From JLo's iconic dress to Barbenheimer, join us as we revisit the most memorable viral sensations that defined each year since 2000! Whether it was a meme, a social movement, or an unexpected cultural phenomenon, these moments captured our collective attention and shaped internet history. Which one do you remember most vividly?
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at some of the most popular trending moments,
00:09videos, and things from each year of the 21st century to this point.
00:18At the 42nd Grammy Awards in February of this year,
00:23Jennifer Lopez wore a now iconic green Versace dress with a plunging neckline.
00:27The dress, and Lopez wearing it, immediately became an overnight sensation.
00:31Well, Jennifer, this is the first time in five or six years that I'm sure that nobody is looking at me.
00:38And while traditional media outlets, like entertainment shows and fashion magazines,
00:43naturally featured it heavily, it arguably had the biggest impact online.
00:47Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt cites this dress and the massive number of searches for it
00:51as the reason for the creation of Google's image search function.
00:54And who says the internet's collective thirst never drove innovation?
00:58As legend would have it, Google Images was born as a result.
01:012001. All your base are belong to us.
01:04How are you, gentlemen? All your base are belong to us.
01:09Poor video game translations have led to many memes over the years,
01:13but all of them pale in comparison to the popularity of this one.
01:16The European release of the Japanese shooter Zero Wing was given a terrible English translation,
01:21with lines like, all your base are belong to us, for great justice,
01:25or you have no chance to survive, make your time.
01:28While versions of the meme predated 2001,
01:31it was in this year that a music video remixing the game's awkward dialogue
01:35into a surprisingly catchy tune was released on Newgrounds.
01:38All your base, base, base, base, all your base are belong to us.
01:44This helped the meme spread like wildfire,
01:46and had people online and in real life quoting it,
01:50turning it into t-shirts, or otherwise ensuring that all your memes are belong to us.
01:55If you have no chance to survive, make your time.
01:572002. Michael Jackson on the Balcony.
02:00The King of Pop made headlines for years,
02:02but this particular incident had everyone up in arms.
02:05In November of 2002, Michael Jackson dangled his infant son,
02:09Prince Michael Jackson II, nicknamed Blanket,
02:12over the balcony of his Berlin hotel room.
02:14While Jackson apologized soon after for his actions,
02:16his cavalier endangerment of his baby still got tongues wagging everywhere,
02:20and gave tabloids plenty of material.
02:23Even years afterwards, the moment has been parodied and referenced extensively.
02:27A little, uh, little dangerous, I think.
02:29That's enough. That's enough.
02:31Michael Jackson's erratic and often controversial behavior
02:33was the subject of much discussion throughout the final years of his life,
02:37but this singular moment epitomizes all the others.
02:402003. Star Wars Kid.
02:42As tempted as we were to discuss the absurdist brilliance of the Badger, Badger, Badger song,
02:47this viral video eclipsed even that.
02:49Originally filmed in 2002, this video depicts Canadian teenager Ghislaine Raza
02:58as he spins a golf ball retriever in imitation of Darth Maul from Star Wars.
03:02The video was found by some of Raza's classmates,
03:05who uploaded it to the internet, after which it went viral.
03:08Edits of the video featuring Star Wars music and or lightsaber effects were common parodies.
03:20While Raza unfortunately received abuse as a result of his unwanted fame,
03:24he has overcome it in his successful career as a lawyer and public speaker.
03:28Also, the guy's an icon of internet history.
03:30I'm not convinced more attention was the right remedy.
03:352004, Nipplegate.
03:37Super Bowl halftime shows always make a splash, but this one was a veritable tsunami.
03:42During this halftime show, Janet Jackson performed alongside Justin Timberlake.
03:48While dancing, Timberlake, who had only been informed of changes to the choreography
03:5220 minutes before the show began, accidentally exposed Jackson's nipple.
03:56The fact that the nipple was itself covered in a nipple shield and exposed for less than a second
04:01did little to quell the ensuing controversy over the wardrobe malfunction.
04:06Widespread discussion over censorship and broadcasting followed.
04:09Not only is it sort of a crass and sophomoric demonstration, it may be an illegal one.
04:15The incident also helped make the moment the most searched for term in internet history until that point.
04:20YouTube's co-founders have also claimed that the incident's lack of availability
04:23helped spur the creation of the video sharing site as well.
04:26Do you think people were too hard on you?
