Baby hippo Moo Deng is more than one of the year's most loved memes. She's a whole lifestyle. (Getty Images: Carola Frentzen)
Pop culture moved hard and fast in 2024 — and it was undeniably led by TikTok.
When looking at the year's viral moments and memes, almost all of them originated on TikTok — while X became a ghost town of bots, Facebook leaned into AI-generated slop and Instagram's reels continue to be dominated by reported TikTok content.
In an overwhelming year, pop culture and memes were particularly irreverent, often being reduced to one or two words, with people becoming famous for bringing the boom, going "hawk tuah" or being brat.
24 images from 2024
Photo shows Donald Trump, with blood smeared on his face, raises his fist triumphantly in the air as the US flag flies high
And the internet conspired like never before, whether theorising #WhereIsKate, tracking down Baby Reindeer's alleged real-life inspiration or creating memes about assassinations (and assassination attempts).
Meanwhile, we joked about Olympians' shooting fits, breakdancing routines and, uh, appendages; Justin Timberlake's world tour was ruined; Jojo Siwa invented movements here-to-fore unseen in human history, and celebrity lookalike competitions popped up in parks across the world.
And so much more. Listing them all would be futile: Instead, the ABC Arts, Culture and Entertainment team (plus a few pop-culture-intrigued colleagues) look back on the moments they couldn't forget, for better or worse. Show meme to me, Rachel!
February: Willy's Chocolate Experience in Glasgow
Picture this: It's February in Glasgow, Scotland. It's cold and overcast. You head to Willy's Chocolate Experience, billed as an immersive re-creation of the wonderful chocolate factory from Roald Dahl's classic book with "surprises at every turn". It costs up to 35 British pounds ($70) a head.
But what you find there is a largely empty warehouse, decorated with candy-themed props. There's a jumping castle. There's a depressed-looking woman dressed as an Oompa Loompa, standing behind a table covered in "scientific" equipment. Young actors are spouting lines from a script that seems strange, and probably AI-generated, given the inclusion of a creepy new masked character called The Unknown. Instead of gorging on a chocolate fountain, you find yourself sipping on a half-cup of lemonade and snacking on three, literally three, jelly beans.
I can't stop thinking about the Oompa Loompa who later told Vulture she and her fellow cast were trying to make the best of a bad situation: "[W]e were trying to be the sprinkles on s***." I can't stop thinking about the crowds of disappointed children, and their parents. I can't stop thinking about spending $70 on promised whimsy, and being met with nothing.
It feels like a stark metaphor for living in the world today: you try your best, you just want to have a good time, but the world is on fire and the cost of living is rising. Best just to eat a chocolate bar on the couch. As a little treat. Because treats are all we have.
— Hannah Story
February: The Eras Tour arrives in Australia
Taylor Swift may have been Time's Person of the Year last year, but the pop superstar continued to dominate headlines in 2024.
The Eras Tour wrapped in December, with Forbes estimating the gargantuan production grossed $3 billion, making it one of the biggest tours in history.
Taylor Swift's Australian Tour
Photo shows Close up of Taylor Swift looking serious on stage in sparkly bodysuit
It also transformed homemade beaded friendship bracelets into a must-have accessory; impacted traffic and public transport in cities around the world; and filled the streets with legions of fans clad in sparkles, pink or pyjamas, breathlessly comparing experiences and surprise songs between each show — including in Australia in February.
The sheer quantity of Eras Tour content online meant it was inescapable.
Does Taylor Swift need an editor?
Photo shows taylor tortured poets
But the endless posting of songs to TikTok after each show seemed to only make the world more curious, with her tie-in concert film becoming the highest-grossing of all time. And amid all the chaos, she dropped a brand new album — The Tortured Poet's Department — and then, just for fun, dropped a second secret album at 2am, making a whopping 31-track Tortured Poet's Department: Anthology.
2024 felt like Swift's biggest year yet, but who knows what she has planned next?
— Jessica Riga
April: Would you rather be alone in the woods with a man, or a bear?
It started as a simple question, posed by a TikToker to random women on the street: If you were alone in the woods, would you rather come across a man or a bear?
Unsurprisingly to practically every woman, seven of the eight very quickly answered: "Bear". Even the one who picks "man" doesn't seem very sure. Then the internet erupted, particularly as women around the world gleefully echoed the sentiment.
First, because it's true. As I really wish I didn't have to point out, estimates from the World Health Organization say 1 in 3 women worldwide have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime.
As one woman comments: "What I've heard about bears is that they don't always attack you, right? Unless you f**k with them", so it might be better to take your chances with a furry foe.
