Memes / Music

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In the right context, any chorus/hook of a song can be a breeding ground for Memetic Mutation. Many examples here and whole Meme articles have been further mutated through Misheard Lyrics. Just do a YouTube search for them, you can't miss 'em.

Just a warning: this page is a bit outdated. YouTube being YouTube, many of these links are broken, private, or removed.

Caramelldansen has its own page — please put entries for those in the Caramelldansen Vid page.

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Musicians with their own pages:

• BTS
• Death Grips
• Drake
• Ghost
• Gorillaz
• Kanye West
• Kendrick Lamar
• LOONA
• Mariya Takeuchi
• Muse
• NCT
• Pink Floyd
• Radiohead
• SiIvaGunner
• Taylor Swift
• TWICE
• Vocaloid

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Other music memes:

• "Trololo" by the late Russian singer Eduard Khil, which later served a similar role to the Rickroll as a viral video from misleading links on the Internet.
• MMMM...whatcha sayyyyyy.....? Mmm...thatcha only meant well...? Well, o'course ya did...^note "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap. The song is often used to overdramatize certain events with humorous results, parodying its use in The O.C..
• "They see me rollin', they hatin'."^note The chorus of Chamillionaire's "Ridin'", which has been humorously applied to other situations, namely the "Luigi Death Stare" meme from Mario Kart 8.
• The bridge to "Shine" by Collective Soul, chugging guitar riff followed by Ed Roland abruptly shouting "Yeah!" ^note It's almost customary for fans to shout "Yeah!" at this part as well, and as shown in videos like this, it's also a meme to replace the "Yeah!" with another sound effect.
• "You spin me right round, baby right round like a record, baby right round round round.^note This line from Dead or Alive's hit single "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" started in a harmless YTMND meme, but took a very NSFW turn and gained its notoriety with the Meatspin meme. Nowadays, it's mainly played over clips of something spinning around.
• Gunter glieben glauchen globen! ^note The utterly nonsensical counting-in at the start of Def Leppard's "Rock Of Ages", done because the engineer was bored with "One, two, three, four"; it's appeared on numerous other songs since, most notably "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)".
• "Requiem For A Tower". Also known as "Prince Negaafella - Introduction" or simply as the "End of the World" song. This music is often played during compilations detailing apocalyptic, potentially human-civilization-ending events.
• The Insane Clown Posse's "Miracles", with such charms as "Fucking magnets, how do they work?" and "There's magic everywhere in this bitch".^note The song has gained the band an even more unsightly reputation due to its dismissal of science in favor of "miracles". At best it's seen as a comedy.
• Lost Horizon's "Highlander (The One)" woah-oh-oh-ah-ah-ah-aaaa-ha-ah-ah-ah ^note  Known for being an insanely over the top metal scream that can melt faces. Also, "face melter" is its second name.
• Loituma's cover of the Finnish folk song Ievan Polkka. It got combined with a gif of a scene from Bleach which resulted in the Leek Spin or Loituma Girl meme.
• Neutral Milk Hotel, In The Aeroplane Over the Sea^note Rather than one specific song, the entire album is considered a meme among certain circles, partly due to its popularity on 4chan's /mu/ message board and partly due to Jeff Mangum's strange singing voice. He usually sings at the higher end of his register and rather loudly, which puts a lot of strain on his voice, making him sound out of key, even though he's usually hitting notes.
  • "I LOVE YOU JESUS CHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIST!" ^ExplanationAn infamous line from "King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 2", which is frequently quoted, especially on /mu/, for its hammy delivery, for being the first lyrics sung during that part, and to some, its Narm.
  • "SEMEN STAINS THE MOUNTAINTOPS!"^note Unintentionally funny lyrics from "Communist Daughter" when taken out of context, especially given the way the former is sung.
    • "Prepare your mountaintops" ^note A crossover between the previous line and the "prepare your anus" image macros.
  • The cover art◊^note The cover art is the most frequently posted image on /mu/; many threads will use it as an image despite the post having nothing to do with the album and it is frequently ironically posted in threads about entirely different genres. There are also many parodies of the cover art, usually combining it with the cover of another "/mu/core" album.
    • "It's a potato." ^note Whether the woman in the picture's head is a drum or potato is debated. Word of God claims it's a drum.
• Napalm Death's "You Suffer".^note This "song" has gained popularity on YouTube and elsewhere for being literally the shortest song ever made.
• Paul McCartney's Temporary Secretary. Due to the song's weirdness, it has become a recurring joke among Beatles fans. Some of these fans even started liking the song unironically.
• Bill Conti, "Gonna Fly Now". No, it's not called "That Rocky Song". ^note Often played over training montages as a homage to its origin, Rocky (1976).
• South Korean pop star PSY is best known for his 2012 song "Gangnam Style", which is still one of the most viewed videos on YouTube ever.
  • HEYYYYYYYYYYYYY, SEXY LADY! From a line in the song.
  • OPPAN^*Not "oppa", contrary to popular belief. "Oppa" means "brother" (the brother being PSY himself in the song), while "oppan" means "brother is" GANGNAM STYLE!^note The song became a massive hit in 2012, and was, for a while, the most viewed video on YouTube. Memes and parodies popped up everywhere, frequently involving the unique dances from the video.
  • It's been misheard as, among others. "Open Condom Style", "Open Condom Star", "Open Gundam Style", and "Open Gungan Style" (Jar Jar Binks, of course)
  • And then there's the choreography...
  • "Gentleman" produced MOTHER FATHER GENTLEMAN! from the lyrics. A mishearing has this as MOTHERFUCKER GENTLEMAN! Motherfucker is commonly corrupted into "Mother Father" in Korea.
  • The music video to "Daddy" is one are this, as well as the lines "Hey, where'd you get that body from?" and "I got it from my daddy". Like "Gangnam Style", many parodies popped up, though not to the same extent.
• Lynyrd Skynyrd's song "Sweet Home Alabama" is often referenced in online memetic jokes about stereotypes of the Deep South, particularly incest.
  • They also have the most Iconic Song Request of all time, "Free Bird"! Which is a pre-internet meme, with even a memetic response with a middle finger ("here's your free bird!").
    • Guitar Hero 2 uses this song for the Final Boss. "You always knew this would happen. The audience is calling for Free Bird."
    • The original memetic joke/heckle request was The Allman Brothers Band's "Whipping Post", which is even longer than live performances of Free Bird and would use one entire side of an LP. Not that it isn't good. The album the Ur-Example appears on placed on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time at number 49.
    • In Finland the equivalent joke is "Soittakaa Paranoid!" ("Play Paranoid!", requesting the song by Black Sabbath), first originated as a joke by a reporter for a local music magazine, since then spiraled out of control. At least two notable bands have also recorded songs called "Paranoid" to have something to play if someone cracks the joke.
• "Livin' In The Sunlight, Lovin' In The Moonlight" by Tiny Tim is closely associated with Half-Life's G-Man, thanks to popular YTMNDs created with Garry's Mod.
  • It doesn't hurt that it was also used in the very first episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.
• Tommy Tutone, "867-5309/Jenny" ^note  The popularity of the song and the repetition of the number in the chorus led to a rash of people dialing 867-5309 in various area codes.
  • A similar situation occurred in the mid-2000s when rapper Mike Jones decided it was a good idea to put his number (281-330-8004) into all his songs. Fortunately he included the area code, so the only phone that had to be shut off was his own.
• Trinidad Jame$, "All Gold Everything"
  • "Popped a molly, I'm sweatin' — WOO!"^note This line, referring to the side-effects of MDMA/molly/Ecstasy, quickly gained popularity as the best part of a So Bad, It's Good song. The video helped a lot, too.
• "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred produced the "I'm too sexy for my shirt" meme "III'm...too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt, so sexy it huuurts..." which later became "I'm too sexy for my _____" with any object replacing "shirt."
