KYM Review: Political Memes of 2018

Editor’s Note: This article is part of Know Your Meme’s annual review series looking back at some of the most memorable and popular memes, events and people that defined internet culture in 2018 as we know it.

lmost in spite of ourselves, we made it to the end of 2018. The year that promised to be worse than 2017 lived up to expectations, especially politically, as politicians continued to dive head-first into the world of Internet memes.

The year could be described in one word: "escalation." It's as if the rest of the American political system had been trying to outdo President Trump, after a year of pee tape jokes. What did we get? More conspiracy theories, stranger sex scandals and a 76-year-old man adopting the nickname "Cocaine Mitch."

Trump was outdone, in many ways, by the rest of American politics. For a guy that had a whole list devoted to him last year, he'd be disappointed to know that he only appears once on this year's 10. Maybe it's peak 2018 that a hockey mascot would overtake the president in most-memed orange-hued humanoid creature.

Through it all, the memescape survived 2018 with a series of diverse and deeply weird political memes. These might not be the best or even the most popular, but based on the additions made to Know Your Meme this year, this list provides a roadmap to the year that was, traveling across the internet and both sides of the political spectrum.

Cocaine Mitch

In this volatile and unpredictable era of politics, it's hard to do something that can actually shock and/or surprise people. Then again, most senatorial candidates aren't like West Virginia's own ex-con-turned-politician Don Blankenship. Released in April 2018, Blankenship's now-infamous campaign ad already had a lot going for it: a bad on-camera personality, conspiracy theories and numerous racial slurs. But they were almost all outdone by a toss-away nickname Blankenship gave to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell in the ad's closing moments: "Cocaine Mitch." Referencing a shady controversy regarding cocaine found on a cargo ship owned by the family of McConnell's wife, the nickname struck a hilarious juxtaposition between McConnell's slow southern drawl and the speedy stereotypes of cocaine users. Weirder still, McConnell's team played along, tweeting a photoshopped version of the poster for the cartel-focused television series Narcos with McConnell standing in for Pablo Escobar.

Gritty

Whoever said the left can't meme must not be from Philadelphia. That's right, the hometown of the Fresh Prince lived up to its namesake with Gritty, the amorphous blob of orange fur that not only became the mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers, but also, inexplicably, the mascot for the anti-fascist movement known as Antifa. Looking like a meth-addicted Grimace, Gritty went from a point of cultural confusion to activist icon in mere weeks, appearing on protest signs and political action memes that claimed him for the left. Gritty's unwavering smile and refusal to blink serves as a stark reminder that the fight against fascism must never rest. So join Gritty and ice skate toward a new, Nazi-free day.

Dancing Theresa May

From across the pond comes a versatile meme featuring U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, who, surprisingly, is an accomplished politician a dancer--or whatever you want to call this. Her moves, first captured in August 2018 during a visit to a high school in Cape Town, South Africa, would later be cemented in a casual walk across a stage set to ABBA's "Dancing Queen." Her bizarre, robotic gyrations and stone-faced English smirk didn't really help things as "Dancing Theresa May" went from video remix to image macro series in just a few weeks. Her cabinet members may be dropping like flies, and she may be out of the job in the next few weeks, but Dancing Theresa May will live on in all of our hearts.

Denver Riggleman Bigfoot Erotica Controversy

If there was ever a perfect encapsulation of American politics today, it would have to be Denver Riggleman's Bigfoot Erotica controversy. In July 2018, Democrat Leslie Cockburn shared an image of the cover art for her opponent Denver Riggleman's book The Mating Habits of Bigfoot and Why Women Want Him. Needless to say, the art featured an illustration of Bigfoot's massive penis. The cover art caused quite a stir, leaving to Riggleman to explain that it was all some inside joke. But because this is America, where only the weirdest thrive in politics, Riggleman won his campaign for Virginia's 5th congressional district. Welcome to the House of Representatives, Bigfoot porn guy. You'll fit in nicely.

