It’s been nearly four years since Sons of Anarchy drove off into the sunset – or more appropriately, into the front of an oncoming semi-truck. Despite the modern renaissance of television, where hundreds of new episodes seem to be available every day, many devoted fans are still thinking about the grim reaper patch-wearing biker gang out of Charming, California.
In a year when reality competitions, such as Desperate Housewives, and Two and a Half Men dominated the primetime landscape, Sons of Anarchy stuck out like a custom motorcycle tailing a funeral procession.
Originally premiering in 2008 to modest viewership, SOA proved its staying power through seven seasons, accumulating 6.4 million watchers for its series finale, making it one of FX’s most successful shows.
You can still spot SAMCRO jackets everywhere, which are sported by fans who consider themselves honorary members of the fictional biker gang.
With a spin-off and prequel premiering in the not-to-distant future, we’re hopefully we will be united with some of the members of the show– at least the surviving ones, which is a very small selection.
Here are the 20 Sons Of Anarchy Memes Only True Fans Will Understand.
20. Ermahgerd, Serns of Anerchee
The poor Ermahgerd Girl – though she was once so excited for the latest Goosebumps books, she is now the butt of an entire arsenal of meme jokes, with fans Photoshopping new images into her outstretched hands for her to get stoked over.
Even the phrase “ermahgerd” has penetrated pop culture, and has been viewed nearly five million times, as per Know Your Meme.
At the National Book Festival, Goosebumps writer R.L. Stine was asked about the social media spoof and was perplexed by its popularity. “About five people a day say, ‘have you seen this?’ I just don’t get it. I don’t get it," he said.
Here, we can see Ermahgerd Girl getting excited about Charlie Hunnam’s Jax Teller (or Jerx Terler, according to internet speak).
Hunnam has even mentioned to Glamor that he’s “always been well received by the female audience.” With his good looks, charm, and foreign accent, Hunnam knows how to milk the attention of his principal fanatics. “Our key demographic on Sons Of Anarchy was predominantly female,” he stated.
We can see Ermahgerd Girl rocking the suspenders during the week, but we’re sure that she will likely change into her SAMCRO biker jacket during the weekend.
19. Tara’s Head Meets Fork
We will never look at a kitchen fork the same way.
Arguably the most heartbreaking (and startling) demise in the show is Tara’s passing at the hands of Gemma, Jax’s mom. What’s even worse was that the whole thing transpired from a simple misunderstanding.
Always one to put family first and ruin those who betrayed that unit, Gemma was convinced that Tara had crossed Jax by ratting on him in exchange for immunity. Like every gangster show, straying from the business is a big no-no.
In actuality, Jax had turned himself in to protect Tara and his children, but Gemma wasn’t privy to that until later.
Similar to a chef who has lost their mind in the kitchen and endures a mental breakdown, Gemma caused Tara’s end in a variety of culinary ways: she struck her with an iron, pushed her head into dirty dish water, and finally stuck a two pronged fork into the back of her head.
Creator Kurt Sutter likes his violence over the top, and the end of season six was no exception.
To make matters worse, Gemma blames the Chinese for assassinating Tara. Perhaps, as this meme suggests, she should have gone with the fly excuse. It’s an easier explanation than admitting to knowkingly whacking your daughter-in-law with a pointy kitchen utensil.
18. Is Happy Happy?
Happy’s actor David Labrava was a technical advisor on Sons Of Anarchy before he was promoted to portray the role. Labrava belonged to the Hell’s Angel during production and boasted plenty of biker experience.
Labrava allegedly had the ability to get really intense very quickly, where he looked like he was about to bounce out of his shoes on-set. He made Happy one of the most interesting, albeit unpredictable, characters on the show.
You can see from the meme above that the words “Happy” and Happy’s vacant expression don’t exactly mesh well together.
The name conveys a joyful demeanor and is purely ironic in this context. For the most part, Happy is a sociopath, with a proclivity for violence, tattooing happy faces every time he claims an opposing biker member’s life.
The SAMCRO Sergeant-at-Arms does whatever the club needs. This is due to fierce loyalty.
According to a recent interview with Mandatory, “those are his brother. That’s his little world. He’s there to do whatever. He is an assassin for the club.”
17. An Emotional Punch To The Arc Reactor
It’s no secret that Sons of Anarchy is a rough ride emotionally. Trying to get through an episode is the equivalent of Tony Stark getting blasted by terrorists while presenting a weapons demonstration in war-torn Afghanistan.
