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"Wait, That's Illegal" is a reaction image meme taken from the Rooster Teeth web series *Red vs. Blue*, featuring the character Church delivering the line. The source material dates back to 2004, but the screenshot didn't take off as a meme format until January 2019, when it blew up on Reddit's r/MemeEconomy and r/dankmemes. It's used to react to anything that seems like it shouldn't be allowed, whether genuinely rule-breaking or just absurd.

"Karen" is a slang term and meme archetype describing an entitled, middle-class white woman known for demanding to speak to the manager, harassing service workers, and weaponizing privilege against people of color[1]. The meme coalesced from multiple internet trends between 2014 and 2018, drawing on Black American internet culture's tradition of satirizing racial hostility through commonplace names[1]. By 2020, "Karen" had become one of the most recognizable character archetypes on the internet, fueled by viral videos of real-world confrontations and the COVID-19 pandemic's mask wars[7].

"So Anyway, I Started Blasting" is a reaction image meme from the TV series *It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia*, based on a scene where Frank Reynolds pulls out two pistols on live television while recounting how he fought off robbers. The quote comes from a 2013 episode but didn't take off as a meme until late September 2019, when it spread rapidly across Reddit and Facebook as a reaction image for situations involving reckless or disproportionate responses.

Surprised Pikachu is a reaction image pulled from a 1997 episode of the Pokémon anime, showing Pikachu with wide eyes and an open mouth in a look of shock. First used as a meme on Tumblr in September 2018 by user popokko (Angela), it became the most-used meme of that year by pairing the image with scenarios where someone is "surprised" by a completely predictable outcome. A WIRED investigation into its viral trajectory raised questions about whether its November 2018 popularity spike was connected to the Detective Pikachu film marketing, though no definitive link was established.

Baby Yoda is the internet's nickname for Grogu, a tiny green alien character from the Disney+ series *The Mandalorian* who looks like an infant version of the iconic Star Wars Jedi Master Yoda. First revealed in the show's premiere on November 12, 2019, the character instantly broke the internet with an avalanche of memes, reaction images, and photoshops that made him one of the biggest memes of the year. Despite Disney officially naming him "The Child" and later revealing his canonical name as Grogu in Season 2, the internet overwhelmingly stuck with "Baby Yoda."

Big Chungus is a meme built around a screenshot of an overweight Bugs Bunny from the 1941 cartoon *Wabbit Twouble*, typically presented as a fake PlayStation 4 game cover. The meme went viral in December 2018 after a GameStop employee shared a story about a customer trying to buy the nonexistent game. It became one of the defining absurdist memes of late 2018 and eventually received official recognition from Warner Bros.

Crying Jordan is a photoshop meme built from a cutout image of Michael Jordan's tearful face during his 2009 Basketball Hall of Fame induction speech. Starting as a niche sports forum joke around 2012, it exploded into one of the internet's most recognizable memes by 2015-2016, used primarily to mock defeated athletes and teams. The meme became so widespread that Jordan himself acknowledged it, President Obama referenced it during a Medal of Freedom ceremony, and it spawned physical merchandise including custom sneakers.

Ugandan Knuckles is a VRChat meme built around a distorted 3D model of Knuckles the Echidna from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Players swarmed virtual lobbies using the avatar while repeating "Do you know de wey?" in a mock African accent, creating one of the most viral and controversial gaming memes of early 2018. The meme sparked a major debate about racial stereotyping in online spaces and drew comparisons to Pepe the Frog's trajectory from harmless joke to co-opted symbol.