• The musician Samwell became momentarily famous for the Camp Gay song "What What, In The Butt?," which led to more slash/yaoi parodies than could be counted generally consisting of the song overlaid on a particularly Ho Yay laden clip compilation or the like, and which itself even appeared on South Park.
• "Crank That" by Soulja Boy became a memetic ear worm for a fair bit of 2007-08. It also produced a lot of "Crank That" parodies, especially "Kosha Boy", ''Crank Dat Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade" and "Crank Dat Spiderman". Soulja Boy's repeatedly shouting "YOUUUUU" is referenced especially often.
  • FL Studio > Packs > Legacy > Hits > HIT_ 2 / Percs > PERC_Steel Drum_C 5^ExplanationCrank Dat was made entirely with stock samples from FL Studio (said samples were in turn taken from the Roland JV-1080), a digital audio workstation program, and many of those on the SiIvaGunner team and its community often joke about this.
  • Soulja Boy's foray into odd, rambling songs allegedly inspired by anime produced a couple of others:"Bitch I looklike Goku," "Bitch I look like Gohan, smokin' up that marijuana" with a goofy Gohan face, and the song "Anime", consisting of lyrics like "Lookin' like Death Note" has given us "Anime, Annie-May, I'd fuck dat bitch, any day".
• The Next Episode by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg
  • "Smoke Weed Everyday", the last line of the song, is often remixed with various other items. Combined with a .gif of Snoop Dogg dancing in his video for "Drop it Like it's Hot", various weed-themed remixes have appeared.
  • Super Weed Brothers, Attack On Weed, and even a Pac-Man weed parody.
• Lose Yourself by Eminem
  • The lyrics "His palms are sweaty/Knees weak, arms are heavy/There's vomit on his sweater already/Mom's spaghetti" made the song a perfect unintentional parallel to Spaghetti Stories, a meme commonly found on 4chan and similar websites about embarrassing stories of social awkwardness/ineptitude.^note For those wondering, the name comes from one such story where the source of the embarrassment was the spaghetti that the poster was keeping in his pockets (for some unexplained reason) accidentally falling out while he was trying to talk to a cute girl. Since then, "losing/dropping spaghetti" has become a slang term for any kind of socially awkward/embarrassing act. The phrase "Mom's Spaghetti" is also in itself memetic. In context, it refers to someone who is so nervous he vomited the last food he ate onto his clothes. It however sounds funny, and is memorable enough to make it the most recognizable, non-chorus part of the song.
  • Became an Ascended Meme when Eminem opened a takeaway spaghetti restaurant in Detroit, called "Mom's Spaghetti".
• Vaporwave was this to an extent once upon a time, though a lot of it was borne from snark. This song in particular really caught on. Once the genre started getting more attention, it didn't take long for people to start making remixes and joke mashups with it. This has died down as time went on, as vaporwave has grown considerably since then and has begun to be taken more seriously, but as a result, the genre now suffers from Public Medium Ignorance, as many people will still dismiss it as a meme, much to the chagrin of fans and artists.
  • In the same vein, "the aesthetic".^note Essentially, Windows 95 imagery, weird promotional advertising artwork reminiscent of the mid-'80s/early '90s, Roman busts, Gratuitous Japanese characters, and malls. Often used derisively by people who think vaporwave is made and enjoyed by pretentious hipsters to mock them. Usage of the term, be it genuine or ironic, is a good way to annoy some fans.
  • "It's just Diana Ross slowed down."^note Indeed, the above song is comprised of slowed-down loops from Diana Ross' "It's Your Move". This phrase and variations thereof could often be found all over the youtube comments on videos like the above.
• "I Love, I Love, I Love My Wife - But Oh! You Kid!" was "written" by Harry Von Tilzer in 1909.
  • The song immediately became a staple of Vaudeville performers.
  • It soon spawned countless knick-knacks, imitations, parodies, cartoons captioned with the song's hook, and a backlash by both Moral Guardians and people who were just sick of it. The song and phrase turned out to have a long shelf life; H. L. Mencken was complaining about it in 1921, and it's been referenced in works created many years after that. More information.
• "98 PERCENT COMPLETE" became a meme in the X Japan fandom, as a result of Yoshiki Hayashi repeatedly stating that the first new album by X Japan in more than 20 years is "98 percent complete" on Twitter since 2010.
  • Yoshiki himself produced two minor memes related to him via his Twitter: the Fan Community Nickname of "nurses," and many nurse-themed fan creations, and his love for bananas (which even managed to get noticed by Dole to the point that they mailed him several crates of bananas). Before that, there was the "Rice Monster" meme, created from a post he made on his then Myspace blog about a nightmare he'd had of being eaten by a "rice monster" as a result of a special rice diet he was on to get in shape for the band reunion. There's also the meme of him being a vampire.
  • Another related to X Japan is the Heath X Fernandes Cargo Ship, which resulted from Heath seeming to have an orgasm onstage at Lollapalooza 2010 due to the vibrations of his bass.
  • A short-lived meme happened in the '00s, "Lick pens," created by a famous lyrics translations page's attempt to avoid being banned by their ISP or attracting "enlargement" spammers, by removing the "i" from one word in the original lyrics for Stab Me In The Back. This meme is actually a way to tell how long someone's been a fan of the band for real - usually someone who references having heard of the meme has been around since at least 2005, and likely earlier. Unless they just read about it here.
• Tay Zonday, "Chocolate Rain"
  • The whole song.^note It features cryptic lyrics about racism, with the phrase "Chocolate Rain" comprising every other line and music that boils down to the same four-line stanza repeated over...and over...and over... It went viral after being posted to YouTube.
  • ScrewAttack once parodied this in their Shitty-Ass Game of the Year awards to explain just how bad Vampire Rain really was.
    • When nominated for the 360 SAGY: "Vampire Rain...! It's so boring you might kill yourself. Vampire Rain...! It's supposed to be like Splinter Cell. Vampire Rain...! Its load times are downright horrible. Vampire Rain...! No redeeming qualities at all!"
    • Winning the 360 SAGY: "Vampire Rain...! Its slow gameplay is like a bad joke. Vampire Rain...! It received over half of the votes. Chocolate Rain...! The song is not half as bad as the game. Vampire Rain...! Will make you want to sell your 360!"
  • Tay Zonday released a spoof of his own song entitled Cherry Chocolate Rain for a Dr. Pepper ad.
    • I move away from the mic to breathe in.^note A caption that appears in the video. The internet ran with it.
• "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey has gained meme status, especially after The Sopranos' non-ending. You burst out in song in a crowded area and see how many people join. It's rather impressive when it works.
  • In Detroit, the men they hire to play music at sporting events deliberately invoke this trope at every possible opportunity. They'll even mute the loudspeaker volume for the "born and raised in South Detroit" bit (because "South Detroit" does not exist - south of Downtown Detroit there is only Canada), causing many a facepalming from visiting fans and television spectators. It's almost a REQUIREMENT to know the song if you're from the area... or at least that part of it anyways.
  • Doesn't help that "South Detroit" is a nickname for the Canadian city of Windsor (which was very nearly named South Detroit).
  • And then Glee happened, and everybody knows the song.
• The Dancing Baby meme: One of the older memes that have since fallen out of favor, a GIF of a CGI dancing baby set to either The Macarena or Blue Suede's cover of Hooked on a Feeling (the latter inspired by Ally McBeal). In the old days, stuff like that pretty much went around via e-mail or appeared on websites.
• Kick Out the Jams by MC5 has become a phrase in itself, especially with the epithet "kick out the jams, motherfuckers!!".
• Boards of Canada's "Aquarius":
  • "ORANGE." ^ExplanationThis and the next item are sampled from Sesame Street segments, the originals of which are linked. Because of how much they are repeated, fans like to repeat them in the comments sections of videos with the song.