04:32I think they were.
04:33I think they did put all the emphasis on me.
04:372005, Tom Cruise jumps the couch.
04:39This year marked several notable viral moments.
04:42Lazy Sunday becoming the first YouTube viral sensation was a tempting alternative,
04:46but traditional media still reigned supreme in 2005.
04:49In May, Tom Cruise appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, ostensibly to promote a movie.
04:59However, all anyone can remember is Cruise jumping on the couch to declare his love for Katie Holmes.
05:04We've never seen you behave this way before.
05:07I know.
05:07Have you ever felt this way before?
05:11Cruise's actions raised plenty of eyebrows, with some of the words used to describe the moment
05:15including, quote, manic, quote, unhinged, or, quote, performative.
05:20The incident also received widespread mockery and parodies.
05:23This, along with Cruise's outspoken interviews on Scientology the same year,
05:27only fueled discussions of the star's odd behavior.
05:29I've never seen you like that!
05:34I've never seen that!
05:35I know!
05:362006, the evolution of dance.
05:42Early YouTube was a beautiful thing.
05:44It didn't take polish to trend, merely a cool idea executed well.
05:48This video is of a stage performance by motivational speaker Judson Leipley.
05:52In it, Leipley performs various dance moves accompanied by music,
05:56depicting the evolution of popular dances over the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
06:05Leipley's enthusiasm is contagious,
06:08and the nostalgia for each dance is equally infectious even today.
06:11The video quickly became YouTube's most viewed video,
06:14a title it reclaimed several times
06:16until it finally had to say bye-bye-bye to the throne in 2009.
06:242007, Charlie Bit My Finger.
06:27YouTube had many viral hits this year,
06:29and although the famed plea to leave Britney alone also made waves,
06:33our pick goes to something far more adorable.
06:35In the video, young siblings Harry and Charlie Davis-Karr play on a chair.
06:40Charlie bit me!
06:41Harry puts his finger in Charlie's mouth,
06:43and while he laughs at his infant brother biting him,
06:46he is surprised when it starts to hurt.
06:48Charlie!
06:49That really hurt!
06:51The cute kids and several hilarious quotes throughout the video
06:54quickly helped it become the highest viewed video on YouTube.
06:58Harry may have been in a world of hurt,
07:00but he and Charlie had the whole world's attention.
07:02And that really hurt, Charlie, and it's still at her time.
07:072008, Rickrolling.
07:09We've all been there.
07:10You click on a link or a video,
07:12and instead of what you were looking for,
07:13you see Rick Astley singing in that now-iconic music video
07:16for Never Gonna Give You Up.
07:22The practice of bait-and-switch pranks online predates the Rickroll,
07:26and even Rickrolling itself goes back to 2007.
07:29Yet it was in 2008, with its spread to YouTube,
07:31that the prank truly went viral.
07:41One survey that year suggested that as many as 18 million people
07:44had been Rickrolled.
07:46In the years since,
07:47Rickrolling has cemented itself as an indelible part of internet culture,
07:50to the point where all of us are no strangers to love.
07:53You know the rules, and so do I.
07:55Why is it so catchy?
07:56Never gonna make you cry.
07:58Never gonna say goodbye.
08:01Never gonna tell you why.
08:03And pray to you.
08:052009, Susan Boyle's debut.
08:07If you want to consider David after Dentist the biggest viral video of the year,
08:11we wouldn't blame you.
08:12Is this real life?
08:14But even so, there's just something magic about this moment.
08:17On the premiere of the third season of Britain's Got Talent,
08:20the judges and the audience were not expecting much from Susan Boyle when she came on stage.
08:24Her unassuming appearance isn't what most people associate with her chosen talent,
08:28singing.
08:28I dreamed a dream in time gone by.
08:34But Boyle proved all the doubters wrong
08:37almost from the second she began belting out I dreamed a dream from Les Misérables.
08:41Her stunning voice had everyone cheering,
08:43whether they saw her perform live or not.
08:45Our life has killed a dream.
08:48I dreamed.
08:50Boyle's inspirational performance catapulted her to stardom
08:58and ensured that several of her eventual albums debuted at number one.
09:02Susan, I knew the minute you walked out.
09:06Oh, Simon!
09:082010, Double Rainbow.
09:10Sometimes the simple pleasures in life are the best ones.
