Reflecting on past years is hardly a new sentiment. As cultural historians often note, 2020 gave us a global pandemic, 2008 gave us a financial collapse, and 1999 gave us widespread panic over computer clocks. So it’s no surprise that, amid increasingly chaotic present-day news cycles, the internet has been revisiting 2016 — now a decade ago and often remembered as the last year before everything somehow got weirder.
Still, while most retrospectives tend to focus on political analysis or sociological hand-wringing, 2016’s legacy leans toward something else entirely: its own peculiar brand of collective absurdity. Many of the year’s defining cultural moments now resemble fever dreams, born in an era when viral content could still feel innocent — and when the internet was capable of producing joy without immediately devouring itself. So, 10 years later, here are 16 things from 2016 we all collectively forgot happened:
1.
For one brief, astonishing summer, Pokémon GO got 28.5 million Americans outside. The mobile game launched on July 6, 2016, and peaked at 28.5 million daily US users within two weeks — beating Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter in time spent per day. Parks were packed. People made eye contact at PokéStops. Strangers helped each other find rare Pokémon. According to Google Trends, “Pokémon Go” was searched more than “porn” in July 2016. City officials, police departments, and government agencies released official statements to help players stay safe while hunting virtual creatures. A grown adult at a Denver waterfront shouted, “EVERYONE, THERE’S A GYARADOS OVER HERE,” and dozens of people sprinted in that direction.
2.
Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar after the internet built an entire meme economy around his near-misses since his first nomination for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape in 1994. There were GIFs, Tumblr sagas, even fan-made games where you could help Leo finally win his golden statue. So, when he finally won for The Revenant on February 28, 2016 (after six nominations over 22 years), it felt less like an awards show moment and more like a cosmic correction. It wasn’t even about the performance — the bear mauling, the raw bison liver, the freezing conditions. It was about endurance. In his acceptance speech, Leo pivoted to climate change activism, proving that the man who survived a cinematic bear attack wasn’t going to waste his moment.
3.
For reasons that remain unclear, people across the country became convinced clowns were lurking in the woods. What started as a marketing stunt in Wisconsin spiraled into mass hysteria. By mid-October, clown sightings had been reported in nearly all US states, 9 out of 13 Canadian provinces, and 18 other countries. Schools closed. Police departments issued statements. A Connecticut school district banned clown costumes as “symbols of terror.” The situation became so prevalent that the White House Press Secretary was asked whether President Obama had been briefed on the creepy clowns. At Penn State, hundreds of students took to the streets in search of vengeance against a clown that may or may not have existed.
4.
“Damn, Daniel,” a 30-second video, somehow infiltrated offices, classrooms, and family dinners everywhere. On February 15, 2016, high schooler Joshua Holz posted a compilation of clips featuring his friend Daniel Lara striding around school while Holz repeatedly exclaimed “Damn, Daniel!” and “Back at it again with the white Vans.” Within days, the video had over 45 million views. Time magazine listed the two teenagers among “The 30 Most Influential People on the Internet.” Vans saw sales spike by 30%. eBay listings for “Damn Daniel Vans” received bids of up to $300,000. The boys appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where Daniel received a lifetime supply of Vans, which he donated to a hospital.
5.
The Snapchat Dog Filter became everyone’s unofficial profile photo of 2016. In February, Snapchat released animated “Lens” effects, including the Dog Filter, which used facial recognition to place canine ears, a nose, and an animated tongue over your face. Dating apps were flooded. Group chats became unreadable. Entire identities were temporarily replaced by floppy ears. Vice published an interview with a psychiatrist titled, “We Asked a Psychiatrist Why We’re So Obsessed with the Dog Filter,” and Allure claimed the filter hides imperfections and elongates faces. Ariana Grande even starred in a parody horror movie trailer on Jimmy Kimmel Live about being cursed to wear the dog filter in real life.
6.
Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston — dubbed “Hiddleswift” — began dating shortly after the 2016 Met Gala and were immediately photographed kissing on a beach in Rhode Island. Within the first month, they’d met each other’s parents and traveled the world together. The relationship reached fever pitch on July 4, 2016, when Hiddleston was photographed at Swift’s annual beach party wearing a white tank top that read “I ♥ T.S.” The image immediately became the perfect meme. Was it real? Was it fake? Were we all laboring under some kind of hyper-specific collective hallucination? Hiddleston later explained in GQ: “One of her friends said, ‘I’ve got this,’ and we all laughed about it. It was a joke.” The relationship ended in September after three months.
7.
The Mannequin Challenge saw an entire year of offices, classrooms, and friend groups willingly subjecting themselves to the stress of standing perfectly still while someone filmed. The trend started at Edward H. White High School in Jacksonville, Florida, and became a viral phenomenon in November 2016. Over 2 million Twitter posts mentioned #MannequinChallenge in a single week. The videos were almost universally soundtracked by Rae Sremmurd’s “Black Beatles,” which jumped from #16 to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — the first song driven to the top by a video meme since “Harlem Shake” in 2013. Everyone participated: Michelle Obama and LeBron James froze with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Paul McCartney posted his own version, tweeting, “Love those Black Beatles.” Taylor Swift even did one on Thanksgiving.
8.
After 108 years, the curse broke. On November 2, 2016, at 12:47 a.m., the Chicago Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in a thrilling 10-inning Game 7 to win their first World Series since 1908 — ending the longest championship drought in any major American sport. The game featured a leadoff home run (the first in World Series Game 7 history), a stunning game-tying eighth-inning home run, a 17-minute rain delay in extra innings, and finally, Ben Zobrist’s go-ahead RBI double in the 10th. “That,” Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo said, “was the best game I’ve ever been a part of — and the best game I’ve ever even seen.” The victory parade in Chicago drew an estimated 5 million people, making it one of the largest public gatherings in US history.