  • "YEEEeeeaahh, that's right..."
  • Sixty-ten... ^ExplanationSome counting is heard toward the end, which eventually turns into random numbers, including this one. Which just so happens to be the name of a previous song.
• The Twelve Days of Christmas: "...and a partridge in a pear tree." ^note Used to cap off a particularly bizarre Long List and lampshade how silly it sounds.
• "Shit's Fucked":
  • Everybody Knows Shit Fuck^ExplanationA short clip of some random man playing on a keyboard while repeating what sounds like "Everybody knows shit fuck!" It turns out the man is Stephen Paul Taylor, a synthpop musician known for his various street performances in Berlin and that the actual line is "Everybody knows shit's fucked!". Nonetheless, SPT's popularity skyrocketed, and he acknowledged the meme on his about page.
• Time Machine Modulus^ExplanationPosted in a /mu/ cringe thread, which typically involve posting videos of poor musicianship, awkward performances, and so on, the video received a lot of replies about how it's actually not bad. Now in /mu/ cringe threads, it is guaranteed to be one of the first few replies, along with people replying to it with posts such as...
  • "Hey this is actually pretty good, not cringe-worthy at all" (and many variants thereof)^ExplanationThe standard reply when it gets posted in a cringe thread, based on replies from when it was initially posted.
• Nickelback^note Pretty much the entire band is a meme at this point:
  • The starting lyrics of the song Photograph became a pretty popular meme in 2015, where the photograph lead singer Chad Kroeger is holding would be changed to something random and the lyrics themselves would be tweaked to represent it.
• Plies' "Ran Off On Da Plug Twice" is known for the rapper doing a running man-style dance while saying the aforementioned lyric. It became viral after football players do this dance when scoring a touchdown.
• "Pimp My Metal" jokes in association with the Within Temptation song "And We Run", which is one of the few Symphonic Metal songs with rap sections, done by Xzibit.
• "The Seventh Element" by Vitas.
  • "Weird Russian Singer,"
  • Chum Drum Bedrum
  • Ahaha, hahaha, hahaha, haaaaaa, blalalala ahaha!^Explanationin reference to the high-pitched vocalization and tongue trill in the chorus of the song. The video was originally posted on the Facebook page of the TV show "The Soup" as a source of quick laughs. Between the sequin space suit and unblinking gaze of the lead singer as his squeaks out the chorus, and the overall surreal atmosphere, there's plenty of joke-worthy material.
• "Elektronik Supersonik", a spin-off from Jetlag Travel Guides, become an entire Fountain of Memes thanks to You No Take Candle lyrics and '80s throwback Stylistic Suck.
• Ghost Town DJ's, "My Boo".
  • "At niiight, I think of yoooouu/I want, to be your laaady babyyyy!" ^ExplanationThe chorus of the song, which became memetic in 2016 after the Running Man Challenge (an Internet challenge where people performed a running-style dance to the song) went viral.
• How could this happen to me...?^ExplanationThe song "Untitled" by Simple Plan is often used to mock Wangst, much like the Linkin Park examples above. Ironically, the song is actually not an example, since it's about accidentally killing someone while drunk driving.
• Thanks to the "Epic Maneuvre" meme on YTMND, "Ghost Love Score" by Nightwish is the go-to song when dramatic music is needed. Sometimes used to invoke Mundane Made Awesome, by playing the song over a clip of someone doing something completely normal.
• "O Fortuna" is the go-to music to illustrate something sinister.
• "It's Mr. Steal Your Girl". ^ExplanationThe source is "Bottoms Up" by Trey Songz. The song features that line repeated twice at the start, though the line isn't relevant to the rest of the song. The line has since become popular for "crack" Fan Vids and trolling videos.
• In an example some might find in bad taste, Gas Gas Gas, a song used in the Initial D anime, has apparently gained popularity on /pol/ by virtue of associations with a different kind of gas, as a look through the YouTube comments will attest. Which in turn has led to this. Make of it what you will.
• Shout, shout, let it all out! These are the things I can do without, come on! I'm talking to you, come on! ^ExplanationOften times, another word will be placed instead of "things".
• Corona's "The Rhythm of the Night" has two memetic mishearings "Is this the Reebok or the Nike?" (possibly originated from Spanish) and "Jesus Humilha Satanas".
• You Reposted in the Wrong Neighborhood ^note A mashup of Glue70's "Casin" (which in itself is a remix of Kool & the Gang's "Joanna") and Eminem's "Shake That". Usually, Casin is mashed up with other acapella tracks and has time and time again shown that it can be mashed up with anything and still sound good. And in case you're wondering, the title doesn't mean anything.
• "It's So Cold In The D" ^note A Grief Song about a harsh life in Detroit that's known for its awkward low-budget video and arguably So Bad, It's Good tune
• "It's My Life Whatever I Wanna Do" by Vennu Mallesh has spawned several jokes due to its goofy (and often grammatically incorrect) lyrics such as "I am a very good bad boy" and "My neighbor thinks that I am wasting my time/He don't know that he is wasting his time".
• From Brazil, Charlie Brown Jr.'s song "O Coro Vai Come" has many memes out of the Singer Name Drop line "Meu tu não sabe o que aconteceu! Os caras do Charlie Brown invadiram a cidade!" (Man, you don't know what happened! The guys from Charlie Brown have invaded the town!"). Most notably, Trolling by saying the first part only to complete with the song lyrics, using the second part as a response to "you don't know\believe what happened", and of course, the original Charlie Brown being◊ brought along◊.
• Running in the '90s by Max Coveri, of Initial D fame. While it's been a meme since the days of YTMND, it's recently popularity on Tumblr and YouTube, often played over videos of something going at high speed, especially if it's drifting.
  • Eurobeat in general, or rather Eurobeat played on Initial D, has become a meme in itself, with tons of driving and drifting videos using tracks from the anime, most popular being Deja Vu. A good example of this kind of meme can be found here.
• "Shooting Stars" by Bag Raiders is usually featured in scenes where people fly across the space.
• "Whales" by Hail Mary Mallon (rap superduo composed of Aesop Rock and Rob Sonic) has received much attention due to being featured in numerous mashups, most famously one with "Tem Shop" off of the Undertale soundtrack.
• Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)" became this after it was featured in the How It Should Have Ended parody of Inside Out, despite it having alternate lyrics about Bing Bong in that video. This was just one of many usages of that song in popular media from the late 2000s onward (including Victorious, The Goldbergs^note both previously-mentioned shows featured it, or a cover version thereof, in episodes spoofing The Breakfast Club, the film "Don't You..." was written for, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Handmaid's Tale and most notably the "Bellas Finals" medley in ''Pitch Perfect") that caused the song to be put back into frequent rotation on radio stations and led to satellite radio station "80's on 8" making their own parody that airs in-between songs.
  • In a number of these instances, the chorus will chime in when someone is freeze-framed while pumping their fist in the air, as a direct reference to The Breakfast Club. See the aforementioned HISHE video and the end of the Kimmy Schmidt episode "Kimmy Kisses A Boy" for examples.
  • Don't you forget about me or my son ever again.
• Bob Rivers' The Twelve Pains of Christmas is very popular among people who make AMVs. It's hard to not look for a popular animated show or movie and not see an AMV of that song.
  • Ditto for "Hijo De La Luna" by Mecano.
• "The Sound of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel has become the catch-all song for any depressing or despairing moment. Or even just the first line, "Hello, darkness, my old friend..."
• "What's with these homies who be dissin' my boy?" ^note The first line in "Using You" by Mars Argo. It's popular because it comes off as narmy for a preppy white girl with a kiddie voice to sing it. That's not even taking into account that it's the first line of "Buddy Holly" with the gender swapped.
