One of the most defining elements of any year is what memes became popular, and with 2024 officially over, the time has come to reflect on which memes were the most influential to some students at Norwalk.
2024 saw the continuation of the brain rot trend, where mindless and often nonsensical memes were spread around the internet. Examples of these according to the New York Times include the Oi Oi Oi larvae bug, the Evil Jonkler, and many memes generated by AI. But as brain rot reaches the mainstream, some Norwalk students became tired of the trend.
“My brain is rotted,” senior Aaron Ramirez said. “I don’t think brain rot is funny anymore and last year’s memes were 100% better.”
Junior Ari Hastings agreed with Ramirez.
“The minute my parents start talking in brain rot means that the meme needs to end,” Hastings said.
A group of Norwalk Journalism students ran a poll to find Norwalk students favorite memes. Nearly 60 students were polled on what their favorite meme was in 2024, and responses were varied. eight memes received two or more votes for best meme, with the top responses being the hawk tuah meme popularized by podcaster Hailey Welch, and the low taper fade meme, referring to the male haircut that has “longer hair on top and a very short, to-the-skin cut at the neckline, with the length gradually shortening between them”
“The low taper fade changed my life,” Harrison Bice said. “I was in a dark place until I imagined Ninja – a popular Fortnite streamer – getting a low taper fade.” Bice said he has confidence that the meme will continue to be popular in 2025, as it is “still massive.”
Memes tend to originate online, often from other popular trends of the year. For instance, pop artist Charli XCX released her studio album entitled “Brat” earlier in June, sparking many memes describing objects or people as also being “Brat.” This ushered in what was known as “Brat Summer,” with even people like Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris getting in on the trend. This meme, however, seemed to resonate less with some high school students at Norwalk, as by the end of the year, only one student had mentioned it as their favorite meme.
Two Norwalk students said their favorite meme was the Will Levis meme. Levis is a Quarterback in the NFL that became a meme amassing more than 200 million views on social Media platform, TikTok. The Will Levis meme stemmed from Levis making questionable plays during his NFL games.
“I think the Will Levis meme is hilarious,” Hunter Newberg said. “Memes like that never fail to make my day, and I think more people should spend time looking at memes.”