Katy Perry, if you’re reading this, back away from the old people.

2023—a year so wild, so fascinating, that we almost made this list the Top 125 Pop Culture Moments (until we realized we didn’t really want to shoulder that burden). It was the year of too many phenomena to count—politicians committing crimes on camera, the Roman Empire, the fall of the celebrity marriage, the rise of the random-match generator celebrity couple, the dawn of the AI celebrity. Outside of the Top 100 circle, Sofia Richie’s elaborate wedding set off a (tedious) debate about “quiet luxury.” Beautiful Mormon influencers decided not to name their baby Frosty. A dedicated French Bulldog finally met her idol. Mac DeMarco released a 199-track album. Pete Davidson fought PETA! Jared Leto scaled the Empire State Building on the last day of the SAG/AFTRA strike, and no one cared! Inside of the Top 100 circle, well, you’ll see.

Bwog’s Top 100 Pop Culture Moments of 2023

100. Harry Styles shaves his head: Harry Styles is hairy no more. In November, @deuxmoi, the celebrity gossip Instagram account, hinted that the British pop star had shaved his head, posting DMs from a fan who claimed to have spotted him at a U2 concert in Las Vegas, but didn’t have permission to share photos. Fans immediately took to Twitter advising the message be taken with a grain of salt, pointing out that @deuxmoi has posted incorrect information in the past. In response, the Instagram account posted a grainy blue-hued screenshot of Styles with a buzzcut. Some fans were convinced, while others were still skeptical due to the poor image quality. Eventually, TMZ confirmed the news by dropping clear photos of the buzzcutted Styles and girlfriend Taylor Russell at the concert. Harry confirmed the buzzcut news himself by posting a simple promotional image for his beauty company Pleasing. Fans had intense reactions to the haircut, particularly because Harry has been famous for his hair, its various phases, and its aptness to his name since he rose to fame in 2011 as the curly-headed One Direction member. Styles didn’t give a reason for the buzzcut, but his mother, Anne Twist, later publicly defended his choice from naysayers.

99. Justin Bieber is wildly underdressed to wife Hailey Bieber’s event at Krispy Kreme: On August 28, Hailey and Justin Bieber attended an event at Krispy Kreme in Manhattan. The occasion: a celebration of Rhode, Hailey’s makeup brand, and its recent collaboration with the donut company. The theme: Strawberry Glazed. Hailey’s outfit: a red mini dress, strawberry earrings, a red clutch, red pumps, and red nail polish. Justin’s outfit? A gray hoodie revealing some chest (scandalous), gray sweatpant shorts, yellow crocs, and a pink baseball cap, worn over the hood. Here’s a picture if you don’t believe it. It’s giving that one picture of Beyonce and Ed Sheeran. Oh, to be a man.

98. Fall Out Boy’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” cover steals our bit: In June, Fall Out Boy rocked the airwaves for approximately eight people when they released a surprise cover of “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” with updated lyrics to reflect major cultural moments in the years since the original song was released in 1989. Interesting idea. 

“Trump gets impeached twice / polar bears got no ice / Fyre Fest, Black Parade, Michael Phelps, Y2K / Boris Johnson, Brexit / Kanye West and Taylor Swift / Stranger Things, Tiger King, Ever Given, Suez.” 

Sound familiar? That’s because it’s what we’ve been writing every New Years’ Eve of the 2020s. And yes, we all stole it from Billy Joel. And sure, we didn’t come up with the absolute banger “SSRIs, Prince and the Queen die.” But really, who stole it first? Who stole it better? We’ll let you be the judge (it was us). 

97. Andrea Riseborough’s grassroots Oscar nomination: When British actress Andrea Riseborough nabbed one of five coveted nominations for Best Actress at this year’s Oscars, viewers at home were left with a lot of questions, including, why? How? Who is that? Riseborough was nominated for her work in To Leslie, a powerful indie film beloved by Sarah Paulson and the eight people who saw it. While the nomination appeared to come out of nowhere, there was a little bit more to this story. For context, Oscar nominations (and the eventual winners) are decided by counting the votes of hundreds of Academy members—people in the film industry including directors, writers, actors, and more. Just days before voting opened, social media was suddenly flooded when seemingly every white 45-to-85-year-old actor in existence began posting about the “small film with a giant heart.” Gwyneth Paltrow hosted a screening! Kate Winslet moderated a last-minute Q&A! In no time, Riseborough had edged out nominees who had until then seemed to be at the front of the Oscars race, like Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler. In due time, it was revealed Riseborough’s manager, Jason Weinberg, had reached out to every celebrity he could think of, begging them to promote Riseborough’s performance. Mary McCormack, wife of To Leslie director Michael Morris, may have even violated Academy rules by wining and dining voters directly in an attempt to get them to vote for Riseborough. While the rules violation was ultimately free of consequences, it was also largely free of reward (see entry #68). In the year of the nepo baby, Riseborough truly shone as a nepo friend. 

96. Vivek Ramaswamy’s “Nikki = Corrupt” sign: GOP presidential debates are always a spectacle. You can never be sure what is going to happen next. Still, the fourth Republican presidential debate on December 6 gave “unprecedented” a new meaning. While taking shots at opponent Nikki Haley for her roles on various boards of companies involved in military contracting, pharmaceutical entrepreneur and Republican hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy addressed Haley’s accusation that he has a “woman problem.” “I don’t have a woman problem,” he responded. “You have a corruption problem, and I think that’s what people need to know. Nikki is corrupt.” If that weren’t enough, proceeded to hold up a handwritten sign on a legal pad that read “NIKKI = CORRUPT” in large letters. It is unclear whether this sign was made in the heat of the moment or prepared beforehand, but it was met with a mixture of cheers and boos. Within minutes, Ramaswamy’s sign was plastered across social media platforms and remained a memorable moment from the debate, with the blank sign becoming a template for endless memes. If Ramaswamy’s goal was to gain attention, he definitely did that. If it was to gain credibility, many people express mixed opinions about whether the sign came across as a strong statement, or a superficial political stunt. 

95. Jacob Elordi picks up Barry Keoghan’s coffee cup at the Saltburn Q&A: There’s no denying this was the year of Jacob Elordi. The actor, once known most prominently for the Kissing Booth trilogy, starred in two of the hottest movies of this year, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla (where he out-Elvised Austin Butler) and Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (where he did other stuff!). In short, after years of alluding to himself as a spiritual successor to Marlon Brando or James Dean, 2023 was the year Elordi finally got to prove his movie star status. Still, one moment trumped everything else. To set the scene: in November, Elordi and his co-star, Barry Keoghan (5’8), joined director Emerald Fennell on stage in Los Angeles for a pre-screening Saltburn Q&A, and were seated in raised director’s chairs for the event. In this ridiculous little adult high chair, Keoghan’s feet did not even come close to touching the ground. How was he to reach his little drink? Not to worry: in an act that prompted one Bwog editor to text “Jacob Elordi 6’5????????” to everyone they knew, Elordi bent down, without moving from his seat, to lift Keoghan’s coffee cup from the floor and hand it back to him, giving his buddy a (lovely, tender, crucial) knee-pat on his way back up, before delicately crossing his (massive) legs. We cannot emphasize enough: he did not have to get out of his seat. A distance unimaginable to Keoghan becomes a pittance in the vast wingspan of Elordi, a gentle giant. As one Saltburn Understander (of the four of us in existence) would later explain, “The limbs! They’re just limbing.” Last year, we wrote of a certain star’s red carpet fashion, “the importance of this to Bwog cannot be overstated. It was chemically-altering. Life-changing. World-saving, perhaps.” This was so much more important than that.

94. The age of Snoopy: For a 73-year-old icon, Snoopy certainly had quite the year. The pooch has been steadily on the up and up since 2021, when his latest venture, The Snoopy Show, premiered on Apple TV. Still, in 2023, he seemed to be everywhere. He was the subject of an adorable Gen Alpha member’s mega-viral TikTok fan edits (which spawned several additional fan accounts). He was the namesake of the Palm Dog-winning pet in Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall. He stole hearts in X user @snoopyvids’ viral clips, in which he ice skates to a variety of today’s hits (among other content). Suffice to say, the breakout star of Peanuts has re-entered the internet’s consciousness, and he’s doing better than ever. It’s Snoopy’s world, and we’re all just living in it. 

93. Kesha’s mom shoots her shot with Lana Del Rey’s dad: According to Rough Trade, Rob Grant, best known as Lana Del Rey’s father, has never had an instrument lesson or any musical training. This didn’t stop him from releasing his debut album, Lost At Sea (produced in part by Jack Antonoff), this past June. When PopCrave announced that Grant was releasing an album, Pebe Sebert, mother of Kesha, quote tweeted the original tweet, asking “Is he single?” Well, shoot your shot! The hype around Rob Grant even extended to Lana’s rabid die-hard fans. When Bwog attended the All Things Go festival this September, Lana welcomed her dad on stage during a break in the performances. The people in the pit lunged forward, screaming so loud we thought it was Lana showing up early. In fact, it was just Rob Grant with a handful of Lana t-shirts he threw at the crowd. Our friend even got one.

92. Jack Antonoff and Margaret Qualley’s Jersey wedding gets everyone mobbed: Eight-time Grammy-winning producer and musician Jack Antonoff tied the knot with actress Margaret Qualley in Long Beach Island, New Jersey, this August. He even co-wrote and produced a song for his wife with Lana Del Rey, “Margaret,” that she performed at the wedding (while wearing white)! Overall, we can’t get over how sweet this was—oh yeah, except for the part where thousands of Swifties gathered outside the event. Swift—a long-time friend and collaborator of Antonoff—was in attendance alongside other A-listers, causing complete chaos. Police were called, bars and restaurants were mobbed, and local hotspots were shut down entirely. Many Long Beach Islanders were frustrated, in particular, due to an annual fishing competition being disrupted by the crowds. Videos were released of the crowds chanting Taylor’s name, as well as stars exiting the wedding and overall looking pissed (rightfully so, Zoë Kravitz). PSA: please don’t mob your fav’s friends’ weddings! We wish our very best to the newlyweds, and, as Lana Del Rey once famously sang, “When you know you know…” 

91. Australia produces a Woolly Mammoth meatball: In March, Vow, an Australian cultured meat startup made a meatball out of what they have called “mammoth meat.” Created using a DNA sequence from the long-extinct mammal, the mammoth meatball had an unmistakably meat-like texture, color and taste, though Vow claims that it is not intended for human consumption. Ultimately a publicity stunt, the creation of the mammoth meatball aimed to spark curiosity for ways in which meat is consumed. Vow later explained it hopes that an increase in lab-grown meat like this will eventually reduce our desire to slaughter animals for food and help decrease greenhouse gas emissions as a result. Dubbed as a ‘food stunt’ by The Atlantic, this marketing ploy proved to be a success, after briefly taking over TikTok in late March. Considering the woolly mammoth went extinct over 4,000 years ago, it’s no wonder why this absurd stunt piqued the interest of many, and why this may have been all that Vow wanted to accomplish, for now.

90. The fall of the house of Stalling: Lunden and Olivia Stalling, known by the internet as “The Stallings” or alternatively, “the racist Southern lesbians,” rose to fame on TikTok for their lavish lifestyle. Now, they’re better known for racist tweets resurfacing. On the day of their wedding. From both of them. The Stallings’ joint account was your classic influencer pattern. They’ve got pilates videos, vlogs, the works. For much of the summer, they were THAT lesbian influencer couple. People even covered their wedding!! However, during the couple’s honeymoon in early October, an anonymous Reddit user posted a thread of tweets from 2012, 2013, and 2014, in which Lunden (then aged 16-18) repeatedly used the n-word, alongside other racist language and derogatory stereotypes. Later, tweets in which Olivia also used the n-word resurfaced on Reddit and Instagram. However, perhaps even more concerning was the apology that came after. The couple first addressed the situation with a ten minute apology TikTok, in which they excused their behavior by claiming that (to paraphrase) everybody used the n-word in rap songs at that time, and claimed they had long since deleted their Twitter accounts to “take accountability.” Even worse, the video was posted to the couple’s joint TikTok account as a story, not a permanent post—meaning it would disappear after 24 hours. Has this controversy had any affect on the Arkansas couple’s life? Not really. They currently have 712,000 followers, their brand deals are still up, and they are still milking the wedding to no end.

