10. Paige Bueckers’ Comeback

Who doesn’t love a fairytale ending? Basketball player Paige Bueckers entered UConn as a high school phenom, only to be sidetracked by injuries and coming up just short of clinching the national championship. But good things come to those who wait, and Bueckers clocked performance after performance en route to the trophy that had proven so elusive — and in her final career game for the Huskies, no less. Just over a week later, Bueckers went first in the WNBA draft to the Dallas Wings, and would go on to be crowned Rookie of the Year and named on Forbes’ 30 under 30 list. Off the court, Bueckers became a beloved social media star, from the playful animosity between her and UConn coach Geno Auriemma to her hard launch with UConn teammate, best friend and now-girlfriend Azzi Fudd, a basketball phenom in her own right. Beyond the individual, it’s heartening to see the continued attention Bueckers has brought to the WNBA following Caitlin Clark the year before her. From sold out jerseys and rising attendance, it’s clear that Bueckers — and the WNBA — are here to stay. —Angelina X. Ng

9. Rachel Zegler’s ‘Evita’ Balcony Scene

On the street below The London Palladium’s balcony, adoring crowds turned their faces upwards; inside the theater, audiences watched only a live broadcast of the performance outside — body and voice for the masses, screen and light for the elites. This was Jamie Lloyd’s vision of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” performed by Rachel Zegler as Eva Perón in Lloyd’s West End revival of “Evita.” Ironically, some paying audiences complained about this staging of the show’s most famous number, playing right into Lloyd’s point about the divided interests of the lower and upper classes. Born into poverty, the real Evita rose to great heights in Argentine politics but never lost her ties with her political base of descamisados, low-income and working-class Argentines. Zegler, who was discovered in 2018 and has since become one of Gen Z’s most visible and versatile stars — facing flip-flopping public opinion along the way — seems to be making her own appeal as the “girl you once knew / Although she’s dressed up to the nines.” Meanwhile, Lloyd’s screens-heavy, high-concept, minimalistic staging style has rocked the theater scene by pulling beloved oldies right into the age of omnipresent screens, livestreaming, and multilayered representations of truth. —Isabelle A. Lu

8. Las Culturistas Culture Awards

Who will save the awards shows? As declining youth viewership for major televised award shows foreshadows a worrying fate, two unlikely heroes rose to the occasion — and what an occasion it was. Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, hosts of their podcast “Las Culturistas,” took the Las Culturistas Culture Awards to new heights with an elaborate television spectacle. The LCCAs borrowed the typical self-serious pageantry of these events but applied it to their utterly ridiculous premise with hilarious results. Between Ben Platt’s mournful rendition of Addison Rae’s “Diet Pepsi” backed by a full string section and Quinta Brunson winning the Eva Longoria Award for Tiny Woman, Huge Impact, the LCCAs created a slew of viral moments. If the Oscars normally feel like self-congratulatory parties for Hollywood elite, the Las Culturistas Culture Awards made the world of entertainment shockingly likeable. Perhaps the most wonderful thing about the Las Culturistas Culture Awards is how clearly Rogers and Yang use their legitimacy to live out their wildest, stupidest dreams. Not all semi-famous celebrities use their influence to perform a cover of “Abracadabra” in front of Oscar winners. Rogers and Yang do so with zeal and without shame. Maybe if the Oscars could take a cue from Las Culturistas, they wouldn’t have to suffer the ultimate indignity: moving to YouTube. —Ria S. Cuéllar-Koh

7. CEO ‘Kiss Cam’ Scandal

Be careful who you go to your favorite band’s concert with, because it may end up life-changing — like it did for former Astronomer CEO Andy Byron. In July, during a Coldplay show at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Byron, who is married, learned his lesson the hard way when the Jumbotron caught him in a not-so-professional embrace with Astronomer’s Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot. The video instantly became a viral sensation, taking the internet by storm, with everyone recreating the tender and intimate moment on social media. The scandal went so far that Byron resigned in the same month. Even brands and sports mascots — like the Phillie Phanatic mascots — stepped in to recreate the moment, putting the couple further into the spotlight of shame. This viral moment serves as a reminder of how quickly a private moment can become public entertainment — so be careful, kids! —Anastasia Poliakova

6. ‘Wicked’ Press Tour: Part 2

Since the infamous “holding space” interview in November of last year, the relationship between Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo — who play Glinda and Elphaba, respectively, in “Wicked” and “Wicked: For Good” — has continued to devolve into chaos. From Erivo kissing Grande’s arm after producer Marc Platt shook the latter’s hand during a promotional panel for “Wicked” to Grande “protecting” Erivo from a helicopter flying overhead during an outdoor interview, the two appear strangely inseparable, prompting fans to speculate that they are closer than friends. This has gone as far as circulating the satirical (and made-up) rumor that they are in a “non-demi-curious semi-binary” relationship. Recently, Grande and Erivo’s “Wicked” costar Michelle Yeoh has been going viral herself for her iconic saying “Madame Morrible, MM, flip it around, WW, Wicked Witch,” referring to her character being the true antagonist of the story as revealed in “Wicked: For Good.” These moments have turned the “Wicked” press tour into a spectacle of curated intimacy and performative absurdity, catching the global attention of theater kids and the chronically online alike. —Audrey A. Chalfie

