The best memes of 2023 (so far)

Boris Johnson finally fucks off

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Even in the last six years of absolute clusterfucks, the 72 hours between Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak resignations as health secretary and chancellor and Boris Johnson finally admitting that maybe 50-odd resignations was one for the ages.

It was constitutionally horrifying, obviously, and the amount of time we’ve had to spend in the company of Suella Braverman in the aftermath has been very distressing. But it was also very, very, very funny.

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For seasoned watchers of political chaos, this was up there with the 2017 general election exit poll drop. The new ministers Johnson brought in to prop him up almost immediately joined the coup telling him he had to go. The resignations kept coming, alerting the general public to which MPs know how to use the scan document function in their Notes app and which don’t.

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Michelle Donelan was Education Secretary for 34 hours. Michael Gove threatened to resign at 9pm on the second day of the drama if Johnson didn’t go, only for Johnson to reportedly sack Gove a minute before his deadline. Andrea Jenkyns MP flipped a middle finger at crowds outside Downing Street. Johnson faced a select committee grilling where he admitted he’d met former KGB officer Alexander Lebedev in Italy just after the Skripal poisonings, and one of the committee members resigned on Twitter during the sitting.

As a final chef’s kiss, the Daily Mail thundered in with a bullish defence of Johnson’s position that hit newstands about two hours before he announced he was off.

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Finally, Johnson gave a speech which didn’t use the words ‘sorry’ or ‘apologise’ even once.

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And so the Tory leadership race started, and the crushing realisation that one of these dullards will be doing roughly the same dance in between 18 and 24 months’ time.

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Angela Bassett did the thing

Now, we all love the Baftas. They’re a great and glorious thing. They can, however, be a little bit dry at times. This year was something of an exception.

Arianna DeBose of Hamilton, Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story and Westworld, followed Richard E Grant’s opening monologue with a medley of Eurythmics’ ‘Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves’ and Sister Sledge’s ‘We Are Family’ which climaxed with a self-composed rap which recalled that bit in ‘Vogue’ where Madonna gives thanks for Grace Kelly and Jean Harlow and that: «Angela Bassett did the thing, Viola Davis my Woman King / Blanchett, Cate, you’re a genius, and Jamie Lee, you are all of us!»

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The whole thing was baffling, but it was that first line – «Angela Bassett did the thing» – and the shoulder-shimmy that accompanied it, which really went big. The whole thing got a bit of a kicking.

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«I think it’s incredibly unfair, to be frank,» Bafta producer Nick Bullen told Variety of the backlash to DeBose’s performance. «I absolutely loved it. Everybody I’ve spoken to who was in the room absolutely loved it.»

«She only had a few weeks to put this whole thing together. She worked with a great musical director and choreographer. So it was a real team effort. She had an amazing team around her, and she and her team put the whole piece together.»

But then the bafflement turned into full-blooded veneration of a moment of high camp which generally gets purged from big pop cultural ceremonies in the UK. Lizzo and Adele shouted it out onstage. It even started getting played in clubs.

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And it all came full circle at the NAACP Image Awards, where Bassett did indeed do the thing by winning entertainer of the year.

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Bassett DM’d DeBose to check she was OK (she was) and Jamie Lee Curtis came out swinging on DeBose’s behalf too: «For me it was joyous, celebratory, sisterly, hot, spicy, and she’s just so incredibly talented.» A happy ending all round.

I believed it was a work event

The rolling boil of scandal and revelation from Downing Street finally bubbled over properly in mid-January with a triple-whammy of allegations and thunderingly dumb attempts to justify very obviously not cool events.

To bring you up to speed: a picture emerged in the early days of January which showed Boris Johnson, his wife Carrie and around 20 other people hanging out in the garden at 10 Downing Street in May 2020. As you might recall, hanging out with glasses of wine in a mate’s garden was punishable by fines at the time. Johnson apologised in the Commons (well, kind of), and said that he knew the rules, obvs, but that he «believed implicitly that this was a work event». This was not quite the slam dunk he perhaps hoped it would be.

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And then it turned out that the interior designer Lulu Lytle – who was at the centre of another, apparently unrelated scandal about exactly how a refurb of 10 Downing Street was funded – was there at yet another party, this time for Johnson’s 56th birthday. Yep, that would also have been against the rules.

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It’s been a hell of a couple of years for Johnson. Imagine returning an 80-seat majority and then fucking things so utterly that you’re getting bantered off by Ipswich Town.

