Brain rot 2024: the best and funniest viral moments of the year
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From holding space to a baby pygmy hippo, there’s much to be learned about the world through the memes and trends that dominated our social media feeds this year. “Brain rot” has been named Oxford’s word of the year, meaning “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging”.
![[Matilda Boseley]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2020/11/26/Matilda_Boseley.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
But no matter how “trivial” or “unchallenging” the content may be, there’s still a lot to be learned about our culture through the trends, memes and storylines that dominated our social media feeds this year. So let’s embrace the brain rot and take a journey back through the 10 best and funniest viral trends that the internet had to offer in 2024.
![[Moo-Deng: the two-month-old baby pygmy hippo becoming an online giant – video]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/51ac5c3a50bd98c8b656abe6ac3d4e065493a4ee/0_384_1247_701/1247.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
In the midst of an extremely emotional, tear-filled Wicked press tour, Tracy E Gilchrist, a journalist with Out magazine, tells the film’s stars, Arianna Grande and Cynthia Erivo, that “this week people have been taking the lyrics of Defying Gravity and holding space with that and really feeling power in that”.
![[Pesto the penguin: 22.5kg chick in Melbourne aquarium set to shed weight after going viral - video]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/041d32c2200baa9177c6140b847eded33f0d7906/0_13_4948_2784/4948.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Despite the stars later admitting that they didn’t fully understand what this meant, Erivo immediately wells up, quietly and sincerely stating, “I didn’t know that was happening … that’s really powerful.” A somewhat confused Grande gently grasps Ervio’s index finger in support.
KFKFFKSKXJ 😭 pic.twitter.com/3YLEe6NMzS. The clip set the stage for a wave of collective catharsis, giving people the opportunity to gently mock both the borderline meaninglessness of certain online turns of phrase and the Wicked stars’ relentlessly earnest interview responses.
