Memes are often thought of as wonky text-and-images, combined for effect, to convey some form of message. But a meme can also be “an idea, behavior, or style ” that spreads from person to person, often carrying a symbolic theme.
Top 5 Memes of 2024
A photo of the famous TikTok Rizz Party posted by Island Entertainment
Honorable Mention: TikTok Rizz Party
Kicking off 2024, the TikTok Rizz Party is an honorable mention on this list. This 17-second video, posted earlier in the year, features a group of teen boys singing Kanye West's “Carnival” at a sweet sixteen party in Staten Island, New York.
The video started with a group of boys simply singing a song, but when a user on TikTok commented, “TikTok Rizz Party,” the video gained a lot of attention. Although this meme was undeniably huge, gaining 57 million views on TikTok and millions of others on different platforms, it was just shy of making it into the top five.
The meme only lasted for around 3 weeks, and when it eventually fizzled out, it was called cringe and irrelevant, and some even hated it.
5. You Are My Sunshine
While this meme was created in 2023, it didn’t start gaining major popularity until early 2024. This meme features the song “You Are My Sunshine” playing over videos or images of LeBron James. This was originally intended to make fun of die-hard LeBron fans but ended up being considered Brain-Rot in 2024.
This meme’s sole purpose is to emphasize the hilarity of how passionate LeBron fans can be with the song saying “You are my sunshine” being what his biggest fans would say about the basketball legend.
However, this is only number five on the list because it was around a year before it gained major popularity, meaning that people didn’t find it as funny at first. Additionally, the meme only lasted for around a month and eventually died down.
However, Saint Stephens students have reported seeing this meme circulating again on their For You Page possibly hinting at a comeback of the NBA Star’s two-year-long meme.
This is the song's music video that became so infamous on social media platforms. (
Credit to KSI )
4. Thick Of It - KSI
With this song being released on October 3rd, 2024 and only having around three months to make it onto this list, some might be surprised that it even made it to the top four. However, this meme deserves the number four spot just because of the number of videos featuring this song.
This song was released by KSI, a well-known content creator, in early October and featured the rapper Trippie Redd. The song is primarily about the backlash KSI had recently been receiving on the internet concerning his collaboration with popular creators Mr. Beast and Logan Paul on the product “Lunchly”. Ironically, the song itself received more backlash than the product itself and was made a meme just because of how bad the lyrics and song were.
With the song lacking any real structure and the production sounding like it was straight out of 2016, it is easy to see why the song received criticism. The song was used on almost every TikTok in October and in any type of TikTok. The reason this meme made it to the number four slot is because of the massive traction it received. The fact that people thought it was a horrible song actually made it more popular and in turn made KSI more popular.
A photo of the Rizzler on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon
3. The Rizzler
With the slang term “Rizz” gaining major popularity in late 2022, the face of the meme wouldn’t gain worldwide popularity until June of 2024. The term “Rizz” is short for Charisma and has to do with attracting women.
The Rizzler’s real name is Christian Joseph and began appearing in videos with the Costco Guys in June of 2024. He gained traction for his fun personality and his witty one-liners. He first became known when his father posted a video of him running around in a black panther costume.
The title “ Rizzler ” comes from the fact that he can make a funny face which qualifies as rizz. He quickly became a household name in the world of social media appearing on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon as a guest with AJ and Big Justice of Costco Guys fame.
AJ on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon
2. The Costco Guys
This meme began at the start of 2024 when the father-son duo AJ and Big Justice posted a video to TikTok in which they were in Costco saying “We’re Costco guys, of course, we had to try the new double chunk chocolate cookie!” This video received 20 million views and 2 million likes, making it an instant hit.
Later on, the Costco Guys would become good friends with the Rizzler and, as stated in number three, appeared on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
Later on in the year on July 3rd, their song “We Bring the Boom” was released relating to the “Boom Meter” they use in their videos to show how much they enjoy something. A few months later, the Rizzler offered his vocals to a verse in the song which made the song and meme gain even more popularity.
The photo that started it all shows Ninja with the popular haircut.
1. NInja's Low Taper Fade
To those unaware, Ninja has been in the content creator world for over a decade but recently, his popularity has gone through the roof because of this meme. The meme just features a poorly photoshopped image of the creator with a low taper fade put on top of his head. The picture itself, accompanied by a little jingle, was popular for around a month or two. However, when Ninja himself commented on how massive the meme had become, countless edits of the clip circulated on social media.
The meme itself was so massive that the fact it was massive made another meme. It became less about the idea of Ninja having a low taper fade and more about dragging the meme on as long as possible. Ninja himself was in on this in that whenever he heard or said the word “massive”, he would reply with “You know what else is massive” and then comment about the low taper fades meme.
The sheer magnitude of this meme has lasted for a while starting in late 2023 and carrying into the beginning of 2025, some even thinking it may last for years to come. No one may ever know how long this dragging-on of the meme may last but there is one thing people can be certain of. It is that this meme is the most massive meme of 2024 and deserves the number-one spot on this list.
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