How we communicate on the Internet changes at super high speeds. It seems like only yesterday that smileys and emojis were the main modes of communication. And those who didn't use them were called boomers. Then GIFs became popular and prompted the subtle art of reacting to what your friends said and did with the right amount of irony and pop culture references.

Today, emojis and GIFs seem so 2010s, right? So, we send memes to represent our reactions most accurately. That's why groups like just reaction pics can be treasure troves of reaction memes for all occasions: confusion, ridicule, and even feeling emotional about something.

The page came about 4.5 years ago, as its creator, Cam Keys, tells us. "Me and a friend used to go back and forth sending reaction pics," they say. "It was a tiny little community where I would be mainly the only person to actually post any pics with a few like-minded friends."

"Back then, it was just a silly, casual space to post and laugh at the funny, relatable content we all loved," Cam goes on. "Over time, I noticed that people were actually really engaging with the posts, especially as of [late]. There's been a weirdly huge growing demand for this type of content for some reason."

The group saw a particularly huge jump in popularity in April of this year, 2024. Cam says that it only had 900 members, and then, suddenly, there were over 220,000. "It was incredible to see so many people from all over the world joining in and contributing," the admin tells us.

"The group has really become a vibrant community where people can find a bit of humor and connection in their day-to-day lives. It's now such a large, engaged community, who, for the most part, jump to support each other and protect what we've created!"

Cam says that the most popular reaction pics in their community are those that are relatable and capture everyday emotions in a humorous way. "[The] ones that are applicable to a lot of situations. They do love a lot of sarcasm, playful mockery, or exaggeration of common situations for comedic purposes. These tend to get a lot of engagement."

"For example, the classic 'Get a load of this guy' reaction pic gets posted most days, especially when someone's being stupid in the group or breaking the rules. This one is used to weed out the a-holes. Reaction pics that use much-loved characters and play off universal feelings are also really popular," Cam adds.

"These were really popular around the time of the elections here in the UK and [the] ones in America, mainly being used to express frustration. Simpsons reaction pics and the like are great and classic, but whenever there is new, popular content, we always get people posting reaction memes of it, and it's quite funny to see because it results in other people asking where the pics are from and getting interested."

The rapid growth of the community meant more work and challenges for the admins. Cam tells Bored Panda that one of the biggest challenges has been maintaining the quality and tone of the content or, as they say, "Keeping things fresh."

"With more members, there's naturally a wider range of personalities and opinions too, so it's been important to keep the group focused on its original purpose: sharing funny, relatable reaction pics and memes in a positive and inclusive environment. We don't want to become a void for people to project into or a space where people feel unsafe."

Managing the sheer volume of posts and comments has also been challenging. "With over 220,000 members, the content flow can be overwhelming at times, and ensuring that everything aligns with the group's guidelines requires constant attention," Cam explains. "Especially when, sometimes, you get raided by people who just want to spread negative and offensive rhetoric or harm others."

"To tackle this, I've expanded the admin and moderator team, bringing on people I trust who understand the group's vibe and are committed to keeping it a fun and safe space," they add. "We also put in place clear rules and update them when deemed necessary. Some automated moderation tools help manage the workload and keep the group running smoothly."

As with any space on the Internet, the group isn't a stranger to conflicts and negative behavior. "The larger the group, the more likely it is to have disagreements or misunderstandings, and a lot of bigoted people hide on social media platforms and the internet," Cam says. "We've overcome this by being very clear about our expectations for behavior in the group and by being quick to step in and transparent on what we will not [tolerate] when issues arise."

"The key has really been to foster a strong sense of community and mutual respect among members, which has largely helped to minimize problems and keep the group enjoyable for everyone."

Reaction memes and images are by no means a new phenomenon. Many credit the facepalm as one of the first reaction faces, and its first recorded instance was apparently in 2004. In 2010, someone created a site MyFaceWhen.com with an array of different reaction pics and GIFs. Similar pages and groups on Tumblr and Facebook followed.

In 2014, New York City's Museum of the Moving Image even had an exhibit dedicated to GIFs. Titled "The Reaction GIF: Moving Image as Gesture," it featured the most popular and most used reaction GIFs. The curator of the installation even posted a message on Reddit, asking users to share the GIFs they consider classics.

In 2019, The Washington Post attempted to rank the 24 most important viral reactions on the Internet in the past 20 years. And while none of the entries featured clowns (sadly), they did feature some classics. For example, the popcorn meme was in first place, with "This is fine" and the blinking guy meme holding ranks in the top 10.

But today, we're giving the spotlight to the clown reaction memes. How did they become a thing? And why do we associate the noble clown profession with acting foolish? According to Savannah Walsh at Elle, it was the insult of the year in 2020. She writes how the trend reached its culmination during a U.S. presidential debate during which Biden referred to Trump as "this clown."

According to Know Your Meme, in 2019, putting on clown makeup gained a not-so-literal meaning online. They write how a person putting on clown attire meant they were "making an increasingly larger fool of [themselves] by providing arguments which are deemed increasingly weak or illogical."

A TikTok trend then cemented this description, as people started posting videos of themselves where they would tell embarrassing stories under the tag "Becoming A Clown Because People Keep Clowning Me." The videos often featured people putting on clown makeup, colorful clown wigs, or even dressing up as clowns.