89. A Sun Bear in a Chinese zoo is accused of being a human: 2023 was the year of body shaming, apparently. This summer, sun bears at the Hangzhou Zoo—who were just minding their business—were inundated with comments from patrons and online viewers alike accusing them of being humans in sun bear costumes. And okay, they were a little human-shaped. And they did stand on their hind legs to greet viewers. But how do we know  those aren’t classic sun bear traits? A spokesperson for the zoo eventually cleared up the confusion (sort of) by claiming, that “no such trickery would be tolerated at Hangzhou Zoo as a state-run facility,” and that “a person sporting a bear costume at the zoo would not last more than a few minutes before collapsing in Eastern China’s extreme summer temperatures.” Not everyone was convinced by this defense, but not everyone is prepared to serve like them, either. Who are we to say a sun bear can’t perform its duties on remarkably human-like hind legs? Paddington would be ashamed. 

88. Woman experiences a “full body orgasm” during a recording of the Los Angeles Philharmonic: We don’t kink shame.

87. “Scandoval” is actually incredibly important television, okay?: Look. We know you’re probably under 35, which means the likelihood that you’ve heard about—much less processed the weight of—the scandal that rocked Bravo’s Vanderpump Rules this spring is slim. Take our word for it—this was huge. A quick primer for the uninitiated: originally a spin-off of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Vanderpump Rules follows the wait staff of Sur, a restaurant owned by former Beverly Hills Housewife Lisa Vanderpump. Ten seasons in, pretty much every combination of cast members has had some sort of secret, adulterous hookup at some point. Still, none were quite as big as Scandoval (a somewhat blah play on the word “scandal” and the surname of cast member Tom Sandoval). See, the cast is made up primarily of couples (current and former), including the mid-divorce Katie Maloney and Tom Schwartz, the previously-engaged Raquel Leviss and DJ James Kennedy, and longtime life partners Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval. For nearly all of the show’s tenth season, the drama was driven by Schwartz and Katie’s ongoing divorce, and suspicions that the recently-single Schwartz may be getting a bit too close to the also-recently-single Raquel. Meanwhile, Ariana and Sandoval, together for nearly a decade, were still reeling from the breakup of Raquel and DJ James Kennedy, their best couples-friends—Sandoval had even helped to fund James’s $25,000 proposal back in 2021. Still, as they approached the season finale, longtime best friends Schwartz and Sandoval were stronger than ever, and Ariana and Raquel’s friendship seemed to be following suit. Then came March. On a fateful Friday just two days after production wrapped on Season 10, Sandoval and Ariana were at their shared home when his phone fell from his pocket, giving Ariana just enough time to discover a series of notifications that revealed it was Sandoval, and not Schwartz, who’d been having a secret tryst. A seven-month-long secret tryst. A seven-month-long secret tryst with Raquel. Ariana’s best friend Raquel. That’s right—for months, Schwartz and Sandoval had hoodwinked the producers of Vanderpump Rules (not to mention their own families) by manufacturing a will-they, won’t-they dynamic between Schwartz and a woman who, in reality, had been cheating with Sandoval all along. And yes, reality TV drama is generally always manipulated for the audience by its producers, but this time, it was the stars themselves manipulating the producers! Who knew they could even do that?! In a moment, a decade of long-tested friendship dynamics (and careful shit-stirring by Andy Cohen, the Ryan Murphy of reality television) went out the window. The bamboozled production team returned from vacation to park themselves at the Sandoval-Madix home, just in time to capture the monologue of the decade. Viewers who hadn’t tuned in since Sandoval and Ariana were still just a secret tryst themselves were suddenly waiting with bated breath for the first on-camera mentions of the affair. Ariana, though heartbroken, was also suddenly flush with cash; she was almost immediately approached with ad deals from Uber Eats and Duracell, somehow attended the White House Correspondents Dinner, and Something About Her, the as-yet-unopened Parisian-inspired sandwich shop she co-owns with Katie, made over $200,000 in merchandise sales. Of course, the entire cast soon gathered for the Season 10 reunion special to hash out the details of the affair, and trust us: there are so. Many. Details. Raquel and co-star Scheana Shay (whose own affair kickstarted the series a decade earlier) had to alternate leaving set and watching the reunion from a trailer parked outside of the studio, in accordance with a restraining order filed by Raquel after a fist-fight between the two. Sandoval and Ariana revealed they are still cohabitating, but only because both parties have refused to leave their shared home. Sandoval, who arrived ready to peddle a victim narrative of his own, lost any hope of redemption when he made a disparaging comment about his sex life with Ariana (also, he may have killed her dog??). Most importantly, however, Raquel revealed what anyone who’s taken Jack Halberstam’s “Intro to Sexuality Studies” had already predicted: that this was really about Ariana all along. In fact, just days after their first act of adultery, Raquel says she even asked Sandoval if Ariana might be open to a throuple arrangement! Even after being shot down on that proposal, Raquel maintains she participated in the affair believing wholeheartedly that there was still a way forward for her relationship with Ariana. It was even Raquel at Ariana’s house, comforting her over the death of the aforementioned dog! So, if you or a loved one were disappointed by reviews promoting Saltburn as “the next The Talented Mr. Ripley,” we have amazing news: the next Tom Ripley was among us all along. Scandoval was psychosexual and regular sexual! It was the subject manipulating the manipulator! It was The Scarlet Letter for people whose The Crucible is The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City! If you still find yourself asking, “how did this random affair among the 40-year-old cast members of Season 10 of a Real Housewives-adjacent reality TV franchise make the Top 100 Pop Culture Moments?”, well, we’re sorry you don’t understand cultural anthropology or the social world.

86. Mr. Beast fakes his videos??: In October, YouTube’s most prolific philanthropist came under fire over allegations of intentionally editing his videos to change how various contestants in his viral challenges were perceived, even going so far as to lie about the ranks of contestants. Initial allegations by YouTubers Rosanna Pansino and Quackity led to an influx of speculation by fans and haters alike as they began to investigate the authenticity of the YouTube mogul’s generosity, and eventually expressed concerns over the identities of the supposed “random subscribers” who had been invited to participate in Mr. Beast’s videos. Leaked texts between Pansino and Mr. Beast bring into question: Is YouTube’s poster boy philanthropist/challenge video-maker more of a cutthroat businessman than previously discovered?

85. John Oliver disrupts New Zealand Bird of the Century vote: The most noble of lifeforms, the bird, was honored specially this year in Aotearoa/New Zealand in a particularly exciting Bird of the Century contest. Administered by Forest and Bird, an independent conservation organization, the poll for Bird of the Year has been running since 2005, with the aim of highlighting the beautiful and diverse native birds of the country. This year marked 100 years of conservation work on the part of Forest and Bird, and they celebrated through art works, speaker series, and music. What was much more widely commented on however, was the Bird of the Century contest, where one lucky indigenous fowl would earn the title. British comedian John Oliver, someone who has nothing to do with this contest, decided to jump in head first to bird conservation work by running an “alarmingly aggressive” campaign for the pūteketeke, or Puking Bird. After previous years’ voter fraud in the election process, this was a controversial choice. With full enthusiasm, Oliver paid for billboards in several different countries, and went on The Tonight Show dressed up as the bird. The pūteketeke ultimately won, with 24 times more votes than the runner up. This incredibly entertaining turn of events not only won Bird of the Century for a truly unique bird, but also garnered attention towards conservation of birds endemic to the country. 

84. Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are tied in a viral “who was hotter” debate, immediately make babies with young people: Vanity is a drug like no other. Just ask buddies Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. In May, the pair were deadlocked in a viral Twitter poll asking who was hotter as a young man, which garnered nearly 280,000 votes, but remained exactly tied. By the end of the year, the longtime collaborators had become two of the oldest fathers on record when they welcomed children at ages 83 and 79, respectively. Pacino and his partner, 29-year-old Noor Alfallah (who “just loves old people”), were soon embroiled in a custody battle in which Pacino ultimately agreed to pay $30,000 a month in child support, despite the couple not having broken up. Romantic!

83. Eric Adams attempts heart pose with an NYPD robot: In September 2023, the NYPD unveiled its latest addition: a vaguely Kinder egg-shaped security robot named Knightscope 5, or K5. At 5-foot-2 and 400 pounds, K5 would patrol the Times Square subway station. Though the robot raised many issues regarding the collection of personal information, artificial intelligence, and questionable N.Y.P.D. funding, it was largely overshadowed by New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who garnered much attention after attempting to make a heart with the limbless K5. Adams was captured making a “C” with his hand against the plastic side of K5, apparently attempting to form a heart shape with the handless robot, and smiling towards a camera as the robot’s cameras stared blankly ahead. 

82. Rita Ora misidentifies husband Taika Waititi’s ethnicity on national television: This was quite the year for everyone’s favorite random-match-generator celebrity couple, British pop star Rita Ora and New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi. This year, Ora was serving as a judge on The Voice Australia when Marley Sola, a Samoan contestant, wowed everyone with a rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “Ribbon in the Sky.” As the judges competed to get Sola on their team, judge Jason DeRulo attempted to win him over by showing off his Samoa-inspired tattoos (and, for some reason, listing every Samoan he knew). At that point, Ora decided to do a bit of her own self-advocacy, cutting in to tell Sola, “I’m married to half a Samoan man, so…” Just one problem: she famously isn’t. Waititi, Ora’s husband of over a year, is Māori and Russian Jewish—not Samoan. For those reading along at home, those are entirely different things! We know what you’re thinking: yes, married couples do typically know basic facts about each other, like their spouse’s ethnicity. Yes, Waititi’s Māori heritage is regularly the subject of his films, such as Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Boy. And yes, “half a Samoan man” is a remarkable way to describe anyone, even if it had been factually correct. But that’s just romance! Tragically, however, this competitive Samoan-adjacency was not enough for Ora or DeRulo to win Sola’s heart. 

81. M3GAN slays (literally): In January, horror auteur James Wan, the godfather of the creepy doll movie, embarked on his most ambitious creative venture yet, asking the question, “what if the doll slayed?” Thus came M3GAN, the killer robot doll who danced her way into our hearts. This movie had everything: incredible gore. An a capella performance of “Titanium.” Alison Williams. It’s no wonder that the film gained almost immediate camp classic status, and quickly spawned a sequel. 

80. Viola Davis becomes the latest EGOT: Our woman king, indeed. This year, Davis became the latest person to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony, otherwise known as an “EGOT,” when she won a Grammy for narrating her audiobook, Finding Me. Count us as incredibly unsurprised.

79. The Catholic Church v. Sabrina Carpenter: This Halloween, up-and-coming pop star/ ex-Disney star Sabrina Carpenter released the music video for her song “Feather.” The video centers around her being hit on by creepy men and karma taking them out (literally). Part of the video is set in Brooklyn’s Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church, where Sabrina is shown dancing (in black tulle lingerie) around the graves of these men (one even says “RIP BITCH”).  Let’s just say the church was not happy, and the “head bishop in charge,” Robert J. Brennan, stepped in, saying he was “appalled,” despite the fact that Carpenter had initially gotten permission from a Catholic priest. The priest, Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello, was quickly fired, but later claimed he was unaware of what her filming entailed. Bishop Brennan (comically, if you ask us) then performed a special mass in which he cleansed the church of the pop star’s sins, re-sanctifying the church. Finally, in a Variety interview, Sabrina commented on the controversy, stating, “Jesus was a carpenter.” Everybody cheered (except the church, of course).

