Trending memes this week

These are the trending memes in the United States as of Oct 18, 2026: 20 memes that started, or came back with a new wave, in the last three months, ranked by Google search interest. Each of these trending memes has a page that explains what it means and where it came from.

  1. Trending meme #1 · Past peak · Search interest 100/100 · ▲ 3%

    Jimothy the Raccoon

    Jimothy the Raccoon is a wild raccoon in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood with an unusually short, round body; vets say he likely has a rare condition called short spine syndrome.

  2. Trending meme #2 · Rising · Search interest 60/100 · ▼ 10%

    Biddy Blas (Scrib Doon)

    Biddy Blas is a crocodile-faced alien racer from the video game Star Wars: Galactic Racer whose line "Scrib doon," alien for "write it down," went viral the day the game came out on October 6, 2026.

  3. Trending meme #3 · Peak · Search interest 21/100 · ▲ 6%

    K-Pop Demon Hunters Costume Trend

    The K-Pop Demon Hunters costume is the No.

  4. Trending meme #4 · Peak · Search interest 20/100 · 0%

    Nicole Kidman Song Trend

    The Nicole Kidman song trend is a lip-sync and outfit-reveal format on TikTok set to "Nicole Kidman", a track by Slovak singer ADÉLA from her debut album PRIMA.

  5. Trending meme #5 · Rising · Search interest 20/100 · 0%

    Skyler Gisondo Smiling Meme

    The Skyler Gisondo Smiling meme is a reaction image of actor Skyler Gisondo grinning on a red carpet in 2015, captioned with oddly specific guesses about what kind of guy he is, like someone who can do a crazy trick on the trampoline.

  6. Trending meme #6 · Past peak · Search interest 18/100 · ▼ 23%

    Quiet on the Creek Meme

    The Quiet on the Creek meme is a phrase from rapper Saucy Santana that means keep it low-key: don't announce good news or plans until they're done.

  7. Trending meme #7 · Past peak · Search interest 17/100 · ▼ 4%

    Ain't In LA Trend

    The Ain't In LA trend is a TikTok format where people use ADÉLA's song "Ain't In LA" and swap Los Angeles for their own hometown, school or job, saying someone has to hold it down there.

  8. Trending meme #8 · Past peak · Search interest 17/100 · ▼ 44%

    La Peace Meme

    The La Peace meme comes from Kai Cenat and IShowSpeed's five-day Minecraft Hardcore stream, where Speed thought he had found diamonds and Cenat said the block was lapis in a way that sounds like "la peace." TikTok edits from August 16, 2026 recast the famously loud streamer as a serene monk or Greek philosopher, and kids carried it back to school in September.

  9. Trending meme #9 · Past peak · Search interest 13/100 · ▼ 56%

    Gucci Morty Meme

    The Gucci Morty meme is an edited image of Morty Smith from Rick and Morty with short dark hair, skinny jeans, a Gucci T-shirt and a calm, unbothered face.

  10. Trending meme #10 · Peak · Search interest 11/100 · ▼ 4%

    Flying Car Meme (We Got Flying Cars Before GTA 6)

    The flying car meme is the October 2026 wave of "we got X before GTA 6," built on the line "we got flying cars before GTA 6." On October 15, 2026, Rockstar released the GTA 6 launch trailer without warning, and hours later Tesla's Roadster demo in Texas showed the car launching off a ramp and flipping over a row of cars.

  11. Trending meme #11 · Peak · Search interest 10/100 · 0%

    Bulin 47 Dame Hombro Trend

    The Bulin 47 Dame Hombro trend comes from a street freestyle: outside a restaurant in Spain, creator Kevin Wai stopped Dominican dembow artist Bulin 47 with a portable speaker, and Bulin answered with rhymes and a dance.

  12. Trending meme #12 · Past peak · Search interest 9.1/100 · ▼ 9%

    Jean Phil (Jean Philanthrope)

    Jean Phil is a French internet character with a blond bob, a curled moustache and a brown houndstooth suit who shadowboxes with a straight face in parks, cafés and streets.

  13. Trending meme #13 · Peak · Search interest 7.6/100 · ▼ 26%

    Rumpelstiltskin Meme (Tip Toein' In My Jordans)

    The Rumpelstiltskin meme is an AI-made clip, styled like a 1980s dark-fantasy film, of a small imp tiptoeing and dancing in a barn, set to Riff Raff's song "Tip Toe Wing In My Jawwdinz".

  14. Trending meme #14 · Peak · Search interest 7.5/100 · ▼ 2%

    Remember November 2026 Is Coming (Polar Bear)

    "Remember, November 2026 is coming" is a meme in which an AI-made polar bear sings that warning to the tune of Oliver Tree's "Life Goes On." It brings back a 2023 TikTok image of the same bear, captioned in Russian as a November meme from 2026 "you won't understand yet." On August 28, 2026, TikToker @bigbakdiskk28 made the bear sing the line, and the video passed 980,000 views in two weeks.

  15. Trending meme #15 · Rising · Search interest 6.8/100 · ▲ 14%

    Scientists Reveal the Hi (Cat Meme)

    "Scientists reveal the hi" is a meme made to look like a BBC News thumbnail: an orange cat sits under a headline promising a scientific discovery, and the discovery is just "hi." It grew from a July 2025 dog picture captioned "Scientists reveal the secret," which Reddit users turned into a cat and, on May 28, 2026, into "the hi." In October 2026 it spread on Instagram and TikTok, and US searches climbed fast after Know Your Meme added it on October 15.

