With a series as popular as The Walking Dead (2010), the horde of memes it has spawned is just as numerous as the hordes of walkers. Or the times Rick calls for his son Coral.
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General
- CORAL.
- A bit of Fridge Logic that went memetic: how does the grass stay perfectly cut during the zombie apocalypse?◊
- If Daryl dies, we riot. When Carol exploded in popularity in Season 5, there's also a "If Carol dies, we riot" meme going around as well.
- The addition of a dog to the cast has spawned, "If Dog dies, we riot" as well.
- Lemme ask you sump'n!
- Daryl and Abraham are the core Fountains of Memes among the cast.
- Some characters like Bob or Jesus are also the sources of a Hurricane of Puns.
- Hershel has the cheat code manual for the apocalypse, after he had Bottomless Magazines in the Season 2 finale and could easily drive missing a leg in late Season 3.
- "X is better mom than Lori." A jab at Lori's Scrappy status and her trouble in taking care of her son. Usually accompanied with a picture of character who isn't Rick or Carl babysitting Judith, the character is almost always male such as Daryl, Tyreese, or Negan. For female characters, there are Beth, Carol, Lizzie, or Michonne. A variant of the meme is "better driver than Lori", thanks to her crashing a car at one point.
- Various jokes about how beardless characters become bearded (or growing hair in other body parts) after some time passed, such as how Daryl will be like Chewbacca in Season 20-ish. When Rick had his beard for the first time, some fans joke that he tracked down the inexplicably-not-so-dead Jim to borrow his beard.
- "Everyone/Nearly everyone in this scene is dead now." or something along those lines is a common comment left in the comment section of scenes from the show that are posted on YouTube to highlight the ever Dwindling Party status of the show's characters.
- The Memetic Loser status of horses due to them always suffering horrible deaths on the show. Sometimes people joke about how they felt more sorry for the horses dying than a minor character or an unpopular character. A savvy fan will start to dread what terrible fate awaits a horse whenever one is seen on-screen. Things get bad enough that by Season 11, half an episode is devoted to finding Alexandria’s lost horses. About half of them are shown to have been eaten by walkers, with the last four being returned to Alexandria… where Carol is forced to slaughter one of the horses for meat to feed the starving community.
Season 1
- "DON'T DEAD. OPEN INSIDE." Explanation
- Ohhhhhhhhhh!
Season 2
- There are more than a few variations of "Stay in the Fucking House, Carl!"◊ floating around.
- If we don't post the Dale Face meme, we're no better than the walkers◊. Seriously, just type "Dale Face" on your browser search.
- "Sorry, brother."◊ note
- "Stop acting like you know the way ahead, like you know the rules. There are no rules, man. We're lost."Explanation
- "What is that? What is that?"Explanation
Season 3
- Hershel's resemblance to Santa Claus with his new beard.
- I'm doin' stuff, Lori. Thiiiiinnnnnnnnnngs.◊
- Rick's terrible dad jokes, spawned from the infamous Narm scene.
Season 4
- Hershel's proposal of having Spaghetti Tuesday every Wednesday has become a Pop Culture Holiday.
- Daryl vs Tank. Daryl wins.
- "112 ounces of pudding."
- "Just look at the flowers."
- "Claimed!"
- Rick's "Murder Jacket" aka Savage Rick is born. note
Season 5
- Bob-BQ, after Bob Stookey is taken by the Hunters.
- Here lies Abraham's hopes and dreams.note
- Everybody Hates Noah, reflecting Noah's Scrappy status after only being in the show for a few episodes. Other fans who didn’t hate him have been known to call him “Everybody Hates Chris” as if that’s his actual name!
- "Everybody ate Chris!"
- "Who's Deanna?!" This reached Ascended Meme status a year later when Abraham demands to know "Who's Negan?!", just for the fans.
- "...or you can have cookies!"
- Rick got Mich-OWNED. note "Mich-OWNED" has also gone on to be a meme basically anytime Michonne takes someone down.
- "Morganangello" note , a reference to Morgan's sudden ninja skills. He also gets compared to a Jedi or Sith, especially the latter since "Darth Morgan" sounds more like "Darth Maul". He's also gotten comparisons to Rafiki, especially after he fights off numerous enemies that surround him with his stick (helped by the fact that said enemies cackle like hyenas when they kill people).