78. Dear Hannah Prep is possibly a child labor ring (with a very special Columbia connection): Any TikTok user is likely familiar with the phrase: “it’s so preppy in here!” It’s from a viral video where a tween girl is visiting the Dear Hannah Prep, a tween/teen clothing store in Texas, for the first time. The owner behind the camera asks her what she thinks about the store; the girl responds with vacant eyes and a monotone voice: “It’s so preppy in here!” Many TikTok users reused the audio as a parody, even greenscreening the girl into their own videos. However, what seems like a funny meme on the outside hides a much darker secret. The children featured in their videos hardly got any compensation for the work they were doing. At most, they received free clothes and a discount code. TikTok users commented about this unfair compensation under the account of Gabriela Vascimini (@gab_nyc), Dear Hannah Prep’s digital strategist and video content creator. Vascimini addressed the rumors and claimed that the girls are not working in the store—they just come in for a few hours at a time to film content. Vascimini is also—surprise, surprise—a Columbia graduate. You may remember her from hosting parties at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

77. Keith Lee charms everyone (except Atlanta): “And who is this ‘Keith Lee?’” If you’re a restaurateur in Atlanta, you may know all too well. This year, the mixed martial artist made what turned out to be a genius career pivot when he began reviewing restaurants in his current hometown of Las Vegas for TikTok. Along the way, Lee won over the hearts of viewers by helping to save many local restaurants from collapse with his videos. The “Keith Lee effect” is a well-documented phenomenon—Lee samples the menu at a struggling business recommended to him by his followers, gives his honest (usually glowing) review, and, in less than 24 hours, the previously empty restaurant has a line out the door. So naturally, when Lee announced he’d be taking his reviews on the road for a national restaurant tour, restaurateurs across the country waited with bated breath to see if they’d be one of Lee’s chosen ones. Lee had a blast in New Orleans, Houston, and Detroit. He also visited Atlanta. While Lee makes it a policy not to explicitly bash restaurants or their owners, it was evident he had less than a stellar experience in the city. However, it wasn’t the food that stuck out to Lee so much as the customer service, as he encountered a series of unconventional, increasingly fake-sounding sets of rules at nearly every restaurant he attended. Lee even left several restaurants without food after his family members (whom he sent in his place to pick up takeout to avoid “special treatment”) were denied service. As Eater Atlanta later explained, “The city has more than a few clubstaurants giving ATL a bad name by imposing inequitable rules on service and takeout, while also offering deference to social media influencers and famous patrons.” One such clubstraunt was not so understanding, however. After Lee documented his bizarre three-stage experience attempting to order food at The Real Milk and Honey, the restaurant’s owner hit back with a TikTok of his own, in which he asks, “And who is this Keith Lee?” Luckily for Lee, his 15 million followers, including Cardi B, were already well aware.

76. Noah Schnapp comes out, immediately drops twincest quote: Starting off the year strong, Noah Schnapp came out via TikTok on January 5. Schnapp later explained in an interview that after he posted the video, “it was, like, a thousand texts of hearts and congratulations and rainbow flags. I was crying. I was like, ‘I made it. I’m done. I don’t have to worry.’” Gah, how wonderful. But wait, there’s more. In an interview with Variety, Schnapp dropped an interesting quote surrounding his twin sister’s reaction to his coming out: “She was ecstatic. She said that she would’ve hated the idea of me marrying another girl and having to compete with that girl for my attention. The fact that now it’ll be a guy, she was like, ‘Oh, he’ll be my best friend.’” Fans had a field day with this quote, calling it slightly “creepy” and “Freudian.” Others told those fans to calm down, and that it was just a silly comment that others shouldn’t be judgmental about. TL;DR: happy for Noah, a win for gay people, a win for Freud.

75. The Mean Girls movie musical releases its first trailer, chaos ensues: Tina Fey’s Mean Girls is a fantastic movie. So she made it into a musical and is now making that musical into a movie musical. Those less involved in the musical theater scene, however, did not go into this trailer with that information. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no allusion to the fact that the movie is a musical, which is objectively hilarious, but also not a great advertising decision. Most people were under the impression that this was another one of the millions of Hollywood reboots when it’s actually one of the thousands of movie musical adaptations! Tiny mistake, there. Instead of choosing to play any of the actual songs from the musical, the trailer has an inexplicable Olivia Rodrigo song. They also claim that “this isn’t your mother’s Mean Girls” in the trailer which caused a worldwide millennial freak out. Interesting choices all around. 

74. Flaco the Owl escapes captivity, captures hearts: After a murderous scandal took Central Park’s last celebrity owl in 2021, the city was in dire need of good PR with the species. Enter Flaco, a 13-year-old Eurasian eagle-owl and overnight viral sensation. In February, Flaco escaped from his longtime captivity in the Central Park Zoo after guerrilla activists opened his enclosure. What came next was an adventure that can only be described as “Owl Alone 2: Lost in New York.” Zoo staff, owl experts, and NYPD officers spent several days attempting to capture Flaco through a series of progressively less successful traps, including fake owl calls (he ignored them), a wire snare (he freed himself before staffers could retrieve him), and even dead rats (he politely declined). In the process, Flaco quickly won the hearts of his neighbors in Manhattan. Eventually, he also put concerns to rest by proving he could both hunt and fly successfully without human interference, and the Zoo, wary of disrupting his Charismatic Megafauna status, announced it would halt efforts to recapture the owl. In the months since, Flaco has made a point to cement his New Yorker status by venturing out to connect with fans in other Manhattan neighborhoods, visiting the East Village, Upper East Side, and eventually settling on the Upper West Side, where those with less whimsy in their hearts have accused him of becoming a “peeping Tom.” So long as the park is a little more careful this time, the New York Celebrity Bird Industrial Complex is alive and well.

73. Keith Urban inadvertently hard launches Phoebe Bridgers and Bo Burnham at the Eras Tour: This was the year of the Ken, and Keith Urban was no exception. The Australian country singer, best known as Nicole Kidman’s devoted husband but also known as a longtime Swiftie, excelled in both roles this May when he took Nicole out for date night in the VIP tent of the Eras Tour. However, as much as we love their love, they might love someone else’s love even more. While attempting to film an Instagram Story of himself and Kidman singing along to “Style,” Urban accidentally captured another power couple—the oft-discussed, but as-yet-still-just-“rumored” lovers Phoebe Bridgers and Bo Burnham—smooching in the background. In the words of Maude Latour, “modern love is so damn romantic.” 

72. Katy Perry beats second old person in real estate battle: Katy Perry. You may remember her from last year’s entry, when she embraced her right-wing roots. Or maybe you remember her from the 2018 incident in which a nun suing Perry over the rights to a former convent she’d recently purchased suddenly dropped dead in court. Well, in 2023, Perry once again embraced her calling, finding herself at the center of yet another real estate battle with an elderly person. This time, Perry and her fiance, Orlando Bloom, were sued by 1-800-Flowers founder Carl Westcott, age 84, after purchasing his $15 million home in Montecito. According to Westcott, he was “of unsound mind” when he agreed to the sale, as he was recovering from surgery for Huntington’s Disease. Perry was unconvinced, and the pair became embroiled in a months-long legal battle for the house, each party suing the other for millions. A judge eventually ruled in Perry’s favor, but California legislators are considering the PERRY Act, a bill that would aim to protect senior citizens from “bad real estate deals.” So, here’s to Perry, and whatever morally baffling action puts her back on this list next year.

71.   Alex Newell & J. Harrison Ghee become the first openly non-binary Tony Winners: At the 2023 Tony Awards, Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee became the first openly non-binary Tony winners. Newell took home the Tony for their role in Shucked (shoutout to corn), winning Best Performance in a Featured Role. They said, “I have wanted this my entire life… I should not be up here as a queer non-binary fat little baby from Massachusetts. And to anyone who thinks they can’t do it. You can do anything you put your mind to.” Meanwhile, Ghee won the Tony for their role in Some Like It Hot, winning best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical. In their acceptance speech, they said, “”So thank you for teaching me how to live, how to love, how to give. For every trans, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming human who ever was told you couldn’t be, you couldn’t be seen, this is for you.”

70. Karma tracks down Scooter Braun: “Karma’s gonna track you down / Step by step from town to town,” the wise Taylor Swift sings, and oh was she right. This year, karma tracked Scooter Braun down, found him, and brought him down in a final fall from grace. Braun once represented some of the most powerful artists in the music industry—Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, Ariana Grande, Idina Menzel, and J Balvin, to name a few—but in a sudden turn of events, he’s been left all alone. Though the specific reasons behind this mass exodus remain unknown and those involved cited friendly departures, this is surely no coincidence. In the meantime, his long-time arch nemesis Swift, whose albums he bought and sold, is better than ever. Braun must not be happy, but what can we do? Everything must happen for a reason, and Braun should have seen it coming.

69. Snoop Dogg threatens to give up smoke: Known for his weed-smoking enthusiasm, Snoop Dogg teased he would “give up smoke” in an Instagram post in mid-November, writing,  “After much consideration & conversation with my family, I’ve decided to give up smoke. Please respect my privacy at this time.” Naturally, this plummeted fans into a frenzy. But wait: Snoop later revealed that the post was an ad for a fire pit… which caused further hysteria. In a video ad on X, Snoop revealed going “smokeless” was a nod to the smokeless technology of Solo Stove, a fire pit company that sells various smokeless products, such as camp stoves and grill accessories. After Snoop Dogg’s cryptic Instagram message, Solo Stove announced their release of a limited-edition stove called “The Snoop Stove,” that claimed to be “hot enough to make the Doggfather go smokeless.” Fans were baffled that he would jeopardize the very essence of his fame for a brand deal that seemed awfully random. I mean, what do marijuana and fire pits have in common besides the use of smoke? Nonetheless, die-hard Snoop Dogg fans can rest assured that the rapper is back to his weed-smoking antics and has conclusively not “given up smoke.”

68. Gen Alpha is growing up, and they’ve got slang:  “Skibidi dop dop dop yes yes.” “Drip king Baby Gronk rizzed up Livvy Dunne, he’s gotta pay Fanum Tax for that gyatt.” “At least he’s not an Ohio sigma.” Guys, it turns out this isn’t gibberish, and is more than just a weird TikTok trend. It’s literally how kids speak now. After careful anthropological investigation (asking one Bwogger’s 11-year-old brother), we’ve discovered the intricate world of Gen Alpha slang. A result of children’s increased access to technology and social media and increasingly young ages, middle school meme culture is alive, well, and more mainstream than ever. There’s “Skibidi Toilet,” an animated YouTube series with two-minute-long episodes in which toilets with human heads fight humans with electronics for heads. There’s an intentional emphasis on cringe. And, of course, there’s Baby Gronk, an 11-year-old American football prodigy (and not Kronk from The Emperor’s New Groove, like some of us had thought for months).  The kids are alright… sort of. 

67. A year in the life of Dylan Mulvaney: If you didn’t recognize the name “Dylan Mulvaney” starting out the year, we’re doubtful you stayed that way. While the actress and influencer’s star has been on the rise since last year, when her uber-viral “Days of Girlhood” series—which documents her gender transition—took off on TikTok, 2023 was the year Mulvaney truly entered the mainstream. In the first half of the year, she became the face of a Nike ad, hosted a cabaret in Manhattan to celebrate the first anniversary of her transition, made an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, and even received a letter from Vice President Kamala Harris congratulating her on 365 Days of Girlhood. Unfortunately, in the midst of her meteoric rise, Mulvaney also became the target of rampant transphobic harassment from right-wing trolls (including Trump friend and one-time celebrity Kid Rock) when Bud Light began airing an ad with her as the spokeswoman. After a brief social media hiatus, Mulvaney returned stronger than ever—she was named Attitude Magazine’s Woman of the Year, made Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and the 2023 Out100, and won Breakout Creator at the 2023 Streamys. Sitting at over 12 million followers across her various social media platforms, we’re confident Mulvaney’s star will only continue to rise. 

66. Elizabeth Holmes attempts rebrand, still goes to prison: “Call me Liz,” the disgraced former Theranos CEO tells a New York Times reporter in a now-infamous profile. Ahead of her sentencing—after being convicted for defrauding investors with Theranos, which was actually nothing—Holmes quickly attempted to reinvent herself, in the hopes that might convince a jury to lighten her load. She became “Liz,” a devoted stay-at-home mom of two toddlers who has a totally normal voice. Tragically, this didn’t work—Holmes was ultimately sentenced to 11 years in federal prison, and ordered to pay just over $450 million in restitution to the investors she defrauded. On the bright side, she befriended a fellow fraudster, former Real Housewife of Salt Lake City Jen Shah, at the pair’s women’s prison in Texas. 

65. Commander becomes the second Biden dog kicked out of the White House for biting: Presidential pets are among the most universally-loved creatures in the United States. They’re famous. They live in the White House and get pampered by the Secret Service. They’re usually adorable. Who doesn’t love them? After Trump’s pet-less presidency, all the country wanted was a new Sunny and Bo Obama. Enter Joe Biden. Biden’s first German Shepherd, Major, became the first shelter dog to enter the White House. However, things soon turned ruff rough. In March of 2021, not even two months after the Bidens moved into the White House, Major bit two people—a White House security guard and a passerby on a walk. After Major left the White House, the Bidens got another German Shepherd, this one named Commander. Between October 2022 and July 2023, Commander bit not one, not two, but ten people. In September 2023, Commander wielded his twelfth confirmed bite, this time on famous presidential dog walker, 71-year-old Dale Haney. How does this happen twice? I wouldn’t be surprised if Biden’s next dog happens to be Cujo.