• Anyways, here's "Wonderwall"! ^note "Wonderwall" is the Signature Song of Oasis... Though the meme is less about the band themselves and more about the song frequently being covered by amateur acoustic guitarists.
• The ting goes SKRRRRA!!!^note British comedian Michael Dapaah starred as his grime persona MC Quakez in an episode of the BBC Radio 1Xtra show "Fire In The Booth", where he performed a freestyle rap. The final verse gained particular attention due to Quakez's egregious scatting.
  • The girl said: "Take off your jacket," I said: "Babes, MANS NOT HOT!"^note This is one of the freestyle's closing bars, which has also become memetic in its own right.
• "009 Sound System - Dreamscape"^note A trance song which is often associated with 2007-2010 YouTube videos. There used to be a feature on YouTube where users could replace their video's entire audio track with a song chosen from a pre-determined list. This song was one of them, and it was the first song to show up on that list because of its name. 009 Sound System's other tracks, including With a Spirit, are also popular for this reason.
• SomeBODY once told me the world is gonna roll me...^ExplanationThe opening to the song "All-Star" by Smash Mouth. The song was originally made for Mystery Men (and in fact, even plays a role in the song's music video), but gained popularity after its use in Shrek 1. This lyric is often accompanied by a door swinging open, in reference to Shrek's Dynamic Entry when the song starts.
• What Redbone would sound like if X^ExplanationVarious edits involving the Childish Gambino song. This all started when someone made an audio post where the song was made to sound like it was playing in another room.
• SPOOKY SCARY SKELETONS SEND SHIVERS DOWN YOUR SPINE^ExplanationA children's song written by Andrew Gold in 1996 known for its less-than-ideal rhyming and simple lyrics. After being discovered by the Internet, it has become a gold mine for videos and jokes, especially around the Halloween season. The Living Tombstone's remix of the song has also gained popularity.
• AHHHHHH/Advanced Country^ExplanationAn excerpt from the song "Big Enough" by Kirin J Callinan featuring Alex Cameron, Molly Lewis, and Jimmy Barnes. This part is sung by a translucent screaming Jimmy Barnes singing in the sky over various landscapes for 40 seconds. It quickly spread not only due to how out of place it is in the rest of the song, but how loud and long Barnes' screams were, and thus it has proven to be extremely exploitable, such as in this.
• Haddaway's "What is Love" has a tendency to make its listeners bob their heads. like Chris Kattan (although some are known to get down like Rickie and Delia at the World Happiness Dance instead).
• From siromaru and cranky's "conflict": "zuorhi viyantas was festsu ruor proi"^Explanation"conflict" is infamous for its lyrics that are in a made-up language, which can be read here.
  • ズォールヒーｗｗｗヴィヤーンタースｗｗｗワースｗｗｗフェスツｗｗｗルオルｗｗｗプローイｗｗｗ ユクｗｗｗダルフェｗｗｗスォーイヴォーｗスウェンネｗｗｗヤットゥｗヴｗｗｗヒェンヴィｗネース^ExplanationThe katakana lyrics, except interspersed with the Japanese shorthand for laughter ('w' being derived from warau, or "to laugh"). The idea being that one attempted to sing the song, only to burst into giggle fits trying to do so because of how absurd they sound.
  • "conflict" on every Rhythm Game^Explanation"conflict" is infamous for being crossed over to a very large number of rhythm games, and even has more official appearances than "FLOWER".
• Toto's "Africa" has become very memetic, either due to Nostalgia Filter, the music video, the narmtastic lyrics, or all of the above.
• "Konbini/X Goes to the Convenience Store"^note "Konbini" was a Japanese novelty song by Brief & Trunks about a guy taking a late-night trip to a convenience store. While there, he trolls the clerk by deliberately taking a long time to order some take-out ramen. It inspired a long string of fan-animated parodies remaking the music video for the song with characters from various anime and video games.
• Shadilay went from an '80s italo pop song to becoming the hymn of the Egyptian chaos god Kek, due to the Band and lead singer sharing its name Pepe with another internet meme.
• Despacito 2^ExplanationSuggesting that "Despacito", a 2017 Latin hit by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, would have a sequel. During E3 2018, jokes about intending to unveil Despacito 2 during a press conference were rampant, often alongside similar Sequel Snark jokes (most commonly Skate 4)
• "Broken Promithes Promithes" ^ExplanationIn 3LW's song "No More (Baby I'ma Do Right)", Kiely Williams has a heavy lisp, so she mispronounces words like "promises".
• "What if Stacy’s mom was Jessie’s girl?" (or some variation of the idea)^ExplanationA joke combining two popular songs featuring girl's names; "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne and "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield. Sometimes Tommy Tutone's "867-5309/Jenny" and "Run Around Sue" by Dion also get mentioned.
• "Crab Rave", a song by Irish EDM producer Noisestorm, has gained traction on the Internet by its use in mashups and remixes, and eventually became a byword for celebrating "deaths" (both literal and metaphorical) of people and things who will not be missed. The music video has also received multiple edits, usually adding ironic quotes that don't fit with the song's upbeat nature.
  • Now a videogame is being developed by the same artist, Noisestorm, called Crab Champions. It's about crabs fighting each other with guns. How can a meme go so far?
• Hit or miss, I guess they never miss, huh?^note In mid-2018, Arab-American Soundcloud rap duo ILOVEFRIDAY released "Mia Khalifa", a diss track aimed at the eponymous porn actress. The song hit a massive Colbert Bump through this trope when cosplayer Nyannyancosplay released a lip-sync of the second verse on TikTok, eventually causing more and more parodies and lip-syncs of the song.
• "Am I ever gonna see your face again?" "NO WAY GET FUCKED FUCK OFF!"^note Australian band the Angels' biggest hit, "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again?" always gets this response from crowds in performance, for whatever reason.
• "Baby shark, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo..."^note  A children's song that originally started as an American camp song that became popular after South Korean brand Pinkfong used it in a video that was supposed to be a device for teaching members of the family with sharks. It eventually became a worldwide phenomenon in the form of a dance craze, especially in South-East Asia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The latter two stand out, as this nursery rhyme broke both of their official singles charts in late 2018, respectively peaking at #6 and #39. The Pinkfong version also became the most viewed YouTube video of all time, sitting at nearly 9 billion views. Most likely because it's a music video (which always performs well on the site), and it being accessible from the YouTube Kids app gives it a boost in traffic.
  • "Onara pu-pu-pu-pu, unchi buriburi..." ^note  The Japanese version of the Korean Pinkfong song "The Poop Song" became a popular sound on TikTok after it was used in a video in which a man cosplaying as poop lip-syncs the song.
• Hoes mad (x24)^ExplanationThe (repetitive) hook of "Hoes Mad" by Chicago rapper Famous Dex, where he says the song name 24 times. It is usually quoted as a reaction to people, usually women, being upset about something.
• "Yer done bud. We got the chat logs. You came to meet up with a child huh. So give us a smile for the camera. Creep Catchers!" by K-Blitz. Essentially the theme song written about the Canadian grassroots organizations that have dedicated themselves to busting online pedophiles who arrange a meetup (shades of Dateline To Catch A Predator). The phrase "Yer done bud" is often uttered by one of the "catchers" as the "creep" in question either walks off in shame (knowing that this encounter will be shown on the internet) or is arrested. The song has even shown up in the YouTube videos of organizations that use names other than Creep Catchers, such as P.O.P (Prey on Predators).
• The Best Braai Album In the World... Ever!^ExplanationBraai is a South African form of barbecue. This is a real album, and it's not exclusive to South Africa. Its sheer existence became a meme, with it being a common search on lyrics website Genius.
• Ether by Nas has been used by online personalities to ether (or humiliate) someone online such as in a YouTube video. Tariq Nasheed and Tommy Sotomayor have both used the "Ether" beat in their online insulting rants against callers with opposing views.
