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Best Squid Game memes: The Netflix show is serious, but these jokes are funny

We laugh because the hit show makes us cry.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper
3 min read
Squid Game Netflix
Netflix

The plot of the new Netflix drama Squid Game is nothing to laugh at. In the show, which might end up being the streaming service's biggest hit ever, financially strapped people compete in a tournament of kids' games where losers get killed. Not very funny. But the show has captured the public's imagination, which of course means memes and jokes. 

It's easy to see why. Squid Game has many complex characters, as well as plenty of visually striking scenes and objects (the Dalgona cookies, the game organization's business card, the outfits). It's full of meme material, and here are some of the best. (Some show spoilers ahead, be warned.)

Squid Game candy memes

In one episode, the contestants have to carve a piece of Dalgona candy out of a tin without breaking the shape. It's not easy, although a smuggled cigarette lighter and eventually some licking get the job done for some players.

More Squid Game

One meme shows the hardest shape to pry out, the infamous umbrella, with the caption, "Law professors: The exam won't be that bad," and then the umbrella challenge as the exam.

And another declared, "Me to the red men in Squid Game after I crack the umbrella: Double or nothing?"

Squid Game Red Light, Green Light robot memes

In the very first game, contestants must play Red Light, Green Light, but with a creepy twist. A giant robot of a little girl swings around to watch for those who move after she says "Red Light." Moving, of course, is fatal. And the robot is irresistible to meme-makers, many of whom set a dancing video of the doll to the song of their choice.

Squid Game marbles memes

If you've seen the show, oof, you know the emotional punch of the episode in which the contestants all play marbles for the chance to advance. Let's just say the game set-up wasn't what the teams expected, and tears flowed. (Some big spoilers in the memes.)

Squid Game glass bridge memes

In one contest, players had to cross a glass bridge where some panels would shatter underfoot. You bet that eerie scenario was memed, with some proposing creative ways they would have tried to cross, and others making jokes of their own.

More Squid Game memes

No squid were gamed in the making of Squid Game. Wrote one Twitter user, "Squid Game (Netflix) rating 1/10. Not enough squid."

Squid Game makes you cry

The show packs an emotional punch -- actually, several of them, as characters whom viewers have become attached slip away. One tweet contrasted Seong Gi-hun's ID photo, taken before the deadly games begin, with his shocked face later on, captioning the two, "Me (when I) start watching Squid Game vs. Me after watching it."

Best Squid Game meme

I'm calling it: This is my absolute favorite Squid Game meme. It makes me laugh every time.

It shows two squids on subway or train seats with the caption, "Squids on their way home after playing the game. (I don't know,) I've never watched the show."

All nine episodes of Squid Game now are available on Netflix.

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