50 Fun Facts About 2019 Pop Culture

A stock photo of which food beat Kylie Jenner to become Instagram's most-liked post in January 2019?

An egg held the record for almost four years, until Lionel Messi's World Cup celebration photo overtook it in December 2022.

A coffee cup left on a banquet table became a viral 2019 blooper for which HBO fantasy series?

Game of Thrones had the cup digitally erased two days after the episode aired; it had come from a local café rather than a big chain.

Which film's nine-year reign as the highest-grossing movie ever did Avengers: Endgame end in 2019?

Avatar took the crown back in March 2021, when a re-release in China pushed its total past the Marvel film again.

Which rapper's country-trap hit 'Old Town Road' spent 19 straight weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100?

Lil Nas X bought the beat online for $30 and recorded the song in a single day, then watched it take off on TikTok.

Which chain's chicken sandwich sold out nationwide in 2019 after a Twitter spat with Chick-fil-A?

Popeyes ran out nationwide about two weeks after the launch and did not bring the sandwich back until November.

Which secretive US military site did two million Facebook users jokingly pledge to storm in 2019?

Area 51 saw only about 1,500 people actually turn up, most of them for two small music festivals in nearby Nevada towns.

Which children's song became the Washington Nationals' rally anthem on their 2019 title run?

Baby Shark arrived as Nationals player Gerardo Parra's walk-up music, picked up from his young daughter, and fans were soon doing the shark clap after every hit.

Which fruit, duct-taped to a wall by Maurizio Cattelan, sold as art for $120,000 in December 2019?

A banana was all it took, and performance artist David Datuna then pulled it off the gallery wall and ate it, calling the stunt Hungry Artist.

Which Sandra Bullock thriller inspired a blindfold 'challenge' that Netflix begged fans to stop in 2019?

Bird Box fans filmed themselves doing chores, and even driving, with their eyes covered, and a Utah teenager crashed a car trying it.

Which failed 1985 soft drink did Coca-Cola briefly revive in 2019 as a Stranger Things tie-in?

New Coke returned because the show's third season is set in 1985, the year the reformulated cola first reached shelves.

Which singer's 'Bad Guy' made her the first artist born in the 21st century to top the Hot 100?

Billie Eilish went on to sweep all four major Grammy categories for her 2019 work, the first woman ever to do so in a single night.

Which singer's 'Truth Hurts' hit number one in 2019, two years after its original release?

Lizzo owed the late surge to TikTok and to the Netflix film Someone Great, which featured the 2017 song.

Which band reunited after six years apart in 2019 and scored a first Hot 100 number one with 'Sucker'?

Jonas Brothers cast their real-life partners in the video, among them Priyanka Chopra and Sophie Turner.

Which pop star became the first solo artist to hold all of the Hot 100's top three spots, in 2019?

Ariana Grande did it with three singles from her album Thank U, Next, matching a feat last managed by the Beatles in 1964.

Which manager's purchase of Big Machine Records in 2019 began Taylor Swift's fight over her masters?

Scooter Braun's deal pushed Swift to announce she would re-record her first six albums and own the new masters herself.

Which duet did Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper sing at the 2019 Oscars, where it won Best Original Song?

Shallow jumped ten places on the UK singles chart after the pair walked hand in hand from their seats to the stage to sing it.

Which K-pop group became the first Korean act to headline London's Wembley Stadium in June 2019?

BTS also became the first K-pop act to play Saturday Night Live that spring, and at Wembley singer Jin led the crowd in Freddie Mercury's 'ay-oh' chant.

Which former Fifth Harmony singer joined Shawn Mendes on the 2019 chart-topping duet 'Señorita'?

Camila Cabello had teamed with Mendes once before, on 2015's 'I Know What You Did Last Summer', and the reunion topped charts in dozens of countries.

Which band's 2019 Super Bowl halftime show included a brief tribute to SpongeBob SquarePants?

Maroon 5 added the clip after a fan petition asked for the song 'Sweet Victory' to honour the cartoon's late creator, Stephen Hillenburg.

Which famous music festival's 50th-anniversary revival was cancelled in 2019 after losing its venue?

Woodstock 50 was meant for the Watkins Glen racetrack in New York, shrank from three days to one, and was called off about two weeks before showtime.

Which comic-book film won Venice's Golden Lion and became the first R-rated movie to gross $1 billion?

Joker star Joaquin Phoenix lost 52 pounds for the role, and the New York staircase where he dances is now known as the Joker Stairs.

Which Bong Joon-ho thriller about two Seoul families became the first Korean film to win the Palme d'Or?

Parasite won by a unanimous jury vote, then became the first film not in the English language to take the Best Picture Oscar.

Which Toy Story 4 newcomer, a craft project made by Bonnie, keeps trying to throw himself in the trash?

Forky is a spork Bonnie decorates at kindergarten orientation, and he suffers an existential crisis, seeing himself as rubbish rather than a toy.

Which star played stunt double Cliff Booth in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood?

Brad Pitt won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the part, playing loyal sidekick to a fading Western star named Rick Dalton.

Which 2019 whodunit introduced Daniel Craig as detective Benoit Blanc, hired after a novelist's death?

