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Ah, 2024: the year we debate how to pronounce “hawk tuah,” ponder the health benefits of eating rock, and book seats for a Broadway show. It was a year when the conversation felt surprisingly pure and cheerful—at least for a few minutes, before we all snapped back to reality.
Online culture was more inescapable than ever this year, but where and how we engage with it has become increasingly fragmented. So here are eight viral, highly memorable moments that captured the year for me — but let me know what I missed!
The Willy Wonka experience turns sour
An organization calling itself the House of Illuminati promised a magical, Willy Wonka-themed experience with AI-generated flyers advertising everything from Enchering Entertainment to Imagnation Lab (sic). The reality turned out to be a bit more glamorous – basically just a sparsely decorated Glasgow warehouse. But while the experience may have been disappointing for anyone who paid for a ticket, it provided a seemingly endless source of vaguely funny images for online posters.
Google decides that eating rocks is healthy
AI-generated content has moved to the top of our search results, prompting Google’s AI Reviews feature, which has proven to be less than completely reliable. Some of the results that went viral in the first few days after launch included instructions to add glue to pizza, stare at the sun for up to half an hour, and eat one small rock a day. While Google quickly brushed off the high profile of the groan-worthy results, the debacle demonstrated just how dumb the AI-driven future could actually be.
The Internet is celebrating the summer of “Brat.”
More than just an album, Charli XCX’s ‘Brat’ was a lime green and (in the artist’s words) vibe defined by being “a girl who’s a little messy and likes to have fun and sometimes say some stupid things.” ” If that sounds a little vague, don’t worry about it: “It’s wild. You are a brat. This is brat.” For a brief, shining moment, even Kamala Harris was wild.
The 2020 Summer Olympics took place in the shadow of the pandemic (the games weren’t until 2021), but this year’s event has returned to delicious form. For American viewers, it helped to understand how the Peacock streaming service would showcase the great variety of the event. There were some genuinely heartwarming moments, like Celine Dion’s rendition of an Edith Piaf classic, but the true heroes of the internet were even more unusual, from the eccentricity of Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec to the crazy moves of Australian breakdancer Raygu.
According to the Today show host, this chick behemoth, whose name means “shield pork,” has quickly become “the hottest new It girl on the planet.” Images of Moo Deng, who lives out his life at Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo, have taken over the internet thanks to his small size, angry but harmless bites and cute screams. Of course, even something as pure and delightful as a cute baby hippopotamus had its dark side, as the zoo had to deal with tourists throwing things at poor Moo Deng.
The stars of “Bad” hold the space and fingers
Wicked was everywhere this fall as a massive marketing push made the film the highest-grossing Broadway adaptation of all time. But the campaign’s biggest moment wasn’t quite written off, when stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande were told by a journalist that “people are taking the lyrics to ‘Defying Gravity’ and really going with it,” apparently creating an unforgettable image of Grande. reaching out and grabbing one of Erivo’s fingers.
“Sahin Tuah girl” cashes in on her 15 minutes of fame
2024’s Top 2024: What’s the one move in bed that drives a man crazy every time? was Hailey Welch, a young woman who became famous for her colorful answer to the question. Welch decided to cash in on his fame by selling merchandise, starting a podcast, and even launching the “HAWK” memecoin. This last part ended badly, with most of the tokens being sold in what looked like a classic crypto rug. (Welch has denied any wrongdoing.)
Bluesky goes from open source to a weak social media competitor
Bluesky went public in February, and a few months after establishing an initial identity as a lean, left-wing alternative to X, it topped the app charts, first in Brazil (where X was briefly banned) and then in the United States. States (after Donald Trump won the presidential election with the support of X owner Elon Musk). This has led, perhaps inevitably, to hand-wringing about liberal echo chambers, as well as questions about how Bluesky’s newfound popularity might dilute its good vibes and grand weirdness.