There are no happy endings, even during season finales. However, some promise some form of relief (see season six’s heartbreak).
According to the Sons of Anarchy official Wiki page, 339 people kicked the bucket throughout the duration of seven seasons, including 31 who were referenced to have met the Grim Reaper prior to the show’s premiere. The final, depressing season had the highest funeral count, and was responsible for 111 wandering souls.
The tally ranks among the gory peaks of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead as the most violent programs in television history. The Parents Television council had a field day with the shenanigans of the show through it’s seven year run, lambasting FX Network for its position as a basic cable network in a press release.
“If FX wants to be like HBO and air this kind of explicit content, then they should become a premium network. But they won’t, because the cartel-like leverage they currently enjoy is too lucrative,” the council stated.
16. Peggy Wants A Hog
There’s nothing more jarring than seeing an actor who you’ve grown accustomed to appear in different show as a completely new character. How can anyone see Gemma the same after realizing that actress Katey Sagal also portrayed Peggy Bundy, the wife in Married With Children.
Sagal’s portrayal of Peggy is completely different from her role as Gemma. In fact, it is as jarring as seeing Steve Carell in the Foxcatcher or Denise Richards as a nuclear scientist in The World Is Not Enough.
Last year, Sagal reflected on the 30th anniversary of the beloved sitcom, claiming that crowds would mob the cast on promotional tours during the 11-year run. Talks of a reunion have been brewing lately, especially with the success of other shows being resurrected from the same era.
Despite Peggy being wild in her own right, we could never see her doing half of the crazy things Gemma did in Sons of Anarchy.
However, apparently Peggy saying “Al, can you buy me a motorcycle” was a sign of things to come for the matriarch of the SAMCRO family.
There are some similarities between the two characters, however. For example, Peggy caused a plethora of Al’s problems, while Gemma causes a lot of problems of her own throughout SOA’s run.
15. Opie Remembers The Titans
Disney’s Remember The Titans was movie that most millennials were shown at school. It was always awkward in school, as the movie included a large amount of touching moments that often caused viewers to become emotion– even those with hardened hearts would often tear up.
Ryan Hurst, who played Opie, in Sons of Anarchy, appeared in Remember The Titans.
Hurst’s portrayal of Gerry Bertier still touches us right in the feels. The defensive captain is involved in a car accident, becomes paralyzed, and is forced to watch the state championship game from his hospital bed. What’s even more depressing is that the real life Bertier passed away in a car accident a decade after this.
This meme shows the transition of Hurst as a fresh-faced varsity captain to an embrittled biker who would often drink away his feelings with a bottle of Jack Daniels.
We can’t help but look at this physical transformation, and ask, “who hurt you?” to Hurst’s Opie.
Hurst appears to have a habit of tugging at our heart strings, as he played the fan-favorite Opie in Sons of Anarchy, who eventually succumbs to the most haunting demise in the entire show.
We still haven’t forgiven creator Kurt Sutter for that one.
14. One Does Not Simply Anarchy
Netflix gives viewers the option of skipping a show’s introduction. According to this meme, if you selected this feature while watching Sons of Anarchy, you weren’t a true fan of SAMCRO.
There are addicting theme songs, and then there are jingles that rattle around in your head for years after the show leaves the air.
The show’s opening uses the song “This Life”. It’s extremely easy to get the lyrics stuck in your head after being exposed to the second or third episode of the first season.
Performed by Curtis Stigers & The Forest Rangers, 30 seconds of the tune is used in the intro. The whole song is two and a half minutes long.
Guitarist Dave Kushner of Velvet Revolver fame said that he got involved because of his fascination with the show, saying “‘Sons is an incredibly intense, gnarly drama about family and the things we do for love and money when we’re not presented the same opportunity others are.”
An Irish version was released during the the third season, when some of the characters traveled to Ireland, and a updated version was used during the final two seasons of the show.
In 2009, “This Life” was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music, but lost to Great Performances.
13. To Bleed, Or Not To Bleed
Sons of Anarchy has often been referred to as “Hamlet with black leather.”
Adapting Shakespeare for the big or small screen is a common practice in Hollywood. Even Disney has looked to the Bard for inspiration, striking box-office gold in 1994 with their 32nd animated feature The Lion King, which ranked in $766 million worldwide and became the highest grossing traditionally animated movie of all time.
