even without telling you that, chances are you’d know that from the picture. This is arguably what made Jonti Picking – the guy behind Weebl’s Stuff – popular. This meme eventually made Picking popular with MTV Europe and won him a People’s Choice award for Weebl and Bob. It was rated one of the top five Internet fads of all time by the PC World website.
This was also the year the whole Pirates vs. Ninjas thing started. Robert Hamburger decided to post the script to ‘The Ultimate Battle’ on his website, where ninjas would often fight against pirates. Obviously, pirate fans didn’t really like it and set their own scripts to make sure the pirates won. To this day, it still splits the people. Pirate or ninja – which one are you?
The Internet phenomenon of flash mobbing was also accredited to this year. The crazy stunts were often formulated by online communities going around and doing strange stuff like freezing to the spot for five minutes, or asking for non-existent books in a bookstore. The most famous group is the Improv Everywhere group, who still operate in and around New York until this very day.
2004
The Numa Numa guy quite possibly wins the crown for "Most Memorable Meme of the Decade". He is – undoubtedly – the king of the Internet. When his lip-sync of the O-Zone song "Dragostea din Tei" hit Newgrounds, he hit the hearts of millions around the world. He’s even mentioned in my university essays, he’s that popular. If I can get a 2:1 thanks to Gary Brolsma, he’s alright in my books. In September 2006, he released a follow-up video called New Numa, then Crazy Loop and he even did another called Numa 4 sponsored by American insurance-company Geico.
The Llama Song was perhaps the most notoriously random things to come out of the Internet in this year. While it’s origins are sketchy, what we do know is that it’s still loved to date. One possible theory links ‘llama’ to ‘lamer’ (as in a ‘noob’) and they are taking the mick out of their actions. Or, my personal favourite, it’s just a load of random piled into a Flash file.
Equally as memorable (and has had a recent revival, if I remember correctly) is the Kitty Cat Dance posted on a site called G-Shack in March of this year. A high school student called Steve Ibsen took pictures of his cat Kayla stretching before he headed off to school one day. After coming back and looking at the photos, he saw she looked like she was dancing. Genius.
This was the year the Fat Kid Dancing came into popular culture thanks to Ebaumsworld. The looped clip is a cut from Maury – a chat-show – broadcast in 2002. This 5-year old (!) weighed 230lbs at the time the clip was made. During 2005, it was reported she’d got her weight down through diet and exercise. Not that the Internet gave a shit. 
2005
2005 was popular for many forum memes, but one of the more popular video memes – and one you’ve most likely heard of – is the Charlie the Unicorn series. It was made popular thanks to someone stealing it and putting it on YouTube, but the original was posted on Newgrounds in November of this year. Jason Steele of Filmcow annually released unicorn-related movies, and this 2005 offering was the only one that got noticed. Since then, it’s on the up and up, with 3 viral videos in the series.
The only thing better than that was Chuck Norris, and he’s better than everything. Yep, 2005 was the year of the Chuck Norris fact. Its popularity stemmed from the SomethingAwful forums when they were looking for something to replace their now-tiring Vin Diesel fact machine. They voted, and Chuck Norris won (undoubtedly, obviously) thanks to the popularity of Conan O’Brien’s Walker Texas Ranger lever. The meme was said to die when Family Guy caught on to it.
With the start of YouTube in 2005, it wasn’t long until someone realised the potential for it. Well, even though the Where The Hell Is Matt saga all started self-hosted on his site, the popularity came from the new sharing opportunities opened up by YouTube. At the time of his first video, he was only on a break from being a games designer for the studio that brought you Destroy All Humans, but has now spread globally as sponsorships have fired him to far-flung places of the globe.
2006
2006 can be best summed up by an out-of-context clip from the TV show Lazytown claiming it’s fine to pirate music. The original episode was aired in October 2004, but it wasn’t until it was picked up by someone on YTMND, that it became an overnight meme.
The first real piece of success to come from YouTube was The Evolution of Dance which fights for top spot on Most Viewed video with Charlie Bit My Finger. It was the finale to the Judson Laipply show titled "Inspirational Comedy", which is used whenever he was hired as a motivational speaker.
If you’ve ever visited 4Chan in your life, you would’ve heard someone ask ”so i herd u lyk mudkipz?". Yes, this meme started on 4Chan in 2005 and has since become one of its honorary mascots. It’s not known why specifically Mudkips, but I’m sure someone on there will tell you.
