26 Streaming Services Memes to Prepare You For Your Next Subscription

Melissa Knudson • Writer

Oct 17, 2026 4:30 PM EDT

Can we rent a DVD for the weekend?

On Friday afternoons, we used to have a little family tradition. My mom would walk with me to the video store, and I was allowed to pick one film on DVD so that we could watch it on the weekend. Sometimes, if I had been extra responsible with house chores and schoolwork, I would even be allowed to rent two films. It was my favourite moment of the week. I would spend hours just trying to decide which film was the perfect watch for the family.

After a few years, renting turned into buying. When my parents decided I was aware enough to start building my own film collection, we did exactly that. Every time we had some extra money, we would visit the nearest DVD store to pick out a film. Little by little, our collection became huge, and it had some of the most beloved cinematographic classics of all time. From iconic productions such as Gone With the Wind, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Singing in the Rain, and Rebel Without a Cause, to hidden jewels like Subway to Paradise, we built a collection that truly felt our own. We could go back to it whenever we felt like having a fun afternoon watch, and it was always quite fun to go through the DVDs one by one, making our choice.

Then came streaming services. Completely changed the game. We stopped collecting DVDs and invested in one account, so we could have access to hundreds of movies at the same time. Little did we know that we were also giving up the idea of actually owning valuable things. There was no more inheriting your collection to your future kids. Despite that, these platforms did open a world of possibility. It felt like there was no TV show or movie you couldn't find, and as long as you had good internet access, there was no place you couldn't get to watching. I went from watching a couple of films a week to watching a couple a day. Being a film lover, I enjoyed that change very much.

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via Ranker.com
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via Stephanie Stewart
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via ╰┈☆ Grace ☆┈╯
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via Suhani_Kardam
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via Rustynail3006
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via NiceLapis
The more we watched, the more streaming services were created. One website turned into ten, and one subscription became too many to count. Now, streaming services are clearly a little out of control. Are there too many? Yes. Am I going to stop my Netflix subscription? Let’s face it, probably not. I still love my weekend watch. That said, I will make fun of it, as the industry increasingly becomes more and more unhinged. While enjoying this hilarious streaming services meme list, I’ll probably get back to my DVD collection, just in case.
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via @Oh_boy_3_AM
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via @abigailblossoms
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via ChokeMcNugget
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via TheRealSteamedHams
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via livingcrysis716
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via RapIsGoodKpopIsBad
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via monkeybuttsauce
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via hand—
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via EamoM2oo4
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via SoylentCreek
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via Heisenberg2299
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via jaredohseJ232
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via hoodshit
A new day, a new subscription. Leave it to the TV industry to turn everything into a pay-per-view website. At this point, I’m sharing some of my accounts with people I have never really met, just so I can get access to some others. A very unexpected comeback of trading culture. That said, it feels like the perfect moment to reminisce about the good old days, in which one payment could get you a forever DVD, or well, for as long as you could manage to keep it alive, unscratched and unharmed. Also, I must admit it was kind of wholesome to meet somebody for the first time and learn about them through the films they owned. A collection could truly tell you everything you needed to know about a person.
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via @ToonHive / bitchyquotes
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via beanexplains
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via @tracy09_
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via LeBaguette2463
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via PappaPaulTV
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via EliteGam3rZ
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via TV_Fan_boy
Who knows what will happen with streaming services in the future. At the very least, we can be glad they made us happy that one night we couldn’t fall asleep and decided to scroll through the options, just to find that one show that now lives close to our hearts. So, maybe we can do both. Start building a collection that’ll feel truly like a representation of who we are, while also enjoying fulfilling moments with our favorite films and shows on the different streaming services (probably through somebody else’s account, though).