Strange as it is to think it, there was a time when Harry Potter wasn’t a worldwide phenomenon. A time when Daniel Radcliffe could happily cruise along the street un-hounded, before he was typecast as a scarred, bespectacled wizard.
As the famous story goes, J.K Rowling received endless rejections and don’t-give-up-your-day-job-s before she struck gold and got Harry Potter a publisher. If that’s not a super inspirational story, I don’t know what is. Hang in there, friends, and one day you may too have a wickedly snarky Twitter account like Rowling’s.
Not to mention the multi-millions and the worldwide celebrity status, of course. It’s so poetic to think that the words “there won’t be a child in our world who doesn’t know his name,” spoken early in Sorcerer’s Stone, would actually come true in our own world.
A mega successful series of novels wasn’t enough, and so Harry Potter became a mega successful movie franchise too. When even that didn’t suffice, the character expanded into theme parks, resorts and all manner of other things. He’s now a pop culture phenomenon in his own right like Mickey Mouse, Mario and the like.
Now, that may sound like a positive, but let’s not forget one thing: As Uncle Ben once (more or less) said, with great popularity comes great quantities of snarky memes. That’s what the limelight does to you. With that in mind, let’s check out some of the great Harry Potter memes out there. These are solid gold.
25 Worse Than The Battle Of Hogwarts
Now, as all us fans know, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows represented a darn harrowing time in Potter history. Everything had been leading to this. The Battle of Hogwarts, Voldemort and his army descending on the school, beloved characters being lost left, right and centre… it was serious business, whichever way you slice it.
Whether we’re talking about the book or the movie, it was a darn emotional rollercoaster.
However, none of that prepared us for what is possible the most painfully awkward moment in cinematic history: the hug between Draco Malfoy and the Dark Lord.
Now, granted, we’ve got to be fair to Voldemort here. The guy probably hasn’t hugged anyone before in his entirely miserly life. He did try. I’m not blaming him, I’m just saying that the whole thing was beyond cringetastic.
24 The Sorting Hat Gets A Day Job
In the books, we see that the Sorting Hat sings a song of its own composition each year, before sorting the students into their houses. At one stage, Ron jokes that it probably spends the rest of the year thinking up the lyrics for the next one.
Which got me thinking, what does the hat do when it isn’t sorting? Sit up there on a shelf on Dumbledore’s office? That’s what Rowling would have us believe, sure, but surely there’s more to the story than that?
Of course there is. I can exclusively reveal that it spends the rest of its time as a miserable-looking traffic cone. This meme comes with the exciting bonus of bringing us Hagrid in a hard hat, which is something I can safely say I had never seen in my life before.
23 Molly Weasley Isn’t A Mom To Mess With
In many ways, Molly Weasley is the perfect model of mom-ishness. She’s loving, encouraging and accommodating, and she makes darn sure that you’ve eaten properly at all times.
She’s like an overzealous waiter at a Chinese buffet, who’ll whip your plate away before you’ve even finished chewing and send you off for more.
At the same time, though, when you screw up, she’s not afraid to land on you like a sumo wrestler and set you straight. That Howler she sent after Ron flew the Ford Anglia to Hogwarts? That’s tough love, right there. She’s a super tough lady in general, come to that, as we saw during her defense of the school in Deathly Hallows. Molly may look frumpy, but she’s not to be underestimated.
22 When Harry Potter Made That Old Spice Commercial
Now, like just about the entire population of the Earth, I’m not a fan of commercials. When you’re watching something on YouTube and you get lumbered with the longest, unskippable ads, it’s surprising how quickly your patience can completely erode.
If there’s one commercial I do enjoy, though (and there is only one), it’s the Old Spice one from a few years back.
The way it’s shot, the quickfire nature, the snark… it’s just perfect. I’ve never used an Old Spice product in my life, you understand, but I can appreciate it nonetheless.
