Latest / Mini Scroll / 2024 Internet Culture Recap: 10 of The Biggest Viral Moments

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2024 Internet Culture Recap: 10 of The Biggest Viral Moments · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  With summer coming up, we're entering my favorite season of
• 0:03
  all Margarita season. I love a classic, refreshing
• 0:07
  Margarita on a hot summer's day to enjoy at barbecues, picnics,
• 0:10
  and on weekend getaways. For the perfect mark, I use Jose
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  Cuervo, the world's number one tequila brand.
• 0:18
  A big thank you to Jose Cuervo for continuing to support the
• 0:21
  pod and helping us produce content for all of you.
• 0:24
  Time to embrace Margarita season with Jose Cuervo and remember to
• 0:28
  drink responsibly. 2024 has been an eventful year for pop
• 0:33
  culture. It has really been a roller
• 0:35
  coaster of highs and lows. From nearly every major pop
• 0:38
  girly dropping an album to a few high profile cancellations in
• 0:43
  the online world. The Internet, as always, has
• 0:46
  been at the center of it all, shaping trends, sparking
• 0:49
  arguments, and bringing us both fun and controversial viral
• 0:54
  moments. As we do every year, we're
• 0:56
  taking a step back to reflect on some of the biggest culture
• 1:00
  shaping moments that have taken the Internet by storm.
• 1:03
  Whether it's music, scandal, or new trends, there has been a bit
• 1:07
  of everything in 2024. This is an exploration into ten
• 1:11
  of the most viral moments of the year and why we think most of
• 1:15
  them will have a lasting impact from Centennial World.
• 1:20
  I'm Lauren Meissner and this is Infinite Scroll, a podcast about
• 1:24
  Internet culture, the creator economy and how social media is
• 1:27
  shaping Gen. Z Welcome back to Infinite
• 1:30
  Scroll, everyone. It is our second last deep dive
• 1:35
  of the year. This is so crazy.
• 1:37
  I cannot believe that I have done a year almost of deep dives
• 1:41
  all on my own. It's been quite the wild ride
• 1:45
  for me and it's also been quite the wild ride for just news and
• 1:50
  culture in 2024. And that is what we're going to
• 1:53
  be looking back on today. I did want to say before I get
• 1:56
  into it, I feel like the thing that is missing on this list now
• 2:01
  is something about the hawk to a girl.
• 2:04
  The reason being, you know, she was obviously a really viral
• 2:07
  meme and she's kind of parlayed this big career off the back of
• 2:11
  it, which is, you know, good for her, sure.
• 2:13
  However, this episode was written before her
• 2:16
  cryptocurrency coin released on Wednesday and is now being
• 2:22
  called one of the biggest alleged scams in crypto by an
• 2:28
  influencer to date. So I think that situation itself
• 2:32
  will have a significant lasting impact on Internet culture in
• 2:36
  the industry in general. So that is something that I feel
• 2:39
  is missing from this list. However, like I said, this was
• 2:41
  written before all of that happened.
• 2:43
  All right, as always, Please remember to rate, review and
• 2:45
  subscribe. Please star rate US on Spotify.
• 2:48
  We're trying to get to 500 Spotify reviews star rated
• 2:51
  reviews by the end of the year. Please sign up to our newsletter
• 2:54
  which is also called Infinite Scroll.
• 2:56
  On Fridays, we round up the five biggest thing pieces from the
• 2:59
  Internet that week. I'm going to read 2 reviews from
• 3:01
  YouTube. So BB Girl 95 says I love
• 3:05
  listening to you before bed. You have a calming energy and I
• 3:07
  love your videos. You are so positive about
• 3:09
  everything. It's just nice to watch slash
• 3:12
  listen to. Thank you.
• 3:14
  Since I've been doing the podcast by myself, I've heard
• 3:17
  that my voice is calming, that I am calming.
• 3:21
  I have never heard that before in my entire life.
