Weirdest viral moments from the 2010s

In the past years, some really ridiculous things happened. Time flies by on the Internet and you probably forgot about these pointless events. Here is our history class of pop culture in the 2010s.

The 2010s were all about the weirdest challenges

Back then people were being "unique" by acting "so random" in public, so in 2011 people started planking on different locations without any context. Then, another inexplicable viral craze took over - "The Harlem Shake" dance, first done by TVFilthyFrank on YouTube.

Celebrities started also actively participating in viral videos. In the "Ice Bucket Challenge", they were promoting awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and donating money to research. By the time the idea went viral, most people forgot the original purpose of the short videos.

You may not remember a music hit called "Rae Sremmurd's" by Black Beatles, but that's actually the name of the popular song for "The Mannequin Challenge". In 2016 even schools and official institutions participated in the "freeze-frame" videos in hope for views.

Challenges in the 2010s were weird

And who could forget the thousands of "Cup Song Challenge" videos? There were so many tutorials for beginners who wanted to film themselves recreating the scene with Anna Kendric from the teen movie "Pitch Perfect" (2012).

Then we were eating cinnamon, flipping bottles, swelling our lips, whispering while someone is listening to loud music, unscrewing a bottle cap with a kick and for some reason, kids were eating tide pods. Yeah, let's leave all that behind, shall we...

Things went viral for no reason at all

Things were really confusing online. Allow us to remind you about that time the whole Internet was bullying a rising teen pop star. Yes, we're talking about Rebecca Black and "Friday".

Back when we still had Tumblr people were mentioning all the cringe moments in the video when suddenly, someone noticed "that girl in pink" acting all weird. Her name turned out to be Benni Cinkle and she tried really hard to make most of her days under the spotlight by selling merch and starting a foundation against bullying called "That Girl in Pink Foundation". Yes, 2011 was crazy.

Speaking of music, never forget that "Gangnam style" first reached 1 billion views on YouTube. After its release, a lot of flashmobs and comedy sketches started appearing, especially in traditional media. Then we continued with sketchy songs with "What does the fox say" and "Baby shark".

Viral stuff rarely have explanation, they just happen.

Oh, and don't forget about the times when we were trying to beat our friends' scores on Flappy bird and when the app was deleted people started bidding for devices that had the game installed.Then we argued whether The Dress was blue and black or white and gold. Then argued wether we hear "Yanny" or "Laurel" until we all agreed that the Pokémon GO obsession was awesome.

We also went crazy over fidget spinners, flat tummy tea, vaping, and cried over the death of Harambe and Brian Griffin from "Family Guy" (the last one was then revived, even though fans already started tattooing "RIP, Brian" on their bodies).

Pop culture milestones

When it comes to most scandalous moments we have a few that changed the direction of pop culture and trends. Buckle up!

The decade started with Lady Gaga and her meat dress that literally made it into student books. We were part of Justin Bieber's and One Direction's fandom and cried in our rooms when they stopped performing. Taylor Swift got interrupted by Kanye during her speech at the VMA Awards because "Beyoncé has one of the best videos of all time". Then Hannah Montana went crazy and now everybody can't stop twerking.

Rihanna and Drake's performance to "Work" started a new era for the male singer who then became the most-streamed artist of the decade according to Spotify. Beyoncé told the world she was pregnant on stage and we were all waiting for Blue Ivy. Oh, and Adele ruled the music industry with her voice and the biggest record of the past decade, then left the stage and stopped performing.

Nowadays, the stage is where history is written

Biggest fails of the last decade

Some things didn't go as planned.

The marriage between Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries lasted 72 days and we believe the world was going to end in 2012. Jennifer Lawrence fell down the stairs at the Oscars 2013. Steve Harvey announced the wrong Miss Universe and Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced the wrong winner for the Oscar for Best Picture.

Honey Boo Boo, foldable phones, Kendall Jenner stopping protests with Pepsi, the end of Game of Thrones, online privacy, Cambridge Analytica.

The Storm Area 51 also didn't go that far. And last, but not least, the Cybetruck failed its window test during its first public release.

Some things have to be left behind, really

Weirdest beauty and fashion trends

If we have to sum up the decade in the beauty world it would be big lips, big butts, thick eyebrows, contour, and beef. We also went from "Cara Delevingne brows" to no brows. So many trends went by and they all rooted in social media.

The Tumblr Era: Remember when everyone was into unconventional eyeliner? We stopped hiding, we embraced our colorfulness and rocked rainbow hair and eyebrows, galaxy-inspired clothing, "unicorn hair" and glitter roots.

Tumblr influenced a lot on our fashion trends. Always remember the strange times where everyone loved "mustache", "cookie monster" and "Nutella" themed clothing. Our aesthetics were everything by Converse, Vans, Uggs, and Hollister. Every Tumblr girl had a closet full of beanies, cute iPhone cases, ripped jeans and lots of jewelry. We praised high cheekbones, thigh gaps, long lashes and wore fake glasses. Also, crop tops and oversized sweaters with pointless statements, always.

The Tumblr aesthetic is something pretty hard to explain, but it's there.

The YouTube/Instagram Influencers Era: The 2010s were all about experimenting with our appearance, enjoying the process of transformation and directing it in the wanted direction.

The Kardashians started a contour craze and at some point, someone invented "opposite contouring". We highlighted and overlined a lot, we did our nails in weird shapes, looked like Bratz dolls and tried 100 layers of different products on our bodies. We loved fake lashes, fake freckles.

Oversized clothing and tracksuits with Fila sneakers were a must. We were also living for extreme ombre, hair knots and "short hair don't care" vibes. Influencers didn't get much about rules and shaved their eyebrows.

Influencer's goals

At the end of the decade, we are still weird and divide ourselves into "VSCO girls", "e-girls" and "soft girls", we wear Euphoria makeup and multilayered clothing. But the most beautiful part of our small fashion revolution is that despite the drama, everyone was accepted for their looks.

We made LGBTQ+ people feel proud and thanked makeup brands with wide shade ranges. We supported a model with vitiligo when she walked on the biggest fashion runways, and plus-size clothing was at an all-time high. We were and are proud!

How humor evolved... Or did it?

Hey, do you remember rage comics and the glorious times of 9gag? With the great migration of the nations from PC to mobile people started changing their humor too. You should thank the Internet for its creativity because together we created a new measure of what is fun and what isn't.

We had this weird Tumblr reposting humor, Nyan Cat references, and Twitter thread jokes. But just when memes were finally reaching their Golden era, they also got to traditional media and turned into another marketing approach. This is where the "Great Irony" began and dank memes about the "Great depression" were born.

Vine challenged us to make someone laugh in 7 seconds, so we did. Then edgy humor started appearing in YouTube video complications and Instagram pages. Some guidelines stopped us so we transitioned to TikTok. During all those times we had some really unexplainable jokes like the loss meme, big Chungus, and Yobama. Can't wait to see what's coming up next.

Boomers just can't understand Internet culture

The Internet is hard to explain to foreigners. Nothing makes sense, but somehow it feels just right.

The virtual space is shaping pop culture in the best way possible, nothing remains hidden and everything is waiting to be discussed. We even judge people based on their abilities to reference the things we love online. Now it's time to see what the next decade of memes and iconic moments holds for us.