Secondly, it's funny. Partly because sometimes you have to laugh about things so you don't cry, but mostly because the violent outrage from a selection of the internet's men was immediate, predictable, and proved the point entirely.
Continuing their vital research, TikTokers started asking men a version of the question: If your daughter was stuck alone in the woods, would you rather she came across a man or a bear? And in a stark reflection of the "as the father of daughters" trope, most of the men get a dark, serious look on their face and resolutely say: "Bear".
— Katherine Smyrk
April: Kendrick vs Drake
This year, Kendrick Lamar and Drake lobbed barbs at each other over a series of increasingly nasty diss tracks that lit up social media, dominated headlines and rocketed up the music charts. The more you know of the beef's ins-and-outs, the better the hyper-specific memes are.
Some decried the high-profile battle as ugly, but most agree that Lamar was the resounding winner, largely because his tracks were more cutting, sonically and lyrically detailed, and came at breakneck speed. Whenever Drake released a new song, Lamar was ready with a response.
The most dramatic turn of events — and thus, the funniest memes — came when Drake released 'Family Matters' only to be undercut less than an hour later by Lamar dropping the dark 'Meet the Grahams'.
Before Drake could recuperate, Lamar woke up the next morning and delivered the fatal blow: 'Not Like Us', a chart-topping sensation so severe that Drake has resorted to court action.
Drake's reply, 'The Heart Part 6', was widely ridiculed as a poor attempt to respond to allegations of paedophilia and a confusing self-own.
As for Lamar? He ended up topping the US charts a third time this year, landed the headlining slot for the 2025 Super Bowl Half Time Show, and scored seven 2025 Grammy Award nominations.
Oh, and he released GNX — a surprise sixth album and proverbial victory lap that didn't even bother mentioning his nemesis by name. The Pulitzer-Prize-winning rapper is truly in his villain era.
— Al Newstead
May: When Baz Luhrmann met Georgia Godworth
Remember when a TikToker managed to get a scoop from one of Australia's most renowned and elusive directors, even though she seemed to have no idea who she was talking to? Yes, I'm talking about the interview where Georgia Godworth bails up Oscar-winning Baz Luhrmann — who rarely gives interviews — on King Street in Sydney's Newtown.
It kicks off with Luhrmann, the guy who made Moulin Rouge! and Elvis, adjusting the lighting set-up to get his good side. Both he and Godworth side-eye the camera: You see this guy on the street who wants his good angles? You see this presenter who doesn't understand good lighting?
And the scoop? That Luhrmann and his wife, set and costume designer Catherine Martin, are seemingly in an open marriage.
Or as Luhrmann put it when asked if he was single or dating: "That person that I'm married to and I found our own, really genuine, authentic concept of what our contract to each other should be.
Unpacking Baz Luhrmann's viral TikTok interview
Photo shows A triptych of the director Baz Luhrmann, black hat, green jacket, grey hair, with a little microphone in his face
"My own general philosophy is, if you care about someone … but they fall in love with someone else or they like someone else, there has to be some degree of acceptance. It's a contract of communication."
But the true gift of the interview comes later, when Luhrmann is unimpressed by her dry misread of his relationship dynamic as mostly involving group sex.
The director asks: "So I mean, what is the point of the conversation we're having?"
It's a question I ask myself every day.
— Hannah Story
June: Hawk Tuah
In June, a 21-year-old Tennessee bedspring factory worker named Haliey Welch was approached on a night out by a TikTok interview channel. They asked "What's one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time?", and her answer — about giving them the "hawk tuah", an onomatopoeic sexual act — made her famous. (Her thick Southern accent certainly helped.)
A month after the clip went viral, Welch had quit her job and made more than US$50,000 ($80,000) on official merch alone. Then came the podcast, Talk Tuah, where she and her friends interview various celebrities, and which reached the top five of Spotify's charts in October.
Welch asked friend Chelsea Bradford (right) to co-host Talk Tuah. (Getty Images: Michael Tullberg)
Since then, she's launched an animal welfare not-for-profit and multiple products, including an AI-powered dating-advice app.
Whether Welch's 15 minutes will extend into 2025 are unclear, as she currently faces her first scandal: A lawsuit alleging malpractice over the December launch of $HAWK, a Welch-branded cryptocurrency coin — though Welch is not named in the lawsuit and maintains she didn't have an active role in the launch.
Whatever happens, we'll always have Talking Talk Tuah, a non-affiliated podcast that over-analyses Talk Tuah.
— Jared Richards
June: Brat summer
2024 was the year pop culture caught up to British pop star Charli xcx, a long-standing critical darling whose sixth album, Brat, was everywhere — especially the cover featuring just the word in Arial against an abrasive, almost radioactive green (#8ACE00).