• 3:23
  This is the first time literally, genuinely, this year
• 3:26
  since I started doing the podcast by myself is the first
• 3:29
  time. In fact, when I used to do it
• 3:31
  with Jordy, I would get comments about how like she was really
• 3:34
  calming and I had like a really shrieky voice and I was like
• 3:38
  really high energy and it was just like a different vibe,
• 3:41
  obviously. But it's really wild because I
• 3:43
  don't think I've changed, but clearly a lot of you guys think
• 3:47
  I have. OK, The next comment that I have
• 3:49
  is from Janine, she says. Just want to say I found you
• 3:53
  from YouTube about six to seven months ago now and I've been
• 3:56
  watching you religiously every day.
• 3:58
  First thing when I get to work. Literally love your content.
• 4:01
  You're so adorable and easy to listen to and talk at the
• 4:04
  perfect pace. Anyways, I always loved the
• 4:06
  topics and people you cover. Keep it up, girly.
• 4:08
  Thank you. What an array of compliments.
• 4:11
  Like you guys are literally so nice.
• 4:13
  I don't know if I'm going to keep doing the review reading in
• 4:17
  the new year for 2025 when I come back.
• 4:20
  Oh also, I guess I'll give you guys I'll I'll talk about this
• 4:23
  on mini scroll as well, but I'll give you guys my Christmas
• 4:26
  schedule now. So I'm going to have three weeks
• 4:30
  off the podcast. So the last episode of the
• 4:33
  podcast for this season will be December 20th and then I will be
• 4:38
  back on January 13th with mini Scroll.
• 4:41
  I know three weeks sounds like a long time when you do a daily
• 4:44
  podcast and it's going to feel like a long time for me too, but
• 4:47
  I really, really need the break. I really feel very burnt out
• 4:52
  coming to the end of this year. It's just been a crazy year.
• 4:54
  You guys know. You guys know the year that I've
• 4:57
  had. I haven't even told you guys
• 4:59
  like half of the stuff because I really just can't.
• 5:01
  But it's been so, so insane and a very difficult year, but a
• 5:05
  great year. A great year for the business on
• 5:08
  one hand, but a very difficult year for the business and
• 5:10
  personally as well. So I really need this time to
• 5:14
  like properly switch off and relax.
• 5:17
  And I kind of think I thought that like my trip in the middle
• 5:20
  of the year for my friend's wedding was going to be a bit of
• 5:23
  that. It helped me get through to the
• 5:25
  end of the year. But because it was a trip
• 5:27
  specifically for a friend's wedding, it was very high
• 5:31
  demand, you know, Whereas this time I'm just going to go to
• 5:35
  Sean's family's house in the country.
• 5:36
  We're going to go there for over Christmas.
• 5:38
  I'm going to be like logs the fuck off.
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  And I'm just going to relax and hopefully not think too much
• 5:45
  about 2025. And the business moment.
• 5:53
  Number one is the rise of the pop girlies.
• 5:56
  Now, we can't talk about 2024 without mentioning the
• 5:59
  Renaissance of pop. The likes of Beyoncé, Taylor
• 6:03
  Swift, and Ariana Grande have been dominating for the past
• 6:06
  decade, but this year, a new class of breakout stars emerged.
• 6:10
  With pretty much every pop girl dropping an album this year, the
• 6:13
  2025 Grammys is set to be a total bloodbath.
• 6:17
  Earlier this year, we did a full episode on the rise of the Gen.
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  Z pop girlies, focusing on this new era of celebrities, who they
• 6:24
  are and why they're popular. As expected, we focused on
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  Charli XCX, Chapel Brown and Sabrina Carpenter.