We doubt that Shakespeare foresaw his work being reinterpreted as a bunch of animated talking lions and animals working out family drama in Kenya. For this reason, we are certain that Shakespeare could never have imagined that Hamlet would be interpreted into the lives of a group of rowdy bikers.
Unlike Hamlet, a large amount of the singing critters in The Lion King make it out alive. Unfortunately, many characters in Sons of Anarchy are not as lucky.
If time travel was at all possible, and some explorer went back to the Elizabethan era and strapped a device on Shakespeare so that he could see both mordern adaptations of Hamlet, we’re pretty sure that his face would look exactly like Keanu Reeves’ face does in the meme above.
12. Kurt Sutter: Character Destroyer
Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter has a lot in common with George R.R. Martin. For example, both often dispose of our favorite characters without even batting an eyelash.
The difference between the two, however, is that Sutter actually played a part in his creation. Sutter portrayed the imprisoned Otto in the show, and spent the entire show trapped in a prison before Sutter finally allowed his own character to meet his demise in season six.
More than half of the principal characters of Sons of Anarchy passed away in similar brutal fashion.
The list of the deceased is so lengthy, that websites have erected memorials remembering the most shocking deaths on the show. We still can’t get over the way Opie went out… or Juice, or Jax.
Even disliked characters didn’t seem to deserve the end that they received (we’re looking at you Clay Morrow).
During a conference call, Sutter defended the offing of his creations as a necessity to the story, saying “I’m very aware of the level of violence and the bigness of our stories, and I think one of the things that keeps them real is they don’t happen in a vacuum. I don’t play out a huge scene or a huge arc and then just let it exist and not tie it to the ground.”
11. Perlman And The Hendersons
The resemblance between Ron Perlman and Harry from Harry and the Hendersons is pretty remarkable, especially when it comes to expressions. However, we’re surprised that Perlman’s work from Quest For Fire wasn’t added to this meme.
Since Clay Morrow is essentially King Claudius from Hamlet, we know as apparent Shakespeare aficionados, that the treacherous uncle doesn’t make it to Act 5.
Despite all of the build up, it was difficult to accept Clay’s exit, despite his misdeeds.
“As much as people say that they want Clay [deceased], they don’t want Clay [deceased],” Sutter said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Though many fans despised the character, Clay was the main antagonist throughout the series– and what’s a show without its antagonist?
Clay isn’t a great guy. He ends Piney with a shotgun to the chest and did away with countless other characters. We also can’t forgive what he did to Gemma.
Inevitably, his abuse of power catches up to him.
When he’s sprung out of prison and SAMCRO is trying to sever their ties with the IRA, Clay is suspicious of the move. The club votes to leave his body, indicating that he got into a skirmish with the Irish. He looks out the window at Gemma before being shot by Jax.
10. The Ibuprofen Chapter
Sons of Anarchy fans come in all shapes, sizes, and ages– from young teens to the elderly. This man is not afraid to show that he is a proud Sons of Anarchy fan.
He wears his fandom on his sleeve (or, rather, his back). However, instead of the official SOA patch, this fan has a slightly altered patch. This fan’s patch focuses arthritis and ibuprofen.
One chapter of Sons of Anarch involved Clay Morrow admitting to Gemma that his arthritis would force him to avoid the road in a year or two, as his hands would shake and cramp, which made it impossible for him to grip the handlebars of his bike.
This fan is advertising the anti-inflammatory NSAID ibuprofen, which is able to help deal with debilitating joint disease, as it alleviates some of the persistent aches and pains.
According to the New York Times, the percentage of older bikers has risen considerably since 1990. These older bikers are now three times more likely to be severely injured than younger riders. Declines in vision and reaction times were stated as the principal causes.
However, in SAMCRO, members usually don’t reach this advanced age– and if they do, they will typically meet a fate worse than a road accident.
9. If You’re Having Mom Problems, I Feel Bad For You Son
Jax’s mother Gemma is the root of a lot of evil in Sons of Anarchy. Even when she has the best intentions, things seem to crumble around her and fall into ruin.
By quoting the infamous Jay-Z song, this meme refers to Jax and his many problems, most of which are caused by his mother.
According to Uproxx, Gemma is responsible for ending the lives of 79 people since she put a fork in Tara’s head. This is a huge number of casualties, and it could even be more, as Gemma could have harmed even more people while we were off following Jax around Charming.
If Gemma wasn’t in the script, Clay’s life would have also been much calmer. She wouldn’t have threatened him with the letters which claimed that he had taken the life of Jax’s father.
