KYM Review: The Top 10 Memes Of 2022

The year will be over soon, but before 2023 blesses us with its first gifts of memes, why don't we take a final look back at what kept us smiling in 2022? You guessed it: It's time for our annual "Meme of the Year" announcement!

Whether you voted for your favorite memes this year or decided to sit this one out on the sidelines, take a look at what our best judges (you!) have selected as the most creative, funny, entertaining, viral and downright best meme formats of 2022.

Don’t forget to check out our other 2022 meme and internet roundups under the Meme Review section for more of 2022’s best internet happenings, as well as the KYM staff’s favorite memes of the year.

Honorable Mentions:

Before we delve into our top 10 for the year, let's give a moment of our time to memes that were this close to making it. Homophobic Dog Whitney Chewston cast some judgmental looks upon the LGBTQ+ community (all was in good humor, including with her two owners), Ohio was more of a menace than ever before, Tumblr had a bit of a comeback and fabricated an entire fandom around the made-up gangster movie Goncharov, Dark Brandon made Joe Biden metal af, Roblox Baller was ballin left and right, Blue Lobster invaded every single video on the internet, Among Us Art Tutorials taught us that everything be deconstructed into little amoguses, Cbat, one Redditot's go-to sex music, was … terrible (but memes were great), Raiden Punching Armstrong 20 times per second (he's got nanomachines, son), and finally, going Goblin Mode was surprisingly relatable and even selected as Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year.

And now opening our top 10 is …

10. Will Smith Slapping Chris Rock

Votes: (2.2%)

What will people remember when asked about the 2022 Oscars? Will it be the pictures that won, the actors who triumphed, the Hollywood crowd and the dresses? No, instead, it will be the moment when Will Smith walked onto the stage and slapped the heck out of Chris Rock after he cracked a joke about his wife. Jokes, redraws, memes, browser games — the slap was the main and only event on the internet when it occurred, until a couple of apologies from Smith and unpressed charges from Rock it wasn't.

The slap that was heard around the world gets tenth place on the poll this year to kick things off.

9. Ambatukam

Votes: (2.2%)

In the recontextualized porn category that never really goes out of fashion (because of the implication), a new king arose this year: Ambatukam Omaygot. The O-face moans of adult film performer Dreamybull sound so exceptionally hilarious that they resemble an Oopsie Woopsie copypasta narration more than anything resembling orgasm sounds. It's no wonder TikTok, and later everyone else, ate up what Mr. Dreamybull was serving, and with this, we are happy to award Ambatukam the ninth place in our ranking.

8. TBH Creature

Votes: (3.1%)

They say a good character can be recognized by its silhouette alone, and we would recognize TBH Creature any time of day or night. The four-legged creature with a large head and round black eyes managed to find Tumblr and Twitter love thanks to its cutesy design and to the instant silent agreement to appoint it the universally accepted mascot of autism. The simple shape guaranteed that TBH fan art and memes would be plentiful and for everyone to enjoy. Thank you for being a better job at getting accepted as a symbol for autism than a puzzle piece and infinity ribbon ever managed, TBH.

7. My Brother in Christ

Votes: (3.5%)

Encapsulating the passive-aggressive politeness of "bless your heart," My Brother In Christ became a breakthrough format of early 2022 for all the right reasons. The phrase is inherently comedic due to its datedness in the very same way words like "tomfoolery" and "rapscallion" are, and it brings infinite potential for mandatory grass-touching to be enforced upon your siblings in Christ. Under layers of irony lies a simple formula: Terrible Subway sandwiches and all other misgivings you've been complaining about? They are 100 percent on you, kind soul.

6. Kid Named Finger

Votes: (4.1%)

"Waltuh."

You just read it in Mike Ehrmantraut's voice, didn't you? It's hard to believe, but two years since Ironic Breaking Bad Memes reached their peak and one year since they reached their peak (again), it appears they have reached their actual peak with a multitude of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul formats, out of which Kid Named Finger is the silliest one yet. Why is Mike Ehrmantraut suddenly a "kid named finger," and what do terrible anime memes and 2019 Reddit have to do with it? So many questions that we actually have answers for, but they are totally too long to fit into this article. Sixth place for Mike the kid.

5. Quandale Dingle

Votes: (6.3%)

In the goofy ahh department, we have the one and only Quandale Dingle — the undisputed king of absurd names and goofy TikTok. Let's try to summarize what made Quandale Dingle into a full-blown phenomenon. The ridiculous name led to some lighthearted shitposting, which led to people looking for a face to put on a name, which led to all sorts of memes from 21st Century Humor to RapTV parodies. Quandale Dingle is truly a man of many talents and rich lore, and we will keep watching his career with great interest.

4. One Piece Is Real

Votes: (8.5%)

Despite common complaints that "the joke is porn" memes are lazy and boring, the joke is porn memes are coming back stronger every year. In 2022, in this highly competitive category, no other meme could hold a candle to The One Piece Is Real, which started with, well, cock edits of Whitebeard and several other One Piece characters. The meme climaxed in late August 2022 and provided much hilarity — first through the slideshows set first to "Dark Fantasy," then to the cameo of Patrick Fabian delivering the line, and then to dozens of high-quality redraws. The fourth place! The fourth place is real!

3. No Bitches?

Votes: (10%)

What makes No Bitches such a great meme? Well, for starters, Megamind's perfect expression, inquiring and full of pity but at the same time mercilessness. The sheer flexibility of it – no maidens? no father? no memes? – didn't hurt either. Finally, the straight-to-the-point and poignant delivery — there is simply no coming back from getting hit with it. Odes can be sung to the thousands of creative, out-of-the-box version people came up with, but honestly, even if it never deviated from the original Megamind react pic, it would still be a great meme. A well-deserved third place.

2. Dr. Livesey / Dr. Livesey Walk

Votes: (23.4%)

In 1988, film studio Kievnauchfilm released Treasure Island, widely considered a masterpiece of Soviet animation. Some 30 years later, the film finally got the recognition it deserved, but there is something even better — it got it thanks to memes and thanks to its No. 1 Chad Dr. Livesey in particular. The optimism-radiating, saber-wielding doctor with godlike posture and swagger is impossible not to fall in love with, and his phonk walk became the perfect format to bring out the best both in the character and in the movie as a whole. Video captions? You got it. High-effort fan animations? Yes, please. Dr. Livesey voted the second-best meme of 2022? No questions asked.

1. Morbius Memes

Votes: (36.7%)

Morbius should become a case study for years to come: A movie that everyone expected to flop expectedly flopped not once but twice, nonetheless managing to become the single most important internet culture phenomenon of 2022. It all started with ironic fandom pushing the idea of Morbius Sweep — an idea that people found so funny that over a matter of days the meme snowballed into a massive psyop that gaslighted people into thinking the movie was actually good and that Dr. Morbius really says "it's Morbin time" in the film. Yes, everyone knew it was a meme, and yes, everyone chose to stay on the joke, and yes, it was glorious. We can't wait to see what the "-us" meme of 2023 will be.

Looking for more of this year's best viral phenomena and memes? Be sure to check out our other 2022 meme roundups below:

• The Top 10 Memes Of 2022
• KYM Staff Picks Of 2022
• The Slang of 2022
• Breakthrough Meme Formats Of 2022
• The Year Of AI Generators
• Top Gaming Memes Of 2022
• Wildest Stories Of 2022
• Top Streamer Moments Of 2022
• Top TikToks Of 2022
• Top Lewd Memes Of 2022
• Trolls, Rumors and Hoaxes Of 2022
• Top Exploitables Of 2022
• Top Meme Creators Of 2022
• Top Meme Revivals Of 2022