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  While we don't need to re litigate everything here, it's
• 6:33
  worth noting that this wave of pop girlies is the result of how
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  the industry shifted post COVID after a long drought of breakout
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  artists. As Mikhail Wood pointed out in a
• 6:43
  Los Angeles Times article, Olivia Rodrigo was the last
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  major Gen. Z pop sensation to break into
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  the mainstream in 2021. Before this year, an anonymous
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  pop songwriter quoted in the piece mentioned that the nearly
• 6:55
  four year gap between Olivia's rise and the others was, quote,
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  not normal, as there used to be at least one massive breakout
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  star every year, sometimes 2. This gap was partly due to the
• 7:08
  pandemic, which forced labels to adjust their strategies for
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  elevating young artists. During this time, TikTok emerged
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  as a game changer, contributing to the rise of Chapel, Charlie,
• 7:18
  and Sabrina. If you are interested in hearing
• 7:20
  our takes as to why these three women have dominated pop culture
• 7:24
  this year, feel free to revisit the episode.
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  But for now, let's just take a moment to reflect on some of
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  their most viral moments. Charlie probably went the most
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  viral this year with Brat. One of the standout and honestly
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  crazy moments of this era was the way Brat influenced the
• 7:39
  presidential election in the United States.
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  In a surprising turn of events, the Kamala Harris campaign
• 7:45
  jumped on the zeitgeist by posting Brat coated fan cams
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  after Charlie tweeted Kamala is Brat.
• 7:52
  Beyond the intersection of Brat and the 2024 election, the Brat
• 7:56
  era gave us Brat Summer or Brat Winter down here in Australia
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  and with it the viral TikTok dance to Apple created by Kelly
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  Hare. The album also went viral for
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  his remixes and the clever marketing strategy, with Brat
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  Billboards popping up all around the world.
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  Some of the most notable remixes came from artists like Lorde on
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  Girls So Confusing, Billie Eilish on Guests, and Ariana
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  Grande on Sympathy is a Knife. And let's not forget Charlie
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  Sweat Tour with Troy Sivan, where videos of fans doing the
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  Apple Dance on the big screen went viral.
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  Speaking of viral touring moments, Sabrina Carpenter might
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  take the cake this year. She kicked off 2024 as an
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  opening act on Taylor Swift's massively viral Eras Tour, where
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  her nonsense outros and iconic kick during Feather became a fan
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  favorite moments. By the end of the year, Sabrina
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  had stepped fully into the spotlight on her own, riding the
• 8:50
  success of her song Espresso and all the memes that inspired it.
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  Now on tour for her album Short and Sweet, Sabrina has social
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  media users obsessed again with clips from every show going
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  viral, especially as fans speculate which Juno position
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  she'll choose each night. Last but certainly not least, we
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  have Chapel Rd. Her rise has been nothing short
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  of meteoric, going from relative obscurity to becoming one of the
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  most talked about artists of the year.
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  With songs like Good Luck Babe, Pink Pony Club, and Hot to Go,
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  Chapel really cemented her place and pop culture.
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  Some of her most viral moments came from her festival runs,
• 9:29
  where she pulled massive crowds and wore unforgettable costumes.
• 9:33
  Of course, Chapel hasn't been without controversy.
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  She's faced criticism for setting firm boundaries around
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  parasocial relationships with her fans and refusing to endorse
• 9:43
  a presidential candidate, urging her audience to do their own
• 9:46
  research. The second viral moment of 2024
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  is that film was back and bigger than ever.
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  While the pop girlies had their moment, 2024 was also a big year
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  for film. The resurgence we saw in 2023
• 9:59
  with Barbie and Oppenheimer carried through this year in its
• 10:03
  own way. While no double release quite
• 10:05
  reached Barbenheimer's level, we did get some unforgettable press
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  tours. Earlier this year, Challengers
• 10:12
  had everyone obsessed. The tennis film starring
• 10:15
  Zendaya, Josh O'Connor and Mike Face saw its cast doing press
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  worldwide. Zendaya especially stole the
• 10:22
  spotlight, going viral for her tennis themed premiere looks.
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  Once the film was released, fan edits shipping the characters
• 10:29
  flooded social media, cementing Challengers as a standout film
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  of 2024. And then there's Wicked,
• 10:36
  released just last month. The lead up to this film has
• 10:39
  been extensive. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Revo
• 10:42
  were everywhere from the Super Bowl to the Paris Olympics,
• 10:45
  building anticipation for the movie.
