80 Fun Facts About 2010s Pop Culture

Which music video became the first on YouTube to reach one billion views, in December 2012?

Its view count later overflowed YouTube's 32-bit counter, forcing the site to upgrade to 64-bit integers.

The Ice Bucket Challenge that flooded social media in summer 2014 raised money to fight which disease?

The challenge raised more than $115 million worldwide in 2014 alone.

The Harlem Shake videos of February 2013 were all set to a track by which producer?

The craze pushed Billboard to start counting YouTube views in the Hot 100, and the song went straight to number one.

In February 2015 the internet split over the colours of "the dress". What colours was it really?

The retailer, Roman Originals, cashed in by making a one-off white and gold version for charity.

Pokémon Go sent millions of players into the streets in July 2016. Which company developed it?

Niantic began as an internal Google startup and previously built the AR game Ingress.

Which toy craze took over school playgrounds in 2017, marketed as a stress reliever?

Many schools banned them within months for being a distraction rather than a focus aid.

Frozen (2013) reigned as the highest-grossing animated film until which 2019 release overtook it?

Frozen took more than $1.28 billion worldwide, a record it held for almost six years.

Avengers: Endgame became the highest-grossing film of all time in July 2019 by overtaking which movie?

Avatar took the crown back in 2021 thanks to a re-release in China.

Game of Thrones ended in May 2019 after how many seasons?

The show ran 73 episodes, and its shortened final season drew a famous fan petition demanding a remake.

Which photo-sharing app did Mark Zuckerberg's company buy for roughly $1 billion in April 2012?

At the time Instagram had about 13 employees and had not made a cent in revenue.

Vine, the six-second looping video app, was shut down in January 2017 by which parent company?

Many Vine stars, from Logan Paul to Shawn Mendes, went on to bigger careers on other platforms.

Which word did Oxford Dictionaries name its Word of the Year for 2013?

Oxford traced the word to an Australian internet forum post from 2002.

Prince William and Catherine Middleton married on 29 April 2011 at which London venue?

Around a million people lined the route between the Abbey and Buckingham Palace on the day.

How many Tony Awards did Hamilton win in 2016 from its record 16 nominations?

The show also collected the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

E. L. James's Fifty Shades of Grey began life as fan fiction of which book series?

The original fan fiction was titled Master of the Universe and starred Edward Cullen and Bella Swan.

Which film was mistakenly announced as Best Picture at the 2017 Oscars?

The presenters had been handed a duplicate Best Actress envelope for Emma Stone.

Ellen DeGeneres's star-packed photo broke the retweet record while she hosted which 2014 event?

The photo of twelve stars was retweeted more than two million times before the ceremony ended.

"Left Shark" became a meme after dancing out of sync behind which singer at the 2015 Super Bowl halftime show?

The shark appeared during "Teenage Dream" and "California Gurls" and was out of step with its Right Shark partner.

Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen, who pulled the game in 2014, is from which country?

Nguyen said he felt guilty about how addictive the game had become, even though it was reportedly earning $50,000 a day in ads.

Which company bought Minecraft developer Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014?

Creator Markus "Notch" Persson left the company the day the deal closed.

Grumpy Cat, the internet's favourite scowl from 2012 onwards, had what real name?

Her permanent frown came from feline dwarfism and an underbite.

The Doge meme is built on a 2010 photo of a Shiba Inu with what name?

Know Your Meme named Doge the top meme of 2013, and the dog later inspired the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.

The disastrous Fyre Festival of 2017 was supposed to take place on an island in which country?

Guests who paid thousands for luxury villas found disaster-relief tents and cheese sandwiches on Great Exuma.

Which pastry chef created the Cronut, the croissant-doughnut hybrid of 2013?

Ansel trademarked the name and launched it on 10 May 2013 at his SoHo bakery in New York.

The viral 2012 short film Kony 2012 was produced by which organisation?

It aimed to make Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony famous enough to be arrested by the end of the year.

Sharknado, the 2013 made-for-TV movie that took over social media, aired on which channel?

It spawned five sequels, the last of which had a time-travel plot.

Serial, the 2014 podcast that turned true crime into a mainstream obsession, was hosted by whom?

Its first season re-examined the murder of Hae Min Lee and the conviction of Adnan Syed.

