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How can we sum up 2024? It was a 12 months of historic elections, devastating battle and skyrocketing residing prices. No marvel, then, that we appeared to hunt respite – or at the very least just a few moments’ distraction – from all of it by embracing the weirder facet of popular culture.
We have been enthralled by tales from a disastrous Willy Wonka-themed immersive occasion. We contemplated how precisely one would possibly “maintain house” for the lyrics of musical theatre banger “Defying Gravity” from Depraved. And we diverted our consideration from the US presidential race by discovering that Take That’s personal Gary Barlow has a really, very tall son. (Should you hadn’t already guessed, our display time went via the roof too.)
The discharge of Charli XCX’s album Brat prompted us to embrace our interior 365 social gathering lady, we collectively fell for Adam Brody in No one Desires This and have been alternately impressed and shocked by some really Machiavellian behaviour on The Traitors. Oh, and we critically began to ponder whether or not we’d have a shot at 15 seconds of viral fame by coming into one of many infinite succession of movie star lookalike competitions that appeared to spring up across the globe within the last quarter of the 12 months.
Right here’s our countdown of the 15 most chaotic, baffling and downright odd pop cultural moments of the previous 12 months…
15. ‘It Ends With Us’ ended with press tour drama
Not for the reason that circus surrounding the discharge of 2022’s Don’t Fear Darling has a movie’s press tour been the topic of a lot scrutiny. It Ends With Us is an adaptation of a novel by BookTok sensation Colleen Hoover, which offers with an abusive relationship and stars Blake Energetic because the protagonist, Lily Blossom Bloom (you most likely received’t be stunned to be taught that Lily opens a flower store over the course of the narrative). Earlier than its launch, although, followers seen that Energetic and a few of the solid appeared to have unfollowed the movie’s director Justin Baldoni, who additionally performs Lily’s abusive companion Ryle. Then, because the solid began doing the media rounds, Baldoni tended to look alone, and his co-stars awkwardly shrugged off questions on working with him. The whiff of a rift inevitably prompted social media customers to begin speculating a couple of potential feud; Energetic then garnered criticism when some followers claimed she wasn’t discussing the movie’s weighty emotional subjects with sufficient seriousness. It was, in different phrases, a little bit of a PR catastrophe, however one which we couldn’t look away from.
14. Michael J Fox at Glastonbury
There have been a variety of surprising visitors to grace Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage lately, however none so weird as this. In the direction of the top of their polarising fifth headline set at Worthy Farm, “Viva la Vida” pop-rockers Coldplay introduced on Again to the Future star Michael J Fox, to accompany them on guitar throughout renditions of “Humankind” and “Repair You”. Paying tribute to Fox on stage, Chris Martin defined: “The principle motive why we’re in a band is due to watching Again to the Future.” Left subject or not, Fox’s cameo was a heartwarming second – an earnest homage to a fantastic performer.
13. Everyone fell for the ‘scorching rabbi’
Again within the mid-Noughties, millennials fell for Adam Brody as The OC’s sarcastic, nerdy Seth Cohen. Quick-forward 20 years, and people exact same viewers (now a number of many years older and hopefully a bit wiser) reignited their obsession with Brody when he appeared as progressive rabbi Noah in Netflix’s romcom collection No one Desires This, an odd couple story about his fledging relationship with Kristen Bell’s Joanne, a intercourse podcaster who additionally occurs to be completely agnostic. Simply as Andrew Scott was christened “scorching priest” for his function in Fleabag just a few years again, Brody’s character was branded “scorching rabbi” (why can we get so obsessive about these spiritual characters? Talk about…). Secure to say, almost all people wished a slice of the present’s escapism – a pair who meet in actual life, and appear comparatively properly adjusted, emotionally talking? – and one other season is already within the works.
12. Gary Barlow’s gigantic son
When Take That singer Gary Barlow shared a prosaic household {photograph} on Instagram in June to mark Father’s Day, it’s unlikely he would have anticipated it to go viral. And it didn’t – till November, when individuals started sharing it on social media en masse, so moved have been they by the peak of Barlow’s “large son”, Daniel. Whereas it’s reported that Daniel is in truth solely 6ft 2in (1.88m), he visibly dwarfs Gary (5ft 8in/1.72m) and the remainder of the Barlow household within the picture, an obvious loftiness that prompted an avalanche of memes. One broadly shared submit, as an example, included a photograph of Gary being showered in golden confetti, alongside the caption: “Gary Barlow standing subsequent to his son consuming a croissant.” Households of celebrities ought to, in fact, normally be off limits in the case of public ridicule, however the flash-in-pan fixation on Barlow Jr was wholly celebratory. Social media merely appeared in awe of him – a large amongst males.
