Top 10: Memes of 2018, Honorable Mention #2: Celebrity full names

In this top 10, our writer breaks down their favourite memes that came out of 2018. Pray for them and their sanity.

I consider this meme a subsection of the category I dub “absurdist Google memes,” where Google search results are photoshopped to hilarious and often nonsensical results.

From these memes, I’ve learned the true names of some of my favourite celebrities: Cardi B is Cardigan Backyardigan; Ice Cube is Icelandic Cubicle; T-Pain is Tylenol Painrelief; and my personal favourite, Lil Pump is Lilliam Pumpernickel.

This meme stands as an honourable mention purely because there isn’t much to it. It’s not really remixable, it doesn’t have a lot of crossover potential with other meme formats. Its core conceit, however, is so fun that this really doesn’t matter much.

What is that conceit? It’s the playfulness of language. Typically, we see language as a tool, something to help us get messages across to others. It serves that singular purpose and that singular purpose only.

But this meme brings to light the morphing, entertaining parts of language. If this meme teaches us anything, it’s that language’s rules can be broken in all sorts of ways, making odd connections where there shouldn’t be, communicating not a purposeful message, but a big ‘ol goof!

This kind of cheeky transgressiveness is emblematic of all absurdist Google memes, and I will celebrate it as often and and as loudly as I can.