Know Your Meme

KYM Review: Most Impactful Fandoms Of 2023

December 11th, 2023 - 1:42 PM EST by Philipp Kachalin

If the late 2010s were an era of meme formats that could be easily defined and felt universally relatable, the early 2020s feel like the time when meme formats have become less distinct and more niche but also have grown more personal and specialized.

One reason for this is powerhouses of the past, such as giant meme subreddits, losing their influence, while another is video formats taking a larger share of the "meme market" from images thanks to TikTok and YouTube Shorts.

But there's also another big driver behind this paradigm shift that we feel deserves a special mention: the rise of the fandom as an online experience, as the type of the fabled internet "village" where oomfies and moots gather together to enjoy their little memes, ships and dramas, to share news and fan art.

Fandoms are places where in-jokes get born every day, some of them too niche to ever leave their respective communities, while others eventually grow massive enough to transcend the boundaries of their fandom and spill into the internet proper, becoming full-blown memes (and usually ending up on this site).

This is the editorial in which we show our appreciation for fandoms that helped shape this year's memescape, some mainstream, some niche, some much more annoying than others, but every single one of them left a meaningful impact on what kind of memes we got to see in 2023.

Pizza Tower

Pizza Tower might have lost the "Best Debut Indie" award at The Game Awards, but it won't be missing on this list of most meme-pactful fandoms of 2023. The high-energy action platformer was released in January 2023 and had already amassed a large fandom before then thanks to early access builds and game demos.

Already a big deal at the time of its debut, Pizza Tower became an internet phenomenon in the blink of an eye thanks to its charming graphics, over-the-top boss battles and NPCs — and, of course, its colorful protagonist, a severely depressed and mentally unstable Italian chef named Peppino who tries to save his failing pizzeria from being completely run out of business.

A spiritual successor to Wario Land with the speed of Sonic the Hedgehog with bright graphics and supercharged gameplay appealed to an audience of very creative folks, who did their best to promote the game with their artworks, memes and over lovingly crafted fan labor.

But wait, there's more! Pizza Tower has got two major meme formats under its belt: The “Special Guest” fan art trend and the notorious Peppino Scream (headphones warning).

The Amazing Digital Circus

If a professional animation studio was tasked with creating a show that would appeal perfectly to the demographic of art Twitter, they could hardly think of an idea better than the artist by the name of Gooseworx managed to with The Amazing Digital Circus (or TADC for short).

A 3D animated dark comedy series (well, just a pilot episode for now), follows Pomni, a quirky neurotic girl who gets trapped in a digital dimension in the company of several unlucky, mostly mentally unstable souls who got trapped in the same place before her. If you've somehow never heard about it before, the pilot episode of The Amazing Digital Circus was released less than two months ago and currently sits at over 170 million views on YouTube — that's just how big it is.

Bragging colorful, memorable characters (besides Pomni, the rabbity thing and dedicated local Tumblr sexyman by the name of Jax deserves a special mention), unusual setting and jokes that manage not to rely neither on pop culture references nor on Marvel-core oneliners, The Amazing Digitals Circus managed to become a bigger thing than even the famed Hazbin Hotel.

Amassing a huge fandom in mere weeks following its release, The Amazing Digital Circus not only dipped its toes into many meme formats that were around at this time but also spawned a neat video caption trend in which Pomni experienced some severe psychological dread.

There's one more big reason why Pomni is so popular, but you'll have to visit another website for that.

Taylor Swift / Swifties

And now a fandom for people who may not be terminally online, but are definitely terminally in love with the biggest pop star of the 2020s … if not the entire 21st century altogether. We're (perhaps obviously) talking about Taylor Swift, whose "Eras" managed to become much more than just your average music tour.

Clocking at about three hours and 15 minutes, Swift's "Eras" shows are a retrospective of Swift's entire career, from her self-titled debut to her latest releases, and, according to critics, a triumphant achievement in the shiny world of showbiz that earned a record $1 billion months ahead of the finish line.

But we are talking about fandoms here, so the thing that interests us the most is how the "Eras" tour managed to trigger previously contained Swifties like sleeper agents, awaking them from their dormant state and signaling them to carry the word of Miss Swift to every corner of the internet.

It's impressive how swiftly the Swift army managed to swarm newsfeeds and social feeds alike, its members emerging seemingly in every social circle. The most notorious example is Taylor Swift fans becoming increasingly interested in American football as the singer entered a relationship with Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce. Here's to the biggest normie fandom of 2023 (or is it?).

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Meme templates redrawn: 1

Some people quipped that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse seemed to disappear at the same time school started, but even if that statement has some truth to it, it's hard to disregard just how impactful this year's sequel to the 2018 Into the Spider-Verse managed to become.

Much like Miles Morales himself, fan art, memes and other content dedicated to the character and his friends and opps have not been restricted to just one "universe," instead venturing into every social media platform there is.

Not counting older memes that Across the Spider-Verse's success have brought back from oblivion, the movie spawned at least nine (!) significant memes of its own, including bangers such as Shocked Miles Morales and Canon Events. The latter has also firmly entered our slang, being used to describe a key event in one's life, whether /jk or /srs (check the full list over here)

Skibidi Toilet

Number of episodes: 79

You knew it it was going to be here, we knew it was going to be here, even Garry from Garry's Mod probably knew it was going to be here. So yeah, Skibidi Toilet, perhaps the most influential animated series that has been shaping the minds of the younger generation (125 million views on the first episode) and a spiritual successor to brain rot classics such as Johny Johny Yes Papa and Baby Shark.