The big red boots

It’s been a little while since a look cut through the culture quite so quickly as MSCHF’s Astro Boy-inspired big red boots. The brand does like to use New York Fashion Week to make a statement with footwear – in the past they’ve done Birkenstocks made of recycled Hermés bags and a pair of boots which look like those giant plastic casts footballers wear when their metatarsal’s gone – but none had the impact of the big red boots.

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But why? Well, the proportions are perfect. Big enough to look completely absurd but just about small enough to actually walk around in, they’re yours for just $350.

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A press release offered some more intel. «Cartoonishness is an abstraction that frees us from the constraints of reality,» it said. «If you kick someone in these boots, they go boing!»

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They were a massive pain in the arse to actually get off your feet once they were in, but it’s a small price to pay to be king for the eight days or so that everyone was obsessed with them.

Предыстория мема

Кадр со Стивом Бушеми в «молодёжном» образе — из американского ситкома 30 Rock, выходившего на канале NBC с 2006 по 2013 год. Звезда «Бешеных псов» и «Подпольной империи» исполнял роль Ленни Возняка — частного детектива, которого периодически нанимает герой Джек Донахи (Алек Болдуин).

Всего персонаж Бушеми появлялся в шести эпизодах, в предпоследний раз — в эпизоде «The Tuxedo Begins», вышедшем на ТВ 16 февраля 2012 года. По сюжету, Возняк вспоминает свои предыдущие расследования, и в том числе упоминает «успешную маскировку» под старшеклассника во время внедрения в школу.

В качестве доказательства показывают флэшбек, где на тот момент 55-летний персонаж Бушеми старается сойти за своего в компании подростков. Всё в образе детектива показывает, насколько плохая у него маскировка: кепка задом наперёд, сразу два скейтборда в руках и футболка с принтом «Music band». В таком виде он подходит к школьникам и говорит: «How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?» («Как дела, детишки?»).

На Medium разбирали этот флэшбек и пришли к выводу, что юмористический эффект тут построен на теории ожидания языка. Она предполагает, что у людей вырабатываются определённые нормы того, как человек должен использовать язык в тех или иных ситуациях. Мы вырабатываем ожидания исходя из контекста: как человек выглядит, как он себя ведёт, сколько ему лет.

В данном случае персонаж Бушеми одевается как подросток, но совсем забывает про язык. Казалось бы, в соответствии с «прикрытием» он должен подобрать какое-нибудь молодёжное приветствие. Но его хватает только на довольно взрослое «Как дела, детишки».

5 мемов на все случаи жизни

Сделали подборку мемов, которые бизнес может использовать для продвижения. Они тоже актуальные, хоть и не такие свежие.

«Дайте мне спокойно умереть»

Мем, в котором две обезьяны утешают третью, завирусился с подписью «Дайте мне спокойно умереть». Его, как правило, сопровождают текстом, в котором описывается небольшая проблема, на решение которой уже нет сил. Вроде: «И продуктов еще купи» — «Дайте мне спокойно умереть».

Бренды используют мем, чтобы обратить внимание на разнообразие предложений, в которых клиент может потеряться

• Текст № 1: Первое предложение;

• Текст № 2: Второе предложение;

• Текст № 3: «Я».

Например, так использовала мем платформа Правое полушарие Интроверта. В описании к мему объяснили преимущества каждого предложения, чтобы клиенту не захотелось «спокойно умереть».

Пост платформы Правое полушарие Интроверта

А вот шаблон. Скачивайте картинку и добавляйте свой текст:

Чайка летит на чайке

Ролик, в котором одна чайка пользуется другой, как транспортом, снял пользователь Twitter (теперь X) из Японии в 2021 году. Видео сразу разобрали на мемы. Самым популярным стал ролик, на который наложили саундтрек из «Титаника».

Бренды используют мем как метафору на клиентов, которые не пользуются их предложением.

Например, так использовал мем Авиасейлс.

Клип Авиасейлс

А вот шаблон. Скачивайте видео и добавляйте текст:

Другой вариант — использовать мем как пример того, что нужно делать, чтобы сохранить энергию:

• Текст № 1: Сложный вариант решения проблемы.

• Текст № 2: Решение проблемы с помощью предложения бренда.

Такой мем сделали мы Листайте, чтобы увидеть шаблон.

Отдыхающий Илон Маск

Илона Маска, отдыхающего с бокалом вина в Сен-Тропе, запечатлели папарацци в 2022 году. Кадр моментально стал мемом, который актуален до сих пор. Он описывает состояние человека, у которого все сложилось в жизни и которому больше ничего не нужно.

