Ah, 2024: the year we debated how to pronounce “hawk tuah,” pondered the health benefits of eating rocks, and held space for a Broadway showstopper. It was a year when the discourse could feel shockingly pure and joyful — at least for a few minutes, before we all came tumbling back down to reality.
Online culture was more inescapable than ever this year, but where and how we engaged with that culture became increasingly fragmented. So here are the eight viral, much-memed moments that captured the year for me — but feel free to let me know what I missed!
A Willy Wonka experience turns sour
An organization calling itself the House of Illuminati promised a magical, Willy Wonka-themed experience, with AI-generated fliers advertising everything from “Encherining Entertainment” to an “Imagnation Lab” [sic]. The reality proved a bit less enchanting — basically, just a sparsely decorated Glasgow warehouse. But while the experience may have been a letdown for anyone who actually paid for a ticket, it provided a seemingly unending source of bleakly hilarious images for online posters.
Google decides it’s healthy to eat rocks
AI-generated content literally moved to the top of our search results, with Google pushing an AI Overviews feature that proved less than entirely reliable. Some of the results that went viral in the first few days after launch included instructions to add glue to pizza, stare into the sun for up to half an hour, and eat one small rock per day. And while Google quickly removed the most high-profile of the groan-worthy results, the debacle illustrated how dumb an AI-centric future could actually be.
The internet celebrates “Brat” summer
More than just an album, Charli XCX’s “Brat” was a vibe, defined by lime green and a celebration of being (in the artist’s words) “that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes.” If that sounds a bit vague, don’t worry about it: “It’s brat. You’re brat. That’s brat.” For a brief, shining moment, even Kamala Harris was brat.
The 2020 Summer Olympics took place in the shadow of a pandemic (the games didn’t even happen until 2021), but this year’s event marked a return to delightful form. For American viewers, it helped that streaming service Peacock figured out how to showcase the event’s glorious variety. There were genuinely heartwarming moments, like Celine Dion’s performance of an Edith Piaf classic, but the internet’s true heroes were more offbeat, from the unflappability of Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec to the wild moves of Australian breakdancer Raygun.
Moo Deng bites her way into our hearts
With a name meaning “bouncy pork,” this pygmy hippopotamus quickly became, according to a “Today Show” host, the “hottest new ‘It girl’ on the planet.” Footage of Moo Deng living her life in Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo took over the internet, thanks to her diminutive size, her feisty-but-harmless bites, and her cute screams. Of course, even something as seemingly pure and delightful as a cute baby hippo had its dark side, as the zoo had to deal with tourists throwing things at poor Moo Deng.
The stars of “Wicked” hold space and fingers
“Wicked” was everywhere this fall, as a massive marketing push turned the film into the highest-grossing Broadway adaptation ever. But the biggest moment from the campaign was emphatically unscripted, with stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande seemingly overwhelmed when a journalist told them “people are taking the lyrics to ‘Defying Gravity’ and really holding space with that” — creating the unforgettable image of Grande reaching over and clutching one of Erivo’s fingers.
The “Hawk Tuah girl” monetizes her 15 minutes of fame
2024’s most 2024 celebrity was Hailey Welch, a young woman who became famous for her colorful answer to the question, “What’s one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time?” Welch decided to capitalize on her notoriety by selling merch, starting a podcast, and even launching the “HAWK” memecoin. That last part ended badly, with the majority of tokens sold off in what appears to be a classic crypto rug pull. (Welch has denied any wrongdoing.)
Bluesky goes from open source underdog to serious social media competitor
Bluesky opened to the public in February, and a few months after creating an initial identity as scrappy, leftist alternative to X, it shot to the top of the app charts — first in Brazil (where X was briefly banned), then in the United States (after Donald Trump won the presidential election with backing from X owner Elon Musk). This, perhaps inevitably, led to hand-wringing thinkpieces about liberal echo chambers, as well as questions about how Bluesky’s newfound popularity might dilute its good vibes and glorious weirdness.