“John is Kill” refers to a copypasta story that is meant to survey what people were doing at the time of the Beatles singer-songwriter John Lennon’s death on December 8th, 1980. The story, which is marked by improper English grammar and spelling errors, has inspired a number of variations featuring other deceased celebrities and musicians in substitute of the English rock star. In December 2019, "Club Pengiun Is Kil" version of the copypasta gained popularity.

2026 Minneapolis ICE Shooting refers to the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis, Minnesota by an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agent as she allegedly attempted to drive away from a group of agents. A video of the incident went viral on Wednesday January 7th, 2025, the day the incident took place. In the video, an ICE agent is seen attempting to open the driver's side door of a van and the van is seen driving off. Another agent fires several times into the van, which then veers off and stops. The incident took place during a notable increase in ICE presence in the city regarding the city's Somali population. The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. President Donald Trump defended the incident as self defense, which the mayor of Minneapolis disagreed with. The incident inspired widespread reactions online.

Cristina Méndez Orbology Videos refers to a series of viral videos by content creator Cristina Méndez, aka @xstinamendez, where she gives lessons on a fictional religion / movement known as "orbology," based around a mysterious artifact called "the orb." The videos have been compared to a form of hypnosis, with Méndez repeating phrases, including a high-pitched "yeah" and the phrase "mi look," and dancing in a hypnotic manner. Méndez started posting the videos in late December 2025 and they garnered virality on TikTok and X / Twitter over the following weeks, inspiring reactions.

Planet Fitness Transgender In Women's Bathroom Incident, also known as Planet Fitness Trans Person Masturbating In Women's Bathroom Video, refers to a controversy that stemmed from a viral public freakout video originally shared in mid-May 2025, which depicts an altercation between a woman who recorded a trans person in the women's locker room bathroom seemingly masturbating and then confronting them with staff. The clip of the incident garnered attention online in early January 2026 after a series of X / Twitter posts resurfaced the clip and criticized Planet Fitness, resulting in backlash against the company and viral debates regarding transgender bathroom usage online, as well as widespread media coverage.

Microslop is a slang term and meme, a portmanteau of "Microsoft" and "slop," that was popularized online in early January 2026 as a way to mock Microsoft for its push toward AI in its products. The term itself has existed online for far longer, as early as 2005, but its widespread usage to poke fun at Microsoft's proclivity for AI did not emerge until the mid-2020s during the rise of artificial intelligence, particularly after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella complained in a blog post about the use of the slang "slop" for AI in late December 2025.

Kaboom Kablow, also known as Rest In Peace My Granny, She Got Hit By A Bazooka, refers to the song "Bazooka" by rapper Miami XO. The song, which features lyrics where the rapper mourns the death of his grandmother by bazooka, was released on December 29th, 2025 across streaming platforms. It went viral over the following days on sites including TikTok and X / Twitter for its absurd lyrics, inspiring memes and reactions.

Trump Trans Weightlifter Impression or Trump Ahegao Face is a series of memes, including image macros and photoshops, based on a video of U.S. President Donald Trump doing an impression of a transgender weightlifter during a January 2026 speech at the Trump-Kennedy Center as part of a House GOP member retreat. A clip of the impression went viral on social media on January 6th, 2026 and inspired memes that day, some of which compare Trump's face while doing the impression to an ahegao face.

Choppelganger is a slang term describing someone who looks like a chopped version of you, meaning they look less attractive. The term began spreading online as early as May 2025 on X / Twitter, becoming increasingly popular over the following months on sites including TikTok and X. The term is a portmanteau of the words "chopped" and "doppelganger."

Chicken Screaming On Tree or Rooster Screaming is an exploitable series of memes based on an image of a chicken standing at the top of a tree paired with a screaming sound effect, as if the chicken is making the sound. The image of the chicken in the tree started going viral in mid-November 2025 and was paired with the screaming sound in late December of that year. As a meme, the screaming chicken is often attached to the end of clips to denote that the clip is cringeworthy or painful to watch.

