Hey meme enthusiasts! Welcome to our countdown of the Top 10 Memes that absolutely rocked the internet in September, 2023. Ever wondered why it’s important to keep track of these internet phenomena? Well, memes are like the heartbeat of the digital realm, letting us tap into the mood, humor, and sometimes, the soul of internet culture. So, buckle up because we’re about to dive deep!

Our meme radar didn’t miss a beat. We scoured every corner of the meme-verse to bring you this list. We checked out platforms like Weibo for the social chatter, Douyin for those snappy viral videos, and Bilibili to catch the latest in animation and gaming memes.

We looked at a bunch of factors to pick our top 10. These include:

• Engagement Rates: How many likes, shares, and comments did it rack up?
• Shares Across Platforms: Was it just a Weibo wonder or did it cross over to other platforms?
• Cultural Impact: Did it spark conversations, debates, or even changes in language or behavior?

That’s our game plan, folks! Now, on to the memes that made the cut!

10. R Star

• Brief Description:

This meme is a high praise for the game company Rockstar Games, abbreviated as R-Star. Many of its game styles are very classic, so recently NetEase has begun to crazily imitate the whole life behavior. Similar to the style of this game promotional video, it integrates the absurd and absurd operations of various film and television dramas, paired with the song “Midnight City”. The final ending is finished with the R-star logo, which brings a very funny visual effect and has become popular on various platforms, leading to the trend of R star products being a must be a high-quality product in the gaming industry;

• Cultural Context:

In addition, Rockstar Games has always been committed to innovation and progress. The achievements of game companies in fields such as gaming technology, artificial intelligence, design, and music are constantly praised by various sectors. Their new works not only incorporate more advanced gaming technology and more complex game designs, but also emphasize the innovation and fun of games, continuously driving the development of the gaming industry forward.

9. Bagpipes from afar

• Brief Description:

The meaning is “fuck off”. The bagpipes from afar are from Jay Chou’s song “Ming Ming Jiu”. The original lyrics are: bagpipes from afar, I only care if there is news of you. And the reason why this meme appears is because there is a netizen who used this sentence as his net name to hate someone. The reason for the incident is that in a video, someone came out as a good person to persuade others to forgive and forgive someone for selling barbecue with the money of a pit old man.

• Cultural Context:

Hello, dear. It’s my pleasure to serve you. The original meaning of the phrase ‘bagpipes from afar’ is to say that a beautiful place suddenly has a beautiful sound of bagpipes, which is an extremely poetic sentence. Later, it extended to express longing for someone. In Jay Chou’s song “Ming Ming Jiu”, there is a line that says “bagpipes from afar, I am waiting for your news”, displaying a very beautiful artistic conception. Now it is interpreted as meaning ‘fuck off’. The story originated from a short video user named “bagpipes from afar”. His video was criticized by many netizens, so he couldn’t bear to reply in comments asking others to “get lost”, and even the person who helped him explain was “get lost” by him.

8.  California girls

• Brief Description:

On Friday the 13th of the game, this action was provocative and mocking. Foreign netizens learned this dance action and it became popular with music from a California girl. As a result, other foreign netizens and bloggers were also learning this dance. Recently, another game anchor changed the healing action of the characters in Road to Survival 2 to this dance, which is quite ghostly and interesting.

• Cultural Context:

A popular dance song co performed by American singer Sister Fruit and Grandpa Dog. The rise in popularity in China is due to a dance video in which men are ridiculed and the dance music and dance are remade and re created. Because dance and music are very joyful, they were remade by bloggers from various short video platforms. Another reason why it has become popular is that the healing action in the game “Road to Survival 2” has been magically changed to this California girl dance. The original game video, so many netizens will play a meme when they see this dance: someone is treating themselves, and the BGM California girl in this dance is also referred to as a healing song by netizens.

7.  Young master of Wanliu Academy

• Brief Description:

This meme comes from a blogger @ Edwinnnnnn of Tiktok short video. A plain cross dressing video exposes his identity as a young master. Because Qi Baishi’s authentic work and various high-end scripts have been sought after by countless netizens, the reason is actually a cross dressing video without any special effects. The young master, who is not familiar with the world, accidentally exposed his distinguished identity in the process of sharing the dribble video cross dressing. The young master’s identity was solid, and quickly became popular in Tiktok. Every game has a rainbow fart from netizens, and the vocabulary is full of money worship. Wanliu Academy is not a real academy, but a top-level mansion, but the young master is truly rich and billions.