• 10:47
  Well, Wicked has received glowing reviews.
• 10:50
  Much of the conversation online has centered around its press
• 10:53
  tour, with Ariana and Cynthia delivering iconic looks and
• 10:56
  moments at every stop and, of course, holding space for
• 11:00
  defying gravity. The third viral moment is the
• 11:03
  Paris Olympics. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Rivo
• 11:06
  were not the only people to go viral at the Paris Olympics.
• 11:10
  It also brought a wave of viral Olympians who took over the
• 11:14
  Internet. Leading the charge was
• 11:15
  Australian breakdancer Ray Gun, whose unorthodox dance moves
• 11:19
  captivated people across the world.
• 11:21
  Then there was the pommel horse guy.
• 11:23
  He not only impressed viewers with his gymnastic skills on the
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  pommel horse, but also his calm, unbothered demeanor on the
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  sidelines in shooting. Turkish marksman Yusuf Dekic
• 11:35
  went viral for showing up with almost no equipment, while South
• 11:38
  Korean shooter Kim Yeji gained fans for her main character
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  energy. Though TikTok first embraced
• 11:45
  Olympic content in 2021, this year's Games felt freer as
• 11:49
  athletes enjoyed the competitions without the
• 11:51
  constraints of COVID protocols. The next viral moment was the
• 11:55
  rise of the dating exposes. While content from the dominated
• 11:59
  the Internet this year, another type of content also gained
• 12:02
  popularity. The dating expose TikTok user
• 12:06
  started replacing short form style content for multiple part
• 12:09
  story times this year. And it all started with a woman
• 12:12
  named Risa Tisa when she posted her fifty part series Who the
• 12:17
  Fuck Did I Marry? The entire series spanned
• 12:19
  approximately 10 hours, with many TikTok users having watched
• 12:23
  the whole thing. Risa essentially narrated her
• 12:26
  experience of being married to of a pathological liar.
• 12:30
  She characterized her ex-husband as the United Nations of red
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  flags and explained how he deceived her throughout their
• 12:37
  whole relationship. After Risa found serious success
• 12:40
  on the platform, well established creators followed
• 12:43
  suit. Brooke Schofield and Madeline
• 12:45
  Archie are two examples. Brooke, as I'm sure we all
• 12:48
  remember, exposed her ex-boyfriend Clinton Kane for
• 12:51
  lying throughout their relationship, from claiming that
• 12:54
  his mother, brother and father died in the same year to saying
• 12:58
  that he had grown up in Australia when he actually lived
• 13:01
  in Brunei. Among the lies, she also spoke
• 13:03
  about how Clinton would manipulate her, leaving her in
• 13:06
  an extremely vulnerable state. Meanwhile, Madeline took to the
• 13:10
  platform to get candid about her on again off again relationship
• 13:13
  with UK based rapper Central C. This came off the back of
• 13:17
  relationship rumors between Central C Tik Toker Leah Halton
• 13:21
  and I Spice, all while he was allegedly dating Madeline.
• 13:25
  With this context, many TikTok users presumed that these rumors
• 13:29
  were for publicity. In her series, she revealed that
• 13:31
  she was being played alongside the public.
• 13:34
  In a similar vein, Aspen Ovard went completely viral this year
• 13:38
  after addressing her divorce from her husband of nearly 10
• 13:41
  years, Parker Ferris. While she didn't drop an expose
• 13:45
  video like Brooke or Madeline, Aspen leaned into the
• 13:47
  speculation with a series of Tik Toks, many of them poking fun at
• 13:52
  the situation and even throwing a little shade at Parker.
• 13:55
  It all goes to show how success on TikTok often comes down to
• 13:59
  authenticity, honesty, and relatability, something that
• 14:02
  could be said for all of these creators.