As such, this meme is one of my all-time favourites in the Harry Potter sphere. I don’t know if anyone’s ever brought this idea up to Daniel Radcliffe, but it’s worth a shot at the very least.
21 When Voldemort’s Name Isn’t Tim, But It Definitely Should Be
There’s a subtle motif that runs through the Harry Potter series. So subtle, in fact, I don’t know if you’ve picked up on it. If not, I’ll share it with you now:
Voldemort isn’t all that keen on the name Tom.
I know, right? I was shocked when someone pointed it out to me, too, but apparently there are low-key hints of this throughout the series.
The thing is, if you’re trying to make a name for yourself as a globally-feared super-villain sort of wizard, Tom just doesn’t quite convey that. It’s a perfectly good name, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not the most fear- and/or awe-inspiring, is it?
Tim, on the other hand, would have been just perfect. Now that just exudes power and malice.
20 When Snape’s Swag Is ALWAYS On
As a general rule, I tend to be much more of a book fan than a movie fan. This isn’t so I can sit smugly in the theater and sneer at everybody who missed this or that reference because they haven’t read it, you understand. That’s just the way I am. I’m one of those odd people who’d take “English Literature With Extra Wordy Reading Class” at university, just so I could do a ton of reading.
When comparing the Potter novels with the movies, I’m always surprised by the character of Snape. Alan Rickman brought something special to the role, brought out a kind of swagger in Snape that I didn’t see coming. It’s just perfect, though, and I’m so, so glad that he did.
19 When The Sorting Hat Gives You The Hufflepuff Treatment
Early in Sorcerer’s Stone, both before and shortly after his arrival at Hogwarts, Harry is bombarded with one message: Hufflepuff suck. They’re “a load o’ duffers,” Hagrid told him, and Draco Malfoy said he’d just turn around and go home if the Sorting Hat tried to place him there.
Fans around the world, naturally, feel some kind of way about this reputation.
According to Pottermore, I’m a Hufflepuff myself, and I’m down with that.
The virtues of kindness, hard work and generosity have always been super important to me, as they have to everyone else who takes these sorts of things far too seriously.
Even with all of that said, it’s true that Cedric Diggory is pretty much the only notable Hufflepuff in the series, and he was both introduced and done away with in the same book/movie.
18 When Snape Wears Your Grandma’s Clothes And Looks Incredible
We’ve already touched on Alan Rickman’s performance as Severus Snape, but I think it needs stating again: it’s fantastic. Rickman was always known for his unique acting style (his trademark curiously looooong speech pattern, missssssster Potter), for bringing something a little special to each of the characters he portrayed.
Somehow, Snape-Rickman just managed to own every scene he appeared in. With every hair-flip of that greasy black wig, you expected him to drop the hottest mixtape of 2018 (featuring only a cover of You’re So Vain, naturally).
For this scene in Prisoner of Azkaban, he had to wear Neville’s vision of his grandma’s clothes (to defeat a creature that feeds on fears but making it ‘funny’; Neville’s greatest fear being Snape).
He even managed to rock that getup. I just cannot even.
17 When Vernon Dursley Was Really The Star Of The Show All Along
History is written by the winners, as they say. Now, nobody’s saying that Harry Potter lead a charmed, super perfect life what with Voldemort and all, but he’s the biggest deal around here. Do you know how you tell? Because his name’s emblazoned all over the books, movies and endless slews of merchandise, that’s how.
As the protagonist, you’ve got to expect him to have the plot armour, the most important set-pieces, all of those sorts of things. It probably worked out for the best, in terms of an interesting narrative, but is this really fair?
I’d sure like to have heard the whole story from Uncle Vernon’s perspective.
I’m not sure his usual daily routine would have really carried us along for seven novels (Vernon Dursley And The Tedious 9-5 Yet Again), but it’s just a thought.
