TikTokers hatch plan to make memes great again.

2 hours ago7 min read

The digital zeitgeist is currently vibrating with a movement that feels both deeply nostalgic and utterly desperate—a collective cry from TikTok's creative trenches declaring that the Great Meme Depression of 2025 has officially overstayed its welcome. As we barrel toward 2026, a faction of internet users, led by influencers like joebro909 and golden._vr, is orchestrating what they’re grandly calling The Great Meme Reset, a planned cultural insurrection set for December 31st, 2025, at 11:59 PM, designed to purge the platform of what they decry as 'AI slop' and 'brainrot humor' by resurrecting the golden era of 2016 internet culture. This isn't just a casual trend; it's a full-blown counteroffensive against the algorithm's relentless churn, a deliberate attempt to rewind the clock to a time when memes like Nyan Cat, the endlessly looping rainbow cat, and Harambe, the martyred gorilla, dominated the collective consciousness, all before TikTok even existed as a glint in a millennial's eye.The timing feels eerily prophetic, arriving in a moment when Elon Musk is threatening to resurrect Vine in some unsettling AI-powered form and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is backing a new six-second app reviving over 100,000 archived Vine clips, creating a perfect storm for classics like 'FRE SH AVOCADO' and 'Damn Daniel' to be introduced to a new generation. Yet, beneath the surface-level hype and the powerful pull of nostalgia for a seemingly simpler, pre-TikTok internet where memes evolved at a more human pace, lies a more profound and somewhat melancholic question: is the humor of 2010, with its Awkward Turtles and Annoying Oranges, genuinely superior, or are we simply romanticizing a past that can never truly be reclaimed? The rapid, cannibalistic nature of today's meme cycle, where even major events like the Conclave memes from earlier this year are quickly forgotten, creates a powerful longing for stability, but the cold, hard truth is that the algorithm is an insatiable beast that only moves forward.Trying to force it backward is a beautifully futile gesture, a digital Sisyphus pushing his rock up an infinite feed. Inevitably, the very act of promoting The Great Meme Reset as a trend will seal its fate, ensuring it soon joins the digital graveyard alongside Evil Kermit and Big Chungus, a poignant reminder of the internet's relentless, circular life where everything old is perpetually destined to become new again, if only for a fleeting, glorious moment before the next trend takes its place.

#internet memes

#TikTok

#nostalgia

#meme culture

#Great Meme Reset

#2016 memes

#AI slop

#featured

Stay Informed. Act Smarter.

Get weekly highlights, major headlines, and expert insights — then put your knowledge to work in our live prediction markets.

Comments

Loading comments...