The premise is simple. Take the head of Male Citizen 07 (based on
this human model by the way), place it into a toilet, make it alive and uncanny and get it singing "Skibidi Dop Dop Dop Dop Yes" on repeat. Then add some guys with cameras instead of heads as antagonists. Now have them fight each other over … and over … and over again.

But hey, before anybody screams about how sludge content is melting our brains, remember how we enjoyed Painis Cupcake and other random Garry's Mod creations a mere decade ago? Is there really all that big of a difference between them and these singing toilets your nephew seems to like so much?

Kai Cenat and AMP

Slang words popularized: at least 2

The list of 2023 fandoms that shaped the year would be incomplete without giving a mention to fans of Twitch streamer Kai Cenat. Love it or hate it, fans of the streamer significantly helped to popularize slang such as Rizz, Gyatt and more, but that wasn't even their most notable achievement this year.

When in August 2023 Cenat decided to stage an impromptu giveaway of some PCs and consoles at Union Square Park in New York City, the poorly planned event turned into a whole riot that resulted in police involvement, arrests, injuries, destroyed property and some pics that go hard, leaving an impact on our culture both online and offline.

The Coffin of Andy and Leyley

It was not just The Coffin of Andy and Leyley's fandom that makes it a worthy inclusion on this list, but also, if not more importantly, its anti-fandom, and here's why.

The psychological horror game follows a toxic codependent relationship between cannibalistic siblings Andrew and Ashley, who are trying to escape an abandoned apartment where they've been locked for months. If you thought that "cannibalistic" was what the drama was about, it's most certainly not. It's TCoAaL's incestuous themes that have been getting some gears loudly ground.

While the game is not too explicit in expressing its most taboo themes, its fans have certainly been less restrained, leading to an influx of some brother-on-sister action fan art online.

This, in turn, led people to turn on the game's developer Nemlei with a notorious imageboard even doxxing the creator, and Nemlei subsequently retiring from social media and focusing on the game without interacting with its fandom and anti-fandom alike.

Baldur's Gate

While Dungeons & Dragons-based Baldur's Gate was released back in 1998 and its sequel followed shortly after, there has never quite been a significant and dedicated Baldur's Gate fandom — until now.

Recognized as the best video game of the year multiple times over, Baldur's Gate 3 introduced a massive number of players to more than just RPGs, but to the world of D&D and tabletop gaming as well. Another thing it introduced was a lion's share of this year's supply of waifus and husbandos.

Here we have Astarion, a charming, witty and devilishly attractive High Elf Rogue. Shadowheart, an independent, headstrong and devilishly attractive Half-Elf. Karlach, an even more devilishly attractive barbarian Tiefling. Everyone is apparently attractive in Baldur's Gate, with a varying degree of devilishness to it.

Fan art and hornyposting aside, the Baldur's Gate fandom also brought us some quality memes, from seething about a critical miss and jokes about the notorious "bear scene" to Tumblr posts combined with fitting Baldur's Gate characters and more.

Barbenheimer

Among other names on this list, Barbenheimer stands out for two big reasons. First of all, Barbenheimer evades the normal definition of what a fandom is by starting out as a giant s***post that morphed into an unholy amalgamation of memes, fan art, fan posters, shipping and much more.

Second, being a giant s***post, Barbenheimer has a very real shot at being voted one of the top memes this year (don't forget to cast your vote, by the way).

Being mainstream can be both a blessing and a curse for a fandom, mainly because some people like their fandoms niche and well-gatekept. In the case of Barbie and Oppenheimer's forbidden romance, this hardly applies though, which let Barbenheimer reap all the benefits of being a mainstream meme without suffering any real consequences. It was fun while it lasted!

And Barbenheimer was more than just memes. Gathering your pals and showing up to a double feature of Barbie and Oppenheimer was an essential experience this Summer, and if you missed out on that, well, there have been some feeble attempts at copying the formula with Saw Patrol and Exoswift. Meh.

Five Nights at Freddy's

Last but not least, an old friend. The release of the much-anticipated adaptation of the most iconic mascot horror has reignited the slightly flickering flame of people's love for Five Nights at Freddy's by dousing it with a full canister of gasoline and flinging FNaF back into the center of public's attention.

The movie may have not been a critical success, but the audiences hardly seemed to care for what a bunch of movie nerds had to say about it. Fedy had been made real, and life was good again, after all.

What were the implications of that? Same as always, Five Night at Freddy's meme formats were diligently spread by fans old and new.

Among the most notable ones we had just this year were the ubiquitous Har Har Har Har Har Har sound and Chica Rizz. Doug the Lawyer from the movie got some love and made a TikTok about it, and even FNaF fan games that have nothing to do with Scott Cawthon seem to have meme presence. Freddy fans, this year we eat!

Looking for more of this year's best viral phenomena and memes? Be sure to check out our other 2023 meme roundups below:

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Related Entries 13 total

The Coffin of Andy and Leyley
Taylor Swift's Eras Tour Movie
The Amazing Digital Circus
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce...
Taylor Swift's "The Eras Tour"
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Baldur's Gate 3
Skibidi Toilet
Pizza Tower
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