• 14:04
  These characteristics fit the platform's culture perfectly,
• 14:07
  aligning with Gen. Z's expectations of storytelling
• 14:10
  and creators. The next unfortunate viral
• 14:14
  moment to sweep 2024 was how right wing ideology infiltrated
• 14:19
  the mainstream. While many women have shared
• 14:21
  their personal experiences online this year, men have done
• 14:25
  it as well, though often in ways that have proven far more
• 14:28
  harmful. Throughout 2024, right wing
• 14:31
  ideology has seeped further into mainstream Internet culture than
• 14:34
  ever before. On TikTok, practices like looks
• 14:37
  maxing, which is efforts to enhance 1's appearances that are
• 14:41
  actually rooted in in cell ideology, have gained
• 14:44
  significant traction. Beyond TikTok, right wing
• 14:47
  influencers and public figures have been emboldened during the
• 14:50
  2024 US election. Trump, for example, made
• 14:54
  appearances on platforms associated with right leaning
• 14:57
  influencers like Aiden Ross, Jake Paul and Joe Rogan.
• 15:00
  One of the starkest examples of alt right ideology surfacing
• 15:04
  online came when Australian skin care brand TBH Skin Care went
• 15:09
  viral after participating in the booths and a slicked back bun
• 15:12
  trend. We did cover this in mini
• 15:14
  scroll, but as a quick reminder, the TBH skin Care employees made
• 15:18
  a video chanting phrases like. However, the criticism took a
• 15:23
  darker turn when the video circulated on Twitter, where
• 15:26
  thousands of men began targeting the women involved.
• 15:29
  Andrew Tate even shared the clip writing.
• 15:32
  If you do not escape the Matrix, women like this will be your
• 15:36
  boss. ZOG Corp loves emasculating men
• 15:39
  by forcing them to listen to semi sentient females.
• 15:42
  If that doesn't motivate you to get rich, nothing will.
• 15:46
  This blatant misogyny is just one example of how the alt right
• 15:50
  operates online. But subtler manifestations have
• 15:53
  also to emerge, most notably the rise of trad wives.
• 15:57
  A true trad wife isn't just an aesthetic or a stay at home mom
• 16:01
  who enjoys cooking. It's an ideology steeped in
• 16:04
  white supremacy, heteronormativity, and anti
• 16:07
  feminism. While many trad wife creators
• 16:10
  don't explicitly identify with the alt right, the embrace of
• 16:13
  trad life often serves as an entry point to the far right,
• 16:17
  particularly the so-called crunchy to alt right pipeline.
• 16:21
  This year, creators like Nara Smith have popularized a watered
• 16:25
  down version of trad wife culture.
• 16:27
  While most trad wife influencers don't actively promote harmful
• 16:30
  ideologies, their content can inadvertently act as a gateway
• 16:34
  for audiences to engage with more overtly alt right material.
• 16:39
  This slippery slope has made trad wife content a quiet but
• 16:42
  notable force in the increasingly common belief in
• 16:45
  the far right online. Of course, we could not have a
• 16:49
  list of viral moments from 2024 without talking about some
• 16:53
  notable cancellations. While trad wives have yet to be
• 16:56
  cancelled on a major scale, a couple of influencers have been.
• 17:00
  Much like every other year year on the Internet.
• 17:03
  We can't get into all the scandals and cancellations that
• 17:06
  took place this year, but there have been three major ones.
• 17:09
  The 1st is Brooke Schofield. She faced significant backlash
• 17:13
  this year after past racist tweets resurfaced, a controversy
• 17:17
  that gained renewed traction given the growth of the
• 17:20
  cancelled podcast this year. While these tweets had
• 17:22
  circulated on Reddit in the past, the scale of criticism
• 17:25
  this time was unprecedented. In her initial response, days
• 17:29
  after they had started going viral, Brooke acknowledged the
• 17:32
  tweets were real. She went on to explain her
• 17:34
  upbringing, mentioning her grandparents, conservative
• 17:36
  beliefs, and how she absorbed those views as a teenager.