For 2015, Oxford Dictionaries chose an emoji as its Word of the Year for the first time. Which one?

Oxford found it made up 20 percent of all emoji used in the UK that year.

The 2018 "Yanny or Laurel" audio illusion came from a pronunciation recording made for which website?

An opera singer recorded the word "laurel" in 2007 as one of 200,000 reference pronunciations.

Whose "Old Town Road" spent a record 19 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019?

At one minute 53 seconds, the original was the shortest US number one since 1965.

The version of "Baby Shark" that took over the world was released in 2016 by which South Korean company?

In November 2020 it became the most-viewed YouTube video of all time.

Marie Kondo's KonMari method, a 2010s phenomenon, tells you to keep only the things that do what?

Kondo spent five years as an attendant maiden at a Shinto shrine before becoming a tidying consultant.

How many weeks did Adele's 21 spend at number one on the Billboard 200, a record for the chart?

21 went on to become the best-selling album of the 21st century and won six Grammys.

Lady Gaga's infamous dress at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards was made from what?

The outfit was later displayed at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.

Gotye's 2011 mega-hit "Somebody That I Used to Know" featured guest vocals from which New Zealand singer?

A higher-profile singer pulled out at the last minute, and Kimbra got the part as a replacement.

How much did Rebecca Black's mother pay ARK Music Factory to produce the video for "Friday" in 2011?

The family kept ownership of the master and the video, which became YouTube's most-watched clip of 2011.

Carly Rae Jepsen, whose "Call Me Maybe" was the earworm of 2012, comes from which country?

Manager Scooter Braun signed her to his label after his most famous client tweeted about the song.

Kim Kardashian's 2014 "Break the Internet" cover appeared on which magazine?

The phrase became a lasting catchphrase and the shoot was photographed by Jean-Paul Goude.

Beyoncé's surprise self-titled visual album dropped in December 2013 exclusively through which retailer?

The shock drop pushed the record industry to move Global Release Day from Tuesday to Friday.

Miley Cyrus's much-discussed twerking performance at the 2013 MTV VMAs was a duet with which singer?

The pair performed "We Can't Stop" and "Blurred Lines", and "twerk" became Google's top "what is" search of the year.

In October 2012 Disney paid $4.05 billion for which company, and with it the rights to Star Wars?

Disney paid roughly half in cash and half in stock, and released The Force Awakens three years later.

How many episodes of House of Cards did Netflix drop in one day in February 2013?

It became the first online-only series to earn major Emmy nominations.

Stranger Things, which debuted on Netflix in July 2016, is set in which fictional town?

The Duffer brothers originally pitched the show under the title Montauk, after the Long Island town.

Which network aired Breaking Bad's finale in September 2013?

The spin-off Better Call Saul ran for six seasons on the same network.

Downton Abbey premiered on ITV in 2010. Which American network carried it to a huge US audience?

It became the most successful British costume drama since Brideshead Revisited in 1981.

The Big Bang Theory ended in May 2019 after how many seasons?

Its 279 episodes made it the longest-running multi-camera sitcom in US history at the time.

The 2017 remix of "Despacito" that sent the song to number one in the US featured which Canadian singer?

It was the first Spanish-language song to top the Hot 100 since "Macarena" in 1996.

Fortnite Battle Royale, the free game that took over 2017 and 2018, was made by which studio?

The mode was built in about two months from assets made for Fortnite: Save the World.

Candy Crush Saga launched in April 2012 on which platform before moving to phones?

Its maker, King, went on to launch Soda, Jelly and Friends spin-offs in the same freemium format.

In August 2018 TikTok absorbed which lip-sync video app, merging their accounts into one?

ByteDance had paid nearly $1 billion for the Shanghai-based startup the previous November.

Snapchat launched on iOS in July 2011 under what original name?

Its three Stanford founders relaunched it as Snapchat two months later.

Uber dropped what original name in 2011 after complaints from San Francisco taxi operators?

The idea came from StumbleUpon co-founder Garrett Camp in 2009.

Prince died in April 2016 at his home and recording studio in Minnesota. What was it called?

He was 57 and had accidentally taken counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl.

David Bowie's final album, released two days before his death in January 2016, was called what?

He recorded it in secret in New York in 2015, and it was widely read as a farewell to his fans.

