--- title: Most Googled Memes of 2015 description: Most Googled memes of 2015 canonical: https://time.com/4150294/memes-googled-2015/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-16T12:00:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:50.536Z og:title: These Are the Most 'Googled' Memes of 2015 og:description: Not what you'd expect at all og:url: https://time.com/4150294/memes-googled-2015/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb7590ca4690994df/698778882dce0187e09dcccd/computer-hack-typing-keyboard-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: TIME.com stock photos Computer Keyboard Typing Hack og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Are the Most 'Googled' Memes of 2015 twitter:description: Not what you'd expect at all twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb7590ca4690994df/698778882dce0187e09dcccd/computer-hack-typing-keyboard-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # These Are the Most 'Googled' Memes of 2015 > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: 5 Elements of A Viral Video [Watch (HLS stream): 5 Elements of A Viral Video](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vgQtqA8c.m3u8) (1:31)  _Published 2015-06-22. 5 Elements of A Viral Video_  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Dec 16, 2015 12:00 PM UTC  Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Dec 16, 2015 12:00 PM UTC As part of Google’s annual [round-up](https://www.google.com/trends/story/2015%5FUS) of the people, places, and events that garnered the most attention on search in the U.S. in the past year, the search engine has identified the 10 memes that produced the greatest spikes in traffic over the longest period of time in 2015\. However, it seems like none of the terms below originated in 2015, perhaps a sign that these cultural references have longer life spans than we thought. Below is Google’s list. As for what the terms “Nothing much meme” and “Who Knows” really mean, the search results for them bring up so many results that are…well…nothing much, so…who knows? 1\. Pepe the frog (the frog from Matt Furie’s comic _Boy’s Club_ is an inside joke on the social network 4chan) 2\. Rickrolling (the practice of tricking readers by hyperlinking text with a YouTube video of “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley) 3\. Who Knows (search results bring up the shrug emoticon ¯\_(ツ)\_/¯) 4\. Florida Man (to search for any weird news happenings in the Sunshine State, also the name of a [Twitter account](https://twitter.com/%5FFloridaMan) that aggregates these items) 5\. O Rly (a [photo](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/o-rly) of a grinning snowy owl that looks like it is saying those words) 6\. Rick Astley (same as “rickrolling” above) 7\. Jontron (a [YouTube show](https://www.youtube.com/user/JonTronShow/about) that reviews games) 8\. Ceiling cat (a [photo](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ceiling-cat) of a cat peaking out from a hole in the ceiling) 9\. Bread meme (photos of bread that are supposed to be funny) 10\. 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