Бренды используют мем, чтобы проиллюстрировать результат использования своего продукта.

• Текст № 1: Описание ситуации, в которой пользователь узнаёт о продукте;

• Текст № 2: Результат, который он получает после его использования.

Например, так использовал мем Skillbox, чтобы привлечь внимание пользователей к своей конференции. Пост Skillbox

Пост Skillbox

А вот мем, который сделала я Листайте, чтобы увидеть шаблон. 

Панда под дождем

Мем, в котором панда заснула на дереве под дождем, используют, чтобы описать состояние безысходности и усталости.

Бренды используют мем в формате «Я, когда…» — и снова обращаются к боли аудитории. Например, так сделала платформа Правое полушарие Интроверта.

Клип платформы Правое полушарие Интроверта

Парни, вы издеваетесь?

Завершим обзор фразой инфобизнесмена, которая уже стала мемом. Изначально ее использовали, чтобы иронизировать над предложениями, которые никому не нужны

Теперь — как повод пошутить и привлечь внимание

Бренды используют мем, чтобы обратить внимание на свое предложение:

Заголовок: «ПАРНИ, ВЫ ИЗДЕВАЕТЕСЬ?»

Текст: Предложение, описанное в вычурно-продающем стиле.

Например, так использовал мем Авиасейлс.

Твит Авиасейлс

The coronation of King Charles

So, Yung Chaz finally got his hands on the crown after 70-odd years of apprenticeship. It absolutely pissed it down, as is tradition for coronations in the UK, and all the other pageantry was deployed with the usual solemnity. But if Elizabeth II had the first televised coronation, Charles III had the first memed coronation. Two big moments stood out.

First, there was Charles looking slightly mystified at what he was being told to say by the guy holding his lines. (You’d have thought he’d be off-book by previews, but anyway.)

Then there was Penny Mordaunt in her very snazzy outfit and wielding a sword as Lord President of the Council. We dodged a bullet here: if the Queen had carked it a year earlier, Jacob Rees-Mogg would have been on sword duties.

The mix of celebs and posh nobs was quite a thing to see. Ant and Dec were there, plus Lionel Richie, Dame Emma Thompson and a very confused Katy Perry.

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And they let some where-are-they-now types in to beef up the numbers too.

So a fine time was had by all. And, in the end, quite a lot of peaceful protestors were arrested and kept in cells for 16 hours despite having run their plans past police beforehand, and some bystanders who had nothing to do with anything got carted away too. Yet another good day’s work for the Met! They really are on a roll at the minute, aren’t they?

RIP the actual Queen

Of course, the passing of the 96-year-old Queen was a big moment for the UK. But imagine hearing that she’d gone not from Huw Edwards at the start of his mammoth 11-day news bender, but from the British Kebab Awards.

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Or while innocently browsing for new nipple clamps.

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Liz Truss’s address to the nation took a bit of a turn.

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And while all football was cancelled the weekend after the Queen’s death, the punditry fraternity marked her passing in its own way.

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Then there was The Queue. After a wait of up to 24 hours, mourners were finally able to pay their respects at her lying-in-state. It’s just hard to know what to do when you get there.

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Wrapping Up

With this, I come to the end of this blog, and I hope you enjoyed reading about the most liked videos on TikTok and found them interesting. Now go ahead and watch these videos and see if the videos are really worth the millions of likes or if they are just overrated. Comment on your feelings about these videos in the comments section below.

So, guys, that is it for today. Take Care! And yeah, for any further queries related to TikTok and its features, you can comment in the comments section below. Also, keep visiting our website, Path of EX, for more such updates related to Social media, Gaming, and Technology. Till then, Bye! Bye!

Barbie v Oppenheimer

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It’s been a long time since we had a proper, no-holds-barred, honest-to-goodness summer blockbuster showdown in the cinemas, but this July is one for the ages. First, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One boots all other actioners into the stratosphere. Then, a week and a half later, Christopher Nolan’s extremely serious, extremely star-filled biopic of the philosopher-king of the atomic bomb, J Robert Oppenheimer, comes out on the same day as Greta Gerwig’s extremely not-serious, extremely star-filled kinda-biopic of the philosopher-queen of Barbieland, Barbie. The imagined rivalry between the two camps has been ripe memeing territory.

Foto: Twitter

Foto: Twitter

Foto: Twitter

Naturally, people are trying to work out how best to work the potential double-bill come the weekend.