11. Hawk Tuah
Seldom has the arc of Twenty first-century viral fame been painted fairly so starkly as with Haliey Welch, the 22-year-old Tennessee girl higher identified by her catchphrase “Hawk Tuah”. Welch uttered the phrase – a crude sexual onomatopoeia – throughout a vox pop interview and the clip propelled her to rapid on-line fame. Earlier than tuah lengthy, she had launched her personal podcast (Discuss Tuah), a courting recommendation app, and a controversial cryptocurrency. It’s now been half a 12 months for the reason that “Hawk Tuah” pattern started, and that quarter-hour of fame simply retains on going.
10. Celeb lookalike competitions
On 27 October, an unofficial Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest was staged in a park in New York Metropolis. A whole bunch of individuals attended – together with the Wonka star himself – inflicting police to point out up and problem a dispersal order. The seal, nonetheless, had been damaged, and a spate of copycat occasions sprung up throughout the globe. Lookalikes of Paul Mescal, Harry Types, Jeremy Allen White and Dev Patel assembled in numerous public boards to match likenesses; Glen Powell even provided the winner of his competitors the prospect to cameo in his forthcoming film. What made the phenomenon all of the extra baffling was how few contestants bore something greater than a faint passing resemblance to their supposed doppelgangers. Lookalikes? Hardly!
9. Harry and Mollie had a ‘Traitors’ showdown
Twenty-two-year-old Harry performed an absolute blinder on the second season of The Traitors, managing to lull the “faithfuls” right into a false sense of safety along with his cheery little brother vitality – then gleefully deciding which ones must be killed off. He appeared to strike up a genuinely strong friendship with fellow Gen-Z contestant Mollie, whose stalwart conviction that her new bestie was on the identical facet as her reached Shakespearean ranges of dramatic irony because the season went on. Lastly, over the last ever roundtable, when Mollie had one final probability to see the sunshine and ship Harry packing, we noticed her begin to write the letter H on her board, solely to erase it after her pal promised her that he was being sincere. Her good religion ensured that Harry landed £95,000 in prize cash, and she or he walked away with nothing. It was strong gold watch-through-your-fingers actuality TV (and our hearts broke for Mollie).
8. Dua Lipa makes a brand new buddy
Fox wasn’t the one shock at Glastonbury 2024 – at the very least not within the case of Dua Lipa. The Albanian-British pop star was accosted by a ukulele-strumming musician whereas strolling across the competition website – stated musician then proceeded to present her a reside rendition of a half-sung, half-rapped ditty of his personal making (full, in fact, with loads of uke). The excruciating clip went viral on social media, as did stills of Lipa’s facial response – a glance of mortified awkwardness mixed with a smile that may be described as generously well mannered.
7. ‘Demure’ grew to become a buzzword
We most likely didn’t want extra proof that everybody is spending far, far an excessive amount of time scrolling social media (the Oxford English Dictionary’s phrase of 2024 wasn’t “brainrot” for nothing) however the speedy rise of the “very demure” catchphrase supplied but additional proof. In August, TikTok creator Jools Lebron shared a video during which she defined why her work make-up look was “very demure, very aware”. The tongue-in-cheek clip, which satirised the stereotypical trappings of femininity, then grew to become a TikTok hit. Quickly everybody was borrowing Lebron’s phrase, even manufacturers and massive organisations – Nasa obtained in on the act when it posted a message on Twitter/X which learn: “You see how Earth seems in house? It’s very demure, very aware. Earth seems very cutesy within the photo voltaic system.” Some individuals began studying a bit of too deeply into the entire thing, claiming it was a corrective to the chaos of “brat summer season”; some adopted it unironically as a kind of trad-wife mantra. Lebron’s viral fame did change her life offline, although, incomes her cash to finance her gender transition.
6. Moo Deng mania took maintain
We weren’t precisely overwhelmed with causes to be cheerful this 12 months, so the arrival of Moo Deng felt like a much-needed ray of sunshine. This very tiny, very shiny pygmy hippo, whose identify roughly interprets as “bouncy pork”, was born at a Thai zoo in July. She discovered viral fame when zoo employees uploaded movies of her playful antics – together with, erm, biting her handlers and blowing bubbles of snot – and her screaming response face proved to be an actual hit on social media. Quickly there have been memes, merch and even make-up tutorials promising to recreate her dewy glow. As we speak Present host Hoda Kotb put it greatest when she described the hippo as “the most popular, hottest new It-girl on the planet. She’s redefining magnificence requirements. She’s obtained chubby pink cheeks, a definite potato form.” And we wouldn’t have it another means.
