The biggest viral moments of 2024

Last year gave us such viral sensations as "Barbenheimer", the Gwyneth Paltrow ski trial, and Ariana DeBose's Bafta earworm (we were humming "Angela Bassett did the thing" for weeks). So what were the meme-able moments that brought the internet together in 2024?

Wonka-shambles

Yes, that was this year. Attendees forked out up to £35 per ticket for "Willy's Chocolate Experience", an immersive experience in Glasgow supposedly inspired by – although, for legal reasons, not explicitly connected to – the magical world of Roald Dahl's eccentric chocolatier. Instead, they got a barely decorated warehouse, staffed by actors who didn't seem to know why they were there either. Rather than being showered with sweets, children attending the event were rationed out two jelly beans and a quarter-cup of lemonade.

L'affaire Wonka is also a cautionary tale about the rise of AI imagery in marketing. Ads for the event depicted a colourful candyland, all generated with the click of a button – one poster even included telltale AI "gibberish", such as the promise of "exarserdray lollipops". Still, it was a great day to be on the internet, as social media turned surreal characters like "The Unknown" and the "sad Oompa Loompa" into fleeting viral stars. The camp chaos inspired an Edinburgh Fringe show and a recreation of the event in Los Angeles.

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Raygun

Even those with zero interest in sport could find plenty to enjoy at this summer's Paris Olympics, starting with an opening ceremony that gave us the unforgettable spectacle of Celine Dion belting out Edith Piaf from the Eiffel Tower.

The Games themselves were rife with viral superstars – have we already forgotten Team Norway's "Muffin Man"? – but none more instantly infamous than Sydney's own Rachael "Raygun" Gunn. The then 36-year-old breakdancer became the indisputable sensation of Paris 2024 with a memorably quirky routine that included an all-too-brief imitation of a kangaroo.

As well as entertaining millions around the world, Gunn's routine also made her a target for critics, with some insinuating she had exerted influence over the selection process to be chosen as the country's representative. In November, she announced her retirement from competitive breakdancing – but said she would continue to dance for pleasure.

Kendrick vs. Drake

Not so much a viral moment as a prolonged viral evisceration, the feud between Canadian pop rapper Drake and Compton wordsmith Kendrick Lamar kicked off in March when Lamar took swipes at his rival in a guest verse on Future's "Like That". The verbal glove slap unleashed a back-and-forth war of words via diss track, which, in retrospect, was never going to go Drake's way – Lamar, after all, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning lyricist. The feud reached its apogee in May with the release of Lamar's "Not Like Us", a musical hatchet job with a hypnotic hook that turned it into the song of the summer. It even managed to unite Bloods and Crips.

Having been pretty much unanimously declared the loser of the verbal ballyhoo, Drake has since taken the feud down a different avenue – accusing record label Universal Music of illicitly boosting the track on streaming services and radio.

'They're eating the dogs!'

In an electoral campaign characterised by Donald Trump's bizarre asides, one in particular broke through the noise. During Trump's only head-to-head TV debate with Kamala Harris, in September, the Republican nominee repeated online claims that Haitian immigrants in the town of Springfield, Ohio, were stealing, killing and eating family pets. "They're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats," he said in his idiosyncratic Queens-tinged drawl. "They're eating the pets of the people that live there." It became an instant meme and even got multiple dance remixes.

But what about the animals? Was Springfield's canine population actually under threat? Unsurprisingly, the answer appears to be no. The outlandish claims were based on a handful of unsubstantiated rumours and misattributed video clips, and Springfield's city officials confirmed there had been no verified reports of pets being eaten.

Moo Deng

A baby pygmy hippo at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in southern Thailand who shot to viral stardom in September by being… well, very cute. Moo Deng means "bouncy pig", and her playful antics certainly live up to the name, turning her into a kind of mascot for social media.

The sudden surge of global attention saw visitors flock to the zoo, whose gift shop was quickly overflowing with Moo Deng merch, soon followed by the sort of backlash that at this point feels almost de rigueur for any viral sensation. The zoo was forced to defend itself after animal rights groups condemned Moo Deng's stardom as glorifying the practice of breeding animals into a "lifetime of confinement".

Still, it's a better fate than that which befell the internet's other favourite animal of 2024 – Peanut, the Instagram-famous squirrel unceremoniously euthanised by the state of New York after biting an officer investigating allegations Peanut's owner was keeping wildlife without a licence.