Piper Perri Surrounded, also known as the White Couch Meme, refers to a series of object labeled and photoshopped image macros of adult film star Piper Perri sitting on a white couch and five Black men standing behind her. Online, the image is labeled to express willful ignorance of an overwhelming series of problems.

Where Did You Find the NES for Nintendo Switch is a viral video of a child pointing to a section of a multimedia art piece depicting Saint Carlo Acutis made out of pieces of technology and asking in a thick accent, "Where did you find the NES for Nintendo Switch? I have been trying to find the Wii U for years." The video was posted by TikToker @johnnyvrba10 in October 2025 and went viral on the app in late December 2025, becoming the subject of memes throughout January 2026, including accuracy reenactment memes, recreations, brainrot edits and more.

Steve Harrington Drawing or Steve Harrington Car Drawing is a reaction image meme based on a drawing of Steve Harrington from Stranger Things driving the show's main characters in his van with his hand on the side of his head and fingers on his temple, as if annoyed. The drawing is based on a scene from Stranger Things season five, episode two and was created by artist Ayisha Zeba in December 2025. The drawing was popularized as a meme throughout late December 2025 and early January 2026.

I Think I'm Gonna Die in This House are lyrics from the Charli xcx pop song "House," which became the source of memes and edits amid a trend in late 2025 and early 2026. The trend, which uses the song and its lyrics as they appear on screen over footage, began appearing in numerous edits shortly after its release in mid-November 2025, spreading over the following months. While some of the memes are more serious and somber in tone, they later became more absurd and humorous by using the song's lyrics over funnier clips from TV shows, movies and other media. The trend later solidified into using the lyrics "I think I'm gonna die in this house…" first in a white text caption, followed by "House" appearing in red text.

Grok AI Undressing People Controversy or Grok Generating Explicit Images Controversy refers to viral backlash against X / Twitter's Grok AI being allowed to generate sexually explicit images of various people, including minors and children, in late December 2025 and early January 2026. The controversy began when different users started using Grok to alter images of women on X by requesting the AI to remove clothing or generate photos of them in revealing outfits, particularly bikinis. As backlash spread against Grok and Elon Musk leading into early 2026 over the "digital stripping" incidents, Musk appeared to poke fun at the complaints, further enraging many. Grok itself later posted an apology about the incident involving minors, with many of the AI-generated images being removed from the site. In the following days, France, India and Malaysia then threatened legal action against Musk and xAI.

J.D. Vance's Home Vandalized refers to reports that the Ohio home of Vice President J.D. Vance was vandalized with a hammer by a 26-year-old man named William DeFoor, who was detained on January 5th, 2026. The story went viral that day along with DeFoor's mugshot, resulting in reactions and memes, as well as attempts to learn more about DeFoor and his motivations, with some misinformation about DeFoor spreading.

Conformity Gate is a fan theory hypothesizing that there is a secret ninth and final episode of Stranger Things season five that will be released on Netflix on January 7th, 2025, offering the true ending to the series. The theory started going viral on social media on January 1st, 2026 and is based on the idea that all of the main characters "conformed" to their expected roles in the finale episode, the idea being that the events of the eighth episode are simply being shown to the characters by Vecna. The theory was pushed by fans of the unrealized "Byler" ship between Mike Wheeler and Will Byers, suggesting that the two will end up together in the true ending.

Eye of Horus refers to a NicheTok meme and image of a Black man with a single blue dreadlock sticking up straight in the air, who's been photoshopped to have one eye like a cyclops. The brainrot meme, part of a series of Hood Lobotomy videos and Hood Cryptids on TikTok, depicts a man named Rashad Bowens (@kingshiphorus on TikTok), the same person from the Eye of Rah meme. The meme is intended to be a sequel to the Eye of Rah, which went viral a year prior in early 2025. TikTok user koair6213 created the original edit that gave Bowens the name "Eye of Horus," aiming for it to be a "new niche meme" and the "first niche meme of 2026." As it trended in late December 2025 and early January 2026, the forced meme spawned a series of brainrot and sludge content videos as it spread online.