Foto: Twitter

Our suggestion: meet the gang for 11am, bottomless brunch, Barbie, late lunch, Oppenheimer, sit down with an old fashioned, stare into the void, bed.

Harry’s big book bonanza

The first big to-do of 2023 was the release of Spare, the autobiography of the royal FKA Prince Harry. There were lots of bits which caught the eye, but if you wanted the full experience you really needed to invest in the audiobook version.

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Quite a lot of knob chat in there. The word ‘todger’ is simultaneously the only word you’d expect a man of Harry’s station to use for his penis, and also the worst one he could possible have chosen. Todger. Me todger. This ol’ todger o’ mine. Young todge.

Anyway. Lots of fun was had with the bits in between the bits where he was excoriating the Royal Family for all sorts of alleged misdeeds, bad vibes and straight-up horribleness. Spare is not the kind of book you can just walk straight back into the family Christmas do from. It is a hand grenade lobbed into a kennels full of corgis. But then, we’ve all felt like doing something similar at one job or another.

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Frequently Asked Questions

2. Are the most liked TikTok videos always from famous TikTok users or celebrities?

Yes, your reach does matter to get the most likes, but your content makes all the difference. Even if you are not famous on TikTok, if your content goes viral, you stand a good chance of getting millions of likes. And you never know if you will break the record on Bella Poarch!

3. How can I increase the likes on my TikTok videos?

You can increase likes on your videos by creating content that is unique, engaging, and, at the same time, entertaining. For inspiration, you can refer to the creator’s content of these most-liked videos on TikTok.

4. Can I see the most liked TikTok videos on TikTok’s platform?

Yes, you can see the most liked TikTok videos on TikTok’s platform. I have provided you with the links to all the videos in the article.

5. Can anyone create a TikTok video that can become one of the most liked videos?

Yes, anyone can create a TikTok video that can become one of the most liked videos. To get the most number of likes, your content needs to be unique, engaging, and entertaining. Reach is another factor that is important when it comes to getting more like.

Gary Lineker vs the actual government

Now that some time has passed, it’s hard to fathom quite how thoroughly the Gary Lineker story shoved absolutely everything else off the news agenda. At one point the Telegraph had eight different comment pieces about it running simultaneously.

On Twitter Lineker criticised it as an «immeasurably cruel policy» which was being used against «the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s». Suella Braverman said that was «irresponsible». In short order, Lineker was forcibly stood down from Match of the Day duties by high-ups in the BBC.

This did not, it’s fair to say, go down the way that the BBC high-ups intended it to.

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First to support Lineker was known mensch and all round good guy Ian Wright. «Everybody knows what Match of the Day means to me, but I’ve told the BBC I won’t be doing it tomorrow,» he tweeted. «Solidarity.» Alan Shearer joined him at the barricades shortly afterwards. Then Alex Scott pulled out of Football Focus, the commentators said they wouldn’t work on Match of the Day, and the presenters of the BBC’s goals service Final Score followed suit. It all looked quite desperate for the Beeb, and deeply impressive for its unofficial football production union.

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What started as a dispute over a tweet by one of its biggest stars turned into an existential crisis for the BBC, with all and sundry chiming in over the hypocrisy of the corporations dealings with Lineker – Lord Sugar tweeted quite a lot of stuff about hating Jeremy Corbyn, for instance – and the fact that the Richard Sharp, the BBC chairman, donated £400,000 to the Conservatives and still stands accused of helping Boris Johnson sort out a loan while he was Prime Minister. It all smells slightly funny.

So in the end there was no football coverage on BBC TV that Saturday. Come 10.30pm, we got not Match of the Day, but an unbranded value-pack knock-off version called ‘Premier League highlights’. It showed the highlights, but with just crowd noise and no analysis. It was rubbish.

Nonetheless lots of Tories turned up to insist that actually – actually! Funnily enough! – preferred this weird state of affairs. Scott Benton, MP for Blackpool South, said that it was the best edition «in years» as in a break with six decades of precedent it «had all the goals in». He also claimed it «finished quicker than usual so I could make the pub for last orders,» which, if true, sounds like a cry for help.

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By the middle of the following week, Lineker had been given an apology and was back on usual duties. What an absolute palaver.

11 Most Liked TikTok Videos Compared

Here is the list of most liked videos on TikTok 2023 in tabular with all the information regarding each video Rank, Creator’s name, Username, Video Title, Date of posting, number of likes, and Video Link for a quick glance.