• "Darude - Sandstorm".^ExplanationA response to (usually YouTube) comments asking what the name of a song is. Was first asked during a League of Legends broadcast, when it was actually the song. Then someone posted faux lyrics to Pandora radio. THEN someone asked about a "very popular techno song, they play it in clubs!" (a description vague enough to fit pretty much any reasonably popular techno song ever) and based on the flimsiest of descriptions including faux lyrics, it was correctly identified as Sandstorm. At this time the Internet declared that this song had magical powers that allow it to be the correct answer to music questions, so it started being given as the answer to every 'What song is that?" question on YouTube. The Fine Brothers even did a YouTubers React episode on it.
  • An inversion has come up where, if a video actually does feature the song, someone will comment asking what the song is, then add "And don't say Darude - Sandstorm".
    • Song - Name
• IKZO/"俺ら東京さ行ぐだ" ("I'll Go To Tokyo") ^ExplanationA song by enka (Japanese folk pop) artist Yoshi Ikuzō, sung in the Tsugaru dialect and a rather informal style reminiscent of Hip-Hop (to the point that he has retroactively considered it more of a crossover between the genres). In the 2000s, it became Voice Clip Song fodder on Nico Nico Douga (with users referring to them as "IKZO" videos), ranging from a simple mashup of the vocals with a DanceDanceRevolution song, to more elaborate productions such as IKZOLOGIC.
• No S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video is complete without Bandit Radio/Cheeki Breeki. It's a song that can actually be heard playing on some radios scattered around the game. Its upbeat tune goes so much against the overall dark tone of the game that it's a perfect match for any funny video set in the Zone.
• X parties too hard and dies ^ExplanationA meme that opens with an exterior shot of a building, such as Spongebob Squarepants' pineapple house, with flashing lights coming from inside edited in while the Speedycake remix of "Caramelldansen" plays. It then cuts to the inside of the location, with a character passed out on the floor as the music continues to play.
• Vicetone's remix of Tony Igy's Astronomia got a surge of memetic popularity in 2020 as the "Coffin Dance", due to a video of the song being played over a troupe of dancing Ghanaian pallbearers, whose moves synced up surprisingly well with the song. The song's now used for situations of imminent silly/stupid deaths.
  • Now the song has a medieval version.
• "This song sounds like [something awkward]"^note When Earl Sweatshirt released the video for his track "EAST" to promote his then-upcoming EP FEET OF CLAY, the comments section had a field day roasting the bizarre "beat". This snowclone is just one of the many types of comments about it.
  • "This beat was made by The Flying Dutchman"^note The track reminded a lot of people of pirates.
  • "krusty krab type beat"^note In keeping with the pirate theme, people were also reminded of Mr. Krabs and the aforementioned restaurant, due to the music associated with them in the show.
• "Type beat" parodies: a "type beat" is a rap beat made to sound like one or more popular rap artists/producers, e.g. "Future Type Beat" or "Travis Scott x PARTYNEXTDOOR Type Beat". Naturally, their ubiquity led to various parodies, most of them in the form of a trap beat placed on top of a looping sound effect. Behold, "Pencil Sharpener type beat", "Microwave Type Beat", and of course, "mr. krabs walking type beat". Some of these may end up being Ear Worms.
• "WHAT THE FUCK'S UP, DENNY'S!?" ^note A short clip of a fan-shot video of a live performance by Hardcore Punk group Live Without became a meme due to the fact that it took place in the unlikely venue of a Denny's restaurant. As it turns out, the reason they were able to secure a chain restaurant as a venue for a hardcore show was that the restaurant was soon to be closed and demolished; Any property damage that ensued from the inevitable moshpit ultimately wouldn't matter.
• "Tunak tunak tun da da da!"^ExplanationDaler Mehndi's Bhangra Indi-Pop song "Tunak Tunak Tun" achieved meme status before the introduction of YouTube, owing largely to the “Tunak Tunak tun da da da” phrase being sung very fast and incessantly repeated over a video of the portly Daler Mehndi dancing with multiple copies of himself.
• "But if you close your eyes" ^note The chorus of the Bastille song "Pompeii" is used in video edits where something disappears or changes, often to note how otherwise similar the two situations would be.
• Ruler of Everything/"Do You Like How I Walk?"^note It became a meme, starting in late January of 2021, to combine the second verse of "Ruler of Everything" by Tally Hall with various clips of a specific character that fit the lyrics
• Viva La Gamer / I used to roll the dice...^ExplanationA sentence-mixing edit of Coldplay's "Viva La Vida," referencing Sans, Jackie Chan and various memes and crude jokes, that's since been made into numerous lyric videos, usually using related images from franchises such as Sonic the Hedgehog and SpongeBob SquarePants; one of the most popular versions uses photos of YandereDev. TimmyTurnersGrandDad produced an OMORI version during their "100 Sunny" event.
• "Salí con tu mujer". ^Explanation Part of the song "Ella y yo" by Reggaeton singer Don Omar, which became quite memetic in the Spanish-speaking world. It is quite normal to reply with a Flat "What" and continue the song from there.
• "BANANA ASSHOLE"^Explanationmondegreen of Filipino pop song "Banal na Aso, Santong Kabayo". This was taken from subtitles used in a (long-deleted) YouTube video of drag-queen singer Big Mouth performing the song on Filipino's Got Talent.
  • "SUCK ON DA PIE YO...THE COCK NO WALK HOME" [horse whinny] "...SAY YO"^{note/translation}The actual words are "Banal na aso, santong kabayo, natatawa ako [...] sa 'yo"; "Holy dog, saintly horse, I laugh [...] at you". The whinny was exclusive to Big Mouth's performance.
• Hatten är din ^Explanation"The Hat is Yours", a Swedish-made Flash video set to Azar Habib's "Miin Ma Kenti", which was in Arabic. A very early, if not establishing entry in the Animutation community, surrealist Flash videos made around (mostly) English interpretations of Misheard Lyrics of foreign-language songs. The lyric inspiring the title in this case is "Habbaytek", roughly, "I'm in love".
• Wo ai Beijing Tiananmen, Tiananmen shang taiyang sheng... ^{Explanation/translation}You'll be hearing this over and over when playing bootleg SNES game Hong Kong '97. A portion of Chinese propaganda song "Wo ai Beijing Tiananmen"; "I love Beijing Tiananmen, the sun rises above Tiananmen".
• The beginning of the instrumental version of the rapper Capone's 2005 song "Streets Favorite", which features pitch-shifted samples of lyrics from The Shangri-Las' song "Remember (Walking in the Sand)", became famous on TikTok in late 2020, where it accompanies videos of (extreme) misfortune, which stop on a freeze-frame right before a troubling moment as the lyric "Oh, no/Oh, no/Oh, no, no, no, no, no" hits, with zoom-ins on the subject during each piano sting.
• [insert artist] - "Apple Bottom Jeans" ^ExplanationA trend where the lyrics to "Low" by Flo Rida are sung to the instrumental of another song. The trend became popular after the release of a video which set the lyrics of "Low" to Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World".
• The Bloodhound Gang: "Aw shit, here comes Pac-Man!" ^Explanation In the middle of the song "Mope", a spoken word section occurs in which the singers encounter Pac-Man. In 2016, an online video from a decade prior that was an animation set to this sequence was the source of many edits on the Internet.
• "HELIKOPTER, HELIKOPTER... PARA KOFER, PARA KOFER!"^ExplanationThe first few lyrics of Romani-Bosnian singer Fazlija's "Helikopter", released in 2015. A trend that started in October 31st uses these lyrics in videos of someone or something flying away or spinning around rapidly.
• Hit those notes.^ExplanationA trend that started with an edit of Rick Astley's song "Never Gonna Give You Up" entitled "Never Gonna Hit Those Notes", in which the notes of various words in the vocals are edited to be extremely off-key or to sound like the singer is experiencing voice cracks.
