Above are the most distinctly popular GIFs used in each country for these emotional tags: #angry, #excited, #funny, #happy, #love, #sad, #sorry
As we survey GIF usage around the world, what pops out is how people from different countries draw on a globalized media ecosystem to express themselves online. Minions, the nonverbal sidekicks from the animated blockbuster “Despicable Me,” were created by Hollywood to appeal to moviegoers worldwide. Now they’ve seamlessly worked themselves into the online culture, too — they’ve become a top avatar for Italian GIF users to express humor, and for Mexican users to express excitement.
The subjects of GIFs tend to gravitate toward cultural extremes. In India, that means the satirical spectacles produced by the YouTube comedy group All India Bakchod, or AIB — “Bakchod” is Hindi slang for “senseless talk.” Many of the country’s most popular GIFs are spliced from its skits.