• 17:40
  The tearful video was widely criticized as tone deaf and
• 17:44
  lacking accountability. Many pointed out that for
• 17:47
  someone whose platform and podcast centers on dissecting
• 17:50
  online drama, her response fell short of the standard she holds
• 17:54
  others to. She did go on to post additional
• 17:56
  videos and make more comments, but public opinion remains
• 18:00
  divided, with many users questioning whether her response
• 18:04
  reflects genuine accountability or damage control, especially
• 18:08
  because she liked a picture of Donald Trump amid the
• 18:11
  controversy. Next, there was Cody Ko.
• 18:13
  He became embroiled in controversy earlier this year
• 18:16
  after Tanna Mojo made a claim during the cancelled podcast
• 18:20
  tour at the Sacramento stop on May 30th.
• 18:23
  A clip from the show went viral, in which Tanna was asked who had
• 18:26
  the smallest Dick she'd ever encountered.
• 18:29
  She responded by naming Cody Ko and then added that she can say
• 18:33
  that because she was 17 when they hooked up, implying a
• 18:37
  significant age gap as Cody would have been around 25 at the
• 18:40
  time. The allegations immediately
• 18:43
  sparked widespread backlash, putting pressure on Cody to
• 18:46
  respond. However, he remains silent in
• 18:49
  the weeks that followed, a decision that many criticized.
• 18:52
  Adding to the outrage, a video surfaced of Cody playing Justin
• 18:56
  Bieber's story during a DJ set shortly after the allegations.
• 19:00
  The cancellation has since quieted down, with speculation
• 19:03
  that legal proceedings may be preventing either party from
• 19:06
  commenting further. However, Cody has not directly
• 19:09
  addressed the claims publicly, leaving many questions
• 19:12
  unanswered. He did, however, issue a shared
• 19:15
  statement with Noel Miller. In the shared statement, they
• 19:18
  started by thanking the team and listeners for being patient, but
• 19:22
  the pair also announced that Cody would be taking a step back
• 19:25
  from TMG. Last but not least, we have Mr.
• 19:28
  Beast, AKA by Jimmy Donaldson. This year, Jimmy faced a series
• 19:33
  of allegations primarily related to his highly anticipated Amazon
• 19:37
  game show Beast Games and concerns about how the Mr. Beast
• 19:42
  workplace is managed. We first saw Jimmy's best friend
• 19:45
  and former Channel Co host Ava Tyson in the center of
• 19:48
  controversy. Around the middle of this year,
• 19:50
  Post began circulating online alleging that Ava had exchanged
• 19:54
  inappropriate messages with a user known as Lava GS, who was
• 19:58
  reportedly thirteen years old old at the time.
• 20:00
  Ava later took to Twitter to address the claims, apologizing
• 20:04
  for her previous behavior while also clarifying that she never
• 20:07
  groomed anyone. In her statement, she also
• 20:10
  announced her decision to step back from social media and all
• 20:14
  things Mr. Beast to focus on her mental health and to prevent
• 20:17
  allegations from impacting the company or its team.
• 20:20
  Jimmy also issued a post saying that he recently became aware of
• 20:24
  the allegations and is taking it seriously.
• 20:27
  He ultimately terminated Ava's role in the company.
• 20:30
  And hired investigators to look into the claims.
• 20:32
  The fan in question, Lava GS, later spoke out, stating he did
• 20:36
  not feel groomed by Ava. However, he acknowledged hearing
• 20:40
  other accounts from young fans and expressed that Jimmy's
• 20:43
  decision for Ava to step back was likely the right move.
• 20:47
  Then Mr. Beast was exposed for making racist and homophobic
• 20:50
  comments back in 2017. A spokesperson for Mr. Beast
• 20:54
  later told The Associated Press that quote when Jimmy was a
• 20:57
  teenager, he acted like many kids and used inappropriate
• 21:01
  language while trying to be funny.
