Internet meme trends trace origins to social media and animation

Various internet memes have gained traction through social media platforms like Twitter and Tumblr. One notable trend originated in 2019 when Fox News contributor Dana Perino posted a photo of homemade queso on Twitter during Super Bowl LIII. The post led to widespread mockery and subsequent parodies where users paired her caption, ‘I made queso’, with visually absurd or grotesque images.

Another viral format, ‘I know he ate a cheese’, emerged from Tumblr in 2015. The meme utilizes a screen capture from a 1952 Tom and Jerry short, showing the character Jerry shaped like a triangular block of cheese. The humor relies on the mismatch between the flat, defensive caption and the obvious visual evidence of the character's cheese-like form.