Yahoo has released several lists of the top keywords that searchers were using in 2012. It ranked 5th for “Top Searched Meme.” These are things that go extremely viral and spread quickly over a short period of time. The term “Big Bird” became viral after one of the presidential debates between President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. During the debate funding of PBS was discussed and Big Bird’s name was mentioned. After the debate Presidential Obama’s campaign team then released a video that satirically discussed Mitt Romney getting tough with Big Bird. Many of the other memes listed are related to the 2012 presidential campaign. That complete list is below.
| Top-Searched Memes on Yahoo! in 2012: | ||||||
| 1 | [kony 2012] | |||||
| 2 | [binders full of women] | |||||
| 3 | [hurricane sandy fake storm photos] | |||||
| 4 | [ridiculously photogenic guy] | |||||
| 5 | [big bird] | |||||
| 6 | [dogshaming] | |||||
| 7 | [stingray photobomb] | |||||
| 8 | [eastwooding] | |||||
| 9 | [etch a sketch] | |||||
| 10 | [mckayla maroney is not impressed] | |||||