64. Lady Gaga becomes a Pfizer spokeswoman: In June, Lady Gaga revealed a partnership with Pfizer in a series of ads for their migraine medicine Nurtec ODT, notably including a commercial (speedy mumbling of side effects and all) and a sponsored Instagram post. This isn’t her first sponsorship—just a few weeks before the Pfizer posts, Gaga’s feed featured her partnerships with Valentino and Dom Perignon. The nature of this particular campaign resulted in a lot of criticism, though. “Partnering with big pharma is not the move,” commented one fan under the Instagram post, and another asked, “in the nicest way possible, what were u thinking?” If the goal of the campaign was to raise awareness of the severity of migraines, maybe it worked, but it certainly didn’t leave Lady Gaga, or Pfizer, in the best light.

63. Kim Kardashian hires Ice Spice to play with her kids: North West’s TikTok is truly for the people. In March, Kim Kardashian’s eldest daughter posted a video of herself and friends dancing with the one and only Ice Spice to a remix of her hit song, “In Ha Mood.” In a second video, the group acted out lyrics to another Ice Spice song, “Boy’s A Liar Pt. 2.” Ice Spice also posted a selfie she took with Kim on her Instagram story, all of which sparked backlash on Twitter for Kim “renting” the 23-year-old rapper to play with her 9-year-old kid. 

62. Orcas sink yachts: As it turns out, orcas think we should eat the rich too. According to USA Today, there are four confirmed vessel sinkings—as in, instances where orcas contributed to the sinking of a boat—on record for 2023. The motivation behind the multitudinous reports of whale attacks on boats of all kinds is largely unknown. In many of the sinkings, whales targeted the rudders of said vessels, causing water to enter the boat and catalyzing the sinkings. In a New York Times article detailing recent orca-caused sinkings off the coast of Iberia, Erich Hoyt of Whale and Dolphin Conservation hypothesizes that the whales may see a boat’s rudder as a sort of toy, aggressively playing with it until it breaks, then causing major damage and eventually capsizing the vessel. Others have hypothesized the orcas are intentionally targeting the rudder as revenge for instances where rudders have harmed the whales. Still, public opinions seem to be all over the place. Whatever the reason, it’s clear that the world’s orcas are doing their part to dismantle late-stage capitalism.

61. Ice Spice’s Dunkin Drink: In one of the most ingenious collaborations of this year, or ever, Dunkin’ partnered with Ben Affleck and rising star Ice Spice to launch the limited-edition Ice Spice MUNCHKINS® Drink, a blend of pumpkin munchkins and Frozen Dunkin’ Coffee. With Ice Spice’s fanbase called “Munchkins,” it surely was a smart move. The mixture of flavors, however, sounds rather suspicious. Earlier this year, Bwogger Elaine Ryan tried this interesting drink and while she certainly didn’t quite enjoy it (with blended donuts, who honestly would?) it did take her back to her childhood, and what is more precious than that? 

60. Celebrities sell out… to AI versions of themselves: Last year, we dubbed 2022 the year of the AI surge. This year, celebrities finally caught up, with a variety of interesting results. Grimes, who has already contributed so much to the tech community, launched Elf.Tech, an AI software that allows its users to insert her voice into music and split the royalties with the singer 50/50. The Grammys, thinking ahead, released new guidelines on the use of AI in music, but didn’t go so far as to ban use altogether. Kendall Jenner spawned Billie, an AI version of herself who lives on Meta as an “ride-or-die older sister,” becoming the first of many celebrities who allowed Meta to create their AI alter-ego for… some purpose. Their collective “I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream” slay!

59.  Ncuti Gatwa becomes Doctor Who’s first Black Doctor: This year marked the 60th anniversary of iconic sci-fi show Doctor Who. The occasion was marked most centrally by two things: David Tennant, the beloved 10th Doctor, reprised the role of the Doctor. He starred in three incredibly trippy anniversary specials, alongside one of his former companions, Donna Noble, played by Catherine Tate. Perhaps more major news, however, was the casting of Ncuti Gatwa to play the 15th Doctor. The Rwandan-Scottish actor best known for his role as Eric in Sex Education is the first Black actor, the first African-born actor, and the first openly gay actor to hold the hallowed position. So far, we have only seen him in one full episode, this year’s Christmas special: “The Church on Ruby Road,” but he already has fans enthused about his character. Gatwa gave a charming performance in his first episode, which is keeping many fans optimistic about those to come in May of 2024.

58. Uwu, you’ve hacked into the no fly list!: On January 19, Swiss catgirl hacker maia arson crimew hacked into an unsecured server of CommuteAir, an Ohio based airline. The no-fly list then appeared on a crimew blog post titled “how to completely own an airline in 3 easy steps”, complete with purple font and an animated cat that follows your mouse around as you browse. Shortly after posting, crimew went viral on social media, with news organizations picking up the story shortly after. In a statement, CommuteAir said the data crimew leaked was an outdated version of the list from 2019, and only included the names and birthdays of those on the list. According to crimew, the list is “almost 80 mb in size and contains over 1.56 million rows of data.” If that wasn’t bad enough, crimew had access to every single piece of personal information of every airline employee, every flight log, and passenger personal information. As crimew says, “holy fucking bingle. what?! :3”

57. Martin Scorsese joins TikTok: 2023 was a big year for helping us remember that legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese is one of us. Not only did he finally create a Letterboxd account, but we also were treated to his daughter Francesca making TikToks revealing his many facets. These TikToks include fun father-daughter bonding, adorable skits featuring dogs, and the occasional video where he charmingly seems like doesn’t know what’s going on. While some iconic artists choose to maintain a level of mystique and esoteric detachment, Martin Scorsese has embraced the digital age and rather than detracting from his body of work, it has actually made me more willing to sit through all 3 hours of The Irishman.

56. Michelle Yeoh becomes first Asian person to win Best Actress: On March 12, 2023, the 95th Academy Awards ceremony was held in Hollywood, glitz, glamor, and all. A few standout films emerged throughout the night, especially The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All At Once, starring Michelle Yeoh. Later in the night, Yeoh would win the Oscar for Best Actress, becoming the first Asian woman and second woman of color to win the award. During her acceptance speech, she stated, “Dreams do come true,” and “Ladies, don’t let anybody ever tell you you are past your prime.” 

55. Boston Cop falls down slide: A tube slide in Boston’s City Hall Plaza. The sound of several bangs emanating from the metal tube. A Boston police officer flying out of the slide on his stomach, and skidding to a stop on the ground. All this and more changed the trajectory of this year on August 1 when it was caught on video, immediately captivating New Englanders. How was the cop able to go so fast? Why was he going down it in the first place? Guidelines on the slide say it’s only for ages 2-12, so he was breaking the rules in the first place. Some viewers thought the slide may have been wet, which caused it to be so slippery. The Boston Police Department later told Boston 25 News that the officer was hurt by the slide, but used his personal insurance for care, and not the city’s. The officer did not face any disciplinary action. Still, we’re unsure about why he was up there…

54. McDonald’s debuts the Grimace Meal: On June 6, McDonald’s announced its first ever purple shake, in honor of Grimace’s 52nd birthday. Who is Grimace exactly? It’s slightly unclear—some sort of a McDonald’s mascot, who made his debut in a 1971 McDonaldland commercial for being evil and running off with milkshakes. He started off as mean-looking and scary, yet changed to a “soft, plush, two-armed blob of a sweetheart” in the 1980s. However, after 2003, Grimace seemingly disappeared from public life, aside from a few occasional appearances. After the launch of the Grimace shake and meal, the phenomenon took TikTok by storm. Creators posted videos of the “fatal consequences” of drinking the shake, with a lot of purple goo and fake gore. This was everywhere, and it truly was a fever dream. Truly an “are the kids okay?!” moment. 

53. Five Nights at Freddy’s somehow succeeds and tanks at the same time (light spoilers ahead): In October, the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie finally released after several years of anticipation. In the months leading up to it, everybody was excited; fans couldn’t wait to see their favorite game filmized, horror junkies were excited to enjoy (and criticize) a new scary movie, girl’s girls thirsted over Josh Hutcherson (who played the main character, a night-shift security guard), and the rest just thought the Jim Henson animatronics looked cool. The trailers stunned, so despite occasional apprehension from fans, everybody thought the movie would at least be a fun time. Indeed, the movie was a box office hit, grossing over $293.7 million worldwide as of mid-December—it’s just that essentially everyone who saw it hated it. Firstly, the movie wasn’t even slightly lore-adjacent. Most of the plot just follows Josh Hutcherson’s character trying to hold down a job while maintaining custody of his little sister, plagued by nightmares concerning his little brother’s disappearance. How does this have anything to do with the game? Not to mention, Josh Hutcherson, the sister, and a police officer (who happens to be the daughter of the antagonist, who created the evil animatronics, kidnapped Josh’s brother, and is Josh’s career counselor all in one) have a sleepover with the animatronics. That’s right, the murderous ones. Turns out they’re nice sometimes! None of this movie made sense. Please just forget it ever existed and go back to playing the games. At least it helped inspire a Josh Hutcherson meme renaissance.

52.  Romy Mars, daughter of Sofia Coppola, makes her TikTok debut: In March of this year, Romy Mars—daughter of famed director Sofia Coppola and musician Thomas Mars—posted her first video on TikTok, subsequently going mega-viral and causing a public stir. In the video, 16-year-old Mars is attempting to make the famous “Gigi Hadid Pasta” while explaining that she is grounded for attempting to charter a helicopter on her father’s credit card in order to meet a camp friend for dinner. She then explains that her parents don’t allow her to have any public social media accounts due to not wanting her to be a “nepo baby” and that she is under the care of her babysitter and her babysitter’s boyfriend (who coins the term “fiasca” in said video) during her grounding. The internet exploded over this young girl’s story, with many laughing over Mars’ humor while also worrying for her due to her statement in the video that her “parents are never home” and that her babysitter and her babysitter’s boyfriend are like her “replacement parents.” Coppola responded to the video months later in August, telling The Hollywood Reporter that she keeps her children off of social media so posting a public video was the best way for her daughter to be “rebellious” against her parents. Coppola did, however, state that “I got lots of compliments on her filmmaking. And comedy. She’s funny. But people discussing my parenting publicly is not what I would’ve hoped for.” 

51.  DJ Crazy Times debuts “Planet of the Bass”: In July, comedian Kyle Gordon debuted a song that transcended its parodic intentions and cemented itself as an unironic banger. Under the stage name DJ Crazy Times, he partnered with Ms. Biljana Electronica (a.k.a TikToker Audrey Trullinger) to release “Planet of the Bass” on TikTok, a song meant to poke fun at 2000s Eurodance groups such as Vengaboys and Aqua. With its masterful emulation of the genre’s party anthems, vague political statements, broken English, and the coolest-looking men you’ve ever seen, the song went mega-viral on TikTok and Twitter. But as the song grew in popularity, people might have lost the plot or at least rejected it, because they were not fully receptive to Gordon’s attempts to further the bit. He released another video with a new girl taking the place of the original Biljana, trying to replicate the way Europop groups would often swap out one female member for another; however, fans were furious, demanding the return of the original Biljana. The illustrious Planet of the Bass was under attack, but eventually the dust settled; the original Biljana would return to star in the official music video, as well as perform the song live with DJ Crazy Times at a Jonas Brothers concert in Boston. Did everyone in that audience know what was going on? Perhaps not. But the fact that a song with lyrics like “women are my favorite guy” has been performed in a massive arena must be celebrated.  

50. Troye Sivan rises again: After a five year hiatus, Troye Sivan made his way back into the headlines with his new album Something to Give Each Other. The lead single, “Rush,” named after the infamous drug, quickly rose to the top of the charts and began playing in queer bars and clubs across the country. Next, Sivan shocked the world with the release of his single “One of Your Girls.” In the music video, Sivan—in drag—seduces costar Ross Lynch. A shocking and unexpected pairing, but what is even more shocking is how amazing Troye Sivan looks in drag. We all knew he was a gorgeous man, but this music video took it to a different level. It also made us wonder what marabou is, and eventually discover it’s a European chocolate. Très chic! When we thought nothing could top Blue Neighborhood, we got hit after hit from the LGBTQ+ community’s crown jewel.