• 21:03
  Amid all of this, Rosanna Pansino continued making content
• 21:07
  exposing Mr. Beast. Rosanna started testimonials
• 21:10
  from contestants during the filming of Jimmy's Amazon show,
• 21:13
  Beast Games. The stories coming out of the
• 21:16
  contestants claimed that they had been mistreated over the
• 21:18
  course of the competition. The New York Times later
• 21:21
  corroborated these claims, speaking with over a dozen
• 21:24
  contestants who described chronic neglect and harsh
• 21:27
  conditions. On September 16th, a class
• 21:30
  action lawsuit was filed against Mr. Beast and Amazon on behalf
• 21:34
  of five contestants. The lawsuit seeks class action
• 21:37
  status on behalf of all Beast game participants, alleging
• 21:41
  multiple causes of action related to the chronic
• 21:44
  mistreatment and neglect they endured.
• 21:46
  While the lawsuit and mistreatment allegations were
• 21:49
  the most significant aspect of Mr. Beast cancellation, Rosanna
• 21:53
  also shared additional offenses that added to the fallout.
• 21:56
  She posted screenshots from a Mr. Beast work chat blog
• 22:00
  highlighting inappropriate messages that raised concerns
• 22:03
  about workplace culture. Additionally, she shared a video
• 22:07
  revealing quality issues with Mr. Beast's snack kit brand
• 22:10
  Lunch Lee, including reports of mold found in the products.
• 22:14
  And the next viral moment of 2024 is Kendrick Lamar versus
• 22:19
  Drake. While Rosanna Pansino is
• 22:21
  constantly feuding with Mr. Beast, it doesn't compare to
• 22:24
  Kendrick Lamar and Drake's back and forth this year.
• 22:28
  After collaborating in the early 20 tens on projects like Drake's
• 22:31
  Take Care album and tracks like Poetic Justice and Fucking
• 22:35
  Problems, their relationship famously soured, leading to
• 22:38
  years of subtle shots at one another.
• 22:41
  This April though, Drake released push ups mocking
• 22:44
  Kendrick's height, followed by TaylorMade Freestyle on
• 22:47
  Instagram, taunting Kendrick for not responding.
• 22:51
  Kendrick finally came back on April 30th with the 6 Minute
• 22:54
  Euphoria, calling out Drake for his using the N word, critiquing
• 22:58
  his fashion, and questioning his hip hop credibility.
• 23:01
  The feud then escalated in May when Kendrick accused Drake's
• 23:05
  camp of leaking information in his song 616 in LA, which Drake
• 23:10
  responded with Family Matters, alleging Kendrick had been
• 23:13
  unfaithful to his fiance. Kendrick fired back with a song
• 23:17
  called Meet the Grams, accusing Drake of being a deadbeat father
• 23:21
  and hiding a secret daughter. Drake dismissed the claims on
• 23:24
  Instagram, jokingly asking someone to find my hidden
• 23:27
  daughter. Kendrick then released Not like
• 23:30
  us doubling down on claims of Drake's sexual misconduct.
• 23:34
  Perhaps the most heartbreaking news to shake pop culture this
• 23:37
  year was the death of Liam Payne.
• 23:40
  Liam passed away on October 16th after falling from a hotel
• 23:43
  balcony and Buenos Aires. An autopsy conducted that
• 23:47
  evening revealed he suffered multiple traumas with injuries
• 23:50
  consistent with falling from a significant height, including
• 23:53
  internal and external hemorrhaging.
• 23:55
  Authorities ruled out self harm or involvement from a third
• 23:59
  party, though 3 individuals have been arrested in connection with
• 24:03
  the incident. On November 6th, Liam's body was
• 24:06
  released to his family and flown back to the UK.
• 24:09
  His funeral took place on November 20th, with all his One
• 24:12
  Direction bandmates in attendance to pay their
• 24:15
  respects. The next viral moment that swept
• 24:18
  2024 was the rise of the Look Alike contest.