Another classic from 2006 is the SNL skit called Dick in a Box, which starred Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg. It’s what rocketed The Lonely Island to fame with other hits such as Jizz In My Pants and I’m On A Boat, which was nominated for an Grammy. It inspired many a Halloween costume this year, and many confused and awkward moments with your parents as they wonder what it’s about.
Of course, one of the hidden gems of 2006 would be YouTube Poop – that is, remixed videos that don’t make any sense are posted on YouTube. ID SAY SHES HOT ON OUR TAIL by SuperYoshi is crowned as the first YouTube Poop video, which was designed solely to annoy and confuse. Since then it’s grown to remix viral videos of today so they make no sense at all.
2007
The undisputed champion of this year was the upload of the Charlie Bit Me video onto YouTube. The channel the video was uploaded to was used primarily so relatives in America could see how the boys were doing in their lonesome home in Buckinghamshire. As soon as CollegeHumor featured their video, views skyrocketed. Despite claims from viewers, the parents of Charlie and Harry have always claimed that it wasn’t staged. They’re still making videos, and appearing on TV shows probably as you read this.
Tay Zonday told us about Chocolate Rain in this year, too. While I’m sure Timi’s more of an expert on this than I am, I’ll attempt to explain about it. This video went viral in 2007, and led to a star appearance at YouTube Live in 2008, and plenty of commercial appearences as companies started to realise the power of viral advertising. Chocolate Rain refers to inherent racism in the world, but many others attribute the song’s background to (surprise, surprise) 4Chan.
Speaking of YouTube fame, Rickrolling would be nowhere without it. The idea behind it being you share the link with someone who assumes it’s something else. Ahah, it’s funny, right? Pete Waterman thought so, when it first started in 2007, but by 2008 he found it the sole reason to back the Digital Britain legislation for tougher punishments on music piracy. It’s been played to mock scientologists and was even sung by the man himself at last year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving parade.
It was also this year that gave rise to Pedobear fame over on 4Chan. It’s believed he rose to popularity through Safety Bear from the original 2Chan, mentioned earlier. Pedobear was set up to mock paedophiles in the normal sense, when they first shot to fame by catching a paedophile and the public got hold of it (and also how the group ‘Anonymous’ shot to fame). Now the irony is that Pedobear acts like a pedophile himself on the 4Chan forums.
It’s also the year Miss Teen South Carolina thought many Americans can’t locate the US on a map because they don’t own one. It became famous because… well… it’s true. Many people don’t own maps in America. Needless to say, she didn’t win.
2008
2008 was a quiet year for Internet memes. The only real notable meme at the time was the Dramatic Chipmunk (who we all know is a Prairie Dog, right?) late 2008-early 2009, despite being uploaded in 2007. It’s a clip from a show called Hello! Morning in Japan which was broadcast in 2001.
The much under-popularised I Hate Sandcastles kid premiered in this year. This relatively unknown child first appeared on sites in Russia and MySpace layout sites. Otherwise, this child has no lovable history. Shame. What an adorable, angry little child.
And to play us out, it’s Bill O’Rielly’s link to end the show. Plenty of people have seen the clip and had no idea who he is (well, at least I didn’t). He’s a… rather opinionated American debate show host, and there’s nothing people like more than seeing some uptight pompous idiot breaking down. He was forced to publically apologise for the clip when it was released, just so his popularity didn’t diminish further.
2009
I have two fingers. I have four fingers. Is this real life? No, it’s only the life of David after his trip to the dentist. This clip was released in 2009 after David had an operation to remove an extra tooth during the summer of 2008. He was very scared of the operation, so his dad filmed a before-and-after sequence for him to make him feel better. It’s been one of the most remixed viral videos of all time which makes us all ask "Is this going to be forever?"
That’s not after Christian Bale rants about Director of Photography Shane Hurlbut on the set of Terminator Salvation. It was captured in 2008, but leaked by TMZ in February of this year. He did apologise, saying he was still in character. Seeing as he’s still speaking American, it’s believable. But let’s just say, it’s done nothing for his career.
That can also be said for Kanye West who hijacked Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the VMAs. Obviously, for anyone to commit such a douche-tastic crime, the Internet got hold of it. They even started mashing it with other viral videos. The relentless Kanye-bashing still goes on today. You’ll see plenty of sites bashing him, even single-serving ones. Again, he apologised, but not before Obama called him a jackass.
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There’s so many memes that could’ve been included in this list, and many I wanted to, but there just isn’t any way you could read them all. Which ones would you like seen added to this list of Memes of the Decade?
But now, to play us out is Sting with a cut-off his new album. Take it away!
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