Also, obviously, she wouldn’t have taken out Tara is such a haunting manner. A lot of the show would have been completely different, and possibly a little less violent.
However, Gemma’s role in the show was incredibly important. After all, she is the mother of Son’s of Anarchy. Though the group consists of only men, it is clear throughout the show that Gemma has a lot of power over the Sons.
8. Sons Of Anarchy 2: Jax’s Revenge
Jax’s resurrection wouldn’t shock us in the slightest. With the return of Darth Maul in Solo: A Star Wars Story, we know that anything is possible when it comes to fictional characters. If an alien who was cut in half can come back with metal legs, then it’s pretty clear that Jax can be put back together with stitches and bandages.
Jax drove his bike head first into an oncoming semi-truck, with his arms outstretched. This was the ultimate sacrifice to save SAMCRO and his family. Jax decides to end his life the same way his father did, though his father didn’t have much of a choice.
Riding his bike is the only way we could imagine the former SAMCRO President biting the dust.
With the advent of streaming services, rebooting popular shows seems to be a new trend. For example, Full House received a reboot with Fuller House.
Though a reboot seems unlikely, at least we know that an SOA spin-off is around the corner. This year will see a continuation of SOA in Mayans MC, which follows SAMCRO’s rival in a post-Jax Teller world.
A prequel is reportedly also in the works, so catching a glimpse of Jax once again is very likely.
7. Charming Chibs
Never cut a biker off the road. A man driving a red car made this mistake in Sons of Anarchy, swerving in front of Jax and co. during the show’s second episode. The group ends up tailing the man to a gas station.
There, they attack him because he disrespected their bikes. The man pulls a gun and Chibs grabs a female bystander and brings her under cover in order to protect her as Jax attempts to wrestle the weapon away from the man.
The Pakistani gas attendant comes out of nowhere and embeds an axe into the gunman’s head. He drops in front of Chibs and the startled woman, who doesn’t make any attempt to disentangle herself from the Scottish stud.
Chibs quickly became a fan-favorite character. His nickname, Chibs, is actually Scottish slang for “street blade” and references the real-life scars that actor Tommy Flanagan has his face, which were caused by a knife fight outside of a club.
His Scottish accent, coupled with his charm, make him one of numerous SOA characters who many female viewers have trouble resisting.
However, in real life, Flanagan is not nearly as tough as his SOA character. “I’m just a TV tough guy. I’m a hermit who lives in the middle of nowhere with my baby and my wife,” he said.
6. Juice’s Last Meal
When we were first introduced to Juice, he was an underling trying to earn his patch and was often eager to please the other SAMCRO members.
We never saw his evolution coming, or his untimely demise at the hands of Marilyn Manson (of all people). Juice didn’t deserve to be “The Dope Show” singer’s personal play thing. In fact, for the most part, Juice was an incredibly kind character, and thus didn’t deserve much of things that he had to endure.
In an act of self-sacrifice, Juice slips Manson a shiv in jail and tells him to end it after he’s done consuming his pie.
Actor Theo Rossi expressed his sadness over the characters demise to Deadline, saying, “he was an innocent in an extremely chaotic world. He was such a sweet soul and he never belonged in the situations he was in. He led with his heart and not his head, and all he searched for his entire existence in that show was a family. He just wanted to be accepted.”
Juice’s entire arc is extremely depressing, and even more so, considering that Juice was always a fan-favorite. It was painful to watch him stripped away from his innocence through each season, until he eventually transformed into a hardened and emotionless criminal.
5. Opie’s Got Staying Power
Opie’s passing caused a huge outrage among dedicated Sons of Anarchy fans. The sudden demise of everyone’s favorite character – and the brutal fashion with which it was executed – still haunts the SAMCRO faithful to this day.
For some, it’s where the show started going down hill. Meanwhile, for others, it was yet another brutal and unpredictable moment in a show that is packed with countless demises and injuries.
To this day, when discussing Sons of Anarchy, a majority of fans isolate Opie losing his life in prison as the most disturbing and painful moment in the show and refuse to discuss it further.
Opie acted as the beating heart of the show and fully committed to SAMCRO– his patch and jacket were the only things that he ever knew.
After Tig ended his father’s life, Opie accepts a deal with Damon Pope to imprison the person who took his dad’s life. The plan also involves the release of his imprisoned buddies in exchange for the life of a Son.