• Cultural Context:

The Master of Wanliu Academy refers to a short video cross dressing blogger on Tiktok who is positioned to dribble in Wanliu Academy. The mediocre dribbling video, with netizens focusing on the location address, Wanliu Academy in Zhongguancun, Haidian. It is said that the housing price is around 80 yuan per square meter, and the one who can live here can be said to be a safe young master, so netizens call him the “Young Master of Wanliu Academy”. The tens of seconds of video display focuses on the authentic artwork and address positioning in the background, and a large number of self proclaimed “old slaves” have emerged in the comment section.

6.  Blizzard green tea

• Brief Description:

It refers to the tea atmosphere in the official post of Blizzard, implying that NetEase does not agree to continue extending the agency, which prevents players from playing the game. Many players believe that Blizzard’s actions are “full of tea flavor”, and some have specifically established a Weibo topic for “Blizzard Green Tea”. After the formal termination of the contract between NetEase and Blizzard, it became a high-profile topic, and NetEase has begun to dissolve the department responsible for Blizzard games in Shanghai. The employees are mainly operational personnel and do not participate in any actual development work. NetEase will retain 10 employees to handle technical and customer issues after the shutdown, but may resign within the next six months, with only a few technical personnel being transferred to other departments.

• Cultural Context:

On January 18th, NetEase Hangzhou Park launched a new beverage called “Blizzard Green Tea”, but due to the large number of orders placed, there was a situation of orders exploding. NetEase Beijing Park has launched two new drinks, “Blizzard Green Tea” and “Blizzard Unhappy”. On a poster of “Blizzard Green Tea” circulating online, the promotional slogan reads “It’s been a long time; after drinking this cup, let’s go; in the new year, may the wind guide your path; may the stars illuminate your direction.” This promotional slogan is believed by netizens to be a statement released by Blizzard China earlier. Finally, NetEase said that in order to strive for both parties to develop plans as soon as possible and start refund and other related work as soon as possible, it will continue to inform players of the progress of related work through official channels such as the “Blizzard Game Service Center” official account.

5.  Nine turn large intestine

• Brief Description:

The meme “Nine Turns large Intestine” comes from a food reality show on Eastern TV – “Top Chef”. In one of the programs, there was a contestant named Yu Tao who had a very funny and magical conversation with judge Cao Kefan.The entire conversation and scene appeared both hilarious and magical, but later this segment was picked up by some video producers and turned into various mischievous pranks, leading to the sudden popularity of the “Nine Turns of the Large Intestine” meme. The reason why this meme is funny is largely due to the fact that Yu Tao and Cao Kefan always omit “key information” during their conversations. In fact, the so-called “reserved part” should not be what people imagine at all.

• Cultural Context:

In fact, the part they are talking about may be more about the oil inside the large intestine, because this part will have a stronger taste. If you don’t remove the fishy smell, you will indeed show the expression of judge Cao Kefan who “wants a knife” after eating. But because they didn’t point it out, everyone unconsciously thought of the “retained part” as some indescribable object.This kind of overturning, exhaustion, and revenge is just a dramatic comedy. Capturing the lively psychology of users who love watching dramas. Of course, this is not the first time that the large intestine stem has become popular. The last time it was a handmade large intestine tattoo. The grounded colon and flavorful topics are always the most primitive traffic passwords.

4.  Desperate illiteracy

• Brief Description:

Desperate illiteracy is a well-known meme in recent times, which refers to a group of people who have no hope and lack cultural knowledge. These people often respond incorrectly and do not know how to respond or solve problems raised by others. At this time, they feel nervous like a desperate illiterate. Understanding the words’ desperate ‘and’ illiteracy ‘separately is the meaning of this meme. The meme of “Desperate Illiteracy” comes from the role of the male second character in the movie “Unknown”, who was ridiculed by the group due to his low level of education in the early stages. During the road show interview for the movie ‘Unknown’ a while ago, when faced with reporters’ interviews, various answers to seemingly simple questions made people couldn’t help but laugh. The actors’ responses were embarrassing, and the director was also very embarrassed. Netizens also bluntly mocked this as Desperate illiteracy.

• Cultural Context:

Behind the ‘Desperate illiteracy’ is a social phenomenon of lack of knowledge, lack of culture, and lack of understanding and misuse. They will subtly influence this society and cause some negative effects. The direct consequence of this is to misunderstand others and oneself. People may use these sentences or words incorrectly with the promotion of the movie. So we need to take this “illiteracy” seriously and prevent similar situations from occurring. Each of us should improve our literary literacy. Literature is the knowledge of writing, it is vast and profound, and it clarifies the universe. Literacy is cultivation, foundation, and an untouchable corner of the heart. Together, literary literacy refers to the quality and cultivation of knowledge in writing.