Charli xcx tested around 65 shades of green for the Brat cover. (Supplied: Atlantic Records)
Recalling the sound and aesthetics of 2000s club culture (electroclash, indiesleaze, Eric Prydz) but with references to contemporary IT girls Julia Fox and Gabbriette, Brat is a messy mixture of hedonism and vulnerable comedowns, soaked in Auto-Tune and other digital distortions.
Of course, cutting-edge cool is always co-opted (and Charli's 'Kamala is BRAT' tweet accelerated things), but not even a NATO post could quell Brat summer.
Viral dances, a US stadium-tour with Troye Sivan and remixes with Lorde, Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande (plus a whole remix album) kept Brat thriving long after its release — and with Charli headlining Laneway this February, we're getting a southern hemisphere edition, too. (But this isn't Clairo shade, as she's also on the bill.)
— Jared Richards
July: The US election
Around July this year, when the US election race seemed to be a lock between two men old enough to be disqualified from driving, a lifeline appeared. Vice-President Kamala Harris announced she was stepping up as the democratic candidate.
For three glorious months, we had hope… I mean, memes. Rolling hot off the press was the rumour that Trump's vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, had been intimate with a couch. Yes, it spawned from one unverified tweet, but did that matter to the meme gods? No!
Kamala came with her own trove of memes including "you think you fell out of a coconut tree?", Momala and constant Veep comparisons. Team Trump also delivered the goods during the cycle, first with the endlessly disturbing images of his followers with pads glued to their ears after his first assassination attempt. Then, appearing real late in the game, was Trump's baffling (and false) statement that immigrants in Ohio were "eating the dogs, eating the cats", which got the full TikTok treatment.
Weirdly, all these memes became a lot less funny around November 6.
— Velvet Winter
August: Very demure, very mindful
Antithetical to brat, being demure is all about poise, modesty and mindfulness. Kind of.
TikToker Jools Lebron became a star in August due to her videos offering advice on how to be "very demure, very mindful" in various situations: arriving at work ("I do my makeup, I lay my wig"), the pharmacy ("This is not the Met Gala"), airport travel.
It was always tongue-in-cheek — and perhaps a nice reprieve from the picturesque tradwife content of the likes of Nara Smith, almost designed to make most viewers feel slovenly.
But most importantly, demure was fun to say and lip-sync to. (Demure is also Dictionary.com's word of the year.)
But the biggest impact was on Lebron's life: a few weeks after going viral, she posted an emotional update, saying she could now finance further gender-affirming surgery.
— Jared Richards
September: Moo Deng
Sorry Pesto, but Moo Deng is the viral animal of the year.
Moo Deng is the moment, Moo Deng is you, Moo Deng is me. For every moment, there is a Mood … Eng meme.
This bouncy baby pygmy hippopotamus — Thailand's most famous round and rambunctious gal pal with gleaming black eyes, fluttering ears, glossy self-lathering skin and adorable rosy cheeks and chin — has become the symbol and salve for our chaotic, burnt-out 2024 times.
When Moo Deng charges about her concrete enclosure, we identify with her impulse to escape, only to have nowhere to hide in our always-on world. When she bites her keeper's knee, she affirms our desire to assert boundaries. And when Moo Deng takes refuge in her black feeding basin, resting her rosy chin on its rim, we too understand the need for respite and rest in a wearying world.
Moo Deng is female rage embodied, reminding us we can be cute and rage against the machine at the same time. We are human, we contain multitudes, we embrace them.
And after we rage, we nap.
— Beverley Wang
November: A Wicked year for movies
In 2024, movies held space in pop culture.
Wicked's unmissable, chaotic press tour capped off a year where movies and memes went hand in hand, with studios and distributors embracing or attempting to generate free marketing — no doubt inspired by Barbenheimer's successes.
Take Dune: Part Two's limited-edition popcorn bucket, featuring a lid in the shape of a sandworm mouth, which felt designed for NSFW jokes. (Wicked's NSFW printing error on the packaging of tie-in figurines was unmistakably not on purpose, though).
But it wasn't just blockbusters that made an impact — and gained eyeballs — through memes. Body-horror The Substance made a bloody splash, in part, through the jokes and reactions online; erotic love triangle Challengers sent people into a horny frenzy; and Madame Web's product placement and stilted script were thoroughly rinsed.
And then there's the complex matter of It Ends With Us, whose flowery rom-com marketing felt at odds with its domestic violence plot line, with an avalanche of memes blaming star Blake Lively. But an extensive December report by the New York Times alleges Lively was targeted in a digital smear campaign by film director and co-star Justin Baldoni, who Lively is now suing for harassment. Memes can (and often do) have a dark side.
— Jared Richards
