The greatest internet moments of 2023

The internet moves fast, and if you aren’t chronically online (like I am), you’re going to miss some of the greatest bits. That’s why we’ve made a list, in no particular order, of some of the greatest internet moments of the year.

We’ve got you covered on everything from AI trickery to spy balloon suspicions. Don’t say we never did anything for you.

Wednesday everything!

Credit: Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images

Netflix’s Wednesday inspired everyone to indulge their inner weirdo, online and off. The titular character’s kooky dance sequence became a TikTok sensation, Wednesday-themed storytelling popped up everywhere from Roblox to ASMR, and the show transformed star Jenna Ortega into the It girl of the moment, with appearances on late night shows and “Hot Ones.”

“Queer icon” M3GAN

Horror movie M3GAN, and the sentient robot doll at its center, is super queer, say gay men. The film opened to an impressive $30 million in early January and quickly grew to become an iconic addition to the queer oeuvre. The doll was also much enjoyed as a meme. Sometimes M3gan murders people, but she also dances and performs aerial flips with a straight face. What’s not to love?

Pope Francis’s AI coat

Credit: Pablo Xavier

An image of Pope Francis in a chic white puffer coat went viral on Twitter in March because, hey, the guy looked pretty good in that kind of drip. The photo, along with several others that showed the Pope in various other states of higher fashion, was revealed to be a fake created in AI image-generator Midjourney by Chicagoan Pablo Xavier while he was high on shrooms.

The rise of AI-generated content has been huge in 2023, and coat-gate was an early indication of just how convincing — and ultimately misleading — AI-generated images can be.

Rihanna’s Super Bowl performance

Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation

RiRi’s Super Bowl performance had been highly anticipated since her iconic September 2022 announcement and, though the show was met with mixed reception from fans, there’s no denying how impressive it was. She performed a medley of 12 hits while dancing on a floating ledge, all while visibly pregnant. No matter what the internet says, RiRi pulled out the W.

Musk axes Twitter’s blue check verification system

Credit: Twitter

The death of the blue check was just one more joke in the comedy of errors that has been Elon Musk’s reign over Twitter. The verification system that once helped separate news organizations, journalists, politicians, celebrities, and other public figures from imposters was nixed in favor of a blue checkmark that cost $8. While Musk originally allowed accounts who had been verified via the old system to keep their checks, he removed them from all non-paying accounts on April 20th. It was the end of an era for Twitter, which had relied on verification to keep users safe from fake news (and people) on the platform.

Cockroach on the Met Gala red carpet

Credit: @vulture

2023’s Met Gala theme celebrated the work of late designer Karl Lagerfeld, but his signature palette of white, black, and tweed resulted in some disappointing red carpet looks. So disappointing in fact, that Vulture’s photo of a nasty little party crasher racked up more than 20,000 likes over the course of the night.

Super Mario movie uploaded to Twitter

Credit: Universal

In another Musk-era blunder, Twitter announced it would allow Blue subscribers (those that pay for a blue checkmark, among other benefits) to upload videos as long as two hours to the site. Meme account @vidsthatgohard seized the moment, uploading the entirety of the newly released Super Mario Bros. movie.

The film had already been the butt of online jokes for a while, because you can’t hire Chris Pratt to play famously Italian plumber Mario and not have people make fun of it. The video was eventually taken down and @vidsthatgohard’s account suspended — but not before it was viewed more than nine million times.

‘This Barbie’

It’s a Barbie world, and we’re just living in it.
Credit: Warner Bros.

On April 4, the movie’s official Twitter account posted for the first time, sharing an official trailer and images of 24 characters. Most had unique taglines that proved that while Barbie “is everything” — from pilot to President — her amorous counterpart is “just Ken.” Fans could visit BarbieSelfie.ai to become their own Barbie or Ken, and Twitter and Instagram timelines were soon flooded with custom images of friends, coworkers, and celebs proclaiming that “this Barbie” was “hungry” or “grievously underpaid” or some other clever play on the trend.

Barbenheimer

Credit: Photo by CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images

All of that Barbie obsession came before the movie was even released. But it was, to be clear, released the same day as Oppenheimer, causing more than 200,000 to purchase tickets to see Barbie and Oppenheimer on the same day, according to the National Association of Theatre Owners. There were fights about which movie you should see first, there were outfits, and there were many, many posts on X.

Chinese spy balloon

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a Chinese spy balloon! Between January 28 and February 4, citizens of Canada and the U.S. had something hanging over their heads — literally — as a white balloon the size of three buses floated its way across their airspace. The inflatable was shot down off the coast of South Carolina, and debris analysis by the military revealed that it had been used for surveillance, despite the Chinese government’s claims that it was merely a civilian airship blown off course.

SNL gave the balloon the sympathetic treatment, humanizing it as a haggard ocean-hater.

The Succession series finale

Credit: HBO

It felt like the entire internet (or maybe just Twitter) held its collective breath to find out which Roy sibling would ascend to the Waystar Royco throne during Succession’s 90-minute finale in May. It was hard to say goodbye not just to the critically acclaimed series, but the internet culture that surrounded it. From babygirl-ing eldest boy Kendall to memeing moments from the show for tens of thousands of likes, Succession fans were online and obsessed. The fandom proved that half the fun of loving a show is geeking out with the people you love it with.

Sheepish Kevin James

Tweet may have been deleted

Kevin James of King of Queens fame brought us something new this year: a sheepish meme that occasionally included two big ol’ titties. One of James’s old headshots resurfaced this year and the internet ran with it. It definitely got out of hand, but it’s also…very fun.

Angela Bassett Did The Thing

Credit: Photo by Stuart Wilson/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA

I had never actually watched the BAFTAs, and I am not familiar with Arianna DeBose’s work but that all changed after her very memorable performance at the award show this year. She presented a medley of Eurythmics’ “Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves” and Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family,” before ending with a self-composed rap with one particularly standout line: “Angela Bassett did the thing.” It pretty instantly became a viral sensation.

Susi’s crazy store-bought pesto take

Credit: Screenshot / TikTok

If you’re on TikTok, you might know that Susi doesn’t like store-bought pesto, and you can totally call her crazy for that. Susi Vidal, a home-cooking influencer with 3.6 million TikTok followers and over 1.7 million followers on Instagram, posted a video asking viewers to “call me crazy,” because she doesn’t like the aforementioned “store-bought pesto.” I assume the rest of the video is her making pesto at home, but I wouldn’t know because I’ve never seen it. Instead, I’ve watched the thousands of videos stitching her with the craziest things people have ever done.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s ski accident trial

Credit: Photo by Rick Bowmer-Pool/Getty Images

Gwyneth Paltrow has had her viral moments, and this trial fit the trend. She complained that she “lost half a day of skiing.” She served some really great, exceptionally expensive looks in the middle of the “quiet luxury” revival. She won a symbolic $1 decision. The internet watch, the internet made memes, the internet loved it.