5. ‘Holding house’
The uber-earnest ex-theatre-kid vitality of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo was there all through the whole lot of the Depraved press tour however got here to a boil when confronted with one of the crucial opaque interview questions you’re prone to hear. “I’ve seen, this week, individuals are taking the lyrics of [Wicked showstopper] ‘Defying Gravity’ and actually holding house with that, and feeling energy in that,” journalist Tracey E Gilchrist advised the actors. Erivo is seen rising visibly emotional, responding: “I didn’t know that was taking place.” Grande reaches out to carry Erivo’s hand however finally ends up form of holding onto certainly one of Erivo’s fingers. The entire clip is nearly not possible to decipher, and viewers have been equal components amused and flummoxed.
4. Oasis made a long-awaited comeback
Band reunions aren’t precisely few and much between in our nostalgia-obsessed period however the reunion between Liam and Noel Gallagher, introduced in August, did really feel genuinely stunning. In any case, they’d spent the most effective a part of 30 years reminding us how a lot they hate each other, and that animosity had solely stepped up since Oasis went on hiatus in 2009 (and since Liam obtained maintain of a social media account, permitting him to submit pictures of his older sibling captioned with the phrase “potato”). Did the rumoured £50m payday play an element in thawing the frosty relations between the Gallagher brothers? Who can say! Anyway, information that they’d be getting the band again collectively for a string of stadium dates in 2025 prompted many people to cancel our weekend plans to spend a irritating Saturday railing towards Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing system. Anticipate parka gross sales and mod haircuts to spike subsequent summer season.
3. “Kamala is Brat”
For tens of millions of pop music followers, 2024 will all the time be the Yr of Brat, such was the zeitgeist-snorting resonance of Charli XCX’s sixth studio album. A part of the genius of Brat is the sheer nebulousness of the time period; Charli herself has outlined it as evoking “a pack of cigs, a Bic lighter and a strappy white prime with no bra”. It was to some bemusement, nonetheless, that Charli tweeted her well-known phrases, shortly after Joe Biden introduced he was dropping out of the US presidential election: “Kamala IS brat.” Kamala Harris’s group took the praise and ran with it, altering her social media pages to mirror the brat-green aesthetic of Charli’s stylish, stimulant-giddy album, prompting a thousand suppose items and explainers within the course of. Even when Harris hadn’t misplaced the election a number of months later, the assertion would nonetheless have been weird – no, Kamala isn’t brat. What are we doing right here, precisely?
2. Kendrick vs Drake
Kendrick Lamar vs Drake. Relying in your viewpoint, it’s both two rap giants squaring off – the hip-hop equal of Godzilla taking up Mothra – or else the real-life manifestation of the “hydrogen bomb vs coughing child” meme. No matter your stance, the feud between the 2 best-selling artists undoubtedly kicked up a notch this 12 months, with each Drake and Kendrick releasing a number of diss tracks inside a brief house of time. Essentially the most controversial of those proved to be “Not Like Us”, a monitor during which Kendrick accuses his rival of being a “licensed pedophile”. (Drake has denied the allegation.) The unrepentantly pugnacious monitor went on to interrupt chart information and earn 5 Grammy nominations, additionally scary a lawsuit from group Drake. The entire affair has taken rap beefs into uncharted territory – and followers are completely loving it.
1. The Willy Wonka Expertise grew to become the brand new Fyre Competition
On 24 February, households headed to a warehouse in an industrial space of Glasgow, hoping to step right into a world of pure creativeness. They’d paid £35 for a ticket to an immersive expertise impressed by Willy Wonka and his chocolate manufacturing facility (an occasion, we should always be aware, that wasn’t remotely affiliated with Roald Dahl or the movie studio behind Wonka). What greeted them was underwhelming to say the least: just a few plastic sweet cane decorations, a bouncy fortress, a handful of actors tasked with studying out a script seemingly generated by AI and a glum trying Oompa Loompa. Police have been ultimately known as to the warehouse after receiving complaints from disgruntled prospects. The entire thing was rudimentary sufficient to make an escape room from an Apprentice job appear like a Punchdrunk theatrical manufacturing – and naturally, social media customers lapped up the entire debacle, obsessing over every new eyewitness testimony from guests and employed performers. It’s going to absolutely go down in meme historical past as Britain’s low-budget reply to Fyre Competition.