16 Captain Jack Sparrow: Hogwarts Teacher
The Pirates of the Caribbean movies really surprised me. I’m no Disney buff, and I didn’t pay any attention when Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl hit theaters back in 2003. I’m a huge fan of Johnny Depp, but even that didn’t convince me to jump on board with the series at first.
I was bought The Curse of the Black Pearl as a gift, eventually deigned to watch it, and was blown away. It’s now one of my favourite fantasy movie franchises of all time, right alongside Harry Potter.
You don’t see many memes that combine the two, so when you find one, you’ve got to appreciate it. As far as I’m concerned, Jack Sparrow would fit right in with the eccentric cast of Harry Potter.
15 When The Haters Need To Learn To Appreciate
Now, Harry Potter may be a multi-million selling franchise, one of the biggest phenomena in the history of the written word, but you can’t please everyone. Universal popularity is completely impossible, or as the internet likes to say, haters gonna hate.
Myself, I’m a huge fan, but everyone’s totally welcome to their own opinion. You do you, I’ll do me.
Just make sure that, if you are hating, you’re hating for the right reasons.
For me, disliking something that’s popular is totally fine. That’s all well and good. Disliking something simply because it’s popular, on the other hand, like falling out of the petty tree and hitting every darn petty branch on the way down. Heck, it’s like getting your petty sweater snagged on one of the petty branches, being stuck dangling from the petty tree, and needing the petty fire service to climb up and rescue you.
14 When Hermione Has To Teach Voldemort What’s What
As Potter heads will know, the so-called Golden Trio took quite a darn while to form. Ron and Harry made friends there and then, on their very first trip to the Hogwarts Express, but Hermione? This know-it-all took some time to become friends with the boys.
It wasn’t until the battle with the troll in the girl’s toilets that the three became friends. After all, “it’s leviOsah, not levioSAH” really isn’t the way to get people to like you.
They’re sure lucky that they did bring the super smart Hermione on board, though. Never mind the climactic battle with the Dark Lord, these two could barely finish a homework essay without Hermione’s help. The fate of the whole wizarding world could have gone entirely differently if there hadn’t been a TROOOOOOLL IN THE DUNGEON that day.
13 When Arthur Weasley Can’t Handle The Internet
The Weasley family are notorious for their Muggle-loving ways. The Malfoy family, sycophantic Voldemort toadies that they are, refer to these Weasleys as blood traitors. These are wizards and witches from pure blood (solely magical) families who aren’t raging d-bags to Muggles and Muggle borns.
Arthur Weasley, father of the huge Weasley brood, is the one who takes this whole concept the furthest. He collects spark plugs, batteries and other substitute-for-magic doodahs, and quizzes Harry on what exactly rubber ducks are used for.
He’s not only tolerant and friendly to non-magical people, he’s obsessed with them.
As such, smartphones would be way too much for this guy to deal with. The hop from dial-up internet to surfing the web in the palm of your hand on the toilet only took a couple of decades. If you don’t think that’s magic right there, you’re wrong.
12 When Hermione Strikes A Blow For All Witchkind
Now, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the aging process sure was kind to the cast of the Harry Potter movies. Just look at Matthew Lewis in the first movie, and contrast that with him in the last. He’s far from an isolated case, as well. I don’t know what was in the water at Hogwarts, but it sure did these guys and gals the world of good.
Emma Watson sure is a beautiful young woman. She has also, since the close of the series, been a sworn ambassador for women’s rights, and is ever bit the strong and inspiring woman JK Rowling wanted Hermione to be. This is something we need to see more of in movies and books. A little more Hermione, a little less Bella.
11 When Goyle’s Snark Is Completely On Point
Sometimes, as they say, simpler is better. Whether we’re talking about a minimalist decorating style or a perfect, straight-to-the-point meme, it doesn’t pay to get all wrapped up in colour swatches, trying to be too original or complicated references.
Harry and Ron’s brief trip into the Slytherin common room (under the effects of Polyjuice potion, disguised as Crabbe and Goyle) is a Potter moment that frequently gets the meme treatment. It’s an easy target, after all.
