1. Kangana Ranaut On Aap Ki Adalat
Friend, vacationing in Prague: "Dude what's up, where are you these days" Me, sitting at my work desk:
There was a month-long period in 2017 when it seemed like you couldn't turn around without seeing Kangana Ranaut and Hrithik Roshan air their increasingly dirty laundry in front of the media.
While almost no good came out of that spat, we did get a pretty hilarious meme based solely off quotes that Ranaut gave during her tell-all interview on Aap Ki Adalat.
2. The Trivago Guy
3. Link Aadhaar
#SolarEclispe2017
If you switched your phone on for even a second in 2017, chances are that it was bombarded by a gazillion SMSs and notifications asking you to link your Aadhaar card to every aspect of your life. From service providers to banks, from Amazon to Paytm, it seemed like you couldn't take a breath without someone prompting you to link your Aadhaar first.
With its validity still being debated in court, memes were the only way a lot of people could express their frustration. And, man alive, has this meme stuck around or what!
4. "Myself Coming From Village Area"
When you order 10 drinks on an international flight just because they're free...
Half Girlfriend may have been one of the year's more dismal films, but this single line of dialogue spawned one of our most enduring memes.
Arjun Kapoor plays a simple guy who moves from a tiny village to the big city, and his honest confession about his small-town roots gave plenty of people the opportunity to unleash some self-deprecating (albeit elitist) jokes.
5. Distracted Boyfriend
6. Exasperating Farrago
Voldemort: Avada kedavra, Expelliarmus. S Tharoor: Exasperating farrago of distortions, misrepresentations and outright lies. Volde: ded.
That Shashi Tharoor has a way with words is no secret. But, during an angry Twitter rant about some alleged lies Arnab Goswami was peddling about him, Tharoor found out that there is a line between eloquence and self-parody. That line, as the internet was kind enough to point out, was the needlessly complex phrase "exasperating farrago".
Whatever you make of his politics, you can't deny that the man singlehandedly expanded the Indian internet's vocabulary in 2017.
7. Covfefe
8. Nagar Palika Ko Bulao
9. Dank Irrfan
In May, All India Bakchod got the legendary Irrfan Khan to recreate a bunch of the internet's most popular memes. It didn't take long for the concept to catch on, with Dank Irrfan images now arguably becoming more popular on the Indian internet than the originals themselves.
10. Snapchat's Dog Filter
11. Hiding From A Serial Killer
12. Meryl Streep Singing
13. Ishant Face
If Monday morning had a face.
During a tense spell in the India-Australia test match in Bengaluru earlier this year, Ishant Sharma chose to diffuse things by mocking the faces that the batsmen were making in trying to fend off his bouncers.
While India went on to win the match, it was Ishant who won the internet.
14. Sonu Nigam Going Bald
New fast and furious member.
On an otherwise uneventful morning in April, an annoyed Sonu Nigam tweeted that he was being woken up by the loudspeakers at a mosque near his house. All hell broke loose, as a cleric declared a reward of ₹10 lakh for anyone who shaved Nigam's head for offending religious sentiments.
What followed was the most surreal press conference of all time, as Sonu Nigam gathered the media and got his head shaved clean himself, insisting that he wasn't anti-Muslim. He never saw the money, but he did instantly become pretty badass in the internet's eyes.
It's all especially hilarious when you consider the fact that all the guy wanted was some sleep.
15. Out-Of-Context Kaun Banega Crorepati
16. The Floor Is Lava
New day, new maymay.
Based on that age-old childhood game, this meme originated in the US as a riff on all the things and responsibilities people wanted to avoid. Turns out there were a lot of people avoiding stuff in India too.
17. Deepak Sharma
Interviewer: Any achievements in life? Deepak Sharma:
In August, a man by the name of Deepak Sharma released a disturbing video in which he was seen beating someone up. He angrily warned anyone watching that these were the consequences of making memes that made fun of religion. He also rattled off a sizeable list of his educational qualifications for those who might think of him as just an unintelligent goon.
While the police promised to take action against Sharma, the internet turned him into the very thing he was rallying against – a meme.
18. Salt Bae
19. Andha Naal
When salary gets credited.
Halfway through 2017, someone unearthed this immensely memeable still from the 1950 Tamil movie Andha Naal. As one can see, it lends itself perfectly to a vast array of relatable situations, and it's no surprise that this meme is still going strong.
20. "Selfie Maine Le Li Aaj"
21. "Bol Na Aunty Aau Kya"
22. Pennywise Baiting People
23. Blinking White Guy
24. Spoke To My Ex After 10 Years
25. Baahubali 2
26. Koi Nahi Aayega
27. Aise Kaise
Me: Aaj se gym chaalu Laziness:
This black and white still of Raj Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman mid-dance, combined with a hilariously inappropriate phrase, was perfect for any situation that demanded the response "Are you serious?"
Instant classic.
28. Roll Safe
29. Biswa Kalyan Rath's Introvert Joke
30. Priyanka Chopra's MET Gala Outfit
This is the 3rd time I'm removing malai from my chai and it's getting out of hand now.
Priyanka Chopra's style choices have often been lauded, but the Ralph Lauren trench coat/gown she wore to this year's MET Gala lent itself pretty seamlessly to some extremely amusing photoshop jobs.
Chopra has some high meme standards to live up to at next year's event.
31. Mahendra Stretch Dhoni
32. "Wear Helmet At The Back"
33. Motu Patlu
34. "Malhari" Mashups
View this video on YouTube
2017 was the year Reddit's American users inexplicably became obsessed with Ranveer Singh's high-energy video for "Malhari", two years after Bajirao Mastani first released. They deemed that his intense moves were perfect to mash up with hip-hop tracks, and the results were glorious.
(Though, it must be said that my personal favourite, and the most absurd, "Malhari" mashup was this one from comedian Chris D'Elia, which had nothing to do with hip-hop or any other genre of music.)
35. Prayer Aunty