Rank	Creator	Username	Video Title	Likes (In Millions)
1.	Bella Poarch	@bellapoarch	Lip-Sync to “M To the B”	61.3
2.	Jamie Big Sorrel Horse	@jamie32bsh	Lip-Sync & Dance on “Say It Right”	51.8
3.	Franek Bielak	@fredziownik_art	Glossy Lips/ Mouth Drawing	51.3
4.	Nick Luciano	@thenickluciano	Lip-Sync (SugarCrash)	49.8
5.	David Allen	@totouchanemu	David Allen Twerking at “Stay”	45
6.	Mona Gonzales	@mngnzls	Singing Suave	41.7
7.	Adrian Chateau Wiles	@adrianchateau	Bark at your Dog	40.6
	Billie Eilish	@billieeilish	Time Wrap scan filter	40.6
8.	Khabane Lame	@khaby.lam	Peel it	37.9
9.	British Promise Cats	@britishpromise.cats	Cat Pawing at the Camera	37.4
10.	Khabane Lame	@khaby.lam	Look through the Window	36.3
11.	Khabane Lame	@khaby.lam	Don’t be Too Stupid	35.5

RIP the pound

Well, at least you know now that whenever you start a new job it’ll never go as badly as the first three weeks Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng had.

The pound dipped to become worth almost the same as a dollar and the euro, the IMF had having kittens, and reporters said that pension funds would have been insolvent if the Bank of England hadn’t stepped in. Yep, the time you reply-alled to everyone at your company asking where the toilets were really pales into insignificance.

Not funny as the whole meltdown most definitely is (…isn’t?), the tweets have at least been good.

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Boris Johnson faces the music

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And so, finally, three years after the start of the pandemic and 18 months after the first reports of leaving dos, booze-ups and ABBA-assisted shindigs celebrating Dominic Cummings’ resignation, Boris Johnson was hauled in front of MPs to answer to accusations of misleading the House of Commons.

The three-hour session at the privileges committee was the first time that he’d been forced to undergo a proper examination with proper consequences. If the committee finds that his statement to the House – that no lockdown rules had been broken in 10 Downing Street despite a run of what looked suspiciously like parties – was said while knowing it wasn’t true, he could be suspended from Parliament. A suspension of 10 or more days means his Uxbridge constituents could call for him to face a by-election, which could see him lose his seat. High stakes stuff, even if there’s more ‘coulds’ in there than you’d expect in a political thriller.

So naturally it was appointment to view stuff, with Johnson occasionally taking advice from his £5,000 an hour lawyer Lord Pannick. Pannick, who’s also working with Manchester City on their case with the Premier League where they’re accused of breaking financial rules, was semi-regularly spotted looking slightly less than satisfied with something. Perhaps it was the questions being fired at his client. Perhaps it was the fact Johnson got a right hump on at one point and started having a pop at the committee. Either way, the eyebrows were very lively.

We await the committee’s report, but it didn’t feel like Johnson had managed to talk anyone round to his way of thinking.

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At the very least, there are about three more stages at which the memes will cascade. Say what you like about Johnson, the man knows how to generate content.

Man City v the Premier League

In perhaps the biggest news to hit English football since the vanishing spray finally did for encroaching at free kicks, the Premier League has alleged that Manchester City broke its competition rules on 101 occasions in the 13 seasons from 2009/10.

The four-year investigation has suggested that City failed to, among other things, give «a true and fair view of the club’s financial position» and didn’t «include full details» of how it remunerated staff. The club denies any wrongdoing.

But deny as it may, it can’t stop fans from other clubs rubbing their thighs with glee at the idea of the champions being busted down a division, and being made to hand back any pots won during the disputed period, and possibly also forced to have their Etihad sponsorship taken off their shirts and replaced by a sign reading «I AM A BIG STUPID BABY».

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Kevin James

Some memes are born out of a cultural moment, a shared experience which we need to compute through lower case captions and image macros. Some gradually build meaning over time, hitting a critical mass at which everyone understands them and can start to subvert and experiment with them.

And sometimes – when the wind blows in the right direction, and the stars align – one of Kevin James’ old headshots from King of Queens goes viral.

Why is it funny? Big question. It’s the shrug. It’s the little smirk. It’s the not-quite-casual-enough off-duty look whoever was on wardrobe duties has given him. It’s the Paul Blart: Mall Cop of it all. He’s sheepish. He’s sort of pleased with himself. He’s got both hands in both pockets.

And it’s just endlessly reusable. That look on James’ face says: hey, you know what I’m like, buddy. I’m gonna do it again. You just watch.