In 2008, acclaimed screenwriter Alan Ball (Academy Award-winning writer of American Beauty and Emmy-award winning creator of Six Feet Under) adapted Charlaine Harris' hit novel series, The Southern Vampire Mysteries, for television. The resulting program was True Blood, about Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a telepathic young waitress in the small town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, who falls in love with an 173-year old vampire a couple of years after vampires have finally made their presence known to the world due to an artificial blood substitute that makes it possible to live among humans.

Of course, things don't go nearly as simple as vampires being accepted into human society like it is no big deal. There is a great deal of drama involved, especially as other supernatural beings like werewolves and faeries get involved. Along the way, the offbeat cast of characters living in Bon Temps (including Sookie's dim-witted brother, Jason) find a way to come to terms with their new, supernaturally-infused world (some adjust a whole lot more than others). The show was intentionally very much over-the-top for its seven season run and that style lends itself very well to internet memes. Here are 15 fun memes based on the world of True Blood.

15 BILL'S LIMITED VOCABULARY

By far, the thing that the show became most notable for was the love affair between Sookie and Bill Compton, the conflicted Southern vampire played by Stephen Moyer. Bill was loaded to the brim with angst and he seemed to make brooding his number one occupation. He certainly cared for Sookie, though, even when his love for her put him into conflict with the vampire community.

Moyer was born in England and as a result, his American accent always had a little bit of an awkwardness to it. Nothing better exemplified that than the way that he would say Sookie's name when he was upset (and, as we just noted, he was upset a lot), so he would shout out her name constantly. Bill shouting out, "Sookeh" was the most imitated aspect of the show. Even the show itself would make fun of it.

14 ERIC'S LIMITED VOCABULARY

Next to Bill, the most important vampire in the series is Eric Northman, played by Alexander Skarsgård. The relationship between Sookie and Eric was a fascinating one to develop. When the series began, they seemed to be outright enemies, as Eric was far more violent and willing to kill than Bill and thus, Sookie seemed to have little interest in him.

Over time, however, she realized the complexities that exist within him. During a period when he lost his memories, he and Sookie grew close and even started dating. In any event, this meme captures the complex nature of their early relationship, with Eric reproaching her for talking about vampire stuff and then noting that he doesn't understand love (which is later proven to be false).

13 LAFAYETTE KNOWS ALL

One of the most meme-able members of the True Blood supporting cast was Lafayette Reynolds, played by the late Nelsan Ellis (who tragically passed away from heart failure in 2017, far too young at the age of 39). Lafayette was a short order cook at Merlotte's, the restaurant where Sookie works on the series. He also deals drugs (including vampire blood) and eventually becomes a medium.

He was killed off early in the novel series, but he was so popular that he was saved from death on the TV show. He was so over-the-top that he translates perfectly to meme. One useful meme in internet conversations is his constant catchphrase where he tells his friend Sookie (calling her his personal pet name for her) that he is always right.

12 TWILIGHT? YEAH, RIGHT

Even though Bill and Sookie still had their own smoldering chemistry (the real life actors actually got married in real life), it became clear that Eric and Sookie had something going on in the show. When that started to sink in, fans couldn't help but compare True Blood to the most famous vampire story of the last decade, the Twilight films, where Bella is torn between two men, as well.

This topic comes up in memes a lot, with the general idea being that the vampires from True Blood are a good deal tougher than those portrayed in the Twilight film series. Also, since True Blood airs on HBO, the content is a lot more R-Rated. That's something the Twilight movies certainly never get into in those films.

11 FLANNEL MAKES THE MAN

For a series that was already built around Sookie having two notable love interests, True Blood took things to a whole other level by giving Sookie even more notable love interests. This includes the guy she ended up with in the final season (before tragedy struck), the werewolf Alcide Herveaux, played by Joe Manganiello. Introduced as a recurring character in Season 3, Alcide quickly became a fan favorite and a regular for the rest of the series.

Alcide was known for taking off his shirt a lot to show off his great physique, but when he did have clothes on, it was always flannel (likely to show how stereotypically "manly" that he was). This led to this popular meme that just worked in various flannel-related jokes using the above image.

10 SOOKIE'S COOKIES BRING ALL THE BOYS TO THE YARD

As noted, a great deal of the series is based on the relationship between Sookie and Bill, but most notably, the fact that the relationship is ultimately a tragic one, at least in part because of Bill's obsessiveness. Even when he is not with Sookie, he is often thinking about Sookie. He is kind of obsessed and not the kind that people found endearing (if there is such a thing).

This meme takes an amusing look at this obsession by contrasting Bill's view towards Sookie with the approach that the Cookie Monster has to cookies on Sesame Street. To explain, Sookie was notably a really good cookie baker, so that part works, as well. In a lot of ways, Bill's desire for Sookie could be as destructive as Cookie Monster's love for cookies.

9 A TEAM OF RIVALS

A problem that TV shows often run into is that they cannot predict which actors will end up having better chemistry than the ones they initially planned on putting together. A popular example was the series Dawson's Creek, which was built around the title character, Dawson, getting together with his childhood best friend, Joey. However, she ended up having such good chemistry with their mutual friend, Pacey, that that's how the show ended instead.