The Mannequin Challenge videos of November 2016 were usually set to "Black Beatles" by which duo?

The trend spread from a Florida high school to the White House and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

"Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)", the dance craze of 2015, was the debut single of which rapper?

The video was made for next to nothing and drew millions of dance covers before Capitol released it.

Which 2010 Pixar sequel was the first animated film ever to gross $1 billion worldwide?

It crossed the mark on its 71st day of release and stayed Pixar's biggest hit until Incredibles 2.

Who played Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games (2012)?

She was cast in March 2011 while still filming X-Men: First Class.

Prince George, the royal baby of July 2013, was born at which London hospital?

He arrived at 4:24 pm on 22 July 2013 and was third in line to the throne.

Black Panther (2018) was the first superhero movie to earn a nomination in which category?

It won three Oscars, the first for any Marvel Cinematic Universe film.

Which Taylor Swift album, released in October 2014, was named after the year she was born?

The album has sold around 14 million copies worldwide, and Swift pulled her catalogue from free streaming services the month after it came out.

Which brand pulled a Kendall Jenner commercial within a day in 2017 after a backlash over its protest imagery?

The ad showed her handing a can to a police officer to calm a demonstration.

Which Ed Sheeran song became the first to reach two billion Spotify streams, in December 2018?

It finished the 2010s as Spotify's most-streamed song of the decade.

Who sang "Let It Go" as Elsa in Frozen?

The songwriters wrote it for her three-octave range, and it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

The 2016 "Damn Daniel" meme kept pointing out Daniel's white shoes from which brand?

The boys ended up on Ellen, where Daniel was given a lifetime supply of the shoes.

Which fad of 2011 involved lying rigid and face down in odd public places and posting the photo online?

Australians had earlier called it "extreme lying down", and the craze faded after a fatal balcony fall in Brisbane.

How much did Google charge its "Explorer" testers for a Google Glass prototype in 2013?

The headset was pulled from consumers in 2015 amid privacy worries and the nickname "Glasshole".

How many consecutive weeks did "Uptown Funk" spend at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2015?

It was finally knocked off by Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again".

The Fyre Festival was dreamed up by Billy McFarland and Ja Rule mainly to promote what?

The Fyre app was meant to let people book artists for private events; the festival was its launch stunt.

The very first Harlem Shake video came from a compilation on which YouTube comedian's show?

The clip featured his costumed character Pink Guy dancing, and thousands of copies followed within days.

Psy's 2012 re-release 'Oppa Is Just My Style' added vocals from which 4Minute member?

The retooled video flips the point of view to a woman's and has itself passed 800 million views.

The 2017 "distracted boyfriend" meme comes from a stock photo by a photographer from which country?

Antonio Guillem shot the image in 2015; it went viral in August 2017 as shorthand for every kind of disloyalty.

"Salt Bae", whose meat-seasoning flourish went viral in January 2017, is a chef from which country?

Nusret Gökçe's Nusr-Et steakhouse chain takes its name from his own name plus "et", the Turkish word for meat.

From which store had "Chewbacca Mom" Candace Payne bought the mask in her 2016 viral video?

The retailer sent her about $2,500 in gift cards after the mask sold out everywhere; the clip became Facebook Live's most-viewed video.

Ylvis, the comedy duo behind 2013's "The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)", come from which country?

Meant as a deliberate flop to promote their talk show, it became YouTube's top trending video of 2013 and hit number six in the US.

In the 2011 Nyan Cat video, the flying cat's body is made of what?

Christopher Torres drew the GIF during a Red Cross donation drive; a YouTuber paired it with a Japanese denpa song three days later.

Roughly how many people actually showed up at Area 51's gates for the 2019 "Storm Area 51" event?

More than two million had clicked "going" on Matty Roberts's joke Facebook event; nobody got inside.

Which craze of summer 2016, banned in many schools, involved landing a partly filled plastic container upright?

Teachers complained about the endless thuds of failed attempts as much as the distraction.

The Tide Pods at the centre of the dangerous 2018 "challenge" are made by which company?

Google and Facebook removed challenge videos and P&G ran ads pleading with people not to eat detergent.

Which comedian's Instagram dance video sparked the 2018 "In My Feelings" (Kiki) challenge?

The craze of dancing beside moving cars helped push Drake's song to number one for ten weeks.