The 2025 Capture of Nicolás Maduro refers to a U.S. military operation "Absolute Resolve" in Caracas, Venezuela on January 3rd, 2026 involving the bombing of Caracas and several military targets, as well as the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, with the U.S. reportedly temporarily taking charge of the country. In the months prior, tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela had been growing, with the U.S. attacking boats said to be carrying drugs from Venezuela and blockading oil tankers. Oil was also a major factor in the operation. Reportedly, the U.S. launched the operation and captured Maduro after he and his wife were indicted on major drug‑trafficking and weapons charges, including charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation conspiracy. Maduro pleaded "not guilty" to the charges laid out before him. Maduro's capture inspired many reactions and memes, with many defending President Trump's actions and others condemning them. Online, many Venezuelans were noted to be celebrating Maduro's capture. An AI-generated image of Maduro being arrested started spreading online, becoming the subject of redraws, along with a real photo of Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima, shared by Trump on Truth Social.

Urgente – Cayo Maduro – Capturado!, also known as Nicolás Maduro Being Arrested Redraws, is an AI-generated image of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro being escorted by two DEA agents following his capture by the U.S. in early January 2026 that was shown on a YouTube livestream of Bowery Newsroom. The image and underlying caption have received several fan edits by Latin American groups on Facebook and Twitter / X as it spread further online and became a redraw meme format in the days following the event. Meme creators typically redraw the original by swapping out Maduro and the two men escorting him for various pop culture characters.

Skeleton Banging Shield or Rahhhhh is an exploitable meme format used in video edits and image macros based on an animation of a skeleton from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim yelling and banging on a shield. The skeleton's animation was uploaded online as early as 2014 and paired with the shouting sound effect as early as October 2025, when YouTuber robparx uploaded the meme. It became the increasing subject of memes in December 2025, leading into January 2026.

A shocking video recently squeezed through TikTok's moderation and it's being called the "December 29 incident." Here's what you need to know.

Franklin Will Eventually Show Up To Defend His Home is a brainrot meme based on a Grand Theft Auto V fact video that shares a fake secret about the game claiming that if you shoot rockets at Franklin's home while playing as Trevor, Franklin will eventually show up to defend his home. The video was uploaded by TikToker @gtasecrets_x02 in late October 2025 and became the subject of memes in late December leading into January 2026. As a meme, the clip of the text-to-speech narrator saying, "Franklin will eventually show up to defend his home" is added over other clips, and the video is recreated.

2025 was… a lot. From AI hitting mildly terrifying levels to political chaos and peak brainrot, one thing never stopped: the wacky stories. In this video, we count down the Top 5 Wackiest Stories of 2025 that had the internet completely losing it: #5 RaptureTok: TikTokers predicting the world would end on September 23rd…

The "May the Force Be With You" TikTok Video or "May the Force Be With You" Incident refers to a gay adult comedy video that went viral on TikTok in late December 2025 in which a man walks in on another man pleasuring himself, says "May the force by with you," then the man pleasuring himself uses force powers to make the man who walked in get an erection and ejaculate. The video is by TikToker and OnlyFans content creator Chriss Wade (@chriss_wade) and was uploaded to the app as early as December 29th, but purportedly not by Wade himself. The video inspired memes and reactions over the following days.

Jeffrey Epstein Edits refers to fancam-style, often AI-assisted video edits revolving around and often ironically glazing up deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein edits began appearing online as early as January 2024 and saw a boost in virality in December 2025 surrounding the release of the redacted Epstein files. Some of the edits are set to slowed down or otherwise remixed versions of "Boss" by Lil Pump and the "EFN" song.