49. The Little Mermaid and all subsequent burner Twitters: After no less than four full years of anticipation, Disney’s live action The Little Mermaid finally released this spring. While the movie made over half a billion dollars at the box office, it made it this high on our list for a myriad of other reasons. Racist trolls spent months whining because Ariel, a fictional mermaid, was played by a Black woman, actress and singer Halle Bailey. (They later forgot about that, and turned their attentions to Latina Snow White.) Viewers were stunned when Scuttle, a seagull voiced by Awkwafina, bust out a rap written by none other than Lin-Manuel Miranda. Most entertaining, however, may have been something unrelated to production altogether. After Bailey and her co-star, British actor Jonah Hauer-King, drummed up discussion about their chemistry on and off-screen, one anonymous X user, @AudbreyWiggins, bashed Hauer-King, claiming he’s no match for Bailey’s real-life boyfriend, rapper DDG. One small issue: the @AudbreyWiggins account belongs to DDG himself—a fact the rapper even confirmed just hours before the infamous tweet. That’s right, DDG directed fans to his “burner account” (a usually-anonymous backup account owned by a user who also has a public profile), then used said burner account to get into fights with fans of the movie over his girlfriend’s co-star. A month later, DDG even released a song about the whole ordeal. Excellent use of time from every social media user involved! 

48.  Every singer has something thrown at them on stage: What was it about this summer that had so many people throwing things at people? Between June 18 and July 8, seven different artists suffered injuries as a result of people throwing things on stage (or, in Ava Max’s case on June 20, actually getting on stage and slapping her). These included two phones (Bebe Rexha on June 18, and Drake on July 6), a bracelet (Kelsea Ballerini on July 5), a sex toy (Lil Nas X on July 1), an unidentified object (Harry Styles on July 8), and, on consecutive nights, a cheese wheel and someone’s mother’s ashes (Pink on June 24 and 25). This phenomenon even continued past that period. A viral video showed someone throwing a drink at Cardi B on July 29, who then threw her mic at that person. Recently, fans threw an unidentified object at Taylor Swift on November 12, another one at Florence Pugh on December 4 (which ultimately hit the actress in the eye), and a sock (points for creativity…?) at Tate McRae on December 8. We’re not sure what sparked this behavior, but we think Taylor’s response sums it up perfectly: “I love that you brought presents and that is so nice, but just can you please not throw them on the stage?”

47. Ron DeSantis dons suspiciously curly shoes: Please click on this link. Look at Ron DeSantis’ boots in the first and second images. And return. I honestly think that’s all you need to see, but, just so you know, a Houston boot-maker Zephan Parker confirmed that “‘I’ve dealt with these politicians many times. I’ve helped them with their lifts. [DeSantis] is wearing lifts; there’s no doubt.” According to Parker’s analysis of DeSantis’s boots, the effect is the same as wearing ‘five-inch stilettos.’” Many other shoe-makers agree. Oh, Ron sweetie, we love you just the way you are. (Perhaps maybe aside from some, uh, things you’ve said and done.)

46. Shakira’s taxes and the jam thief: Last year, Shakira made waves when it was announced she’d split from soccer player Gerard Piqué after 11 years together. Cheating rumors swirled when Piqué went public with his new 23-year-old girlfriend shortly after the former couple announced their breakup. The former couple closed out the year with rumors that Shakira discovered Piqué’s alleged cheating after returning home to find that her strawberry jam was eaten, despite Piqué and her children ostensibly not eating jam. The rumor was never confirmed, but nonetheless, Twitter users had jokes. Shakira responded to the rumors and breakup in January by dropping a diss track to her ex, “Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53.” In the lyrics, she accused Piqué of forcing her to live next to her mother-in-law and downgrading as he cheated. Also addressed in the song was her tax case, which she finally settled in November. Since 2018, Shakira had been fighting with the Spanish government after they accused her of not paying $16 million in taxes between 2012 and 2014, despite living in the country during that period. The singer argued that she did not owe them taxes because her official residence at that time was in the Bahamas. In July, Spanish prosecutors announced that they would push for $26 million in fines and a prison sentence of eight years, but Shakira settled the case in an eight-minute November hearing by agreeing to pay $7.6 million in fines and accepting a three-year suspended sentence. 

45. Billionaire Bryan Johnson’s dependence on his son as a “blood boy”: If there’s one thing billionaires needed, it was weirder stuff going on. Enter Bryan Johnson. As a result of his anti-aging obsession, tech billionaire Bryan Johnson received a liter of blood from his 17-year-old son, and, in turn, he gave a liter of blood to his 70-year-old father—and it is all documented on video. Johnson’s son was then deemed, by online users around the internet, a “blood boy”—a term used repeatedly by Johnson himself to describe younger individuals who regularly donate blood and plasma to older, wealthy individuals. Johnson’s quest to retain his youth is commendable in some aspects. However, without conclusive evidence that this blood exchange is indeed beneficial to his goal, this unique tri-generational affair is just uncomfortable, which is further amplified by the fact that Johnson merely looks like a healthy 46-year-old (his actual age).

44.  Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell have a fake(?) affair: In the lead up to Anyone But You, a romcom in which Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell star as the romantic leads, rumors began circulating about a possible affair between the two, despite Sweeney’s engagement to businessman Jonathan Davino (who co-produced the film). The rumors came after Sweeney and Powell had a “flirty exchange” at CinemaCon, and snowballed after Powell’s then-girlfriend Gigi Paris abruptly unfollowed him on Instagram. However, Powell eventually cleared the air, saying that he and Sweeney were only fake flirting to help promote their movie and giving Sweeney all the credit for coming up with the promotional tactic. Still—we’ll let the fascinating results speak for themselves. 

43. Millie Bobby Brown gets engaged at 19, publishes a novel: Millie Bobby Brown may have been born in 2004, but that didn’t stop her from getting engaged to a Bon Jovi—sorry, a Bongiovi—this spring. On April 11, the Stranger Things star announced she was engaged to Jake Bongiovi, son of rock legend Jon Bon Jovi. Her banner year continued when she published her first novel, Nineteen Steps, in September. The novel, a historical WWII page-turner, was written collaboratively with ghostwriter Kathleen McGurl. It’s unknown which of them is responsible for the widely-memed first line: “It was hot — the kind of heat that makes you long for the weather to cool down and the leaves to fall, but then you berate yourself for wishing away the good weather.” 

42. Harry Styles wins the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, tries to claim minority points: This February, Harry Styles won Album of the Year at the Grammy’s for his third solo album, Harry’s House. As he took the stage to accept his award, he stated, “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often.” Naturally, this statement came under fire, given the award went to a cis white man. He’s literally won three Grammys and nine nominations. Twitter users pondered, what was he trying to say? Was it because he’s British? Because he’s an ex-boy band member? Because he didn’t get famous due to industry connections? Twitter was torn—many argued the statement was insensitive, given the Recording Academy’s history of discriminating against artists of color and women, while some fans defended the singer, pointing out that Styles often includes that phrase in his speeches at his concerts in an apparent reference to his family’s working-class background. The discourse lasted for some days on Twitter. Styles and his team did not respond.

41. Panera’s charged lemonade is not what it seems: In April of 2022, Panera Bread rolled out its new Charged Lemonade, a caffeinated refresher type beverage aimed at capturing a piece of the highly lucrative energy drink market. The highly caffeinated beverage has since been involved in numerous wrongful death lawsuits, as complainants allege the company failed to appropriately advertise the true caffeine content of the drink, which led to the deaths of their loved ones. Sarah Katz, a 21-year-old student with a heart condition at the University of Pennsylvania, died in September after drinking a charged lemonade. Later, in October, 46-year-old Dennis Brown, who suffered from high blood-pressure, died while walking home from Panera after having two refills of Charged Lemonade. The families were both devastated by the losses, and sued Panera, pointing out the drink’s presence next to other non-caffeinated or less-caffeinated drinks, as well as its eligibility in Panera’s free refill program, implying it was safe to drink multiple. The drink has now been moved behind in many locations, and is accompanied by a warning.

40. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg do not, unfortunately, fight each other in a cage match: During the pandemic, Mark Zuckerberg began training in jiu-jitsu, even going on to win various tournaments. After catching wind of Zuckerberg’s new hobby earlier this year, Elon Musk tweeted, “I’m up for a cage match if he is lol.” Zuckerberg responded, “send me location.” Over the summer, various celebrities appeared to get involved in this potential fight of the century. Musk reportedly endorsed Joe Rogan as a potential referee, while Andrew Tate practically begged to train Musk due to his resentment over being banned from Meta platforms. Throughout this whole process, Musk repeatedly stated that he does not work out, telling Joe Rogan that he “wouldn’t exercise at all if [he] could,” and telling the internet, “I have this great move that I call “The Walrus”, where I just lie on top of my opponent & do nothing.” In July, Zuckerberg proposed fighting on August 26, a date which Musk never confirmed. Then, in early August, Musk asked to fight on August 14 in Zuckerberg’s personal “fight ring,” an octagonal enclosure he built in his backyard. In response, a Meta spokesperson said that Zuckerberg would not “fight someone who randomly shows up at his house.” At one point, Musk even proposed the fight take place in the Colosseum. (Italian Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano even reached out to Zuckerberg to advance proceedings!) Unfortunately, things just fizzled out from there. Zuckerberg has since said “it’s time to move on,” writing, “Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead…I’m going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously.” Although this fight didn’t actually occur, I think we can all agree on how it would’ve gone. 

39. Lana del Rey is spotted at Waffle House: In July, the one and only Lana Del Rey was spotted at a Waffle House in Florence, Alabama, in uniform (complete with a name tag) and working behind the counter. Some fans thought she was filming a new music video. According to Lana herself, she began working there as a joke, after spending several hours at the restaurant as a regular customer. An employee asked her if she wanted a shirt, and she agreed. Eventually, she was waiting on orders!

38. Billie Eilish comes out: Billie Eilish is “for the girls.” In her cover story for Variety‘s The Power of Women issue, Eilish stated that she was attracted to women. Afterward, Eilish told Variety that she didn’t really mean to come out, because she thought it was obvious. She then took to Instagram, alleging that she was outed by Variety by captioning a post “thanks variety for my award and for also outing me on a red carpet at 11 am instead of talking about anything else that matters.” Honestly, we should’ve seen this coming. Eilish had previously been accused of queerbaiting when her 2021 music video for “Lost Cause” featured the singer dancing with women, and again when posted on Instagram with the caption “I love girls.” After allegations that she was purposefully being ambiguous with her sexuality to promote her music video, Eilish responded that people needed to mind their own business. Either way, the rumors have been put to rest. 

37. Lauren Boebert’s Beetlejuice handjob: In an event that feels AI-generated, Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert was kicked out of a performance of the musical Beetlejuice for inappropriate behavior, including groping with her date that was caught on video. In other words, a literal U.S. representative was getting her breasts fondled and grabbing crotches at one of the most sexless theatrical shows out there. Like, not even Moulin Rouge? Either way, what Boebert got up to in that Denver theater on September 10 defied theater etiquette in every way imaginable; she also was caught in 4k vaping, taking photos, and causing a general disturbance. While some have called it “camp” and others have called it straight-up hypocritical given her conservative politics, there is no doubt that Representative Boebert will have a hard time living this down. She blamed the incident on her recent divorce, but Adele’s latest album proves that there are better ways to cope with that. 

36. Rihanna’s Super Bowl LVII Performance: Rihanna is so back (and also pregnant)! In February, Rihanna gave the performance of a lifetime at the Super Bowl, or as we like to call it, The Fenty Bowl. The performance, which was the first of hers in over five years, gathered 121.017 million views, millions more than the actual game, earning its ranking as the most-watched Super Bowl performance of all time. As she sang an insane compilation of her biggest hits, she also soared on a platform suspended sixty feet above the field and revealed her pregnancy with her and A$AP Rocky’s second child. The “Rihanna concert interrupted by a football game” ultimately led to a huge revival of everyone’s collective Rihanna obsession, so we just hope this means we get a new album ASAP (get it?). 

35. Shein’s influencer trip is bad, then worse: In June, Shein, a Chinese clothing company rife with allegations of unethical labor practice, invited social media influencers on a trip to their factory in Guangzhou, China, to learn (and share with their followers) about how the brand is actually not violating their workers’ rights. The influencers were soon under fire as internet users realized they were being used as human propaganda by Shein. One egregiously offending influencer was Dani Carbonari, a “confidence activist” who told her followers she went to Shein to act as an “investigative journalist” of their human rights violation when she herself was being paid by Shein to promote the company. Carbonari also accused followers who called her out on this as being “xenophobic and racist” to the Chinese workers. If there’s one thing these influencers learned, it’s to not become spokespeople for a fast fashion company with clear human rights abuses. 

