The Internet's chaotic and sometimes mob-like mentality in 2015 came to an end with a viral picture of a dog with ham on its face.

The photo went viral for a number of reasons and showed the power of the Internet and virality in the modern age.

The controversy started when Facebook user Stephen Roseman claimed his dog was "badly burned and disfigured" while rescuing a family from a house fire, and asked people to like or share his post.

But once the photo earned more than 100,000 views, people began to notice that the photo wasn't what it seemed.

"If you look very closely, you'll realize that this picture is actually not of a brave dog that's been burned in a house fire," BuzzFeed's Ryan Broderick wrote. "It's actually a photo of a dog with ham on its face."

Following that reveal, social media users started sharing the post mostly as a joke, some even referencing the picture as "hamdog," BuzzFeed reported.

The dog with ham on its face - or "hamdog," whatever you want to call it - caps off what's been a year of interesting Internet memes and experiences.

"It was the year 'the dress' became the meme by which all others are judged, the year of an endearingly clueless backup dancer in a shark costume and the year of critters both adorable (quokkas!) and wacky (those runaway llamas)," CNN reported.

Yes, there were a number of popular Internet jokes and memes from throughout the year. The Daily Dotlisted a bunch of them, as did BBC. There's also Relevant's list of Internet moments that defined 2015.

Using these, we've compiled a list of some of the most popular memes from the year. Let us know if there were any we missed.

The dress

Who could forget the dress that sparked a debate for weeks?

First reported by Cates Holderness of BuzzFeed, this dress looked totally different for people. Some saw it as blue and black, while others suggested it was white and gold.

The original article earned more than 38 million page views and inspired a number of hot takes and think pieces on why it looked different for everyone and what it meant for American society and journalism as a whole.

The dress originally came from a Tumblr post, which has since disappeared, The Independent reported.

Those llamas

Many forget that a pair of llamas captured America's attention on the same day as the dress. Back on Feb. 27, two llamas ditched their owner and fled out onto major roads in Arizona, AZ Central reported. Live video feeds of the llamas sprang up on the Internet, capturing the nation's interest and even their own Twitter account.

Someone on the Internet also cleverly created a meme that combined both the dress and the llamas together.

Left shark

Anyone watching 2015's Super Bowl halftime show would have noticed Katy Perry dancing the night away with a pair of sharks. The Internet, though, made one of the sharks famous.

Left Shark won over the hearts of Internet users because "his moves seemed less on-point and more confused than those of the right shark's," US Magazine reported. Like the aforementioned pair of llamas, Left Shark even got its own Twitter account.

The Left Shark also had its fair share of legal issues, too. Perry wanted to trademark the shark's design, but the U.S. Trademark Office ultimately rejected her request, The Hollywood Reporter explained.

Pizza rat

Back in September, on a relatively slow news day, the nation found itself "obsessed" by a subway rat that attempted to carry a piece of pizza down a set of stairs, CNN reported. Many Internet users claimed the rat symbolized the "ultimate New Yorker" for its love of pizza and willingness to find stardom through adversity.

"He appears poised to complete the descent and return to his squalid rat hole with his unnecessarily large prize - an inspiring demonstration of the grit and determination one needs to make it in New York City," Caroline Bankoff wrote for the Daily Intelligencer.

Doughnut raccoon

Just under the 2015 wire, a raccoon showed its love for doughnuts in what many called shades of pizza rat. As Time reported, the raccoon dropped from a doughnut shop's ceiling and stole one of the pastries from the shelves.

"You'll notice this creature makes pretty much no effort to be stealthy and just totally goes for it. You'll also notice that the people filming this event - most likely employees - are utterly delighted by this," Time reported.

Double hoverboard fun

Also during the last week of 2015 - a week that The Washington Post said creates a sort of "dead zone" in the office - hoverboard fails earned a lot of attention.

As I wrote earlier this week, not only did Mike Tyson's fall off a hot pink hoverboard create a reaction among Internet users, but so too did a Catholic priest in the Philippines, who rode a hoverboard during Christmas Eve mass.

You can watch both hoverboard moments in the videos below.

The 'Hotline Bling' meme

Whether you listen to Drake or not, the artist's music video for his hot summer song "Hotline Bling" captured the hearts and minds of Internet users everywhere with GIFs and memes from the video. These memes, often just snippets from Drake's music video, referenced pop culture moments, USA Today reported.

#PopeBars

News broke earlier this year that Pope Francis would release a pop-rock album called "Wake Up!" As Rolling Stone reported, the album would "spread his message of hope, faith and unity" using pop-rock genre style music.

But Pope Francis wasn't done lyrically after the album dropped, as the hashtag #PopeBars went viral after a photo of the pope speaking into a microphone gained popularity on the Internet, The Washington Post reported.

Using modern rap lyrics and giving them their own faithful spin, the Internet had a field day bringing some musical levity to the world.

"It led to a hilarious, if irreverent, meme: Twitter users imagined the pontiff as a rapper and gave him appropriate lyrics using the hashtag #popebars," the Post reported.