09:13In January 2010, Paul Bear Vasquez spotted a pair of rainbows
09:17outside his house near Yosemite National Park in California.
09:20Double rainbow.
09:21Oh my god.
09:23It's a double rainbow all the way.
09:25Vasquez filmed the moment and spent nearly three minutes
09:28simply gushing over nature's beauty.
09:30His descriptions of the double rainbow as full-on and all the way
09:33were immediately iconic and helped fuel song parodies and other memes.
09:37Oh my god, it's full-on.
09:40Double rainbow all the way across the sky.
09:45Double rainbow is arguably the swan song of classic YouTube,
09:48with one man's unvarnished joy making all of us happier too.
09:52Rest in rainbows, Bear.
09:54Oh my god.
09:56It's so intense.
09:582011, Friday.
09:59This was a year for annoying earworm songs.
10:03As much as we love, or love to hate, Nyan Cat and its endlessly looping adorableness,
10:07Friday simply blew up more.
10:097 a.m. waking up in the morning, gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs.
10:13Lots of teenagers hope their songs will make them famous,
10:16but Rebecca Black's Friday achieved infamy and plenty of mockery.
10:20And given how easy a target the song is,
10:22we can hardly blame the internet.
10:24It's Friday, Friday.
10:27Gotta get down on Friday.
10:29Everybody's looking forward to the weekend, weekend.
10:32Heavy auto-tune, nonsensical lyrics that essentially narrate someone's day,
10:37and a baffling music video all ensured Friday became the subject of parodies,
10:41dubs, and memes alike.
10:42While few would call Friday good,
10:45it certainly made an impact.
10:46Friday, Friday.
10:49Getting down on Friday.
10:51Everybody's looking forward to the weekend.
10:552012, Gangnam Style.
10:57Trending videos are one thing,
10:59but Gangnam Style was a veritable cultural phenomenon.
11:01Sae's genre-mixing K-pop song had all the ingredients for a viral hit.
11:08An incredibly entertaining music video,
11:10simple yet fun dance moves,
11:12and an infectiously catchy beat.
11:14It's no wonder it became the first YouTube video to hit a billion views.
11:17A figure it has since more than quintupled, by the way.
11:25It was absolutely impossible to avoid Gangnam Style that year,
11:30with Sae appearing on talk shows across the world,
11:33the song getting played practically everywhere,
11:35people dressing up like Sae for Halloween,
11:37and tributes and parody videos getting uploaded frequently.
11:40It certainly didn't hurt that practically every frame of the music video was meme-worthy.
11:44It is a viral gold standard.
11:472013, Harlem Shake.
11:56We almost chose Sweet Brown's famous description of a fire,
11:59but ain't nobody got time for that, including us.
12:02Ain't nobody got time for that.
12:03Instead, we're going with this explosively popular dance video trend.
12:07Originally started by Filthy Frank,
12:09the meme involves people dancing to the song Harlem Shake by DJ Bauer.
12:13After the bass drops,
12:14the dancers danced significantly wilder and more chaotically.
12:21The simple how it started, how it's going premise,
12:24and the ease of executing it
12:25helped spawn a truly amazing number of imitators.
12:28Like thousands of Harlem Shake videos
12:30were getting uploaded on YouTube daily.
12:352014, Ice Bucket Challenge.
12:38Once in a blue moon,
12:39a meme can help make the world a better place.
12:41To spread awareness of ALS,
12:49aka motor neuron disease or Lou Gehrig's disease,
12:52participants are challenged to either dump a bucket of ice water over themselves
12:55and or give money to charities for the affliction.
12:58If fairs and carnivals have taught us anything,
13:00it's that watching someone get immersed in water is very entertaining.
13:03And this combined that phenomenon with a good cause to go viral.
13:06The pass-it-on nature of the challenge,
13:17as well as several celebrity participants,
13:19helped ensure that it spread everywhere,
13:21much like all that ice water.
13:222015, The Dress.
13:28We don't even have to qualify which dress we're talking about.
13:31You know the one.
13:32A Tumblr user originally posted a photo of a certain distinctive dress,
13:35sparking debate on what its colors are.
13:38White or gold or black and blue?
13:39I swear, damn on my mom's life, I saw white and gold.
13:43The debate set the internet ablaze,
13:45with camps forming to defend each.
13:47The actual color of the dress is in fact black and blue.
