Top 10 Memes That Defined 2025-2026 (And How to Use Them)
From the Nihilistic Penguin to Italian Brainrot, these are the memes that took over the internet — and what content creators can learn from each one.
Every few months, the internet crowns a new set of memes that dominate feeds, spark millions of remixes, and seep into mainstream culture. If you're creating content in 2026, understanding why these memes hit is just as important as knowing what they are.
Here are the 10 biggest memes from the past year — and how you can learn from them to make your own content go viral.
1. The Nihilistic Penguin
A clip from Werner Herzog's 2007 documentary Encounters at the End of the World showing a lone penguin walking away from its colony into the Antarctic interior became 2026's first mega-viral meme. Paired with a haunting pipe organ cover of Gigi D'Agostino's "L'Amour Toujours," the clip became a universal symbol for existential dread and the urge to just... walk away from everything.
TikTok user @natur_gamler's edit racked up over 192,000 likes in less than a week. The White House even posted their own version.
Why it worked: Burnout culture is real. This meme gave people a poetic, funny way to express something deeply felt. The combination of somber beauty and absurd humor is peak internet.
Creator takeaway: Nostalgia + existential humor = gold. Don't be afraid to remix old content with new audio — some of the best memes are decades-old clips rediscovered.
2. Just a Chill Guy
Originally created by artist Phillip Banks in October 2023, this illustration of a smirking anthropomorphic dog in a grey sweater and jeans became the internet's default reaction image for staying calm under pressure. The character embodies effortless composure in awkward, stressful, or chaotic situations.
It went mega-viral in late 2024, spawning a meme coin that hit a $580 million market cap, and has stayed relevant well into 2026 as the go-to "I'm unbothered" reaction.
Why it worked: Simple, versatile, and aspirational. Everyone wants to be the chill guy. The minimal art style makes it infinitely remixable.
Creator takeaway: The best reaction images are blank canvases for emotion. Create content with a clear, single emotional note that people can project their own situations onto.
3. Holy F***ing Airball
Originating from a high school basketball game where students screamed "HOOOOLY AIRBALLLLL" after a missed shot, this became a massive TikTok trend in mid-2025. Set to "Soul Survivor" by Jeezy, creators share stories about themselves or someone else completely misreading a situation.
The format is simple: state a misconception someone had, then reveal the truth. The basketball imagery — including a famous edit of someone shooting at Earth from the moon — perfectly captures the idea of missing by a cosmic margin.
Why it worked: Storytime + a catchy phrase + a perfect audio track. The format is structured enough to be easy to make but flexible enough for infinite variations.
Creator takeaway: Catchphrases drive memes. If you can coin a phrase that captures a universal feeling, you've got a template that writes itself.
4. Italian Brainrot (Bombardiro Crocodilo)
2025's most unhinged trend: AI-generated images of animal-object hybrids narrated by Italian text-to-speech voices with rhyming pseudo-Italian names. Bombardiro Crocodilo (a bomber plane with a crocodile face), Tralalero Tralala (a shark wearing Nike shoes), and Ballerina Cappuccina took over TikTok starting in February 2025.
The first Bombardiro Crocodilo video by @armenjiharhanyan amassed over 5 million plays and 543,000 likes in a month.
Why it worked: Pure absurdist humor meets AI creativity. The rhyming names are inherently catchy and shareable, and the AI-generated visuals are bizarre enough to stop any scroll.
Creator takeaway: Absurdity is a superpower. Don't overthink it — sometimes the most viral content is the stuff that makes zero logical sense but is impossible not to share.
5. "But You Can't Prove It" (Doakes)
Sergeant James Doakes from Dexter, played by Erik King, became the face of suspicion without evidence throughout 2025. The format uses intense reaction shots of Doakes with captions about knowing someone is hiding something but being unable to prove it.
From relationship drama to office gossip to conspiracy theories, this meme became the universal expression for "I know what you did, and I'm watching."
Why it worked: Suspicion is a universal emotion. Everyone has felt this exact feeling, and Doakes' expressions capture it perfectly — intense, determined, slightly unhinged.
Creator takeaway: TV show reaction images have endless shelf life. The key is matching a very specific emotion to a very expressive face. If you can identify an untapped reaction image from existing media, you can birth a whole format.