34. Ariana DeBose’s BAFTA rap confuses and excites all: This year, Ariana DeBose hosted the British Academy Film Awards, leading with a rap praising the female nominees, which ultimately became one big meme. However, for some of us, this was more than a meme. This song is catchy, okay! One Bwogger once spent over an hour listening to this 25-second clip on loop while cleaning their room. Their roommate attests they were “going through a lot,” but they think they were just having a lot of fun. At that moment, they seriously considered uploading it to their Spotify Local Files so they could listen to it whenever they wanted. The lyrics of the memeified segment are as follows: “All the ladies in the room, supporting and leading all here, I presume. Hong Chau, Dolly D, Kerry and Carey with a C. Dame Emma, I’m so fond. Ana girl, you were great in Blonde! Danielle D, you broke my heart. Michelle, I’ve loved you from the start. Angela Bassett did the thing! Viola Davis, my woman king! Blanchett, Cate, you’re a genius, and Jamie Lee, you are all of us!” This song is all of us… 

33. Burning Man turns into Fyre Fest: If you’re a musical festival for the faux hippie uber-wealthy and you don’t spiral into a natural disaster, can you even call yourself a music festival for the faux hippie uber-wealthy? This is a question Burning Man was forced to reckon with this year as attendees were quite biblically expelled from Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. The week-long festival was hindered quite prophetically on its first day when  climate protesters blocked the entrance with a 28-foot-long trailer. Participants eventually made it inside, but soon wished they hadn’t. On September 1, four days into the festival, heavy rainfall hit the region, causing a shelter in place warning—attendees found themselves quite literally closed in, and rationing their food. Sound familiar? Though participants were later told by organizers that they were “free to leave,” being that they were literally in the middle of the desert, the options for where to were quite limited. At one point, participants were even advised to walk to the nearest city and find a hotel room, only to find that the hotel rooms were all reserved. While the organizers attempted to provide buses to Reno for those eager to leave, authorities were simultaneously advising attendees to avoid driving in the desert mud at all costs. The results were far from fun or entertaining—several attendees developed a condition called “playa foot”—a sort of chemical burn that results from bare feet touching the alkaline soil, one attendee died of a suspected drug overdose, and those who made it out left massive amounts of waste in their wake. You wouldn’t get that vibe from any of the fun little TikToks made by the myriad of wealthy influencers in attendance, however.

32. Spotify Wrapped debuts cities: “Did Your Spotify Wrapped Place You In Burlington, Berkeley, or Cambridge? You May Be Gay” reads a headline by Them. It was time for the annual Spotify Wrapped, where Spotify users receive statistics like top song, album, genre, artist, etc. This year, they revealed the new feature: a “sound town,” which is a city that has the most similar taste to what you listened to over the course of a year. Internet users quickly realized that many people were getting the same cities over and over again, namely Burlington, Vermont, Berkeley, California, or Cambridge, Massachusetts. Basically, as one X user put it: “Spotify is trying to make a gay commune in Berkeley, a lesbian commune in Burlington, and a bisexual commune in Cambridge.” That pretty much sums it up! And if you got Provo… keep that to yourself. 

31. Hasan Minhaj’s Emotional Truths: All in all, 2023 was a banner year for once-beloved celebrities finding themselves in the midst of their own downfall (see entries #17 and #18, for two). That didn’t quite happen to Hasan Minhaj, though, to this day, we’re not exactly sure what did. In September, The New Yorker released a baffling profile with Minhaj, titled “Hasan Minhaj’s Emotional Truths.” The profile went on to reveal that a number of harrowing experiences Minhaj has detailed in his standup—including one instance where he was sent an envelope of anthrax that inadvertently blew onto his toddler daughter, and another in which an FBI informant he called “Brother Eric” infiltrated his local mosque—were altogether made up. The profile also dissects the story at the center of Minhaj’s 2017 special Homecoming King, in which he says his white date agreed to accompany him to their high school’s homecoming dance, only to abandon him on the night of because her parents didn’t want her dating a “brown boy.” Not only did The New Yorker allege this story was false—the woman involved claims she turned down Minhaj of her own accord days before the dance, something Minhaj later admitted—but the woman involved also claims she and her family were doxed and harassed for years after Homecoming King released on Netflix because Minhaj had used her real (albeit blurred) photo when telling the story. When she approached him with these concerns, the woman says Minhaj shrugged them off. 

Naturally, the profile inspired plenty of discourse over the nature of Minhaj’s half-truths, and whether or not it really mattered that his standup was based on falsehoods. But the drama didn’t stop with this profile. After telling The Hollywood Reporter, “all my standup stories are based on events that happened to me,” then waited another six weeks before publishing a 21-minute response video (on YouTube, as he no longer has a show), in which he addressed each of the profile’s claims. Because if there’s one thing we’ve learned from 2023, it’s that a long YouTube video response always makes things better. 

30. Every celebrity gets divorced: It feels like every time we thought our hearts couldn’t get MORE broken this year, a new celebrity couple got divorced (and yes, Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn count). If you didn’t know that J names are a problem by now, see Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas, Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello, Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson, and Jeremy Allen White and Addison Timlin for clear examples. Ariana Grande, Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, Maren Morris, Hugh Jackman… the list is almost overwhelmingly long. Love might not be real, but at least it gave us plenty of good gossip this year, from the Sophie/Joe divorce filings to new couples, including Ariana and Ethan Slater and Taylor and Travis Kelce. See entries 23 and 9, respectively.

29. A Congressional staffer is fired after filming a sex tape in a Senate hearing room: A certain Senate hearing room has seen the 9/11 commission hearings, the confirmations of Supreme Court nominees including Brett Kavanaugh and Sonia Sotomayor, and James Comey’s 2017 testimony on Donald Trump. More recently, it’s also seen a Senate aide taking it in the butt from another man on Amy Klobuchar’s seat. An eight-second video of the sexual encounter was posted on a private group chat for gay men in politics and was later leaked by right wing media outlet The Daily Caller. One of the men in the video was identified as Aidan Maese-Czeropski, a legislative aide for Maryland Senator Ben Cardin. Maese-Czeropski was accordingly removed from his position in the Capitol. He later took to LinkedIn to defend himself, alleging he had “been attacked for who I love to pursue a political agenda,” because getting in trouble for making a sex tape in a Senate hearing room is clearly due to a political agenda. Of course, the king of Congress, disgraced former House Representative George Santos, weighed in on this scandal. Santos took to X with his opinion, writing, “having sex in a United States government building and filming it is the reason you got heat. You being gay and having gay sex NO BODY gives a rats ass…” 

28. Meta launches Threads: It came as a bit of a surprise to everyone when silly little @s began showing up in people’s Instagram bios. Many of us, driven by natural human curiosity, clicked on those links to find that Meta had created a new social media platform Threads, which was essentially Twitter by Meta. The significance of this app launch came when users realized that their Threads and Instagram accounts were linked, since they were both powered by Meta. Deleting Threads would also delete Instagram, leaving many people with an account that they didn’t want. The Googling commenced as everyone tried to figure out how to get their Threads link off their Instagram page. To this day, there are literally thousands of undeleted ghost accounts floating around the Threads void. 

27. Every good show ends (but most painfully Succession): Well, all good things must come to an end. This year, that seemed to mean every beloved prestige show said its final goodbyes, from HBO’s dramedy Barry and its cult-favorite sitcom The Other Two, to AMC’s Better Caul Saul, to Apple TV’s Ted Lasso (whose spiritual end its predated official finale by one full season). Still, perhaps no loss was felt more by Bwog than the end of Succession. At the end of the show’s fourth and final season, a new CEO of Waystar Royco was crowned, but it’s still hard to say that anybody truly came out a winner. The insane family dynamics continued, with Logan Roy dropping the iconic line, “I love you, but you are not serious people,” before dropping dead altogether. It was the collapse heard round the world, so profound and surprising that actual news outlets started to publish the fictional media tycoon’s obituary.  After Logan’s death, a full-blown Shakespearean power struggle ignited, with each of the Roy siblings battling out for their father’s position and ignoring more prescient threats from outsiders like the famously spineless Tom Wambsgans and unsettling tech CEO Lukas Matsson (who is not just “sexy Elon Musk”). On the bright side, pretty much everyone in the cast was rewarded with an Emmy nomination or a niche Vulture interview about whether their character may be gay with Roman, a small condolence for such a profound loss. Succession, we will miss you forever.

26. HBO’s The Idol starts (and ends): Apparently, The Weeknd needed a career in television. Working alongside Euphoria director Sam Levinson, he produced The Idol, a (TV-MA rated) series that debuted on HBO Max in June (but we really wish he hadn’t). There is honestly so much to unpack here. The show generally follows a rising pop star (Lily-Rose Depp) and her relationship with a nightclub owner/cult leader (also Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye). There are a plethora of questionable moments, including Lily-Rose Depp’s remix of her own song, “World Class Sinner/I’m A Freak,” which is exclusively her moaning over lyrics and dancing while her entire team watches. Several controversies stemmed from the series on and off-screen. Not only were there terrible representations of serious themes like sexual violence and mental health, but there were various claims of toxic set environments and frustration with changes in the plot and creative direction. It was later reported that The Weeknd felt concerned the show “[leaned] too much into a female perspective,” causing Levinson to take over for the original creator, Amy Seimetz, and shift the focus from a troubled singer involved in a predatory relationship to a love story with more nudity and sexual content. Unsurprisingly, the show was canceled after one season. While we couldn’t help but watch and laugh at the (very, very cringeworthy and often problematic) drama and all the content it gave us, we are ultimately grateful for this decision. 

25. Will and Jada refuse to leave our screens: If you left 2022 thinking “I’ve had more than enough of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith for one lifetime,” you’re not alone. Tragically, that did not stop them from dominating the cultural conversation this year as well—or at least attempting to. This fall, Jada released Worthy, a tell-all memoir that tells so much. And if you were planning to opt out by simply not buying the book, too bad! Suddenly, headlines about Will, Jada, and their incredibly eventful 25 years of marriage were dropping left and right, like the Oscars slap on steroids. We learned that Tupac proposed to Jada from prison. We learned that Will showed his grandmother Jason’s Lyric, a film in which Pinkett Smith has a sex scene, before introducing the two. We learned the infamous Red Table Talk episode was Will’s idea. We learned Will and Jada had actually been separated since 2016, but that Jada reevaluated their relationship and chose to stay with Will after the infamous slap. But most of all, we just wanted so badly to stop learning. 

24. Frank Ocean and his very strange Coachella performance: Fans waited six years for Frank Ocean to take the stage again. And then they waited another hour. Ocean was set to headline the third day of Coachella this year, but his set was… untraditional. It featured an ice rink that was constructed and deconstructed before the performance even happened (what was the idea with this one, Frank?) as Ocean was allegedly injured riding around the festival on a bike. The performance then began an hour late. The post-ice rink stage was basically a giant screen featuring videos of a group of people walking in circles around the stage (again, what is the idea here???), with a limited view of Frank himself. Frank remained towards the back of the stage and chose to lip sync many of his songs instead of performing them live. He did eventually address the crowd, with a speech about his late brother who died in 2020 and their fond memories from past Coachellas. He then left the stage for a DJ set of EDM remixes of a few of his songs. The most notable part of this segment was a security guard who stole the attention of the cameras with his sick dance moves. After this, Ocean returned to the stage, played a cover, and then announced that the show was ending due to curfew. Fade to black. A bizarre set, but he played “Novacane,” so Bwog would have left happy.

23. Ariana Grande enters her Spongebob homewrecker era: Ariana Grande is one of the most successful pop stars of all time. Ethan Slater is Spongebob. Tony nominated, sure, but still Spongebob. Slater and Grande were cast in the upcoming Wicked movie with Slater as Boq and Grande as Glinda. While these casting decisions themselves caused controversy, no one was ready for just how much public interest would be generated by the two. Both actors were married at the beginning of filming, but the exact timeline of their individual relationships gets a little messy. While some sources have said that Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater did not start up a relationship until after both were separated from their spouses, that’s not widely believed to be the case. I mean, they filed for divorce from their respective partners only three days apart. When Slater’s ex-wife, Lily Jay, said that Ariana Grande is “not a girl’s girl”, any hope of public support for their relationship died. There’s no coming back from being accused of not being a girl’s girl. One thing you can be sure of is that Grande’s “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored” didn’t age particularly well. 