You just replace that second frame with anyone you feel like snarking at, and you’re all set.
For the sake of this entry, I felt like just going with a classic. This scene itself, and then a cheap, obligatory Bieber joke. The Canadian crooner is used to this sort of thing by now, surely?
10 Let’s Face It: Umbridge Was Worse Than Voldemort
So far in this rundown, we’ve looked at all kinds of Harry Potter in-jokes and references. These are things that long-time fans are sure to appreciate, but it’s not all about that. Even someone with slim-to-bupkis knowledge of the franchise can probably tell you that Voldemort is the villain of the piece. That’s page one of Harry Potter For Dummies, right there.
If you’ve dug a little deeper, though, you’ll know that this woman is infinitely more loathsome.
The reasons for this are quite plain, what with her punishment quills and all, but for me, it was more the way she presented herself. That insipid office, those bright pink clothes… it’s so sickly sweet, she’d give you multiple cavities just by looking at you.
Oh, Umbridge.
9 After All This Time (You’re Still Harry Potter)? Always.
For any actress or actor, typecasting can be a real and deadly problem. However much you may enjoy a particular role or kind of roles, is that what you want to be known as for the rest of your life? Sometimes it is. Maybe you take pride in being ‘that action movie guy,’ for instance.
Some actors have simply mastered their niche and take pride in it.
Others aren’t about that life at all. Harry Potter changed Daniel Radcliffe’s life forever, in all kinds of new and exciting ways. Does he want it to define him forever, though? No. Since the series concluded, he’s taken on a diverse range of roles, and performed super well in them. I loved him in The Woman In Black, but I still struggle to see him as anyone other than Harry Potter.
8 When You Just Can’t Let Ravenclaw’s Non-Raven Symbol Go
As I say, I’m a huge fan of the franchise. I’ve read the books and watched the movies many, many times over. I’ve eaten the sweets, collected the figures, played the video games, worn the clothes, all of those sorts of things.
While I’m a big fan, I’m no fan boy. There’s an important distinction, which mostly means being able to accept that the object of your affections has flaws.
I can totally accept that. There are all kinds of niggling little problems with Harry Potter for me. Things I don’t quite disagree with, things that don’t make sense and so forth. What’s the most egregious of these? The fact that Ravenclaw house’s symbol is an eagle and not a raven, that’s what. The clue’s right there in the name.
Why not just make Gryffindor’s the giant squid?
7 When Draco Malfoy Unleashes The Full Power Of His Snark
Earlier, we touched on the importance of first impressions. How Harry and Ron despised Hermione on first meeting her, and how the boys were darn close to remaining a twosome forever. That would’ve been disastrous for them, as I say, but it really says something about how hard bad first impressions are to recover from.
How about Draco Malfoy? Right from their first encounter, he’s giving it the full “my father is super” rich spiel, and judging the Weasleys for their lack of money and general ginger-ness.
He’s a d-bag in the books, and a jerk in the movies.
In the video games, however, he takes it to a whole new level. Check this meme out. Here he is, in full hilariously blocky PS1 glory, roasting Harry to an absolute crisp. Now that’s an ouch. You just can’t compete with wit like that.
6 When Doctor Who Villains Sneak Into The Potterverse
If you’re not a Doctor Who fan, you’re probably not familiar with a devious alien race known as the Silence. This odd race of humanoid beings has the unique power to make themselves instantly forgettable; anyone who encounters one will have no memory of it as soon as they look away. They’ll retain any suggestions or information the Silence has given them, though.
These aliens, then, have been able to insidiously take control of humanity and shape events, entirely undetected.
It’s a disturbing concept, much more frightening than a simple toothy monstrosity chasing you around and roaring.
You’d better take care then, Neville Longbottom. Those things you’ve forgotten could be far, far more serious than simply put your darn underwear in the hamper rather than leaving on the floor, you lazy swine.