6. Pepe the King Prawn Storytime
A screenshot of Pepe the King Prawn from The Muppets giving a dead-eyed blank stare became the backdrop for TikTok's wildest confessions. Soundtracked by the choir version of "Like a Prayer" from Deadpool & Wolverine, creators share their most unhinged stories while Pepe stares blankly at the viewer.
Started by TikToker @caitycline21, the format exploded to over 15,400 posts on TikTok.
Why it worked: The contrast between the absurd Muppet face and deeply personal (often chaotic) stories creates an irresistible tension. It's the audio-visual equivalent of "anyway, so that happened."
Creator takeaway: Contrast is comedy. Pair something visually ridiculous with something emotionally real and you create a format people want to participate in.
7. Thinking Monkey (Monkey Philosophy)
A photo of a Barbary macaque at Gibraltar in a contemplative pose — finger to mouth, gazing upward — became the internet's go-to image for shower thoughts and philosophical musings. Originally posted to DeviantArt in 2011, it went viral across TikTok, Instagram, and X in 2024-2025.
The format pairs the monkey's pensive expression with captions ranging from genuinely profound observations to hilariously mundane realizations.
Why it worked: Everyone has random deep thoughts. The monkey's expression is perfectly ambiguous — it could be pondering the meaning of life or wondering what's for lunch. That versatility is meme gold.
Creator takeaway: Relatable internal monologue content performs. Your audience has the same random thoughts — give them an image and a format to express it.
8. Rare Aesthetic Posting
The "rare aesthetic" trend on TikTok and Instagram involves posting hyper-specific, nostalgic scenes as if they're some kind of exclusive lifestyle. The joke is that these "aesthetics" are actually just normal, mundane moments everyone recognizes — riding in the back of your parents' car at night, the specific feeling of a gas station at 2 AM, drinking water from a garden hose.
The 2025 resurgence was driven by TikTok's Photo Mode and soundtracked by "Gorof (Elixir)" by a Somali funk band.
Why it worked: It's nostalgia bait that also satirizes the internet's obsession with labeling everything an "aesthetic." The meta-humor layer makes it smart while the imagery makes it emotional.
Creator takeaway: Nostalgia is one of the most powerful emotions for engagement. Hyper-specific references that feel personal but turn out to be universal always perform well.
9. New Year's Eve Liquor Battle
The format: UFC-style fight posters where you are the fighter and your opponent is a bottle of alcohol. Complete with fake fight stats, weigh-in photos, and December 31st fight dates, these memes perfectly capture the annual internal conflict of celebrating New Year's while knowing your resolutions start at midnight.
The trend dominated social media in December 2025 and January 2026, with people creating increasingly elaborate matchup graphics for their chosen beverage nemesis.
Why it worked: Seasonal + highly visual + universally relatable. Everyone has a New Year's Eve drinking story, and the UFC format adds a layer of dramatic absurdity.
Creator takeaway: Seasonal memes are reliable content plays. Create templates that tie into calendar events and you'll have predictable viral moments year after year.
10. Stranger Things Season 5 Reactions
The final season of Stranger Things didn't just break streaming records — it broke the internet. Every character arc, plot twist, and dramatic moment spawned its own wave of memes. Erica's "girl boss energy" moments, in particular, became a reaction image staple.
Event-driven memes like these follow a predictable pattern: anticipation builds, the content drops, and millions of people share the same experience simultaneously. That shared experience is meme fuel.
Why it worked: Cultural monoculture moments are increasingly rare, making them even more powerful when they happen. Everyone was watching and everyone had opinions.
Creator takeaway: Be ready for cultural events. When a massive show drops, movie premieres, or awards ceremonies happen, have your meme production pipeline ready to go. Speed wins.
What All These Memes Have in Common
Looking at this list, a few patterns jump out:
- Emotional specificity — Every meme nails a very specific feeling (burnout, suspicion, nostalgia, being unbothered)
- Low barrier to participate — Anyone can make their own version without special tools or skills
- Audio matters — Most TikTok-native memes live or die by their soundtrack
- Contrast creates comedy — The Muppet + trauma, the penguin + existential dread, AI animals + Italian opera
- Remix culture rules — The best memes are frameworks, not finished products
Understanding these patterns is the difference between someone who watches memes and someone who makes them. Tools like bakatako can help you create, caption, and format meme content at speed — but the creative instinct to spot what resonates is something you develop by studying what works.
Now stop reading and go make something.