22. The Hunger Games enters a renaissance: When the Hunger Games series was added to Netflix in March, we all knew what was coming. Fan edits of Everlark (the ship name for Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark) and conspiracy theories and lore were brought to the top of our TikTok algorithms. The Team Peeta or Team Gale (Team Peeta always) debate that once plagued us a decade ago resurfaced stronger than ever. The movies’ addition to Netflix were strategically timed to create anticipation for the new Hunger Games prequel, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes. Tom Blyth, who played Coriolanus Snow, and Rachel Zegler, who played Lucy Gray Baird, blessed the souls of Hunger Games fans who have been waiting for this release since the prequel book it was based off of was released. Mass hysteria ensued over Blyth’s bleached buzz cut, making fans question whether being a murderous dictator with no remorse was really so bad. We got to hear the melodious voice of Rachel Zegler, as well as a wonderful portrayal of Tigris Snow from Hunter Schafer. We got many more fan ships with, including the notable Coriolanus and Sejanus. Finally, and maybe most importantly, we got the return of the Josh Hutcherson whistle edit.

21. TimoKylie, Kenito, and whatever those are inevitably covering up: If you thought DDG’s Little Mermaid rap was a lot, buckle up. In March, Columbia’s favorite not-so-alumni, Timothée Chalamet, made headlines when it was rumored his latest girlfriend was none other than Kylie Jenner, youngest sister of the KarJenner family and billionaire beauty mogul. The rumors died down for a while, but reemerged in full force in September when the pair were spotted sucking face (and not paying attention) at the Renaissance Tour. Many fans were shocked, but none so shocked as ClubChalamet, the infamous full-time fan account and part-time stalker dedicated to publicizing—and analyzing—Chalamet’s every move.  Shortly after images of Jenner and Chalamet kissing at the concert were released, ClubChalamet comforted fans with the message, “if you’re feeling distressed by the video, it’s ok, but please take care of yourself. Step away from social media for a couple of days.” Not taking her own advice, the fan account was quickly back with a question for the culture: could the young couple not have gone to Olive Garden, since he loves Italian food??

If the devastated fan’s woes weren’t enough, rapper Travis Scott joined the Club(Chalamet) when he released his song “Meltdown,” which includes the line, “Wrappin’ the cheese, wrap around me ’cause I’ve got property (Wrap, cheese, wrap) / Chocolate AP and chocolate the Vs (Vs), got the Willy Wonka factory (Vs) / Burn a athlete like it’s calories, find another flame hot as me, bitch.” Okay! 

Meanwhile, Kylie’s older sister, model and AI specimen Kendall Jenner, was living it up in a random-match-generated relationship of her own, with Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny. They may have seemed like you just pulled two names out of a hat, but that hat gave us the “Mami, be careful!” TikTok, and what more can you ask for? Yes, last year, Kourtney’s Italianx wedding did conveniently distract from Kim’s SEC charges. No, we’re not saying that’s happening again. Yet. What can we say? We love love. 

20. Bottoms shakes the culture: In what we would call one of the campiest pieces of cinema all year, Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri star as unpopular best friends who start a high school fight club to meet girls and lose their virginity. Directed by Emma Seligman, this movie revolutionized the way queer people are represented in movies. Every line in this movie was packed with references to queer pop culture and was backed by a stellar soundtrack. When the movie was released, the LGBTQ+ community flooded into the theaters. Ruby Cruz, who played Hazel Callahan, became a new queer heartthrob. Ayo Edebiri solidified the fact that this is her year. Who knew what we all needed was a fight scene with a bunch of queer women with “party 4 u” by Charli XCX playing in the background?

19. Stars decline requests to perform at King Charles III’s coronation: Unlike the late Queen Elizabeth II’s star-studded jubilee in June 2022, King Charles III did not have as much (any) luck gathering performers for his coronation in May. An array of A-list celebs declined requests from the palace to perform. Elton John and Harry Styles had “scheduling conflicts,” Ed Sheeran is “preparing for an upcoming show in Houston,” and Adele simply didn’t give a reason. The Spice Girls were also rumored to reunite for the coronation, but ultimately decided there was “a lack of rehearsal time.” Take That, a British pop group (that we have never heard of), agreed to perform, but without their frontman and breakout star, Robbie Williams, due to more “scheduling conflicts.” The organizers finally ended up with singers (and American Idol judges) Katy Perry and Lionel Richie, as well as many other (but less exciting) performers. 

18. Colleen Ballinger meets her downfall, and keeps falling: This summer, longtime Youtuber Colleen Ballinger, commonly referred to by her online alter ego Miranda Sings, faced allegations that she had been inappropriately interacting with underaged fans. Adam McIntyre, a former fan of Ballinger, released an explosive YouTube video in which he showed screenshots of a private group chat that Ballinger had with underaged fans titled “Colleen’s Weenies.” These conversations included Ballinger asking personal, and at times sexual, questions to the fans.  In response to her canceling, Ballinger did as YouTubers do and released an apology video. However, this wasn’t just any apology video. Ballinger decided that the best way to respond to these increasingly viral allegations was a 10-minute original song where she addressed the situation while playing the ukulele. In the video, she mentions that her PR team advised her not to say anything in response to the allegations, but never told her not to sing. She refers to the allegations as a “toxic gossip train,” explaining that while she did “overshare” at times in her DMs to fans and made jokes in “poor taste,” she was “not a groomer, just a loser.” As can be expected, Ballinger’s video broke the internet. Garnering nearly 17 million views, Ballinger rejected the format of a traditional Youtuber apology and instead released a video that was interpreted by many as minimizing the issue at hand. Her response was seen as flippant and deeply unserious, as viewers watched in “bemused horror.” The horror only compounded as writers from Ballinger’s short-lived sitcom, Haters Back Off, began to detail allegations of racism on and off set. Not to worry! Ballinger has already moved on to a new career—that of a rock tumbling hobbyist.

17. Lizzo is sued for harassment by her former dancers: It seems as though the truth(?) hurts for pop music artist Lizzo. In September, several of Lizzo’s former dancers filed suit against her, alleging nine instances of misconduct during her “Special” tour. The allegations range from hostile work environment to sexual harassment, to religious harassment. According to the plaintiffs, dancers were forced to participate in Christian prayer, subjected to comments about their weight from Lizzo herself, and pressured to attend and participate in nude performances in Amsterdam. To counter these allegations, Lizzo pulled out the accused celebrity’s greatest weapon: the notes app apology. On Instagram, she posted a screenshot of a note (her notes app is in light mode, just so everyone knows), in which she denied the allegations of sexual harassment and body shaming, and wrote that the behavior of her former dancers on tour was “inappropriate and unprofessional.” The singer has since filed a motion to dismiss the case, and the lawyers representing the plaintiffs have been unable to counter it.

16. Gwyneth Paltrow wins her ski trial: Before we say anything, it’s important to note that she wishes him well. Seven years after Gwyneth Paltrow and retired optometrist Terry Sanderson collided on a beginner-level slope in Utah, the pair met again in a highly-publicized trial. It was Anatomy of a Fall meets Legally Blonde. It was rich people at their worst (and thus at their best). Sanderson initially sued Paltrow for $3.1 million, though later amended his amount to $300,000. Paltrow countersued for $1 and legal fees. As a result, the collision, Sanderson says he received four broken ribs and a concussion. Paltrow, in turn, lost half a day of skiing. Somehow, both Sanderson and Paltrow report being hit in the back, a detail which (among many others) captivated viewers of the inexplicably live-streamed trial. Ultimately, Sanderson was found “100% at fault” for the crash, but don’t worry too much; again, she wishes him well. 

15. Boygenius-mania dominates the airwaves: Boygenius, the indie supergroup, has made it into the mainstream. While the depressed queer women have tried to gatekeep the band’s masterpiece of an EP, their newest album, the record, and subsequent EP the rest have brought them to the peak of the indie rock genre. Boygenius was nominated for not one, not two, not three, but six Grammys, including Album of the Year, the most coveted of them all. Adding to this frenzy, they played numerous nights on the Eras Tour with Taylor Swift, as well as many headlining shows at large arenas like Madison Square Garden. To top it all off, in November, they were musical guests on SNL and participated in a viral skit that will be quoted by queer people for generations to come, dressing as gay pop icon Troye Sivan alongside Bowen Yang and Timothée Chalamet. 

14. Britney Spears reclaims her narrative: In February 2022, it was announced that pop legend Britney Spears signed a $15 million book deal for her new memoir The Woman in Me. Fans and the general public have looked forward to hearing from Britney herself since November 2021 when a judge ended a thirteen-year conservatorship that placed her father, Jamie Spears, in control of her finances and barred her from speaking to the public. The book was released in October, and fans were shocked by the details Spears revealed about her former relationship with fellow singer Justin Timberlake, who she dated from 1999 to 2002. Spears and Timberlake’s split was highly publicized after Timberlake seemingly made a salacious song and music video about Spears after their breakup. In the memoir, Spears described the events of their relationship that led to their split, including her hesitant decision to abort a pregnancy. Spears also went into depth about the unwarranted conservatorship and her strained relationship with her family. Spears alleged that her parents encouraged her to drink alcohol at 14 and that she became fearful of her family during her conservatorship. The book itself was a success, with over 1 million copies sold in its first week, including an audiobook narrated by actress Michelle Williams. Shortly after the release, Spears hinted that she may release a second volume of the memoir in 2024. 

13. How often do you think about the Roman Empire?: It was the phrase heard ‘round the world, for some reason. This fall, the viral question seemed to be on the mind of virtually every social media user after an Instagram reel went megaviral of user @gaiusflavius saying women would be “surprised how often men think about the Roman Empire.” In no time, women on every edge of TikTok were tracking down any man they could find to ask the pressing question: “How often do you think about the Roman Empire?” The results were sometimes shocking, and, in a matter of mere weeks, the trend had racked up over 1.8 billion views across platforms. Google searches for “Roman Empire” hit an all-time peak. The cast of Ridley Scott’s upcoming Gladiator sequel couldn’t get away from it. The phrase “Roman Empire” eventually even made its way into the public vernacular to mean “moment in history I think about constantly.” Rome wasn’t built in a day, but TikTok trends certainly are.

12. The tragic turnovers of the Speaker of the House: Our story begins with Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to be elected Speaker of the House. After many years as Speaker, she stepped down on January 3. Thus begins a revolving door of candidates, numerous elections, and general disarray as the House scrambled to replace Pelosi.

The first election saw Republicans (mostly) in support of Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, and Democrats in support of Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. As the House had a Republican majority, logically, McCarthy should have easily won this election, right? Wrong. The first voting round featured 19 House Republicans voting for someone other than McCarthy, leaving McCarthy with 203 votes—15 fewer than the 218 votes needed to win the speakership. All 212 House Democrats voted for Jeffries, remaining consistent through all 15 rounds of voting. Yeah, that’s right. This election went through 15 ROUNDS. This was beacuse a group of far-right Republicans including infamous creep Matt Gaetz and musical theatre enthusiast Lauren Boebert, who believed that McCarthy was too moderate to support their goals. This group eventually rallied around Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, an ultraconservative, who actually urged the group to support McCarthy instead. Eventually, members of the ultraconservative group began to flip in favor of McCarthy, and by the 12th round, there were only seven holdouts. By the 14th round, only one holdout needed to vote to secure McCarthy the victory: Representative Matt Gaetz. Drama ensued. The house almost adjourned, but after a last minute change of heart by Gaetz, the voting went to a 15th round, where McCarthy finally secured a victory.

The victory was short-lived. In early October, House Republicans (led by Matt Gaetz himself, of course) voted to remove McCarthy from his position for relying on Democratic support for a bill. This was the first vote of its kind to succeed—ever. The first Republican nominee for the position was Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who won the nomination in a closed door vote. But, before it went to the floor, he withdrew his candidacy because he was unable to win over holdouts. Next up was Jim Jordan (yeah, he’s back). He failed to win the speakership after three rounds of floor votes as members of his own party refused to support him. The third candidate was Tom Emmer, the Majority Whip from Minnesota, who withdrew after mere hours due to intense backlash. Finally, Mike Johnson of Louisiana was elected as Speaker, with full support from his party. The Democrats stood behind Jeffries the entire way. 

