‘Tis the season for spooky scary skeletons to send a shiver down our spines.

Meme culture seems to have a particular affection for the bunch of bones that we all have inside of us, not just during Halloween, but also in general. Even before the 12-foot Home Depot skeleton became one of the most viral seasonal decorations of the 2020s, we had people enjoying the sheer silliness of the Skull Trumpet GIF, or extolling the virtues of quitting with an image of one of our bony friends running away. We use their naturally annoyed expressions as reaction images, and we enjoy catchy songs written in their honor. They may be undead, but that doesn’t mean that they’re going to stay quiet. On the contrary, they are one of the most beloved spooky mascots that we have.

Perhaps the reason that the internet loves skeletons so much is that they have always been inherently cool. People associate them with pirates, punks, and generally not giving an F about what anybody else thinks of you. At the same time, being nothing but a bag of rattling bones also makes them kind of goofy. Maybe they also succeed on the fact that we all have one inside of us, so we can’t help but relate to them. 

In short, there is a lot of humorous mileage to be had out of skeletons, as evidenced by the many memes that they star in. While almost all skeleton memes may be considered spooky, you don’t need to limit them to Halloween only if they tickle your funny bone.