Originally, Jax is supposed to get the axe, but Opie opts to commit the ultimate act of friendship by sacrificing himself for his BFF.
4. The Sons In Sons Of Anarchy
The primary focus of Sons of Anarchy is family, and how the indiscretions of one member can cause repercussions down the family tree.
In the beginning, Jax reads the diaries of his father in order to learn how to lead by his example. By the end of the series, Jax is burning the notebooks and giving his SAMCRO ring to his son Abel, who looks at the jewelry as he’s taken out of Charming.
This might be an indication that he’ll one day take the SAMCRO throne, which is what his grandmother, Gemma, wanted.
Jax has Abel’s name tattooed over his heart in order to show off the love that he harbors for his son and the heart condition that his first born endured.
Tara repairs Abel’s medical ailment, and in doing so, begins to repair Jax’s heart as well, as the two eventually become a couple. Jax and Tara make numerous plans to live a normal life outside of Charming, but the SAMCRO leader’s involvement with the club always seems to prevent their escape.
In the end, Abel and Thomas are taken by Nero and Wendy to safety, and Jax sacrifices his life so that SAMCRO and his sons will survive.
At the end of the day, Jax is just a doting father – a dad that just so happens to smuggle in illegal things and claim the lives of his enemies.
3. Smell What The Rock Is Cooking In Charming
One thing that has always bugged some Sons of Anarchy fans is SAMCRO’s indifference about the biker lifestyle. This is understandable, as some fans expected the show to focus on the biker lifestyle. This may seem silly, but the show doesn’t actually involve a lot about biking, despite the fact that every SAMCRO member owns their very own two-wheeler.
After Sons of Anarchy first premiered, a plethora of biker documentaries and programs were heavily watched by fans who were eager for more motorcycles, as they were unable to get their fix from Sons of Anarchy alone.
Kurt Sutter’s biker family saga is essentially The Sopranos on Harley Davidsons or Game of Thrones with morally depraved dealers in place of the White Walkers.
In this meme, The Rock takes offense to the little girl’s dismissal of Sons of Anarchy. Any true fan would know that Sons of Anarchy is less about “biker stuff” and more about the trafficking illegal items and gang violence.
Some Sons of Anarchy fans may be disappointed about bikes not being a main focus in the show, but they could never argue about the quality of the series. Over the years, Kurt Sutter has created an incredible story that we can’t get enough of.
2. Housewives Of Charming
The “old ladies” of Sons of Anarchy refer to girlfriends and wives of SAMCRO memes. Though the club only has male members, the old ladies of SAMCRO serve there own role: they keep the men happy.
Sons of Anarchy also includes a few fights between old ladies who don’t see eye to eye. Hence this meme, which suggests that SAMCRO’s old ladies are similar to the women who appear in the Real Housewives shows– minus the utensil attacks.
One of the biggest problems with Sons of Anarchy is that female characters are not often provided much power– a main exception to this is Gemma. Women are not allowed to become members of the club or ride any bikes.
SAMCRO eventually revises its rule against allowing certain ethnicities into the club, but it never really addresses the absence of women participating in club business on the road.
Gemma is relied upon as an accountant and Tara is seen as the on-call medic for the group, but they are still not allowed to ride with the group or become official SAMCRO members themselves.
SOA has some moments of femininity, such as the scene where Tara attempts to convince Jax to leave charming and essentially be a stay at home dad while she takes care of the bills, but this plan ultimately falls flat.
1. Friday, Friday, Gotta Ride On Friday
There’s nothing like counting down the seconds at the end of a Friday, which signals the end of a work week and the start of the weekend. TGIF is such a popular abbreviation that they even named a restaurant after it.
Leaving work on Friday in order to enjoy a weekend of either resting or partying never gets old. You don’t have to wake up to an annoying alarm and can instead sleep in as late as you want to.
There are no chirping alarms to interrupt your sleep, startling you to the darkness of early morning and no boss to nag you with work tasks. It just involves hitting the open road for two days of uninterrupted, unproductive bliss.
That is, until Monday rears it’s ugly head and the whole process has to start over from the beginning once again.
Some memers related this feeling in this meme of Jax on the open road. After implementing a Mayhem vote, Jax basically cleans shop and hits the open road.
Unfortunately, he lets go of his handlebars and careens headlong into a truck, which is what it can feel like coming back into the office every Monday morning.
Are there any other Sons of Anarchy memes that fans need to see? Sound off in the comments!