9.
What started as a tragic news story turned into the most confusing, inescapable internet meta-joke imaginable. On May 28, 2016 — one day after his 17th birthday — Harambe, a western lowland gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo, was shot and killed after a three-year-old boy fell into his enclosure and was dragged around by the 450-pound silverback. The incident sparked global controversy about the zoo’s decision to use lethal force. Petitions circulated. Vigils were held. Celebrities like Ricky Gervais and Jane Goodall weighed in. Then, somehow, it transformed into something stranger. Vox called Harambe “2016’s meme of the year.” The Cincinnati Zoo eventually deleted its Twitter account after being bombarded with Harambe jokes. A Cheeto resembling Harambe sold for $100,000 online.
10.
Hygge everything. Candles. Chunky knit blankets. Neutral tones. We were tired and didn’t yet know why, so we latched onto a Danish word for coziness and tried to buy our way into peace. Pronounced “hoo-gah,” hygge became a lifestyle phenomenon in late 2016 after several books on the subject were published — including Meik Wiking’s The Little Book of Hygge, which became a New York Times bestseller with 2 million copies sold. Collins English Dictionary named it runner-up for Word of the Year (after “Brexit”). Pinterest reported that searches for “hygge” increased 285% at the end of 2016. Time magazine proclaimed it “the Nordic trend that could help you survive 2016.” Major retailers scrambled to stock faux fur throws, scented candles, and anything that looked vaguely Scandinavian.
11.
Carpool Karaoke became a whole cultural event. Inescapable on Facebook. James Corden’s Late Late Show segment featured him driving around with musical guests, singing their hits. The format had launched in 2015, but 2016 was the year it exploded. The January 2016 episode featuring Adele amassed 42 million YouTube views within five days — making it the most popular video originating from a late-night program since 2013. It eventually gathered over 260 million views. Adele sang “Hello,” “Someone Like You,” and “Rolling in the Deep,” covered the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe,” and rapped Nicki Minaj’s verse from Kanye West’s “Monster” (which caused the song to re-enter the iTunes charts).
12.
Before it became a franchise, Stranger Things was just that eerie new show everyone watched in one weekend. The first season premiered on Netflix on July 15, 2016, and quickly became one of the platform’s most popular series ever, despite being rejected by more than 15 networks before landing at Netflix. The show achieved a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Suddenly, we all owned Eggos, wore retro sneakers, and pretended we’d always loved synths. The series would later boost Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” into the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in its 38-year history. “We never anticipated this success,” creator Ross Duffer admitted. “No one did.”
13.
For one brief year, we collectively agreed zucchini could replace pasta. It couldn’t. But we tried anyway. “Zoodles” —zucchini spiralized into noodle-like strands — became the poster child for the low-carb, paleo-adjacent wellness movement of 2016. Spiralizers flew off shelves. Pinterest boards overflowed with recipes promising that no, really, you won’t miss the extra carbs. Food blogs insisted that with enough pesto, your brain wouldn’t know the difference. Our brains knew the difference, and spiralizers now sit unused in kitchen cabinets.
14.
In 2016, a millionaire told us we couldn’t afford houses because we ate brunch. It became the defining millennial stereotype overnight. In October 2016, Australian demographer Bernard Salt wrote an op-ed criticizing young people who spend $22 on smashed avocado instead of saving for a house. The discourse exploded in May 2017 when Australian property mogul Tim Gurner (estimated net worth: $460 million) told 60 Minutes Australia: “When I was trying to buy my first home, I wasn’t buying smashed avocado for $19 and four coffees at $4 each.” Twitter immediately pointed out that Gurner had received $34,000 from his grandfather to buy his first investment property at age 19.
15.
“Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen,” a 45-second song about fruit and stationery, somehow conquered the world. Japanese comedian Piko-Taro released “PPAP” in August 2016, and by October, it had become a global phenomenon. The song — consisting almost entirely of the lyrics “I have a pen, I have an apple, uh, apple-pen” — became the shortest song ever to hit the Billboard Hot 100. Justin Bieber tweeted that it was his “favorite video on the internet,” sending it further into the stratosphere. The Guinness World Records certified it. For a brief moment, people at parties would spontaneously perform the pen-pineapple-apple-pen dance, and everyone would laugh, and no one would question why.
16.
And, lastly — perhaps the most low-key cultural moment — blurry photos of Hillary Clinton hiking in Chappaqua, New York, became a strangely comforting meme. After the November 8, 2016, election, a woman named Margot Gerster posted a photo of herself with Clinton on the trail, looking stunned, without makeup, walking her dogs. “I’ve been hiking in these woods for the past year, so I KNEW I’d eventually run into her, and today was the day,” Gerster wrote. More sightings followed. Clinton, the first woman to win a major party’s presidential nomination, had retreated to the woods. The internet projected its own emotions onto these images — grief, resilience, and the need to touch grass after a traumatic news cycle.
Looking back, 2016 feels like the last gasp of a certain kind of internet — one that could produce communal joy alongside communal chaos, and where viral moments still felt somewhat innocent even when they were bizarre. Pokémon GO got us outside. “Damn, Daniel,” got us laughing at nothing. The Cubs reminded us that even 108-year curses can break. And then, of course, everything changed. But that’s a different list entirely.
Well, what do you think of these moments and/or the internet’s “collective memory”? Let us know in the comments below!
Related
Discover more from InstiWitty Media Studios
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
