Editor’s note: This story was originally published Dec. 14, 2024.
What happened in 2024? “Glicked” dominated at the box office, Oasis got back together for a reunion tour and Charli XCX’s “brat” album sparked a summertime movement.
Viral events didn’t take a day off this year.
Let’s take a take a stroll down memory lane with a look at some of the biggest pop culture moments from 2024.
January
Elmo checks in
As the curtains opened on 2024, Elmo sent out a social media message checking in. It sparked a flood of responses and raked in more than 161,000 likes. The X post has been viewed more than 221 million times.
“Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?” the brief, but impactful message read.
“Elmo, life is hard,” one person replied.
Another wrote, “Elmo life is not easy peasy lemon squeezy. It’s actually difficult difficult lemon difficult.”
The next day, Elmo responded, “Wow! Elmo is glad he asked! Elmo learned that it is important to ask a friend how they are doing. Elmo will check in again soon, friends! Elmo loves you. #EmotionalWellBeing.”
February
King Charles III announces cancer diagnosis
While King Charles III was undergoing treatment for an enlarged prostate, doctors identified a form of cancer.
“His Majesty has today commenced a schedule of regular treatments, during which time he has been advised by doctors to postpone public-facing duties. Throughout this period, His Majesty will continue to undertake State business and official paperwork as usual,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
Charles chose to publicly share his diagnosis to “prevent speculation” and hoped he could provide “understanding to all those around the world who are affected by cancer,” per Buckingham Palace.
In April, Charles made a “return to public-facing duties after a period of treatment and recuperation following his recent cancer diagnosis,” the palace said in a statement.
The palace noted Charles’ “treatment program will continue” and “doctors are sufficiently pleased with the progress made so far,” The Washington Post reported.
Charles has appeared at a variety of events since his return, but has not provided updates on his health in recent months.
Glasgow Willy Wonka event leaves children in tears
“Willy’s Chocolate Experience” in Glasgow promised to provide attendees with performances from Oompa Loompas and other immersive experiences inspired by Roald Dahl’s novel, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
But when families arrived at a poorly decorated warehouse, complaints abounded about spending hundreds ($44 per ticket) on the “awful” event that left their children in tears, as reported by The Guardian. The event was canceled halfway through when police were called to the venue.
Images from the event went viral and provided the internet with meme content for weeks. One of the most popular images was of a woman working the event dressed as an Oompa Loompa, wearing a depressed look on her face.
March
Kate Middleton silences conspiracy with cancer diagnosis
Weeks after Kate, the Princess of Wales, stepped out of the limelight to recuperate after a “planned abdominal surgery,” the public became absorbed in wild speculations regarding the princess’ health and whereabouts.
Public conjectures about Kate were further fueled by a heavily photoshopped Instagram post, vague updates on the princess’ condition and her temporary disappearance from the public eye.
Theories from the public ran amok. Some where lighthearted, others took a dark turn.
In March, Kate silenced rumors will a sobering announcement: She had been diagnosed with cancer.
“In January, I underwent major abdominal surgery in London. And at the time, it was thought that my condition was noncancerous. The surgery was successful. However, tests after the operation found cancer had been present,” she said in a message posted on X.
“As you can imagine, this has taken time. It has taken me time to recover from major surgery in order to start my treatment.”
Then in September, Kate announced she had completed her chemotherapy cancer treatments, though remained on the “path to healing and full recovery.”
“I enter this new phase of recovery with a renewed sense of hope and appreciation of life,” she said.
‘Cowboy Carter’ is stuck in everyone’s heads
Beyoncé successfully transitioned from pop star to country musician with her chart-topping album, “Cowboy Carter,” though she insisted: “This ain’t a Country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé' album,” per the singer’s Instagram.
The album launched at No. 1 on Billboard’s top country albums and even leapt to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, per Billboard.
Her lead single on the album, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” topped the Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, making Beyoncé the first Black woman to hold that position in modern country music, reported Rolling Stone.
April
‘Golden’ couple Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist split
Three months after “Golden Bachelor” couple Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist wed in a live televised ABC special, the newlyweds announced plans to get divorced.
“Theresa and I have had a number of heart-to-heart conversations, and we’ve looked closely at our situation, our living situation, so forth and — and we’ve kind of come to the conclusion mutually that it’s probably time for us to — dissolve our marriage,” Turner said in an interview with Juju Chang of Good Morning America.