5. The Louvre Heist

The wake of the infamous Louvre heist has been all but expected. On Oct. 19, robbers stumbled into the museum’s Galerie d’Apollon, stealing eight pieces of priceless jewelry — in under seven minutes — before driving away on scooters. The act in of itself is a major tragedy for the art world. Rather than inspiring grief and mourning, the heist, however, incited a wave of social media content, replete with skits from the robbers’ and the security guards’ points of view, joking parodies of potential black-market sales, and even robber-inspired — and bejeweled — Halloween costumes. This recent virality highlights the ever present question of whether a desire for online success desensitizes content creators to the point of no return. —Thomas A. Ferro

4. The Rise of The Performative Male

You know it when you see it: iced matcha latte on the table, tote dangling from the chair, wired earbuds streaming Clairo’s “Juna,” feminist paperback in hand. The “performative male” is a newly minted term for men who adopt shallow signals of progressivity and sensitivity in order to attract women. Branching off from the celebrity lookalike contest sensation of last year, performative male contests have populated cities and college campuses everywhere (including Harvard). Are men who exhibit these interests for manipulative purposes really at all common? Whether you spot them at your local cafe every morning or have never seen one outside of TikTok, if we set aside the matchas and feminist paperbacks, the underlying truth leaves none exempt: To exist in a society is to perform. —Isabelle A. Lu

3. Katy Perry Goes to Space

It’s been a difficult (albeit humorous) year in the spotlight for mega pop star Katy Perry. On April 14, Perry, Gayle King, Lauren Sánchez, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, and Kerianne Flynn boarded Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket for the trip of a lifetime — a 10-minute voyage to space. Vowing to put the “ass in astronaut,” Perry was soon mercilessly mocked for her otherworldly adventure. The responses were merciless. Some were light hearted — i.e., a tweet from Wendy’s aimed at Perry reading, “can we send her back,” or hundreds of TikToks replaying Perry kissing the ground as she returns or floating a daisy in front of a camera during the voyage. Other reactions leaned into social commentary. Many saw the space trip as tone-deaf: ethically and environmentally problematic in a time of economic hardship for many. In an even bigger plot twist, Perry went Instagram official with Former Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau this summer, and the two were spotted together making out on a boat in Santa Barbara. One thing is for sure: Perry is having a blast. —Caroline J. Rubin

2. ‘The Hunger Games (but better)’ and ‘The Hunger Games’ Revival

Here’s an idea for a party: Gather your friends in the woods for three days to reenact 2012’s young adult dystopian masterpiece “The Hunger Games.” Internet comedian Grace Reiter did exactly that for her 24th birthday. The result? The 42-minute long parody “The Hunger Games (but better).” The video instantly went viral, not only because of quotable spoofs like “MOM. MOM. REAPING. GOING. NOW” and “We are going to DIE TOMORROW!” but also because Reiter, in flashes of genius, busts out into genuinely impressive imitations of Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen. Since the release of prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds of Snakes,” a whole 10 years after the original trilogy’s final installment, Reiter’s parody wraps up another year of the ongoing “Hunger Games” renaissance. And with fans embracing this year’s “Sunrise on the Reaping,” the second prequel which features Haymitch’s games, the franchise is proving — like Katniss — to be on fire. Maybe it’s testament to our dystopian moment, but America is eager to devour tales, silly or serious, of the world of Panem. —Isabelle A. Lu and Angelina X. Ng

1. The Sydney Sweeney/Katseye Jeans Ad Wars

Jeans — and ads — are as American as apple pie, and this year, jeans ad campaigns served as the stage for a cultural battle surrounding race, politics, and beauty. When American Eagle declared that actress Sydney Sweeney had “great jeans” — a pun on “great genes” — some social media users highlighted the tribute to Sweeney’s blonde-haired, blue-eyed looks as eugenicist rhetoric. With the ad’s subsequent defense by Donald Trump and additional discourse on Sweeney’s appeal to the “male gaze,” Sweeney rapidly became aligned with the right’s stance against undue “wokeness.” Just a week later, Gap’s denim campaign put Los Angeles-based girl group Katseye front and center, and many embraced the members’ various ethnic and national backgrounds as a clapback to Eurocentric beauty standards. Potential statements aside, Katseye’s “Milkshake” dance itself was mesmerizing enough to be a major cultural moment.

The jeans ad discourse is just one example of a wider practice of checking celebrities’ political expressions under the second Trump administration — including their voter registrations, reactions to Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and responses (or lack thereof) to the White House’s use of their songs in videos of immigration raids. While several news outlets reported that the initial backlash was artificially exaggerated, the wars rage on: In an interview with People, Sweeney has just stated that she regrets “[widening] the divide” with her silence up until now. —Isabelle A. Lu