My adolescence can be bookmarked with internet and pop culture tomfoolery. Puberty began with Potter Puppet Pals: The Mysterious Ticking Noise (grade 6, 2007) and ended with the Harlem Shake (grade 12, 2013).
Maybe that’s why I’ve (somehow) made a career out of knowing the lore of 2010s memes and am the go-to pop culture analyst in about five different group chats. A truly underappreciated job, might I add.
1. Ice jogger
Starting with a YouTube classic, we have this ice jogger absolutely eating it on live TV. I’m not usually one for humour in which people get hurt (I was the child who cried over Dumbo and covered my eyes whilst watching Australia’s Funniest Home Videos), but it’s the hubris of the jogger that ensures this video never gets old.
2. That’s not true, Ellen
Ah, the beginning of the downfall of Ellen. Screw the pandemic. Dakota Johnson politely putting Ellen in her place in November 2019 marked the start of the 2020s for me. It felt like the beginning of a new era of celebrity, and a reminder to 23-year-old me that you can gracefully stand up for yourself without coming across as mean.
3. Fenton!
Twelve years ago, a labrador named Fenton chased some deer through Richmond Park. Someone grainily filmed it and my friend showed it to me about 10 years ago – tears literally streaming down his face. Now, my family and I quote it constantly.
4. Delaney Rowe’s whole TikTok account
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The way she’s able to character-act the most specific stereotypes is scary. You cringe while simultaneously not being able to look away.
5. David Guetta ends racism
2020 feels like a fever dream now, but it also felt like one when we were in the middle of it. Martin Luther King fading into Hampsterdance is truly unhinged.
6. Meteor/ meatier
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While we’re on the year 2020, this sketch by Eliza Petersen started my obsession with the app. It’s late 2020, our minds are mush and Eliza comes in with a simple play on words that made me (and 22 million other people) cry with laughter. It’s the zoom-in and welling eyes. It’s even funnier when you learn she’s actually a paleontologist.
7. Shawn Mendes calling Joe Alwyn a villain
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I have to include a video of Shawn Mendes. My personal favourite is him getting caught out for lying about Joe Alwyn looking like a “sweet guy”. The awkward fumbling – “I struggle with eyes that blue” – and the immediate regret that Taylor Swift’s people are going to kidnap him in the middle of the night. Iconic.
8. Straights versus gays on Saltburn
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The movie of spring/summer 2023 had to be Saltburn – and the reactions to the bath and grave scenes has to be funnier than the film itself. C’mon, guys, sit UP.
9. I’m just a winner
A recent contribution to the pop culture zeitgeist is Ryan Gosling’s bewilderment over I’m Just Ken winning best song at the Critics Choice awards. It’s a strong addition to the portfolio of Ryan Gosling’s gifs.
10. A sign of the times
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Brittany Broski just gets it. *Inhales on an invisible cigarette*
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Jasmine Wallis is a writer, editor and a co-host of the pop culture podcast Culture Club. You can find her on Instagram