Nist said she and Turner, who lived in different states, attempted to make a move together and looked at “home after home” but ultimately “never got to the point where (they) made that decision,” per Good Morning America.
At the end of their brief marriage, Turner and Nist both claimed to still be in love with each other.
“I still love this person,” Turner said. “There’s no doubt in my mind, I still am in love with her. I root for her every day.”
Nist added, “Yeah, I still love him.”
In December, Turner offered additional context to the couple’s decision to split. He said he was diagnosed with cancer weeks before they announced their mutual decision to divorce.
“I hope that people understand in retrospect now that that (diagnosis) had a huge bearing on my decisions and I think probably Theresa’s as well,” he told People.
May
J.Lo cancels her tour
In response to poor ticket sales, Jennifer Lopez canceled her “This is Me... Live” summer tour in late May.
“Jennifer is taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends,” an announcement from her tour promoter said, per Variety.
Fans suspected the cancellation had less to do with ticket sales and more to do with rumors swirling that Lopez and her then-husband Ben Affleck were suffering from marriage trouble, per The New York Times.
In August, the couple officially called it quits.
June
Brat summer begins
Charli XCX released her latest album, “brat,” in June — sparking a fad called “brat summer” that took over the warmer months.
What does it mean? In a TikTok, Charli XCX explained what adpoting the brat attitude looks like.
“You’re just like that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes. Who feels herself but maybe also has a breakdown. But kind of like, parties through it, is very honest, very blunt. A little bit volatile. Like, does dumb things. But it’s brat. You’re brat. That’s brat,” she said in a TikTok clip.
The fad even embedded itself into the presidential election when Charli XCX tweeted, “kamala IS brat.” Vice President Kamala Harris embraced the label with an update to the Harris campaign’s official Twitter page that featured the album cover’s electric green in the background, per The Guardian.
In September, Charli XCX officially bid farewell to brat summer. “Goodbye forever brat summer,” the pop singer wrote on X.
Justin Timberlake and ‘The world tour’
Decades after his music career peaked in the early-aughts, former NSYNC star Justin Timberlake dominated headlines once again. This time, the singer’s mugshot was plastered across the internet.
Timberlake was pulled over in Sag Harbor late one night and arrested for driving while intoxicated, reported The New York Times. Timberlake told police officers he drank just “one martini.”
“The charge was a single count because he refused the breath test,” Timberlake’s lawyer, Ed Burke, told Us Weekly. “Mr. Timberlake was also charged with two other court citations, running a stop sign and not traveling in the correct traffic lane.”
While being arrested, Timberlake reportedly expressed concerns over how his arrest would impact his upcoming tour.
“The cop didn’t know who he was at first,” a source told Page Six. “Justin said under his breath, ‘This is going to ruin the tour.’ The cop replied, ‘What tour?’ Justin said, ‘The world tour.’”
Despite Timberlake’s concern, The Forget Tomorrow World Tour rambled on.
July
A ‘Twisters’ storm rolls in
Almost 30 years after the original “Twister” released in theaters, its sequel, “Twisters,” took the world by storm. With a domestic opening of more than $81 million, the disaster movie sealed its position as the movie of the summer.
It’s still one of the highest-grossing films of the year, placing 8th in the top-performing movies of 2024 with total earnings of more than $267 million domestically, per Box Office Mojo.
‘Pommel Horse Guy’ becomes an internet star
The Paris Olympics started in late July and, almost instantly, American gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik became an internet sensation.
Nicknamed “pommel horse guy” by the internet, Nedoroscik attracted attention for his performance on the pommel horse, particularly the way he removed his large glasses frames before performing — a Superman-like transformation.
Some fans compared the gymnast to Clark Kent.
Nedoroscik commented on going viral and becoming the center of memes during an interview with “Today.”
“I think they’re awesome,” Nedoroscik said. “I’m representing people that wear glasses well.”
August
Raygun
Australian breakdancer Rachael “Raygun” Gunn spent less than 10 minutes on stage during her Olympic debut, but she stayed in the spotlight long after the Paris Olympics concluded.
Her breaking performance went viral — there are more than 100,000 posts with #raygun on TikTok — and led some to question whether she was actually qualified to compete in the Summer Games.
Gunn responded the her viral attention, saying she found it both positive and negative.
