Skip to main content

Going … going … gone viral: The best new memes this side of the Internet

going gone viral the best new memes this side of internet brides throwing cats
Image used with permission by copyright holder

There are plenty of stand-bys when it comes memes: You can fall back on Overly Attached Girlfriend or Grumpy Cat time and time again – but luckily the Internet continues to find and create new things of beauty for us to latch onto and reuse superfluously until they take on existences of their own. These are some of the best new memes of late that the Internet hive mind has created and launched into (relative) infamy. Enjoy.

Starbucks Drake Hands

Boy works at coffee shop. Girl comes into coffee shop. Boy meets girl and berates girl into giving boy her phone number. Girl – allegedly – does so reluctantly. Boy sends girl incredibly strange video of him listening to Drake and rubbing his face with his hands whilst smirking. Girl does not take kindly to said video, passes it along, entire Internet finds it, mocks it, and the rest is history.

Thus is the story of Starbucks Drake Hands – and the recreations of this sudden meme are at once delightful and horrifying. The lesson in all of this is don’t send cringe-worthy selfie videos that nobody asked you for, because this is what we’ll do with them. 

Brides Throwing Cats

Every once in awhile, a beautiful mystery of a Tumblr comes along – and this week we’ve been blessed with a new one in Brides Throwing Cats. Those horribly cliche photos of ladies in white tossing flowers over their hands are so passe. A little Photoshop can fix that right up.

btc tumblr
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Honestly if this were instituted into actual weddings, I might degrade myself to stand in a coven of women and try to catch a cat. Because I like challenges – and cats. 

Librarian-shaming

The “___”-shaming trend is a bit played out at this point, but some of these confessions are too good to pass up. Sins includes things like stealing an early copy of Happy Potter 7, and owing so much in overdue fines one librarian had to find a new library. Those are some of the more mundane items that will make you feel better about still turning down the corner of a page to mark your place.

Scarlett Johansson Falling Down

Sometimes a completely random thing happens and for some unknown reason, we humans are able to find new hilarious recreations of it. And that thing is Scarlett Johansson falling down. Back in 2012, the actress took a tumble that was captured on camera, and now her clumsiness is living on in new and wild forms. Why is this photo making a reappearance now? The geniuses over at Reddit are once again responsible for this brilliance. Keep up the good work. Please.

Fox News’ Giant iPads

This week Fox News debuted its new, state of the art News Deck – featuring giant iPads. Or tiny, tiny people; it’s hard to tell. Of course the ridiculous set up inspired plenty or mocking that it so, so deserved. They had to know this was coming.

fox news
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Editors' Recommendations

Molly McHugh
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Before coming to Digital Trends, Molly worked as a freelance writer, occasional photographer, and general technical lackey…
Bluesky barrels toward 1 million new sign-ups in a day
Bluesky social media app logo.

Social media app Bluesky has picked nearly a million new users just a day after exiting its invitation-only beta and opening to everyone.

In a post on its main rival -- X (formerly Twitter) -- Bluesky shared a chart showing a sudden boost in usage on the app, which can now be downloaded for free for iPhone and Android devices.

Read more
How to make a GIF from a YouTube video
woman sitting and using laptop

Sometimes, whether you're chatting with friends or posting on social media, words just aren't enough -- you need a GIF to fully convey your feelings. If there's a moment from a YouTube video that you want to snip into a GIF, the good news is that you don't need complex software to so it. There are now a bunch of ways to make a GIF from a YouTube video right in your browser.

If you want to use desktop software like Photoshop to make a GIF, then you'll need to download the YouTube video first before you can start making a GIF. However, if you don't want to go through that bother then there are several ways you can make a GIF right in your browser, without the need to download anything. That's ideal if you're working with a low-specced laptop or on a phone, as all the processing to make the GIF is done in the cloud rather than on your machine. With these options you can make quick and fun GIFs from YouTube videos in just a few minutes.
Use GIFs.com for great customization
Step 1: Find the YouTube video that you want to turn into a GIF (perhaps a NASA archive?) and copy its URL.

Read more
I paid Meta to ‘verify’ me — here’s what actually happened
An Instagram profile on an iPhone.

In the fall of 2023 I decided to do a little experiment in the height of the “blue check” hysteria. Twitter had shifted from verifying accounts based (more or less) on merit or importance and instead would let users pay for a blue checkmark. That obviously went (and still goes) badly. Meanwhile, Meta opened its own verification service earlier in the year, called Meta Verified.

Mostly aimed at “creators,” Meta Verified costs $15 a month and helps you “establish your account authenticity and help[s] your community know it’s the real us with a verified badge." It also gives you “proactive account protection” to help fight impersonation by (in part) requiring you to use two-factor authentication. You’ll also get direct account support “from a real person,” and exclusive features like stickers and stars.

Read more