CHARLESTON, WV (WVNS) – This year celebrates the GIF’s 35th birthday! Whether you pronounce “GIF” with a hard or soft G, you probably use them every day.

GIFs have become a huge part of online communication, memes, Although GIFs have been popular online since the dawn of social media in the early 2000s, the first GIF was actually invented in 1987. That makes the GIF 35 years old this year!

To celebrate many more years of these iconic moving pictures, the team at GetWindstream.com wanted to find out each state’s most searched GIF. A map showing the results can be seen below.

“Funny GIF” is the most googled GIF in the highest number of states this year, with 12 states searching it most. Giphy, a GIF sharing platform, offers over 82,000 options classified as “funny GIF.” 

Interestingly enough, residents in West Virginia search for cat gifs the most and not ‘funny’ GIFS like the rest of the country.

Here are some other interesting findings:

  • “Yes GIF” occupies the second most googled in the most states spot with 10 states looking up the GIF most.
    • Giphy has almost 49,000 “yes” GIFs, with the most popular options including famous faces like Jack Nicholson, Jimmy Fallon, Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso, and Oprah Winfrey.
    • Last year, “yes GIF”  was only one state’s most searched GIF.  
  • Last year’s most searched GIF in the most states was “happy birthday GIF,” with at least 16 searches per state. 
  • Connecticut searched “The Office GIF” the most and this might be because the show made references to the state multiple times (you might recognize the episode title, “Dunder Mifflin, this is Connecticut”).
  • “Ted Lasso GIF” was the most searched GIF in Illinois and Pennsylvania this year. Go Greyhounds!  
  • Among Us, the popular video game that trended in 2020, was the most searched GIF in eight states in 2022.
  • The term “Baby Yoda GIF” was the most searched gif in 20 states from 2019-2021, making it the most searched GIF in our study.
  • In 2020, “Among Us” GIFs and “Dumpster fire” GIFs were reigning supreme.
  • In the last five years, “Fortnite” GIFs were the most searched GIFs in 19 states across the country.

GetWindStream.com used Google Trends-related queries to find the most searched GIFs across the United States over a span of five years.

The full study can be accessed here.