• "How to Make Gravy" by Paul Kelly inspired many Australians to proclaim the 21st of December (mentioned as the date in the song) "Gravy Day".
  "Just add flour, salt, a little red wine, don't forget a dollop of tomato sauce for sweetness and that extra tang"
• I am in misery/I save dick by giving it CPR/REESE'S PUFFS REESE'S PUFFS (extended version here) ^explanationA mashup of the choruses of Maroon 5's "Misery," CupcakKe's "CPR", and the Reese's Puffs rap, noted both for being much catchier than it has any right to be and the way "Reese's Puffs" immediately overpowers everything else when it starts. Used as a meme template to classify members of a group as angsty, horny, and weird respectively by linking them to the appropriate song. It's also joked that the mashup represents the three states of modern humans: depression, horniness, and hunger.
• "Yi Jian Mei" by Fei Yu-ching is one of the most memetic songs in mainland China, thanks to this random guy called the "Egg Man" popularizing it by singing the chorus while being surrounded by plum trees covered in snow, befitting the main theme of the song itself.
  • And then we go to the main star of this meme: the chorus itself. "XUE HUA PIAO PIAO, BEI FENG XIAO XIAO..."^{Explanation/translation}The song was actually translated to "the snow falls and the north wind blows". The reason why it became so memetic is that it was misheard as "I give up already". (though some people say that the reason it becomes this is because of the catchy lyrics, helping the fact that the only line that people remember in the song is just the first four lines of the chorus, including the one mentioned before.) This particular verse has been so popular that by the time Yu-ching retires from his career, there are so many remixes of this song popped up rapidly.
• MGMT's "Little Dark Age" had been used as a background to an entity in decline (typically a country or empire), accompanied by a collage of images from more glorious times. Sometimes even accompanied by subtitles consisting of "How does it feel being in a dying _____?" "Euphoric".
• "Banana Tiger"^ExplanationA mondegreen from folk band Percival's song "Lazare" (remixed as "Steel for Humans" in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt) that ascended into the band's merch, with mugs and stickers depicting a cartoon tiger with a banana peel on its head.
• Imagine Dragons, "Demons":
  • "This is my kingdom come"^ExplanationThe pre-chorus line of the song reached meme status due to a video of it played over a Gaviscon commercial that depicts firemen spraying the antacid, which happens to be depicted as a surge of white fluids. Naturally the internet had a field day with this, creating a remix to play over scenes depicting sprays of white fluid to evoke semen imagery.
• Naeil naege yeollineun geon big, big stage-*BONK!*^ExplainationThis is actually the chorus snippet of Kpop group IVE's music, titled "I AM" from their first full album "I've IVE". One of the scene features the iconic scene of one of their members, Wonyoung, jumping out of the plane. The song became viral overtime, until someone managed to do an edit of Wonyoung herself jumping on the plane...and then suddenly crashes on the wing, complete with a VERY HARD thud (OUCH!), before it rapidly cuts to Yujin looking at the viewer with her suitcase. Ever since the aforementioned edit came out, many fans started to do the flop (similar to the edited clip) to the song's choreography, and some went as far as putting the audio with random people (especially to other K-pop idols getting hit by something or falling down) involved in humorous incidents, or people singing to the song altogether, complete with them saying the thud sound effect out loud! Also, good luck trying to not remember the edit when you saw the plane-jumping scene, because many people admitted that they couldn't hear the song or see the said scene in the same way ever again due to seeing that one edit.
• Axel in Harlem / I PUT THE NEW FORGIS ON THE JEEP^{Explanation (Mildly NSFW)}The very first lyric of "Ballin'" by DJ Mustard and Roddy Ricch, which ended up becoming associated in 2023 with an animation from gay pornographic animation company Animan Studios, wherein the titual Axel struts down the streets of Harlem with other men gazing at his pronounced, jiggling ass. From this, edits were made of other scenes in media surrounding Male Gaze to include "Ballin'" alongside them.
  • The acapella of "Ballin'" is also often used as a go-to test by those who make Artificial Intelligence voice models to demonstrate how a model will sound, among other audio sources like Low Tier God's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate rant.
• The Beatles:
  • Number nine... number nine... number nine...^ExplanationThe Spoken Word chorus of "Revolution 9," easily the most bizarre track on The White Album. This is commonly referenced in situations involving the number 9, or repeated due to the track's strange nature.
  • Turn me on, dead man ^ExplanationWhat "number nine" sounds like when played backward. This was one of the pieces of evidence advanced to support the "Paul is Dead" conspiracy theory.
• EEEEEEEE!!!!! ^ExplanationAlso known as "Rush E", and nicknamed "World's Hardest Song", this song created by Sheet Music Boss consists of a seemingly innocent piano song......until it starts to use unreachable notes as the song speeds up, making it almost impossible to play the entire segment of that! Not to mention the edited Markiplier-esque man's face (actually Lord Farquaad from Shrek) appearing out of nowhere, accompanied with a really loud "E" as the first part of the song ends and towards the ending. (hence its title, along with the fact that the song starts with an E note) Ever since this came out, many people have attempted to play Rush E on the piano, while several people made animations dedicated to the song (such as "Rush Eevolutions" and a spoon playing the said piano song), and there's one guy who actually played Rush E ON A CALCULATOR, and also in a child's piano, which is already a Moment of Awesome itself. The 8-Bit Drummer had covered three versions of the song, in which he played the drums to the beat of the first one, the sequel, the previously mentioned "Rush Eevolutions", and him blindfolded. Also, some people also go as far as making edits of themselves "playing" Rush E, but goes insane as they played the second half of the song, such as this,this, this and this! It has been very popular since it was released until now, in which when the original creator decided to release the sequel, they opened the intro with a montage of nearly every single content creator who attempted or played Rush E as a tribute to the legendary, yet memetic piano song.
• She sells sea shells on the seashore, but the value of these shells will fall^ExplanationFrom the second verse of Ren's "Money Game Part 2", in which the classic tongue-twister "she sells seashells on the seashore" is used to lead into a dissection of business economics. It initially gained traction from a video of the rap being placed over a clip of Luigi talking to another Luigi from Super Mario Galaxy before other users started making their own versions, playing the rap over other things and characters.
• Eric Prydz - "Call on Me" ^note This 2004 single by Eric Prydz became an instant hit for its catchy yet repetitive chorus sampled from Steve Winwood's "Valerie", leading to its usage in many videos alongside the memes below.
  • Flashing images/[x] doesn't change facial expressions ^ExplanationOne of the most popular uses of the song, especially in the YTMND days, was to play it over a series of rapidly flashing images. A notable variant that gained a life of its own is the "doesn't change facial expressions" trend, where the song plays over flashing images of a real person or fictional character(s) that seemingly feature the same facial expression in all the photos.
  • The infamous music video, featuring suggestive and Fanservice-y women doing aerobics, has also been subject to jokes, such as claiming the song is better listened to on YouTube, or that it's best to listen to it "in HD" or "with your eyes open".
• Chipi Chipi Chapa Chapa^ExplanationThe Ear Worm chorus of "Dubidubidu", a 2003 song by the then-10-year-old Chilean singer Christell; the song was originally popularized in October 2023 by an animation stemming from the Boykisser meme. In December 2023, a TikTok video showing a cat bobbing its head to the song popularized it outside of the context of Boykisser, and also led it to become a viral song in several Asian countries.
• Interior crocodile alligator / I drive a Chevrolet movie theater^ExplanationA memorably bizarre pair of lines in the Boastful Rap "S.L.A.B. Freestyle" by Chip Tha Ripper.
• Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons: Walk like a man, sing like a girl^ExplanationA common snark regarding the falsetto vocals used in songs such as "Cherie", "Big Girls Don't Cry", and, of course, "Walk Like a Man."