That’s where our story ends: Mike Johnson is Speaker, and Congress closes out a year of historical unproductivity. They only passed 27 bills despite holding over 700 votes. As 2023 ends, it’s clear that some serious discord has been unveiled among US Republicans. 

11. Prince Harry (over)shares with Spare: When Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, released in January, it shocked royal news followers and overturned the Palace’s former claims about the royal family. Harry laid bare plenty of juicy details, including a 2019 incident in which William allegedly physically attacked Harry during an argument, and the story of how Kate Middleton allegedly made Meghan Markle cry during the planning of Harry and Meghan’s 2018 wedding. He also reveals more about his lifelong sibling rivalry with William, including his decision to not make William his best man (contradicting the Palace’s original claim that William was indeed Harry’s best man). Readers are also privy to some more… intimate (and generally uncomfortable) details. One excerpt of the book describes how the prince lost his virginity in a field behind a pub to an “older lady,” who seemingly revealed herself in an interview with Page Six a month later. There were also some serious implications regarding the book’s content. Harry was faced with immense criticism about his apathetic description of allegedly killing 25 suspected Taliban members as a soldier in the British Army Air Corps. He also made readers uneasy when addressing his past controversies; he claimed that William and Kate encouraged him to wear a Nazi costume in 2005, which prompted a lackluster apology from Harry and a condemnation from the Prime Minister. He also referred to a 2009 incident in which video footage of him calling a fellow cadet a slur, claiming he did “not know” that the term was a slur when he said it.

10. Aliens? In my congressional hearing?: More likely than you think. In July, national attention briefly turned away from Barbenheimer when three military officials testified to a House Oversight subcommittee that they believe the government is in possession of “nonhuman matter” from UFOs (now known as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, or UAPs). The televised hearings included a number of baffling confessions, including former US intelligence official David Grusch claiming that “nonhuman biologics” have been recovered UAP crash sites and former Navy Commander David Fravor claiming he and three fellow military pilots witnessed a white Tic-Tac-shaped object accelerating at “supersonic speeds” below their jets in 2004. As if aliens weren’t having a big enough summer.

9. Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn break up (and so much more…): Taylor Swift, TIME’s 2023 Person of the Year, stole the spotlight this year for other reasons than her thriving music career.  Many people’s hearts were torn apart after the rumor that she and Joe Alwyn, Swift’s partner of six years and a British actor with ocean blue eyes, broke up. The breakup took the world by surprise as there were rumors that this low-key couple had gotten married in secret, though those claims were later denied by Swift’s publicist Tree Paine. Reasons for the breakup remain unknown, though an Instagram story by collaborator Jack Antonoff later revealed that the Midnights bonus track “You’re Losing Me,” which details the slow crumbling of a relationship, was recorded in December of 2021, suggesting there was already an end in sight more than a year before the breakup was announced. The heartbreak seemingly didn’t last long, though, as Taylor and The 1975 frontman Matty Healy soon started dating. Oh, Taylor, to this day we wonder: why? Healy is, to put it nicely, controversial. Fun fact: in 2016, Healy stated in an interview that dating Taylor would be “emasculating.” Since then, he’s garnered plenty of… problematic attention, to say the least, particularly after a since-deleted podcast appearance on The Adam Friedland Show that included participating in a series of increasingly racist jokes about rapper Ice Spice. Curiously, Taylor later collaborated with Ice Spice in the not-quite-good remix of “Karma,” while still dating Healy. (Spice later publicly forgave Healy for his comments, saying he had apologized in person.) Luckily for Swifties (and for humanity overall), this relationship lasted just over a month. In another turn of events, NFL superstar Travis Kelce soon entered the scene, with Swift and Kelce making appearances in each other’s events. With the couple now officially together (and more public than ever), what’s to come? Who knows. But Taylor, please, whatever you decide, we simply beg you, do not let Matty make a reappearance. 

8. Henry Kissinger (finally) dies: Everyone clapped. 

7. “Twitter” becomes “X”: On October 28, 2022, Tesla CEO Elon Musk acquired the popular social media platform “Twitter” for a rough estimate of $44 billion. This final purchase came after months of back-and-forth, starting in April 2022 when the businessman proposed that he purchase the platform for $54.20 a share, valuing his bid at $43 billion. After the deal closed in October, Musk took full control and began to lay off employees and higher-ups at Twitter while simultaneously implementing a new subscription service called “Twitter Blue” that would allow users to have a blue checkmark badge on the app without needing a plethora of followers, among other benefits. As all this change began accruing, Musk worked on the plan to officially change the name of the app to X, rather than Twitter, a name he is rumored to have tried to give many other projects, including his son. This plan was completed in April of this year and put into action in July. RIP the Twitter Bird, you are missed so dearly. 

6. George. Santos.: Oh, where to begin with this one? Former congressman George Santos has made quite a name for himself this year. Santos was sworn into the House of Representatives in November 2022, making himself the first LGBT “non-incumbent” Republican to do so. During his 11 months in the House, he was the face of many different scandals, including carrying a random baby around congressional chambers, using aliases such as “Anthony Devolder” and claiming said alias acted in Hannah Montana, and most importantly, using his campaign money for his 2024 reelection on Botox and an OnlyFans subscription. As Santos’s media popularity grew due to his absurd lies and right-wing views, his colleagues attempted to expel him multiple times for similar reasons. Santos was officially expelled from the House of Representatives on December 1, with almost half of his own party voting against him. This decision rocked the world—and by the world I mean TikTok and Twitter—causing satirical talk show host Ziwe to tweet that it is her “literal dream” to interview the former congressman. Santos took her up on her offer, and less than three weeks after his expulsion, their interview went live. Some highlights include Santos being unable to identify James Baldwin or Harvey Milk, Ziwe attempting to get him to use the word “icon” (in order to sound like “I, con”) multiple times, and Santos announcing that he will be back and running for other political positions, among others. His media attention from news outlets, as well as SNL (where Bowen Yang plays him amazingly) eventually led the unemployed Santos to create an account on Cameo, a video platform where celebrities can charge people to request a personalized video from them. Santos charges $500 for each of his cameos, and we will leave you some links below for your viewing enjoyment. (Don’t worry CU Dems, we didn’t forget about you ;)

Cameo 1: George Santos has some encouraging words for your breakup! 

Cameo 2: George Santos outs closeted Capitol Hill Republicans??

Cameo 3: We don’t even know how to describe this one.

5. Submersible-gate: Oh, to be rich. Oh, to be a fan of the Titanic. If you’re both, OceanGate, an organization that offered individuals the chance to embark on an 8-day expedition to see the Titanic wreckage for an astronomical price of $250,000, would have certainly appealed to you. In June, the Titan, an OceanGate submersible, imploded during one of these expeditions, killing all five passengers on board. TikTok quickly became the place to share almost real-time updates, as well as a source of conspiracies and jokes. An occurrence worth sharing? The stepson of one of the billionaires killed on board attended a Blink-182 concert during the search, claiming that music helps him during difficult times. A very questionable decision, but who are we to judge? We all have different ways of coping…I guess.

4. Donald Trump is arrested, indicted, and takes an incredible mugshot: In April, Donald Trump became the first president in American history to be charged with criminal activity when he was indicted on 34 felony counts related to election interference. Over the subsequent months, it just. Kept. Happening. The former president and current presidential candidate has since been indicted on a whopping 91 felony counts related to interference in both of his previous elections, in 2016 and 2020. But you know which one we’re here to talk about. On August 14, Trump—along with 18 co-defendants—were indicted by a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia for interference in the 2020 presidential election. On August 24, Trump turned himself in at the Fulton County Jail, where his mugshot was taken. This was the fourth of Trump’s indictments, but the first to result in an actual mugshot. It was the first and only mugshot taken of any U.S. president. The photo quickly spread online, where it was quickly slapped on “Trump 2024” mugs and shirts and made the object of many a joke, edit, and meme. Wearing a navy suit and red tie, Trump’s expression, with cartoonishly arched eyebrows, a frown turned sharply down at the corners, and a Kubrick stare that glares through wispy brows is illuminated by the cheap camera and bad lighting of this now infamous jail processing room. Records also show that Trump incorrectly self-reported his height and weight, or at least noted himself to be taller and leaner. He also reported his hair color as “strawberry blonde,” an oddly specific choice for someone who had been charged with multiple federal crimes. 

3. WGA and SAG-AFTRA go on strike: For a significant portion of this year, Hollywood was shut down by two separate strikes in the entertainment industry: a 148-day strike by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) which started May 2, and a 118 day strike by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) which started July 14. In addition to delaying releases of highly anticipated movies and TV shows such as Dune: Part Two, drama also ensued when certain individuals either completely ignored the strike and resumed production, or seemed to move in that direction before changing course. Drew Barrymore announced that season 4 of The Drew Barrymore Show would continue amidst the strike, despite the fact that it was a WGA-covered show. Following initial backlash, Barrymore released a now-deleted video in which she apologized for “hurting feelings” but said that production would continue. However, after she was overwhelmingly condemned as a scab and slammed online for crossing the picket line, six days after posting the apology video she announced that production of her show would pause until the WGA strike ended.

2. Tourmania: In 2022, the ticket sales of several tours caused several Ticketmaster lawsuits, and in 2023, those tours finally began. Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour kicked off in Glendale, Arizona, in March, and she did not disappoint. Swift’s 44-song set list and over three-hour-long performance mesmerized fans and non-fans alike, grossing over $1.04 billion (and literally changing the economy) to date. Millions around the world donned cowboy hats, friendship bracelets, and Taylor-themed outfits to see Swift perform, many traveling from different cities, states, or even countries. Additionally, seemingly endless pop culture moments stemmed from the tour. Some of our favorites include supermodel/ex-bestie Karlie Kloss’s attendance, where she watched the show from the stands, and, of course, the start of Swift’s relationship with Travis Kelce. Swift even announced two rerecorded albums at her shows, one of which included a surprise appearance from ex-boyfriend, Taylor Lautner. Overall, it’s undeniable this year has been a career-high for Swift; not only did she gain billionaire status and become the #1 listened to artist on Spotify, she’s been named Time’s Person of the Year. 

Lucky us, we were also blessed with Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour, where she single-handedly made silver the color of the year and made over $500 million while doing it. To nobody’s surprise, Beyoncé’s vocals and looks stunned all. Blue Ivy Carter also wowed as she danced alongside her mother, and the “Mute Challenge” started a worldwide competition between fans (in which Kansas City was crowned the winner). The tour wrapped up in October but will undoubtedly be talked about for a long time. 

And of course, since many of us couldn’t snag tickets to see these tours in person, both The Eras Tour and The Renaissance Tour were also released as concert films. The premiere of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, where Taylor invited and met fans and visited every theater personally, completely shut down The Grove AMC in Los Angeles. Beyoncé was also in attendance, ending fan wars everywhere and warranting a special post from Swift. Of course, Taylor also traveled to support Beyoncé at the Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé premiere in London, gifting us with another iconic post. If you haven’t yet and would like to join Bwog in this tour obsession, you can still go see either film in theaters or rent Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour for $19.89 (or stream either illegally for free like everyone else, we won’t judge). 

1. Barbenheimer: You knew what was coming. THE cultural phenomenon of 2023, Barbie and Oppenheimer—both Blockbuster films in their own right—hit theaters on July 21. In the lead up to their release, both movies were advertised heavily to their respective audiences, which one would assume had little to no overlap. Perfectly pink Barbieland and the construction of the atomic bomb are about as far from each other as two things can possibly be. In fact, it was this stark difference in tone that created Barbarnheimer, where audiences embraced the films’ differences and became equally invested in both, with many seeing them in theaters as a double feature on opening day. Viewers dressed in black for Oppenheimer and changed into pink attire before seeing Barbie. The craziest part of Barbenheimer is that it was completely created by the audience. Cillian Murphy and Margot Robbie, the stars of each of the films, said in their “Actors on Actors” interview for Variety that their respective studios had chosen the same release date by coincidence. They were not expecting the films to have any overlap, but Barbenheimer goes to show that, at the end of the day, audience preferences aren’t predictable, and people can have a wide range of interests. Through months of memes, costumes, and double features, Barbenheimer helped each film boost the other, causing both to become bigger than either team could have expected. 

Pure unfiltered brainrot, jr., via Chancey Stefanos.