GIPHY Announces the Platform's Top GIFs for 2021

What GIF did you utilize the most in 2021?

GIPHY, the top GIF platform, has announced the year's most popular GIFs, with astonishment and bewilderment appearing to be the most common emotional drivers for GIF use. With Baby Yoda, or Grogu as he's more well known, making a splash in the list.

The most popular GIF of the year, predictably, comes from the American version of 'The Office,' with Stanley's stoic expression best encapsulating the reaction to most of the year's happenings.

The Office has been a treasure trove for GIF creators, and you can guarantee that if they were monetized in any way, they'd be producing as many episodes of the program as they could.

This GIF alone was viewed over 636 million times on the internet, according to GIPHY.

This really unhappy Pikachu is also on the top 10 GIF list for 2021:

That is truly a heartbreaking look, Pikachu.

Agnes also gives you a knowing wink:

Throughout the year, The Weeknd's befuddlement was brought up in response to numerous news stories.

And then there's Grogu:

The top ten GIFs have been watched over 4.5 billion times together, demonstrating the popularity of GIFs and their adoption as a communications option for expressing emotional responses in a simple form.

When used correctly, GIFs can be a useful tool for brand messaging, and the listing may put you in the direction of some fresh choices to consider in your responses – assuming, of course, that this corresponds with your social branding strategy.

You can also use the listing as a predictor of where we'll be in 2021 as a result of the events of the previous 11 months. I'm amazed there aren't more puzzled GIFs on the list because it feels like June was only a week ago, but the top 10 do appear to capture the majority of the dominant sentiments of the period.

GIPHY's complete Top 10 GIFs of the Year list can be found here.