A lot can be said about 2017, whether it be about the tragedies or presidential jokes. However there is one thing that is certain: there were a shit ton of memes. 

When it’s said that 2017 was a disaster, it can be traced back to the year’s first viral meme. January started off on an unfunny note with “Salt Bae”. There is no actual appeal to this, the only good use of ‘Salt Bae’ comes from the 2018 trend of using emoji hearts to show affection. A better meme from January was the “Trump showing a document that he signed”. Photoshopping words and pictures on his document can be funny, if done correctly. Usually the Tumblr bloggers get a hold of it and eventually destroy it. 

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Spring started off well with the “Italian hands” meme. There wasn’t much room to kill this meme since it was so simple, which is what made it so beautiful. Although, later in May the good meme streak died. This is all due to the fidget spinners. At first this invention was meant to help kids with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder to focus, aide children with sensory-processing issues, and the fidgeting helps kids with autism. Of course, the edgy Instagrammers got wind of this new idea and completely obliterated it. The edgy kids used fidget spinners for tricks and for overcomplicated designs to show how much of a life they don’t have. 
    

When all hope was lost, summer came around with a new set of fresh memes, starting off fairly strong with the “Mocking Spongebob” meme in June. It was a versatile meme that even I am guilty of using at one point or another. This meme was made and ruined by locals, so it eventually become overused. This widely used meme was followed by a meme almost as bad as “Salt Bae”, the Hot Dog Man. To this day, Hot Dog Man still haunts the depths of the internet. There is no way to use this horrible meme without sounding uncultured, so the hype of it never made sense.
    

Not all memes made major lists last year, so to commemorate them, here are some honorable mentions. “The Transcending Chart of Intelligence”, a meme used to show how much more intelligent you can get with a phrase or word. “Inhaling Seagull”, used to show how much passion you have for something. Last, but not least, “Wot in Tarnation”. This meme was for the brightest minds only, since you needed to be Albert Einstein genius to really pull off the meme.
    

The last couple months of 2017 went by in a blur, but the memes were the most memorable of the year. “Disloyal Man” was a great meme because there were so many ways to make it good. “Mans Not Hot” eventually came around and took over the memosphere with its crappy attempt at comedy. It wasn’t even funny, all it did was make the singer rich and famous for nothing. November rolled around with the tweet “Guys literally only want one thing and its fucking disgusting.” This meme was good because the person who tweeted it didn’t go viral, but only the phrase did. Usually when a person who creates a meme gets famous for it, they over produce their own good meme and ruin it. Take the “Damn Daniel” kids, they went on Ellen, for a fucking series of Snapchat videos. To end the year, we got my favorite meme thus far “Kylo Ren”. I don’t understand why it’s so funny, it just is. This one screenshot from The Last Jedi got me to watch the movie (which was really boring to be honest). It really gives you “mom said its my turn on the Xbox” without saying it, which is beautiful. 
    

So yes, there were some bad memes and events in 2017, but when you look at all the good memes, the sins are almost made up for. In this next year, no one will remember the hot dogs and salt baes of memes, but rather they will look back at 2017 and only see the Kylo Rens and Italian Hands. 
Disclaimer: This was all my opinion and if you have any contradictions then please direct them @aactpublishing@Gmail.com