  16. Trending meme #16 · Rising · Search interest 6.2/100 · 0%

    Yung Lean Storm AI Trend

    The Yung Lean Storm AI trend is a wave of AI videos that remake a 30-second sequence from STORM, GENER8ION's short film starring Yung Lean, with a new person as the still figure at the center of a crowd of dancing schoolboys.

  17. Trending meme #17 · Peak · Search interest 6.1/100 · ▼ 10%

    AI Zombie Trend

    The AI zombie trend is a short AI video about two people: one has turned into a zombie, the other raises a gun but can't shoot, and the zombie hugs them instead before it cuts to a warm memory of the pair.

  18. Trending meme #18 · Peak · Search interest 5.7/100 · 0%

    Why Would I Deceive You Meme

    The Why Would I Deceive You meme is a reaction format from the teaser for You Can See Everything, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's A24 documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.

  19. Trending meme #19 · Rising · Search interest 5.6/100 · ▼ 7%

    AI Halloween Costume Trend

    The AI Halloween costume trend turns a photo of you into a costume preview: AI shows you dressed as a witch, a vampire, a skeleton or a pumpkin, often at a pumpkin-lit party, before you buy anything.

  20. Trending meme #20 · Rising · Search interest 5.3/100 · ▲ 6%

    Malfoid (Female Draco Malfoy)

    Malfoid is the internet's nickname for female Draco Malfoy, a gender-swapped, mostly anime-style version of Harry Potter's Slytherin rival drawn by fan artists.

How these trending memes are ranked: Google Trends, United States: search interest on Oct 17 (the last full day, UTC) for memes first seen, or back with a new wave, since July, all compared on one scale (100 = the most searched; smaller memes measured against a second anchor and rescaled). The change compares Oct 17 with Oct 16. How memes go viral, and how we rank them

Post the early and rising trending memes while they're fresh; the ones past their peak need your own twist.

Rising trending memes

Trending memes at their peak

Trending memes past their peak

Every edition of the board stays online at its own date, so you can see how trending memes rise and fall.

  1. Viral memes on Oct 18, 2026#1 Jimothy the Raccoon
  2. Viral memes on Oct 16, 2026#1 Jimothy the Raccoon
  3. Viral memes on Oct 14, 2026#1 Jimothy the Raccoon
  4. Viral memes on Oct 11, 2026#1 Jimothy the Raccoon

What are the trending memes right now?

As of Oct 18, 2026, the top trending memes in the US are Jimothy the Raccoon, Biddy Blas (Scrib Doon), and the K-Pop Demon Hunters Costume Trend. Search interest is highest for Jimothy the Raccoon, and the full list above ranks all 20 trending memes, each with a page that explains it.

What is the most trending meme today?

The most trending meme on Oct 18, 2026 is Jimothy the Raccoon. Jimothy the Raccoon is a wild raccoon in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood with an unusually short, round body; vets say he likely has a rare condition called short spine syndrome.

Which trending memes are growing fastest this week?

Of this week's trending memes, searches grew the most over 24 hours for Scientists Reveal the Hi (Cat Meme) (+14%), the K-Pop Demon Hunters Costume Trend (+6%), and Malfoid (Female Draco Malfoy) (+6%). A jump like that usually means a meme is still rising, which makes it a good one to post now.

What does trending memes mean?

Trending memes are memes that lots of people are posting and searching for right now, as opposed to classics everyone already knows. A meme trends when many people copy its picture, sound or phrase within days of each other. Trending memes rarely stay on top for long, which is why every list here carries a date.

Where do trending memes start?

18 of the 20 trending memes on this week's list spread on TikTok, according to their sources. A trending meme usually starts as one clip, one photo format or one line of dialogue that other people copy.

How do you find trending memes?

We find trending memes on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X and Reddit, in Know Your Meme's newsfeed and in rising Google searches, then rank them by US search interest on Google Trends. To spot trending memes yourself, notice the sounds and formats you keep seeing on your For You page, then search the phrase.

Are trending memes the same as popular memes?

Not quite. Popular memes include older staples people still search, such as 6-7 and mogging, while trending memes are the ones gaining the most attention right now. Only memes first seen, or back with a new wave, in the last three months can be on this list; the rest stay in the library of all memes.

How often does this list of trending memes change?

Each edition of the trending memes list is built from the last full day of Google search data (UTC) and shows the date and time it was updated. Past editions stay online at their own dates, under Trending memes by day.

Which trending memes use a song or a sound?

This week, the trending memes built on a song or a sound are the Nicole Kidman Song Trend, the Quiet on the Creek Meme, the Ain't In LA Trend, and Rumpelstiltskin Meme (Tip Toein' In My Jordans). Each of their pages says where the sound comes from and how people use it in their posts.

Can I download trending memes?

We don't offer downloads of other people's posts. Each trending meme page shows the original picture where we found it, credited, and links to its sources, where the original posts are; on TikTok and Instagram you can use a trending sound straight from the app.

Why do some memes become trending memes?

A meme trends when it is easy to copy, fits a feeling lots of people share and lands on a platform that rewards remixes. Our guide to how memes go viral walks through the five stages every trending meme moves through, with examples.