'It’s corn!' 'Dark Brandon' and 'girl explaining': A look at the most notable memes of 2022

Memes, for better or for worse, were there for all the highs and lows of 2022. Sometimes they made us cringe. Other times they helped us cope with the chaotic year of news. But most of the time, they kept "very online" people entertained.

This was a year when TikTok once again proved its might in terms of where some of the most prolific memes are born, said Don Caldwell, the editor-in-chief of the database Know Your Meme.

"In the earlier days of TikTok, the memes on there were kind of focused on trends and dance trends ... things that were not necessarily matching the memes you would find on other platforms," Caldwell said. "This year was different."

How? Memes on the platform "got a lot weirder,” he said, citing Quandale Dingle — a meme about a fictitious football player — as an example (you can read more about its weirdness on the Know Your Meme database).