• 24:22
  In lighter news, the second-half of the year has seen the
• 24:25
  increasing popularity of look alike contests.
• 24:28
  It all started at the end of October when a Timothy Chalamet
• 24:31
  look alike contest was held in Washington Square Park in New
• 24:34
  York. It was organized by 23 year old
• 24:37
  YouTube Anthony Poe, where the event promised the winner a $50
• 24:41
  check made out to best him and a six foot tall trophy.
• 24:45
  To everyone's surprise, the real Timothy Chalamet dropped by
• 24:48
  shortly after, sending attendees and online viewers into shock.
• 24:53
  20 One year old Miles Mitchell, dressed in a purple Willy Wonka
• 24:57
  costume, ultimately won the look alike competition.
• 25:00
  The trend has since spread all over the world, with
• 25:03
  competitions for Harry Styles, Paul Mescal, Zayn Malik, Jeremy
• 25:07
  Allen White and others going viral.
• 25:10
  As for why Internet users are obsessed with these events and
• 25:13
  the content that comes out of them, Raven Smith for Vogue
• 25:16
  suggests that it reflects a broader cultural tendency to
• 25:19
  gravitate towards familiar content, preferring remakes,
• 25:22
  whether it's a film like Wicked or a look alike competition over
• 25:26
  new stories and experiences. There's also been a lot of
• 25:29
  discourse around why many of the most popular look alike
• 25:32
  competitions have been specifically for male
• 25:35
  celebrities. In a viral TikTok, a user named
• 25:38
  NIA argues that the popularity of these competitions and their
• 25:42
  focus on men stems from misogyny in society.
• 25:46
  It makes. A lot of sense that a trend
• 25:47
  would emerge in a secondary space that is a male pageant.
• 25:51
  It's a male pageant where young women who are often computed or
• 25:54
  criticized for liking pop culture and standing men get to
• 25:57
  point at random white men on stage and go Boo, you don't look
• 26:00
  like Harry Styles, like it's campy, it's subversive, and it's
• 26:02
  funny with. This she makes the point that
• 26:04
  these competitions are subversive and campy in a way
• 26:07
  that other events haven't tapped into, explaining why they're so
• 26:11
  popular. And for our final viral moment
• 26:15
  of 2024, it is none other than the Fully Conscious Baby.
• 26:20
  Fully Conscious Baby, whose real name is Kate, went viral in a
• 26:23
  Tick Talk clip that showed her seemingly to be extremely self
• 26:27
  aware. Her aunt Stephanie O'Brien
• 26:29
  posted a video which quickly racked up millions of views.
• 26:33
  In the clip, Kate is asked who wants to go to The Four Seasons
• 26:37
  Orlando, to which she confidently responds me while
• 26:41
  pointing her finger. I have a question for everybody
• 26:45
  who wants to go to The Four Seasons.
• 26:47
  Orlando viewers dubbed her the Fully Conscious Baby, and memes
• 26:53
  quickly spread. In an interview with Rolling
• 26:55
  Stone, her mother clarified that Kate isn't actually fully
• 26:58
  conscious at 13 months, she just happens to say yes and no
• 27:03
  occasionally. The family ended up working with
• 27:05
  The Four Seasons Orlando, and this instance was a strong
• 27:08
  example of how powerful accidental virality can actually
• 27:13
  be. Overall, while there were some
• 27:15
  parts of 2024 that we would all rather forget, there were also
• 27:20
  plenty of iconic moments. And as Internet culture
• 27:23
  continues to merge with the mainstream, 2025 is bound to
• 27:27
  deliver even more iconic cultural moments.
• 27:30
  Though we can definitely skip another round of Mr. Beast
• 27:34
  exposes. Infinite Scroll is a podcast
• 27:37
  produced, presented and Co written by me, Lauren Meisner
• 27:40
  for Centennial World. This episode was researched and
• 27:43
  written by Annabelle Ben David. Editing is also by me.
• 27:48
  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys and I will talk
• 27:50
  to you next week. Bye.