Similarly, Eric ended up having so much chemistry with Sookie that fans quickly soured on Bill and his moaning, and turned to Eric. This shakeup led to this amusing meme suggesting a drinking game where you drink every time Eric is cooler than Bill. Such a game would definitely leave you passed out, that's for sure!

8 THE REAL HORRORS OF TRUE BLOOD

An interesting aspect of the TV series that did not carry over from the novel series is that in the books, vampires are trapped in whatever form they had when they died. This is to say that if you had a beard when you died, you will forever have a beard as a vampire. You can't shave it. Bill was just lucky enough to have shaved before being killed, as beards were very popular at the time of his death.

On the show, that's not the case, so characters have different hairstyles and the one that gets made fun of the most on the series are the bangs that Bill started wearing towards the end of Season 1 and into Season 2. They just look overly fashionable for a guy who was introduced as sort of a gritty, bad boy vampire.

7 THE MYSTERY THAT IS PAM

A key aspect of the True Blood series is that pretty much everyone on the show gets a chance to be a hero of sorts, even the characters who are essentially outright villains. One of the best examples of this is Pamela Swynford De Beaufort (played by Kristin Bauer van Straten), Eric's lover and second-in-command at the vampire bar, Fangtasia. Pam was turned by Eric and we see her turn Tara later in the series.

It is her relationship with her progeny, Tara (who slowly fell in love with Pam), that showed Pam having real emotions for someone other than Eric and it really humanized the character. It also allowed for some awesome banter between Tara and Pam that brought out the sassiest aspects of her character, especially this sharp one-liner that her mad face and her happy face are the same face!

6 GOOD HELP IS SO HARD TO FIND

Merlotte's Bar and Grill was the main meeting ground of the characters on the series in the early seasons. It eventually took on the name Bellefleur's Bar and Grill by the time the show ended, just FYI. Run by Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell), most of the main cast worked there, including Tara (Rutina Wesley) and Arlene (Carrie Preston).

The thing about this series, though, is that the humans involved are constantly under attack so that the people connected to Merlotte's often end up in grave danger and a lot of them end up, well, dead. It is just sort of the way of the world in the True Blood universe, so it is not even to say that they would be safer working somewhere else.

5 EXPERSS YERSERF

Anna Paquin is a wonderful actress. However, on True Blood, quite often she was asked to do some rather emotional moments, which generally left her face contorted into weird looks. These all worked during the scenes in question but when you freeze them, they're quite amusing to look at. Think about it, if you freeze framed any actor during a crying scene, they probably would look weird, right?

Here, one of these moments is turned into a reference to a classic internet meme of a nerdy young girl enthusing over her favorite series of books, the Goosebumps novels. Do note, by the way, that the original meme was also misleading as the girl in question was trying to look nerdy as a joke. Years later, out of context, though, that's how she will be remembered.

4 TRUE BLOOD SING ALONG

In 2006, country singer Jace Everett released his self-titled debut album. The first single off of the album was released in 2005 ahead of the album's release. Called "That's the Kind of Love I'm In," it was a minor success on the country charts. The follow-up single, however (which also came out before the album was released), "Bad Things," did not even chart.

Three years later, however, the song was then chosen for the theme song for True Blood and it made a huge comeback. Ignored in 2005, the song was now an obsession for most fans. It even led to an amusing chart-based joke in the above meme, noting that all we want to do is "bad things." That is pretty much the calling card of the entire series!

3 GOING GOSLING

As noted, Bill's stylish makeover made the character look a bit different, but at the same time, it also opened the character up for a whole new series of interesting memes. One of the most popular internet memes of the last decade is also one of the most inexplicable. Photos of Ryan Gosling with the caption "Hey Girl" began to pop up all over the place in early 2008, soon before True Blood debuted. There's no real good reason why they started but they were soon everywhere.

Thus, with True Blood becoming a popular series and Bill's look seeming to put him into that Gosling-esque spehre, a popular meme was having vampire Bill do similar "Hey Girl" phrases, like this meme, showing vampire Bill saying, "Happy Birthday, girl."

2 TRUE FRIENDSHIP

As alluded to earlier, the life of a True Blood human supporting cast member is rarely a pleasant one. Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) said it best at one point late in the series, when he exclaimed “Why are we going on with our lives?” In the case of Tara Thornton, her reason for going on with her life was protecting her friends.

Sadly, that beautiful sense of friendship ended up with Tara getting shot in the face by a shotgun blast after stepping in front of an attack that was meant for Sookie. Sookie could not handle Tara dying for her, so she had Pam turn Tara. When Tara was initially turned, she was disgusted that her friend would "save" her life by turning her into something that she hated. Ultimately, vampire Tara was also killed in the final season.

1 BAD CATTITUDE

One of the oddest characters (on a series filled with odd characters) was Reverend Steve Newlin, played by Michael McMillian. Newlin was in charge of the Fellowship of the Sun, a religious organization that spread anti-vampire propaganda. In the end, Newlin ended up being turned into a vampire himself. It was at this point that he also came to term with his own homosexuality. He embraced his life as a "proud gay vampire American" and professed his love for Jason Stackhouse.

However, things never quite seemed to work out for Steve. That led to this hilarious meme that contrasted Steve's pathetic demand for love with the way that cat owners try to get their aloof pet cats to show them love, to the same lack of results.