• Everyone Knows That/Ulterior Motives ^Explanation A video of a lost media song blew up in 2023, often associated with the boombox shown in the original video. In 2024, the original source was found to be from a porn film from the 1980s called Angels of Passion. Jokes about its music video also propped up quickly.
• I like to pump it ^Explanationa song made by prodkaz has been used in edits, sometimes in characters dancing, with the most common being Mimi and Nyami
• Do you remember the 21st night of September?^ExplanationSimilar to *NSYNC's "It's Gonna Be Me" at the end of April, it has become a yearly tradition to post Earth, Wind & Fire's "September" on September 21.
• Wenomechainsama^ExplanationA mishearing of Calvin Harris' "Summer", originating from a 2022 video of a guinea pig with a speech bubble "singing" the misheard lyrics. The meme originally is used to tell how foreign people tend to hear English-language songs, though the meme is more often used ironically.
  • turi ip ip ip^ExplanationSimilar to "wenomechainsama" above, except that the song used is Electro-Light's "Symbolism", which used vocal chops instead of proper lyrics.
  • Napoli Juve Aperol^ExplanationA mondegreen of "I'm only human after all" from Rag'n'Bone Man's "Human" originating in Italy, it was originally paired with image macros similar to early 2010s memes before making its way to the speech bubble format popularized by the former two.
  • turi ip ip ip rap battle^ExplanationA type of video in which two characters sing different misheard songs in speech bubbles, with one character usually singing "Symbolism".
• "I shitted in my pants, ooh! I am for reeaaal!" ^ExplanationParody of "Mrs. Jackson" by OutKast.
• Kyle Gordon's "Planet of the Bass", particularly the lyric "Women are my favorite guy".
• Ludwig van Beethoven invented jazz. ^ExplanationThe third variation from the second (and last) movement of Beethoven's last sonata for piano, Op. 111, has a highly compound meter (the composer's time signature is 12/32, though this is technically incorrect) with syncopations that sound very jazzy to many listeners.
• 67 ^ExplanationA reference to Skrilla’s “Doot Doot”. Not that many people can agree on what the numbers symbolize, but they have become a rallying cry for members of Generation Alpha.
• We are Charlie Kirk, we carry the flame. ^Explanation On September 16, 2025, someone by the name of "Spalexma" released an album of AI Generated music to commemorate the death of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. One of those songs, titled "We Are Charlie Kirk", would suddenly explode in popularity in November of the same year after it was discovered by a TikTok user who said it was "genuinely the worst song [they've] ever fucking heard in [their] life" . Although the song has its unironic fans (mainly other right-wingers), many others have mocked its quality and use it in tandem with other memes about Kirk's death.
• Oh wee, I like my horse, my pony, my horse!^ExplanationA repeated line from MCR-T and horsegiirL's "My Little White Pony" that's a frequent subject of edits over various horse-based media, such as My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and particularly Umamusume: Pretty Derby (the latter of which drew a ton of attention to the song due to its runaway popularity and all the edits involving the game's horse girls that sprung up as a result).
• Yolanda Be Cool and DCUP - "We No Speak Americano":
  • The song has scored all sorts of humorous shenanigans and events in memes, including a taekwondo "fight" turned dance battle.
  • "We No Speak Americano" has joined the countless other songs on the Internet with a reputation of being easily recognized, but hard to find. It's easy to see comments on uploads of the song along the lines of "a prayer for everyone who's still searching for this song".
  • "Pa Pa L'Americano!"^Explanation The sole line of the chorus has spawned many mishearings, including "Pa-Panamericano" (which inspired an Argentinian parody song, "Por Panamericana") and "Papa Americano" (which was conceived as a parody song about an American Pope in 2009, but grew Hilarious in Hindsight following the inauguration of an actual American pope, Pope Leo XIV, in May 2025).
• Who Is This? ^ExplanationStarting around December 2025, the cover art◊ of gospel musician Louis Pascal's single "Who Is This?" has been used as a reaction image towards works or people that the person posting the image was unaware of, especially regarding Internet personalities that are treated as a big deal. The image in question has enough in common with many reaction images that some didn't know it was originally a song's cover art.

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Memes not tied to a specific song

• When you download MP3s, you're downloading COMMUNISM!^Explanation Making fun of the obsession with Digital Piracy Is Evil. Also, many fans are convinced the record companies just do this because we might like an independent artist.
• Everything except country and rap.^note The stereotypical music preference of someone who isn't a "real music fan".
• ONETWOTHREEFOUR!^note Common among noise fans. It's inspired by The Gerogerigegege, who made several albums and EPs whose tracks were all short, loud blasts of noise separated by quick countoffs.
  • Senzuri!^note Also inspired by the above musician—several tracks and albums feature the word in their title, and masturbation was a recurring theme in his works, both live and in-studio.
• "I hate how Pavement took music so seriously."^note A rather popular YouTube comment on Pavement videos. Naturally, this comment is ironic, as their music videos were usually silly and some of their lyrics are obviously not too serious either (for example, from the song "Stereo", "What about the voice of Geddy Lee? / How did it get so high? / I wonder if he speaks like an ordinary guy / 'I know him and he does!')"
• When Post-Hardcore band Fugazi announced they were releasing a previously unheard album-length demo from 1988, Spin Magazine's Twitter account mistakenly announced the demo was from 1888 (due to a typo, of course). Many jokes about the band having been around since the 19th century ensued.
• Put some respeck on my name!^note This quote was said by rapper Birdman during his confrontational guest appearance on the radio show The Breakfast Club. He is mocked for his pronunciation of the word "respect" as "respeck".
• Taking songs from kids' media and giving them trap or dubstep remixes is popular on YouTube. The more bizarre and ironic it is, the better. For example, "I'm The Map" from Dora the Explorer, the theme to Little Einsteins, the Krusty Krab from SpongeBob SquarePants, and the theme to Caillou.
  • Its precursor is "kiddie rave" tracks that referenced nostalgic shows and were also obliquely about drugs. The Prodigy's "Charly" (inspired by a safety PIF starring an animated cat named Charly; the title is also slang for cocaine) kickstarted the craze in the early '90s.
• "The Rumor Come Out: Does Bruno Mars is Gay?"^note An article asking if/trying to spread the rumour that Bruno Mars is homosexual, written in very bad English.
• The cover art of Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division, a data plot of signals from the first pulsar discovered, has become a popular meme even among people who have no idea where it came from.
• New Order's "Blue Monday" has become the go-to song to remix videos of Real Life nazis, bullies, and jerks in general getting their comeuppance. Here's an example.
• When 21 Savage was arrested by the ICE and revealed to be British, jokes, often employing British stereotypes, were quickly made
• Freddie Mercury [does something] ^ExplanationA meme started in 2019, where bits and pieces of Freddie's isolated vocal tracks from various Queen songs are repurposed and rearranged to make it seem like he's doing anything (similar to the Super Mario Bros. meme where Wario dies in some random event while doing some other activity), with intentionally low-quality videos that often involve a still image of Freddie moving around. For example, stubbing his toe, slipping on ice, or going to KFC. There's an entire playlist dedicated to these videos.
• Go to the comments of any song and the top comment will almost always be some variation of "Who's listening in [current year]?"
• In early 2021, a Tiktok musician posted a clip of him singing the whaling song "Wellerman". Another singer recorded himself singing along in a bass voice, then other people joined in, and the whole thing exploded into sea shanty covers (and songs done in sea shanty style) to the point where the New York Times wrote about it.
• "Oh, you love X? Name three of their albums!" ^ExplanationA stereotypical phrase associated with elitist music fans, usually making fun of them.
• Lady Gaga cancelled her 2017 concert at Rock In Rio one day before it would happen for health reasons. The local fanbase made a meme out of her announcement ("Brazil, I'm devastated"), but what really made the rounds was a video of a man driving by "Little Monsters" who waited outside the hotel where Gaga would stay, shouting "She's not coming anymore!" (leading one to respond "Fuck you!").
