These are the Cultural Highlights of 2020!

But it was the enduring images of Adam Sandler’s fit pics that really dilated pupils, the lone diamond earring, oversized Hugo Boss leather jackets, and bubble gum velvet garish enough to burn a hole in your retina! (And yes, we’re still salty the Sandman was never nominated for an Oscar. Blasphemy!)

Tiger King 
With bottle-blonde mullets, pink assault rifles, and prowling big cats, Tiger King really had it all. Joe Exotic and his freewheeling gang of gun-toting polygamists fired-up the Internet back in March, the seven-part documentary series spawning hundreds of murder theories, memes and fashion faux paus. While the extra episode (airing after the initial series) didn’t quite hit the mark, the sprawling, feral underworld of big cat breeding still rated a mention in virtually every Zoom call across earth earlier this year. 

Sourdough 
Remember when we all started maniacally baking sourdough in lockdown? Google searches for jigsaw puzzles, board games, candle-making, and yoga all skyrocketed during our time stuck indoors, but nothing rose (pun intended) to the cultural heights like the humble sourdough. Images of the fluffy, flour-dusted bread proliferated across our social media feeds, creating an insatiable appetite that eventually drained national flour and yeast supply (yes, really!).

Whether it’s the meditative calm of kneading the dough, or the sense of achievement seeing it rise in the oven, sourdough will always be the true MVP of lockdown. While an honourable mention also goes to banana bread. 

Thunder Only Happens When it’s Raining 
One of the more unlikely viral sensations of 2020, 37-year-old TikTok sensation Nathan Apodaca broke the Internet with his video lip-syncing to Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ while sipping on Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice. Cruising carefree on his longboard in Idaho, Apodaca’s TikTok provided a kind of wondrous, serene panacea to the collective anxiety we all felt this year. 

Quickly racking up millions of views, thousands of imitators, and even an official endorsement from Fleetwood Mac, the video captured the nostalgic spirit of a simpler time. 

Simple pleasures, baby. 

The Queen’s Gambit 
The cultural impact of The Queen’s Gambit has been mind-boggling. 

In the weeks since The Queen’s Gambit premiered, chess sales have grown 125 per cent, while chess books have skyrocketed by 603 per cent. With sales already burgeoning since lockdown, the centuries-old game is once again inspiring a whole new generation of fans. 

Following the story of precocious chess prodigy Beth Harmon, The Queen’s Gambit also made overnight superstars of its cast, while the 1950s and 1960s wardrobes gave us all an excuse to introduce more formalwear into our summer rotation. 

Connell’s Chain
Can you recall any other time when a piece of jewellery inspired dedicated fan accounts? Sally Rooney’s Normal People not only delivered one of the most heart-breaking romances of 2020, it also provided us with an utterly bizarre social media phenomenon dedicated to the chain hanging around Connell Waldron’s neck. 

With nearly 180,000 followers on Instagram, Connell’s chain triggered hundreds of articles dissecting its influence. Some compared the moment to James Dean’s t-shirt in the 1950s, while others speculated whether it was the sexiest thing about Normal People. 

2020’s been absolutely anything but normal. Just be thankful your name’s not Elon Musk’s son, X Æ A-12.