13:50However, the lighting makes it appear white and gold to some people,
13:54a majority of them according to some polls.
13:56This is the must-have dress of the moment.
13:59See?
13:59My eyes work just fine.
14:00The picture sparked not only memes,
14:03but also scientific research into the way humans perceive color.
14:07Um, I definitely see blue and black, so...
14:102016, Pokemon Go.
14:12Mobile games have all had their day in the sun,
14:15but few have burned quite as brightly as Pokemon Go.
14:17The concept of finding Pokemon in real life
14:29appealed to generations of fans around the globe.
14:32The game's app easily became one of the most popular ever,
14:35and saw gamers and netizens brave the great outdoors
14:38in search of their favorite Pokemon.
14:39And sure, the many incidents involving overzealous would-be Pokemon trainers
14:43certainly caused a stir,
14:44and Hillary Clinton's contribution still makes us cringe.
14:46But I'm trying to figure out how we get them to have Pokemon go to the polls.
14:52But at the end of the day, it got us exercising and led to plenty of memes,
14:56particularly with some of the strange locations the Pokemon could be found.
15:00Don't let Officer Minello and his new partner catch you,
15:03don't catch them all, and drive.
15:052017, Me Too.
15:07While it was actually started in the 2000s by activist Tarana Burke,
15:10the Me Too movement exploded in 2017.
15:13The Me Too hashtag was started on Twitter by Alyssa Milano.
15:16To turn the public eye towards the pervasive issue of sexual harassment and assault.
15:20I just think that it's something that is so, so prevalent.
15:24It is a cultural issue that I think that we have to face.
15:29Many women in the entertainment industry came forward,
15:31with several high-profile abusers being exposed and effectively blacklisted.
15:35But social media truly hammered home just how omnipresent these crimes are,
15:39with so many of us knowing someone or being someone who used the hashtag.
15:43Millions of women across the country and around the world sharing their experience with sexual harassment and abuse online.
15:50The Me Too movement opened the world's eyes to the issue in a way few things had before,
15:54and our eyes can never be shut again.
15:56Please don't sentence me to life in prison, he told the court.
16:002018, Yanny or Laurel?
16:02The Tide Pod Challenge was in the running this year,
16:05but ultimately, we considered this viral moment both more popular and more healthy.
16:10After the dress, we all thought we were done with divisive perception-based disagreements over trivial things,
16:15but then we heard the sound.
16:17Some people hear Yanny, others hear Laurel.
16:22Well, both groups are right this time.
16:23The audio contains both sets of sounds,
16:26but people who hear the higher-pitched portion tend to hear Yanny,
16:29while those who hear the lower-pitched sounds hear Laurel.
16:31And since younger people tend to hear higher-pitched sounds,
16:34the phenomenon also acts as yet another way to remind us that we're old.
16:38Yesterday I heard Yanny, then I heard Laurel.
16:42Now today I hear Yanny, I think TJ's messing with the wave.
16:452019, Baby Yoda.
16:47As hilariously disastrous as the Storm Area 51 event was,
16:52it paled in comparison to a fictional alien child.
16:55The Mandalorian proved an overnight sensation,
16:57not only for its solid space-western storytelling and great look,
17:00but also because of Grogu,
17:02or, as the internet knew him initially, Baby Yoda.
17:10We doubt Disney was prepared for the little tyke's meteoric popularity,
17:14but lack of merchandise at first certainly suggests a lack of foresight.
17:18Regardless, Baby Yoda was inescapable in 2019.
17:27His ugly, cute design struck a chord with Star Wars fans and non-fans alike,
17:32with his every adorable action making us say,
17:34aww, when we weren't creating memes about him at least.
17:37I told you that was a bad idea.
17:462020, Among Us.
17:48The year that began the COVID-19 pandemic in earnest
17:51saw a few odd viral moments,
17:53given that quarantine kept most of us isolated.
17:55Although Tiger King proved strangely compelling,
17:58it was a video game that trended harder.
18:00I am never gonna financially recover from this.
18:03Among Us sees various space beings have to complete tasks,
18:06while two of them are actually imposters trying to kill the rest.
18:14Originally released in 2018,
18:16Among Us didn't truly take off until 2020,
18:19when its brand of social deduction
18:20offered a more conversational way to reconnect during isolation.
18:23Streamers made it huge,
18:25to the point where non-gamers and politicians joined in.