“It’s been a pretty wild ride, I’m not going to lie. I definitely have my ups and downs, my good and bad days, but it has been honestly so amazing to see the positive response to my performance,” Gunn said during an interview with “The Project.”
“I never thought that I would be able to connect with so many people in such a positive way, so that has been just so amazing. But it definitely has been tough at times.”
Oasis gets back together
The infamously quarrelsome Gallagher brothers reunited to plan a summer 2025 tour, as previously reported by the Deseret News.
After decades of public spats — and 15 years after guitarist Noel Gallagher officially called it quits — Oasis announced it will play 12 concerts across the U.K. next year.
“The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised,” Oasis announced on X.
The band later expanded the tour with dates in North America.
September
Inaugural season of ‘The Golden Bachelorette’
The inaugural season of “The Golden Bachelorette” launched with Joan Vassos at the center of the series. A group of two dozen senior men were selected as contestants on the series, and audiences watched all the men arrive at the Bachelor Mansion in September vying for Joan’s heart.
Only one man, Chock Chapple, left with Joan. The others? They kept audiences entertained as they discovered friendship among each other.
Charles L., a 66-year-old widower and fan favorite, said he arrived on the series “with sadness” but gradually transformed.
“I think I have achieved way more than I expected. The remaining friends, we bond together. We opened our hearts. Everybody helped each other,” Charles L. told cameras when he left the series. “It’s a successful journey for me to have along with my friends. It’s a different form of love. Yeah, I did find it.”
October
Liam Payne’s death
Liam Payne, a former member of the band One Direction, died on Oct. 16 in Argentina “after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Palermo,” an initial police statement said, per the Buenos Aires Times.
Final results from Payne’s toxicology report found that “in the moments before his death and in the period of at least his last 72 hours, Payne only had traces of polydrug use of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his body.”
The report concluded that Payne’s death was caused by “multiple trauma” and “internal and external hemorrhage” as a result of falling from the third-floor balcony of his hotel room.
Three individuals were charged in connection to the singer’s death for “illicit conduct,” according to an investigation report from Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office.
On the day following Payne’s death, One Direction leapt from No. 55 to No. 2 on Spotify’s global artist chart, Forbes reported. One Direction streams hit 5.9 million, significantly higher than the 2.1 million streams the band received the day before Payne died, per Billboard.
Payne’s former One Direction bandmates, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson, released a statement about their friend.
“We’re completely devastated by the news of Liam’s passing,” the former band members wrote. “The memories we shared with him will be treasured forever. For now, our thoughts are with his family, his friends, and the fans who loved him alongside us. We will miss him terribly. We love you Liam.”
November
Donald Trump wins
With a sweeping victory over Harris, former President Donald Trump was elected for a second term. Election news continued to dominate headlines and, for many, personal conversations, as it had for a bulk of the year.
“I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your 47th president, and your 45th president, and every citizen. And I will fight for you, for your family, and your future. Every single day I will be fighting for you, and with every breath in my body. I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe, and prosperous America that our children deserve, and that you deserve,” Trump told supporters at his West Palm Beach election watch party. “This will truly be the golden age of America.”
Harris conceded to a crowd of her supporters in a speech delivered at Howard University, her alma mater.
“The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for,” Harris said in her concession speech. “But hear me when I say: The light of America’s promise will always burn bright, as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting.”
‘Glicked’ dominates
Highly-anticipated movies “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” hit theaters on Nov. 22 — and fans playfully nicknamed the shared release date for both movies “Glicked.”
Over opening weekend, the movies raked in combined earnings of $270 million internationally, per Box Office Mojo.
“Wicked” dominated with a domestic opening of $114 million, making it the third-highest domestic opening of this year — behind “Inside Out 2″ and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” per Variety. “Wicked” also became the highest-performing debut for a Broadway adaptation ever.
December
Eras Tour comes to a close
Taylor Swift’s 44-track setlist, three-hour Eras Tour concerts officially came to a close in December.
Swift put on more than 150 shows throughout the tour, which lasted almost three years, per The Associated Press. The final show was on Dec. 8 in Vancouver, Canada.
“I never thought that writing one line about friendship bracelets would have you guys all making friendship bracelets, making friends and bringing joy to each other,” Swift told fans during the final show, per the BBC.
“That is the lasting legacy of this tour,” she added. “I couldn’t be more proud of you.”