Top Memes of 2025…….You ever measure time in memes instead of months? Like, “oh yeah, that was during the Grimace Shake era” or “remember when everybody was NPC streaming”? That’s literally how my brain works. I could forget my cousin’s birthday (sorry, Raj) but I can tell you exactly when the “crying cat at dinner table” meme peaked.
This year—2025—the internet decided to go full chaos mode. And I loved every second of it. This list of top memes of 2025 that took over the internet is not some official ranking (I’m not the meme police). It’s just me, your Queens neighbor, sitting here with a cold coffee, reminiscing about all the dumb, glorious internet moments that wasted my time and healed my soul.
1. The NPC Streamer Apocalypse
I swear this one felt like a glitch in real life. People on TikTok pretending to be NPCs in a video game—repeating the same catchphrases when viewers sent them gifts. “Ice cream so good, yes yes yes.” At first, I thought: there’s no way people actually watch this. Next thing I know, I’m four hours deep into some guy in Brooklyn acting like a cowboy NPC stuck in a loading screen.
I even caught my little cousin trying it at Thanksgiving. “Turkey leg, yummy yummy!” My aunt nearly threw the gravy at him.
2. AI Song Mashups That Shouldn’t Exist but Do
If you’ve never heard SpongeBob singing Adele, are you even living in 2025? AI covers went from “haha, funny” to “wait, why does this slap??” in about two weeks.
My favorite? Someone made Shrek sing Taylor Swift’s Love Story and I… actually teared up. No shame. Imagine explaining that to your therapist.
The internet just decided—every cartoon, politician, and random celebrity was fair game. I even heard a mashup of Obama singing “Barbie Girl.” Disturbing. Beautiful. I saved it anyway.
3. Subway Pigeons: The Commuter Kings
Queens has pigeons, but the subway pigeons are built different. They own the trains now. People caught them just casually hopping on the F train like commuters, waiting for their stop. One video showed a pigeon looking more stressed than half the riders—head bobbing, side-eyeing, like it had bills to pay.
I showed it to my neighbor Sal and he goes, “That’s me on Mondays.” Accurate.
4. The “Doomscroll Dance”
This one hit too close to home. People literally made a TikTok dance where you’re just slumped over your phone, fake crying, then snapping into a dance move when bad news hits. It was equal parts funny and painfully real.
Like, yes, let me laugh while slowly rotting on my couch at 1 a.m. scrolling through chaos. Relatable doesn’t even cover it.
5. “Side-Eye Cat” Becomes Royalty
There’s always a cat meme of the year, right? This time it was the Side-Eye Cat. A fluffy gray one caught looking at its owner like “you absolute clown.” The internet ran with it—slapped captions on everything from bad date stories to failed cooking experiments.
I saw one with the cat side-eyeing a burnt lasagna and almost spit out my bodega sandwich.
6. Unexpected Celebrity Memes
Every year, some random celeb accidentally becomes meme royalty. In 2025, it was… Martha Stewart. I don’t even know how. She did this face at an award show—kinda smug, kinda “I know something you don’t.” Twitter (sorry, X, whatever) exploded.
Now every mildly sassy response gets paired with Martha’s face. My group chat uses it like punctuation.
7. Relatable Tech Meltdowns
Autocorrect has been ruining lives since forever, but 2025 brought it to a new level. The meme format? Screenshots of absurd “smart” suggestions. My favorite: someone typed “I’m on my way” and autocorrect switched it to “I’m omnipotent.”
Honestly, maybe that’s a power move.
8. Throwback Vines Still Alive and Kicking
It’s been years, but somehow Vine memes just won’t die. This year, people started remaking classic Vine moments in HD TikTok form. That “road work ahead” kid? Someone tracked him down as an adult and filmed a sequel. Full circle. I cried.
Memes are basically reincarnation at this point.
9. “AI Boyfriend” Text Screenshots
Another cursed but hilarious trend—people posting fake AI boyfriend/girlfriend texts. Stuff like:
Me: “I’m sad.”
AI: “Installing hug.exe 🤗”
Half the time it’s sweet. Half the time it’s nightmare fuel. But somehow, the comments section always has people saying “I’d date him fr.” Internet, please.
10. Random Food Chaos
Food memes are unstoppable. In 2025, it was “Croissant Man.” Some poor dude ate a croissant on live TV in the loudest crunchiest way possible. The internet remixed it with beats, looped it into songs, and suddenly Croissant Man was everywhere.
I swear, I heard it blasting from a car in Jackson Heights.
Why These Memes Work (aka my fake TED Talk moment)
They’re dumb and quick. They’re universal. Everyone’s stressed, broke, or overworked, and then boom—a pigeon with subway anxiety shows up in your feed. You laugh for five minutes and somehow life feels slightly less crushing.
That’s why memes stick. Not because they’re smart or polished—but because they’re weird little moments that remind us to not take life so seriously.
The Group Chat Spiral: Top Memes of 2025
Let me just say: memes hit differently in group chats.
- One person drops Side-Eye Cat.
- Another adds Martha Stewart face.
- Suddenly it’s 58 memes deep and no one remembers the original topic.
That’s my favorite internet experience. The chaos, the nonsense, the way it just snowballs until your cheeks hurt from laughing.
Outbound Links Worth Clicking
- Know Your Meme — the Wikipedia of memes, and yes, it’s still alive.
- Subway Creatures on Instagram — because pigeons deserve their spotlight.
Wrapping My Brain Around 2025 Memes
I should be embarrassed that I know more about Croissant Man than world politics right now. But honestly? I’m not.
Memes are how I survive Queens traffic, late-night deadlines, and the eternal doom of my laundry pile. They’re dumb little lifelines. And 2025 gave us some of the best yet.
So yeah, that’s my round-up of the top memes of 2025 that took over the internet. Will we remember them in 2030? Probably not. But for now, they’re ours. And honestly—that’s enough.