The biggest pop culture moments of 2022

It’s been quite the year, hasn’t it? Somehow, over course of the last 12 months, the UK population has borne witness to the fall of both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, Queen Elizabeth II’s death, King Charles’ ascension to the throne, Elon Musk’s chaotic purchase of Twitter, Jack Grealish mistaking sliced bread for sliced veg, and countless other seismic historical events. 

Despite 2022’s shakier times, popular culture has grabbed the headlines with some big moments. The England team finally brought it home when the women’s football team, the Lionesses, beat Germany in the Euros, Love Island gave us all the drama, and Central Cee released his strange serenade to Doja Cat. 

But what were the biggest pop culture moments of 2022? What are the moments which really define this chaotic, cursed year? Some are funny, some are just shocking – but little or large, we think they’ve fundamentally altered our brain chemistry forever.

FUCKING WORDLE

Your friends were playing it. Your family was playing it. You were playing it. For the first few weeks of the year, the world was gripped by those annoying five letters, especially as everyone posted their results on social media. That was until the New York Times bought it, and people gave up because they were convinced that the puzzle got harder, even though it didn’t. I’m glad we could collectively say ADIEU to that boring, brief period of 2022.

LOUIS THEROUX’S RAP

Amelia Dimoldenburg has had many hilarious interviews on her Chicken Shop Date show, but her episode with Louis Theroux ended up being one of the biggest cultural moments of 2022.

@julseyhiphop #LouisTheroux rapping on #ChickenShopDate 😂 FOLLOW for more #HipHop and #Rap vids‼️ Via: @chickenshopdate #julseyhiphop #raptok #fyp #trending ♬ original sound - Julsey

Dimoldenburg asked Theroux if he remembered any of the raps he wrote in the noughties, prompting him to serenade her with a catchy song that included the lines “my money don’t jiggle jiggle, it folds.” Then, a TikTok remix of the rap became a viral dance, and then somehow we got to a point where Shakira performed it on the Tonight Show and Snoop Dogg, Rita Ora and Megan Thee Stallion all danced to it on their social media.

THAT WOMAN WHO WANTED TO BE VLADIMIR PUTIN’S MOTHER

One of the most shocking events of 2022 was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Naturally, many prominent groups and individuals voiced their outrage at the news and support for Ukrainians. What the world didn’t need, however, was AnnaLynne McCord’s poem titled “Dear Mister President Vladimir Putin…” in which she claims that if she had been his mother, she would have loved him and as a result he wouldn’t have felt the need to invade Ukraine. You have to watch the video to see how cursed it really was.

WILL SMITH SLAPPING CHRIS ROCK AT THE OSCARS

This was a moment absolutely no one expected at the Oscars. In March, Will Smith walked onstage and slapped Chris Rock for making a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith. Essentially, Rock quipped that Pinkett-Smith looked like ‘GI Jane’, which prompted Smith to leap out of his seat in anger (Pinkett-Smith has alopecia – an autoimmune condition which causes hair loss). After walking back to his seat, Smith shouted “keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth” at Rock. As a consequence, Smith was banned from the Oscars and other Academy events for ten years, but many stood by the actor, saying he acted to protect his wife’s feelings.

THE INSANITY OF THE DEPP V HEARD TRIAL

The Depp v Heard trial is a more harrowing story to come out of this year. After three years of suing his ex-wife Amber Heard for defamation over an opinion piece she wrote for the Washington Post, the trial finally took place this spring – and as Eloise Hendy put it, “opened a portal to hell”. Every day, videos of the trial would flood social media timelines, with increasingly unhinged takes being shared online that muddied narratives. One thing was clear though – none of the discourse that emerged served any victims or survivors of abuse well at all. 

KIM K SQUEEZING INTO THAT TEENY TINY MARILYN MONROE DRESS

This was not the first time the middle Kardashian sister tried making herself smaller to fit a dress – who can forget the dripped diamond Mugler dress fiasco? This year though, she decided to wear an original Marilyn Monroe dress to the Met Gala. The dress, which Monroe famously wore to sing “Happy Birthday” to John F Kennedy, didn’t initially fit Kim, so she had to go to extreme lengths to squeeze into it. Regardless, the dress still got damaged, with its fabric torn and some of its crystals missing, prompting an outcry from fashion historians.

EKIN-SU AND DAVIDE’S LOVE ISLAND REUNION

This year’s Love Island was one of the most memorable yet. Who can forget when Andrew told Tasha that he sucked Coco’s “tit or whatever” or Danica twerking as she left the villa? But the story arc that had us all by the throat was Ekin-Su and Davide’s reunion.