Season 6
- An absurd amount of eye-puns have spawned all over the Internet in regard to Carl's Eye Scream after "No Way Out."
- Because of what happened to Glenn in "Thank You", some fans have jokingly elevated the dumpster to Memetic Badass status, and it is now a Running Gag to say that Nicholas died rather than whatever person is being killed onscreen, and that said person survived due to the assistance of a dumpster.
- "Sex was so good, we saw Jesus." A joke about Rick and Michonne's Relationship Upgrade and how Jesus (the character) suddenly bursts into their room after they had done the deed.
- "Negan's Angels." A nickname for the group of mostly-female Saviors challenging Rick's group during "The Same Boat."
- "[X] belongs to Negan."
- The iconic scene in the Season 6 finale has spawned quite a few memes.
- "OMG, Negan kills the cameraman!". Thanks to the episode ending in a Cliffhanger with the execution only being shown through the victim's P.O.V. Cam.
- "Negan was really killing a squirrel, a spider, a dumpster, etc."
- "Negan didn't kill anybody. If you look closely, you'll see Nicholas' body fall down in front of the bat.".
Season 7
- Plenty of baseball memes to go around now that the cliffhanger has been resolved.
- Even more eye-related puns following Glenn's Eye Scream after Negan strikes him with Lucille. Such as comparing him to Sloth.
- Several fans have joked that Daryl will be forced to play slave Leia to Negan's Jabba the Hutt. This got some traction when in "The Cell", Daryl is shown to have been stripped and left naked in his cell for days, and the revelation about Negan's Paid Harem.
- "Easy Street".note
- Negan's Spaghetti.note
- The totally real, 100% not fake deer. Explanation
- [X] Looks more realistic than the deer. Explanation
- Jeffrey Lean Morgan. Explanation
- Ezikiel: Shiva, I told you to attack Negan! Shiva: He was Negan
- Negan flipping the bird◊ to the army attacking him as he flees in a truck has become a popular reaction image/GIF.
- Comparing Negan to Thanos due to him being a Hero Killer who demands "half" of everything from every community he and the Saviors subjugate.
- "Dooon't care, where's Rick?" Explanation
- The close-up of Rick's tear-stained face after Spencer and Olivia's deaths in "Hearts Still Beating" has become a popular reaction GIF.
Season 8
- "I'M A GOD DAMN CAT!" Explanation
- "You know what it is." Explanation
- To a lesser extent "You were supposed to!" Explanation
- After Simon's death, many Grand Theft Auto V jokes were created, due to the actor having a role in this show, and the aforementioned video game.
- Editing the death scene by placing the red words "Wasted" when Simon's windpipe is snapped.
Season 9
- After Glenn and Maggie's baby was born, there are few jokes about how young Hershel has his father's eyes.
- In "The Obliged", When Rick is thrown off his horse and impaled onto rebar, many believed the horse did that as revenge for Rick accidentally leaving a horse to a walker herd in the very first episode. It escalated to the point where there were theories that the panicked horse was actually the pilot horse's brother or uncle.
- Rick is Joel. Explanation
- The shot of Daryl crying after Rick seemingly dies in "What Comes After" quickly became popular for captioning◊ and reaction memes.
- Is Aaron the new Rick? Explanation
- Carol's long white hair post-Time Skip has drawn comparisons to Legolas and Daenerys.
- The moment where one of the attacking walkers in "Evolution" was revealed to be a human wearing the skin of a zombie immediately drew connections to Scooby-Doo's unmaskings.
- Everyone had a field day using the following exchange to sum up Michonne killing a bunch of kids in "Scars".Jedi Child: Master Michonne. There are too many of them, what are we going to do?
[Michonne immediately activates her lightsaber in front of the terrified children]- Some also commented that the children were like animals, so Michonne slaughtered them like animals because she hated them.
- Alternatively, people also noted that Michonne didn't bring any flowers for this scene.
- Ozzy never got to see that movie... Explanation
- Saddest pike death ever. Explanation
- He's up there watching that movie in peace.
- Benjamin and Carl didn't die for this.Explanation
- Relase (the) Negan! Explanation
- Winter is coming/here. Explanation
Season 10
- That deer could have fed 200 people. Explanation
- “This could’ve been in an email”. note