The Weekly Meme Roundup: A Talented Band Of Mice, The U.S. TikTok Ban, Unexpected Dinosaurs And More

Welcome back to the weekly meme roundup. How's your 2025 been so far? Have you been interrupted by any bands of talented mice yet? What about unexpected dinosaurs? They've been popping up in all sorts of unexpected places lately. If so, what you're about to read might just shine some light on why exactly this has been happening.

On top of all that, this week has seen the rise of another infectious redraw meme, all sorts of memes about the impending TikTok ban in the U.S. and a very juicy gamer-related controversy involving none other than Elon Musk.

Without further adieu, here are the five biggest memes of the week for you to catch up on.

Interrupted By A Band Of Talented Mice

Instagram Reels has been off to an explosive start so far in 2025 and one of the biggest memes from the app this week saw all your favorite musical acts getting interrupted by a band of talented mice.

@verytalentedmice Breaking news! Playboi Carti interrupted by a band of talented mice #playboicarti #stage #musician #band #guitar #fyp #funnytiktok #mice ♬ original sound – Talented Mice

The meme, which quickly spread across Reels and TikTok, has users post AI-generated videos of a band of mice appearing midway through a musical act to absolutely mog them with their undeniable mouse talent.

The meme shares some similarities with the AI time travelers interrupting memes trend, only this time, there's an adorable band of mice involved. Who can object to that?

The song featured in the memes is by Danny Dwyer and has fittingly been released with the name "Band of Talented Mice" thanks to the meme's success.

Examples

@wafaszzz BREAKING: Chopped Chin gets interrupted by band of talented mice #choppedchin #raiseyouryayaya #miceband #ratdance ♬ original sound – wafaszzz

@verytalentedmice Breaking news! The talented mice steal the stage from @Taylor Swift #taylor #erastour #swifttok #mice #stage #performance #band #fyp #musician #guitar #funnytiktok ♬ original sound – Talented Mice

@newyorkspliff BREAKING: The Beatles get interrupted by a much more talented band of mice #choppedchin #iboughtapropertyinegypt #talentedmice ♬ original sound – Money dot com

@verytalentedmice Breaking news! Sabrina Carpenter's show gets interrupted by a band of talented mice #sabrinacarpenter #mice #band #guitar #funnytiktok #fyp #stage #show #performance ♬ original sound – Talented Mice

United States TikTok Ban (My Chinese Spy, RedNote Refugees)

Well, it's official, the TikTok ban has reportedly been upheld by the Supreme Court, meaning the app may no longer be available starting January 19th, 2025. At least TikTokers are having fun with it though.

While many TikTokers are holding onto hope that something will happen to keep TikTok around, others have accepted the app's fate and decided to make memes out of the whole thing. One of these is the "My Chinese Spy" meme, which has TikTokers humorously act out a final conversation or last message to their personal, TikTok-appointed Chinese spy.

Some TikTokers have started seeking a new home for all their short-form video content, and rather than choose Instagram Reels, they're going full China-mode by invading the Chinese app Rednote. This has sparked memes about "Rednote refugees" taking over the app, which many native Rednote users aren't too impressed by.

So, will the TikTok ban actually happen? That remains to be seen. For the sake of all those out-of-work Chinese spies, here's hoping it gets another chance.

Examples

Nine Months In My Womb Making Me Suffer

Another week, another redraw format, and this one is all about popular ship pairings having a baby only for it to come out looking like its stupid dad.

The format officially got started back in December when X / Twitter artist @c0cA_Mica posted an Adventure Time fan comic about Prismo and Scarab having a baby, only for it to resemble Prismo much more than Scarab.

The meme has artists redraw the characters in the comic to represent their favorite ships. The kicker is that the baby always resembles the parent who did not give birth and the parent who did give birth is always upset that they look like them.

Like every other viral redraw format, the possibilities are endless thanks to just how many ships are out there, meaning there's already a mountain of examples for you to enjoy. If you can imagine a ship, they've probably shown up in this format already.

Examples

Unexpected Dinosaur Edits

Back in the 2000s, when the internet still had some class, there was a genre of YouTube videos known as "dinosaur tributes," which set images of dinosaurs to really cool hard rock songs. Now, in 2025, we have "Unexpected Dinosaur Edits."

These memes started to take off in late December 2024 on Instagram Reels. Essentially, each meme is a bait-and-switch video that begins with something totally unrelated to dinosaurs and is then interrupted by a montage of dinosaurs.

The icing on the cake is that each video (at least, the good ones) is set to old 2000s hard rock or nu-metal songs like Three Days Grace's "Animal I Have Become." Yes, the results are just as awesome as you might imagine.

While 2025 may seem like a year of uncertainty, any year that starts with a cool dinosaur meme can't be too bad, right? Let's start appreciating dinosaurs again in 2025. It'll do us a lot of good as a society.

Examples

@kuronas.number.1 BARYONYX #baryonyx #dinasour #dinasouredit #hellyeah #trending #meme #fy @Harvey ⚡️ @bfkqlfkq ♬ Duality – Slipknot

@larrymacdoodle2 unexpected carnotaurus edit #dinosaur #paleontology #epic #aura #carnotaurusedit #early2000s #edgy #linkinpark ♬ original sound – Larry MacDoodle

@frasesolvidadas01 Argentinosaurus edit #argentina #riley #fyp #dinosaur #2000s #jurassicworld #jurassicpark #paleontology #dino #edit ♬ sonido original – Song_Dark

@herbivorenationalist Song is unbelievably peak #CapCut #dino #dinosaur #dinosaurs #paleo #paleontology #jurassic #jurassicworld #jurassicpark #fyp #spino #spinosaurus #edgy #2000s #early2000s #carcha #deathnote ♬ original sound – HerbivoreNationalist

Elon Musk Fraud Gamer Controversy

Finally, another blunder by Elon Musk has caused a ripple across social media, and this time, it's gamers who are taking up their swords, as Musk is accused of being a fake gamer.

The controversy surrounds Musk's supposed achievements in the game Path of Exile 2. Pro players who have invested countless hours in the game started questioning Musk's skills after watching videos of his gameplay, suggesting he has someone play the game for him. It was then found that, allegedly, his account was being played from Asia.

The suspicions about Musk faking his gameplay rapidly went viral, and soon, streamers like Asmongold started calling him out for it. In a move deemed by many as immature or humorous, Musk decided to remove Asmongold's verification badge and unfollow him, then attempt to call him out for having editors, seemingly mistaking them for Asmongold's bosses rather than his employees.

As you can probably tell, the whole thing is a mess, but it's a beautiful mess. Musk has not had the best few months online, but for any Musk haters out there who also happen to love gaming, this is a story that should not be missed.

Examples

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We'll be back next Friday with another edition of our Weekly Meme Roundup series, so stay tuned!

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