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Doge
In the great history of the internet, 2013 will be known as the Year of the Doge. The cute Shiba Inu that misspelled his internal monologue in Comic Sans captured everyone's heart for at least a few seconds these last few months (hey, that's all the time it takes on the internet). And that is why Doge – "dog" in his own special lexicon – is also the best meme of 2013.
He beat out some stiff competition, topping internet crack like Harlem Shake, [Intensifies], You Had One Job, Twerking (seriously, he beat twerking!), Attack on Titan Opening Parodies, Raise Your Dongers, Moon Moon, "The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)," and Actual Advice Mallard for the top honors, according to the results of a poll released today by the web wizards at Know Your Meme.
Well, that's not entirely true. Technically Brent Rambo, a child from a 1990s Apple commercial won Know Your Meme's Favorite Memes of 2013 poll, but he didn't win fairly. Thanks to scripts enlisted by 4chan's image board /b/ the results were rigged in Rambo's favor, so Know Your Meme had to do a recount. After tabulating the real votes, Doge was top dog. He was also No. 1 according to Know Your Meme's editorial staff.
"It has been an exciting year defined by not one but many motifs, some familiar and some new," said Know Your Meme editor Brad Kim. "And the big surprise of the year? A new king has been crowned in the animal meme-dom ... and it's not a cat!"
Click through our gallery above to find out what made 2013's best memes so darn cool.