18:28Among Us also spawned tons of memes,
18:31is due for an animated adaptation,
18:32and helped slang like sus enter the public lexicon.
18:392021, GameStop Short Squeeze.
18:41While Bernie Sanders and his mittens, of all things,
18:43nearly clinched it this year,
18:45our pick goes to that time Redditors created a meme
18:47to put the squeeze on hedge funds.
18:49Some folks on Reddit noticed that GameStop's stock value
18:51was being undervalued,
18:52and hedge funds were promising to buy more stocks than existed.
18:55There was a lot of buzz around GameStop already
18:57on the WallStreetBets forum,
18:59and people were talking about how it's trading it less than it was worth.
19:01By buying more GameStop stock and memeing about it,
19:04they drove up the price of the stock,
19:06made a killing,
19:07sent the stock market into a tizzy,
19:09and forced those hedge funds to buy at hugely inflated prices.
19:12As the hours went by, you said,
19:14this is becoming a big story,
19:15this will be front-page news,
19:17and sure enough, the following week, every day, it was.
19:20Oh, and it was a full-on congressional investigation,
19:23and a movie made about it.
19:24That stonks for you.
19:252022, The Oscar Slap.
19:27This was a crazy year for trending moments.
19:29We could have gone with the Depp v. Heard trial,
19:31or Wednesday's viral dance scene.
19:36But no single moment trended quite like this one.
19:39At the Oscars,
19:40presenter Chris Rock cracked a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith.
19:43Soon afterwards,
19:44her husband Will Smith walked up on stage,
19:46and slapped Rock across the face.
19:48Once everyone shook off their disbelief
19:50that the incident actually occurred,
19:52the internet exploded with discussion about it.
19:54Was it staged?
19:55Toxic masculinity run amok?
19:56Memes replacing both of them with famous people or characters,
20:00and remixes of Smith's tirade were abundant too.
20:02Can you imagine going back in time to the 90s
20:04and telling someone about this?
20:06They wouldn't believe you.
20:07So I will say to you,
20:09Chris,
20:12I apologize to you.
20:162023, Barbenheimer.
20:18Two wildly different releases happening on the same day
20:21has led to things going viral before,
20:23but they all bow to the majesty of Barbenheimer.
20:26Dubbed Barbenheimer.
20:27It's a way to resist pitting the two big releases against each other
20:30and instead combine their forces.
20:32The films Barbie and Oppenheimer
20:34were both set to release on July 21st, 2023.
20:37When the internet realized this,
20:39memes naturally ensued.
20:41The two clashing tones led to some fun mashups
20:43of everything from artwork to differently shaded trailers.
20:46These guys just saw Barbie.
20:48Now it's time for Oppenheimer.
20:49Rather than compete against each other,
20:51the Barbenheimer phenomenon instead
20:52helps celebrate them both as a kind of bizarre double feature.
20:55And it certainly paid off,
20:57with both doing great numbers at the box office
20:59and during awards season.
21:00I knew this day was coming,
21:02so when I started working this summer,
21:03I made sure I had this day booked off on my calendar
21:05for months and months in advance.
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21:232024.
21:24Mudang.
21:25Baby animals are always making the rounds on social media,
21:28but this year,
21:28one wiggled her way to the top.
21:30Cute, moist, and unbothered.
21:33In September of 2024,
21:35images and videos of a baby pygmy hippopotamus
21:37named Mudang from a Thai zoo went viral everywhere.
21:41Mudang, whose name means bouncing pork,
21:43is an adorable chunky baby, sure.
21:45But her expressions,
21:46particularly when distressed
21:48from getting sprayed with water
21:49or getting picked up,
21:50made her even more popular.
21:51Safe to say,
21:52the world went wild
21:54for the sassy, slippery baby
21:56whose name means bouncing pig or pork patty.
22:00Fan art and other memes followed,
22:01and visits to the zoo increased rapidly.
22:04Mudang even has a cryptocurrency named after her.
22:06That's how you know a meme animal
22:08has made it into the Hall of Fame.
22:10Just a little girl,
22:11still new to the world,
22:12and unaware of how much it adores her.
22:15Is there a viral moment
22:16you think should have been our top pick
22:18for one of these years?
22:19Write on down to the comments
22:20to share your choices.
22:21Blue tick, blue tick, blue tick, blue tick,
22:24who knows what you're doing?
22:25They are very sick.