• Lizzo playing [insert a fictional instrument] ^ExplanationAfter she played the 200-year-old crystal flute loaned from the Library of Congress at her Washington, DC concert, people quickly went to propose that she play fictional instruments like the Dagger Flute from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
• "Trve kvlt." ^ExplanationThis is about Black Metal fans claiming the band or album in the genre is "better" if they are obscure and cult-like, the more obscure, the better (or more "kvlt"). Bonus point if the band is theistically Satanist. The exact requirements of kvltness vary depending on who you talk to, but usually involve icy, impenetrable production, black-and-white cover art, barely sold any copies, and concepts drawn from black magic, Satanism, pagan myths or out-and-out nihilism.
• "Wake me up..." "...before you go-go!" "...when September ends!" "WAKE ME UP INSIDE!"^Explanation"Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", "Wake Me Up When September Ends", and "Bring Me to Life" all have "Wake me up..." somewhere in the refrain. It's common to take three random characters with a Nice, Mean, and In-Between theme and associate them with a different "Wake me up..."; usually, the nice one gets "Before you go-go", the in-between one gets "When September ends", and the mean one gets "Wake me up inside".
• "My [family member] used to sing this to me every morning/night" ^ExplanationA type of comment that is often said in the YouTube comments sections of songs that have vulgar, extreme, disturbing, or sexual lyrics, used to jokingly imply that the poster's parents or grandparents sang the song to them when they were younger. Some comments also have the song play in inappropiate circumstances, such as a wedding or funeral, and in the case of funerals, the commenter's grandfather or grandmother sometimes comes to life and dances to the song.
• "This song was so good that the police came over to my house to listen to it" ^ExplanationComments similar to this one are often posted on videos with music that is either loud, harsh, or intense, or music of which the commenter's intent is to play loud, which has the commenter misunderstanding the police arriving at their house due to them playing the music loud.
• We not making it out of the hood ^ExplanationA phrase that is posted on poor hip-hop songs or beats, as a way of saying the song is so bad that it will never get famous or make money.
  • WE MAKING IT OUT OF THE HOOD/[x] WITH THIS ONE ^ExplanationOriginally started as a variation of the above used ironically, but later became used sincerely and has since become a massive snowclone that is commonly posted on videos to show appreciation to a song. It is typically accompanied by fire emojis.
• Song roasts in all caps ^ExplanationA comment style that originated in the wake of "WE MAKING IT OUT OF THE HOOD WITH THIS ONE" which is in all caps, uses fire emojis and is posted on music considered bad; common phrases include "They have hidden talent/keep it hidden", "This is fire/Put it out", "This hits hard on mute", and opposite/ironic variations of "We making it out of the hood".
• R. Kelly:
  • It's the remix to ignition / [insert topic] edition / this line's here to setup the / punchline rhymes with ignition
  • The favourite of children everywhere: "I believe I can fly / I got shot by the FBI / All I wanted was a chicken wing..."
  • Any mention of R. Kelly these days will immediately be proceeded with a piss joke.
  • "My mind's tellin' me nooooooooo...BUT MA BODYYY...MA BOOODYYYYY'S TELLIN ME YEEEEEEAAHUUUUUUUSSSS" ^Explanation The opening lines to his song "Bump N Grind".
    • "I don't see nothing wrong... with a little prison time"^ExplanationThe chorus of "Bump N Grind", edited by fans to allude to his guilty verdict and subsequent incarceration.
  • "Y'ALL KILLING ME WITH THIS SHIT!!!" ^ExplanationHis outburst during his interview with Gayle King. Use this to express dismay at an announcement or anything.
    • "Robert." ^ExplanationGayle King's calm attitude towards Kelly's behavior, which people found hilarious compared to his exaggerated emotional fits.
    • The exaggerated crying he gives during Gayle King's interview too.
    • "I'M FIGHTIN' FOR MY FUCKIN' LIFE!"
    • "I don't know how to hogtie people. Why would I hogtie her?"^Explanation"My kids is listening to this, all of this nonsense and I ain't been able to spend no time with them. This is real. This is not a lie." Kelly responds to an allegation that he, well, hog-tied someone. Use this meme for Suspiciously Specific Denial.
• My dog has fleas ^ExplanationA four-note ditty widely used by ukulele players to remember the standard tuning of the instrument's strings. Its exact origin is unclear, and various efforts have been made to adapt it into full-length songs, including an aria in P.D.Q. Bach's opera The Abduction of Figaro. It has also inspired jokes about dogs playing the ukulele.
• Brainrot parodies^ExplanationA trend of overloading existing songs with 2020's "brainrot" slang for comedic effect.
• Some memes from the German-language internet:
  • "Alles kommt zurück wie ein Frisbee" ^Translation"Everything comes back like a Frisbee" ^ExplanationFirst noticed by German rap YouTuber BossXplosive, a bizarre number of German rap songs use this comparison, apparently mistaking a Frisbee for a boomerang.
  • "Wer, wie, was, warum? Tausend Fragezeichen" ^Translation"Who, how, what, why? A thousand question marks" ^ExplanationFrom the song "Wer, wie, was, warum" by Michael Wendler. In context, he's wondering why his ex is coming back to him. As a meme, it's used to show confusion or bafflement as a reaction clip.
• I didn’t know that Michael from Vsauce was a bass virtuoso ^Explanation This is a reoccurring joke among fans of Periphery and people new to the band, based on the band’s former bassist Adam “Nolly” Getgood’s resemblance to Vsauce host Michael Stevens.
• "Stomp clap hey" music ^ExplanationA derogatory term taking aim at early 2010’s indie music such as the bands fun., Of Monsters and Men, Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers, associated with folk-inspired fashion and overpriced hipster restaurants created by millennials, so named for its use of stomping and clapping for punctuation, and excessive use of vocals as a substitute for certain instruments.
• Mexican singer Luis Miguel's ¡Mi pierna! ¡Mi pierna, Dios Mio! ¡MI PIERNAAAAAAAAA!^Explanation While this is the line Luis Miguel's character say it in "Ya Nunca Más" when he learns his leg has been amputated, is normally used to poke fun the guys that suffer cramps by spending too much time sitting in the toilet or watching its mobile device.
• HELP! I PUT MY WRISTBAND ON TOO EARLY! ^ExplanationA number of music festivals use wristbands for attendees in order to get in and wristbands are often secured with a plastic ring with teeth inside that ensures that it can only pass one way, so you can tighten it but not remove it. The wristbands typically arrive a few weeks before the festival, so if you put it on that early, pretty much everyone agrees that you're stupid and had it coming.
• The "Real Emo" copypasta. ^ExplanationA lengthy diatribe complaining that not only is emo-pop music such as My Chemical Romance not real emo music, but neither is the popular and respected Midwest Emo subgenre pioneered by bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate. The paragraph can be found in almost any discussion about the true definition of emo music.
• Boots and cats / Boots and pants ^Explanation An onomatopoeia used to describe a particular type of four-on-the-floor beat utilized in dance music. The former was popularized by a humorous music video, and the latter by a GEICO ad featuring Maxwell the Pig.
• Anal at the rail ^ExplanationRefers to a post on r/aves complaining about people having anal sex at the rail during Illenium's set at Freaky Deaky 2022. Commonly shows up in discussions pertaining to Illenium or people hooking up at raves or electronic music festivals.

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[drum slam]
AND IIIIIIIIIIII-EE-IIII, WILL ALWAYS, LOOOOVE YOOOOOUUUUUU...^ExplanationThe high-decibel Truck Driver's Gear Change of Whitney Houston's cover of "I Will Always Love You". The line has been heavily memed, whether it be extending it to go on for a longer time or making it segue into something else.