QAnon

2018 was such a surreal and bizarre year online and in politics that the blending of the two made several unholy alliances. Only in a world where a Bigfoot erotica author be elected to Congress, could something as obviously fake and unfortunately resilient as QAnon thrive. QAnon is an impenetrable conspiracy theory of nonsense, backtracking and awful memes. But it's also a powerful force in Trumpism, giving the theory's followers an easy out whenever something isn't going the president's way. For the uninitiated, the basics of the theory are that President Trump and the man investigating him, special counsel Robert Mueller, are working together to take down a secret cabal of government insiders. Perpetuated by cryptic 4chan messages known as "breadcrumbs" and seeping into campaign rallies, Rosanne's tweets and even the White House, there seems to be no amount of misdeeds or misinformation that the theory won't suck up and spew out to fit its narrative. Q is everywhere and nowhere, which is exactly where the conspiracy needs him.

Donald Trump's "I Hear You" Note

Perhaps nothing exemplified the country's ineffective and unhelpful tactics against gun violence more than this photograph of President Donald Trump's notes taken during a meeting with the young survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Scrawled at the bottom of a list of talking points was the phrase "I hear you." The reminder for empathy is akin to "thoughts and prayers," a whitewashing of actual human lives lost in such a tragedy. For the most cynical, the meme served as confirmation of the meaningless words politicians say instead of taking action. "I Hear You" served as one of the resentful and saddest memes of the year, highlighting how little has been done to protect the American people, especially children, from gun violence, and perhaps, how little the people in charge actually want to do.

The Letter N

Internet Censorship in China has been steadily under attack as the world around the country grows ever more connected. That hasn't stopped the People's Republic from strengthening its Great Firewall by blocking everything, from the Big Yellow Duck to Winnie the Pooh. But in February 2018, the country went one step further by briefly adding the letter "N" to a list of banned terms. The murderer's row of banned terms included "incapable ruler," "I oppose," and the words "shameless" and "disagree." "N" didn't last on the banned list long and was returned to the alphabet shortly after the controversy went viral. Most are still unclear as to why the letter "N" was banned; however, some have speculated that the letter N is a signifier for an "unknown quantity," which could be seen as a reference to Xi Jinping's unknown amount of presidential terms.

Maybe Beto Can't Debate Ted Cruz Because

Ted Cruz might have fended off Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke in the 2018 midterm elections, but it wasn't because of his social media game. The incumbent Texas senator has had a long-standing feud with the internet, who has labeled him everything from the Zodiac Killer to Kevin from The Office. Things didn't get much better during the midterms when he tried to mock O'Rourke for being in a rock band in his 20s. It's as if Ted Cruz went out of his way to appear uncool. Shortly after the Texas GOP tweeted out its infamous "Maybe Beto can't debate Ted Cruz because he already had plans…" tweet, the internet leaped into action, mocking Cruz's appearance, attitude, voting record and general disposition. Ted Cruz regularly has trouble operating and navigating the Internet, so the whole thing was kind of unsurprising.

Scientist Ivanka Trump

On the other end of the spectrum, Scientist Ivanka Trump didn't necessarily rock the foundations of the Internet, but it did provide Trump's detractors with some reprieve from the harrowing headlines of the year. Ivanka, Trump's full-time daughter and White House counsel, playacting as a scientist, while working for such a vehemently anti-science administration, was surely enough to plaster a smile on liberal memers throughout the Internet. Ivanka posting this image as if anyone would be impressed only served to highlight her detractors' belief that the administration puts photo-ops over actual work. Memers agreed, appropriating the photograph for photoshops, image macros and reaction images.

The Gorilla Channel

2018 started with Fire and Fury, the unbridled exposé into the Trump White House. The controversy surrounding Michael Wolff's book was massive, sucking up all the air in the room in January 2018. One Fire and Fury-related meme clearly pinpointed a problem within American anti-Trumpism: Its propensity to believe anything. The Gorilla Channel, a mock excerpt from the book, written by frequent memer and Milkshake Duck-creator @pixelatedboat, painted Trump as an agitated baby, demanding to see his "gorilla channel," and Twitter ate it up. As a stand-in for every menial and banal Trump controversy, "The Gorilla Channel" deflated the occasional revelations of Wolff's book with an absurd premise that American liberals, always on the lookout for confirmation of Trump's incompetence, would be all-too-eager to eat up, and, sadly, they did.