3.  Adjusting the rest holiday

• Brief Description:

It is a roast about the New Year holiday. We spent a lot of money and time on a holiday that was like doing a task. Every day, we were exhausted to the point of paralysis, exhaustion to the point where our souls went out of our bodies, and exhaustion to the point where our brains were down and unable to function. It’s said to be a holiday, but in fact, I can’t play or rest well at all. Like the blogger @ Song Yunzhi on a certain platform, steaming fruit kernels, beans, and jujube cakes has played a role as an internet mouthpiece, expressing our feelings: to put it bluntly, the current Spring Festival holiday is a group of poor young people, repeatedly pulled and crushed by capitalist and feudal forces. This topic is influenced by the Spring Festival, so many people have hyped up this meme.

• Cultural Context:

The Spring Festival, which is brought out during the Chinese New Year holiday, is the most tiring holiday. If possible, who wouldn’t want to lie at home peacefully for seven days? Major media outlets like to report every year on why the Chinese New Year is lacking in flavor. Nowadays, the Chinese New Year is becoming increasingly tasteless. Previously, for one yuan, one could buy three bags of toilet paper, one box of Wangzai milk, three bags of potato chips, and two lollipops, but now it’s different. Supermarket safety supervision is now under control. At the same time, he was afraid that young people would not work at the workstation for two days, while also asking with clear eyes why young people nowadays do not like to go home for the Chinese New Year. Do you think the migrant workers who have been tortured by compensatory leave will want to go home and work for another seven days? Even if you want to go home, facing such a tight holiday time, it has become very inconvenient to go home.

2.  Laoma, Laoma

• Brief Description:

Laoma, Laoma is a classic scene where anchor Qiezi cries out to Da Sima. It is used to describe the regret after doing something wrong. According to the meaning of the meme, netizens have suddenly created a new online idiom “Qiezi Crys Ma”, which means the classic scene where game anchor Qiezi and Da Sima were born while playing the game “Goose Duck Kill”. The crying Da Sima was shocked. In online culture, if you do something wrong, you can express your pain with lao Ma, lao Ma, or Qiezi crying Ma.

• Cultural Context:

It has become a hilarious scene on the internet and has been strongly requested by fans to be included in the mandatory courses of Beijing Film Festival, due to the high content of qiezi acting, which was later referred to as a term in the game. Let’s learn about Da Sima, whose real name is Han Jinlong. Han Jinlong, who graduated from junior high school, transferred to a local vocational school to learn about automotive repair. The relaxed family and school environment made him fall in love with arcade halls and internet cafes. Da Sima has a strong gaming talent. Games such as Super Mary and Soul Douluo can pass all levels in one life, while the King of Fighters game can be played by one brand for an afternoon. In his own words, it is Zhongshan Bridge One Hero.

 

1.  Kabulat Boys’ Team

• Brief Description:

The Kabulat Boys’ Team refers to a single man’s troupe led by Chou Shen. Due to Chou Shen’s ever-changing freshness and diverse musical styles, it has been teased by fans, saying that Chou Shen can form a men’s troupe alone. So the fans set different members for the Kabulat Boys’ Troupe. At present, the combination members include Chou Kabu, Chou Shen, Chou Qian, Chou Xingxing, Chou Bailing, and Chou Guozi. Because multiple group members were invited to the New Year’s Eve party on Bilibili recently, some fans said that the Kabulat Boys’ Troupe had been confirmed and they became popular.

• Cultural Context:

Chou Shen used the online name “Kabugong” before his debut, which later became his stage name. According to Chou Shen himself, he likes the character Kabuda, the protagonist in the Japanese anime “Iron Armor”, so he uses it as his internet name. Kabuda is the abbreviation for Kabuda, and Gong is a word that expresses mood. When combined, it is called “Kabuda Gong”. In his fan circle, “Kabugong” has also become his nickname to show his love and support. Chou Shen participated in the program “The Voice of China”, and his ethereal voice was welcomed by many friends, making him famous. Before Chou Shen became famous for this program, he had already gained fame on the YY online platform, and at that time, he used the internet name Kabulat.

Conclusion

That’s a wrap on our Top 10 Memes of the Month! From laughs to social discussions, these memes collectively played a huge role in shaping the digital culture we all engage with daily. They didn’t just entertain; they influenced, provoked thought, and even inspired.

Keep an eye out for emerging trends and hot topics as we move into the next month. The landscape of memes is ever-changing, and who knows what intriguing themes we’ll be discussing in our next countdown.

Until then, keep scrolling and keep sharing—the next big meme might just be a click away!