The pair were initially coupled up, until Ekin-Su’s eye wandered over to Jay’s bulging six-pack and Davide’s heart was broken. He infamously called Ekin a liar and an actress. Those were dark weeks. But then Ekin-Su eventually realised that she still liked Davide, and did her best to win him back. It was looking unlikely, but the Ekin-Su and Davide truthers believed in the impossible. Somehow, the couple worked on their issues and eventually won the competition. Now they’re out in the real world, travelling to influencer hotspots and striking up sponsorship deals with the likes of Knorr and Google. The dream!

BEYONCE’S RENAISSANCE

It had been years since Beyoncé released an album and boy, Renaissance did not disappoint. Not only was it a celebration of music legends past, but also an incredible collaboration with living artists. Positive reviews came flooding in, calling it a “maximalist tour de force” (which it was!) and “BREAK MY SOUL” became the soundtrack of the summer, featuring in almost every club mix. 

TRISHA PAYTAS HAVING TO CLEAR UP THAT THEY DID NOT GIVE BIRTH TO QUEEN ELIZABETH II

It was pure coincidence that when Queen Elizabeth II passed away aged 96, controversial social media star Trisha Paytas was about to give birth. However, this didn’t stop the conspiracy theory that Paytas was in fact reincarnating the Queen. They had to make a video to clear up that they did not give birth to the Queen of England and that they didn’t name their baby Elizabeth. “Ultimately, I was sad for my baby, too – my baby’s not even born and she’s this joke of the internet,” they said in the video. “Please be kind to my baby, she deserves love and respect.” Which explains why Paytas then named their baby ‘Malibu Barbie’.

@trishlikefish88

♬ original sound - trishapaytas

ALL THE DON’T WORRY DARLING DRAMA 

Never has a film experienced so much trouble before being released. It was the disastrous Venice Film Festival premiere that got everyone talking. Firstly, Florence Pugh did not attend the film’s press day amid rumours of a feud with Olivia Wilde, the director of the film. Then when Pugh showed up for the red carpet, she refused to make eye contact with Wilde during a four-minute standing ovation for the film. However, it was a clip of Harry Styles and Chris Pine that went viral, where it appeared as though Styles was spitting on Pine. Though both denied it, Styles later joked about it at a concert, saying that he had “just popped very quickly to Venice to spit on Chris Pine.”

@popbase The internet believe that #harrystyles spit on #chrispine at the #dontworrydarling premiere. #venezia79 #venicefilmfestival #fyp #foryou #popculture #film ♬ original sound - Pop Base

ADAM LEVINE’S AWFUL SEXTING

We’ve all sent those horny 3am texts that make us cringe in the morning, but unlike Adam Levine, we’ve probably not been worried that the messages would leak to millions of people. In September, Instagram model Sumner Stroh posted a video on TikTok saying she had a year long affair with him and posted (alleged) private messages between the two. One of them read “I may need to see the booty.” Levine has completely denied the affair and made an apology for speaking to anyone but his wife in a “flirtatious manner”. Lol.

THE TRY GUYS’ SCANDAL

Unlike most people on the internet who didn’t know who the Try Guys were before Ned’s cheating scandal, some of us (me) are ashamed to have watched their show as far back as their Buzzfeed days.

In September, one of the Try Guys, Ned Fulmer, was accused of cheating on his wife with an employee on the show. The other three Try Guys quickly kicked him out. Then they posted a dramatic video titled ‘what happened’ and said things like “we are all obviously incredibly shocked and deeply hurt by all of this” and “I don’t know if we will ever truly be able to articulate the pain we feel in this moment, it’s hard to rewatch old videos.”

Ned was cut from any new videos, the merch campaign and episodes of their Food Network TV show. In an episode of The Try Pod podcast, one of the Try Guys said that the group processed the incident “almost like a trauma”. It was kind of bizarre to see how quickly they pivoted to public shaming their friend over a kiss. So shocking that even SNL did a sketch of the YouTube video.

A NEGRONI… SBAGLIATO… WITH PROSECCO IN IT

This one is hard to describe, but you just have to watch the video to understand why this clip of Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke discussing their favourite drinks spread like wildfire.

@hbomax I'll take one of each. #houseofthedragon ♬ a negroni sbagliato w prosecco l hbo max - hbomax

LIZ TRUSS’ RESIGNATION SOUNDTRACKED TO TAYLOR SWIFT’S BLANK SPACE

Politically, this year has been disastrous. We’ve had three prime ministers – three! – and even witnessed the shortest tenure in history. Liz Truss occupied 10 Downing Street for just 49 days before resigning, beating 19th century PM George Canning to the bottom spot (for reference, he died in office after a 119-day tenure).

It was a bleak time. There was a funny moment, however, when Channel 4 covered Truss’ resignation and played Taylor Swift’s ‘Blank Space’ over a montage of her finest moments. Apparently it’s her favourite song. Suddenly, the lyrics “it’s gonna be forever or it’s gonna go down in flames” had never sounded more prophetic.