Knives Out was written and directed by Rian Johnson, and it proved such a hit that Blanc returned for further mysteries.

Which director of Netflix's The Irishman said in 2019 that Marvel films were 'not cinema'?

Martin Scorsese compared the superhero films to theme park rides, then expanded the argument in a New York Times op-ed.

Which stage musical became a 2019 film that covered stars like Judi Dench and Idris Elba in digital fur?

Cats reached cinemas with glitches, including a shot of Judi Dench's human hand and wedding ring, so the studio sent out an improved version days later.

Which comedian gave up hosting the 2019 Oscars over old tweets, leaving the ceremony with no host at all?

Kevin Hart's exit made it the first Academy Awards telecast to go without a host since 1989.

Which Crazy Rich Asians star led The Farewell, a 2019 film about a family hiding a grandmother's illness?

Awkwafina won a Golden Globe for playing Billi, whose relatives stage an impromptu wedding as an excuse to gather and say goodbye.

Which director played a boy's imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler, in his own 2019 satire Jojo Rabbit?

Taika Waititi won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film, which follows a ten-year-old Hitler Youth member in wartime Germany.

Which HBO drama starring Jared Harris and Emily Watson won 2019's Emmy for best limited series?

Chernobyl cast Harris as Valery Legasov, the real scientist brought in to aid the cleanup after the 1986 nuclear disaster.

Which British series featuring Andrew Scott as the 'Hot Priest' won the 2019 Emmy for best comedy?

Fleabag began as a one-woman show at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe and became the first British series to win the top comedy Emmy.

Which former Disney Channel star played recovering teen addict Rue Bennett in HBO's 2019 drama Euphoria?

Zendaya went on to win the lead actress Emmy for the role, in a series adapted from an Israeli drama of the same name.

Which actor played monster hunter Geralt of Rivia when Netflix launched The Witcher in December 2019?

Henry Cavill, best known as Superman, held the role for three seasons before Liam Hemsworth took over.

Which professional sports gambler won 32 straight games of Jeopardy! between April and June 2019?

James Holzhauer won more than $2.4 million in 33 appearances, falling just short of Ken Jennings's regular-play winnings record.

Which Auto-Tune pioneer was unmasked as the Monster when he won the first US season of The Masked Singer?

T-Pain beat Donny Osmond's Peacock and Gladys Knight's Bee in the final, and released a surprise album, 1UP, the day he was unmasked.

Which tidying expert's 2019 Netflix series urged viewers to keep only belongings that 'spark joy'?

Marie Kondo's show arrived on New Year's Day, and US charity shops such as Goodwill reported a rise in donations as viewers cleared out.

Which 2019 HBO series starring Regina King as a masked detective depicted the 1921 Tulsa race massacre?

Watchmen continued the 1980s graphic novel in present-day Oklahoma, where police hide their identities behind masks.

Which Full House actress was charged with her husband in 2019's college admissions bribery scandal?

Lori Loughlin, the sitcom's Aunt Becky, was dropped by the Hallmark Channel within days and later served two months in prison.

Which brand's 2019 holiday ad, in which a husband gives his wife an exercise bike, drew criticism?

Peloton saw its ad parodied within weeks, when the same actress, Monica Ruiz, starred in a gin commercial called 'The Gift That Doesn't Give Back'.

Which country singer's Golden Hour was named Album of the Year at the Grammys in February 2019?

Kacey Musgraves tied Childish Gambino for the most wins of the night with four, and her album climbed back into the top ten the following week.

Which one-word theme, taken from a 1964 Susan Sontag essay, set the dress code for the 2019 Met Gala?

Camp came from Sontag's essay 'Notes on Camp', and the gala's co-chairs included Lady Gaga, Harry Styles and Serena Williams.

Which name did Kim Kardashian give her 2019 shapewear line until Kyoto's mayor asked her to reconsider?

Kimono Intimates drew the hashtag #KimOhNo as well as the mayor's letter, so the company was renamed Skims.

Which Pose star became the first openly gay Black man to win a lead acting Emmy, in September 2019?

Billy Porter had already turned heads that February, arriving at the Oscars in a tuxedo jacket worn over a velvet gown by Christian Siriano.

Which country won Eurovision 2019 in Tel Aviv with Duncan Laurence's song 'Arcade'?

The Netherlands had not won since 1975, and Laurence triumphed without topping either the jury vote or the public televote.

Which FromSoftware game about a shinobi called Wolf won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2019?

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is set in a fictional Sengoku-era Japan, and its director Hidetaka Miyazaki, of Dark Souls fame, collected the award.

Which Australian former busker's 'Dance Monkey' reached number one in more than 30 countries?

Tones and I wrote it about the pressure of entertaining street crowds, and it broke an Australian chart record that Bing Crosby's 'White Christmas' had held since 1943.

Which actress is crowned May Queen by a Swedish cult in Ari Aster's 2019 horror film Midsommar?

Florence Pugh had a breakout 2019, also playing the wrestler Paige in Fighting with My Family and Amy March in Little Women.

Which Orange Is the New Black star keeps dying and reliving one night in Netflix's Russian Doll?

Natasha Lyonne also co-created the show with Leslye Headland and Amy Poehler, and it earned her an Emmy nomination for lead actress.

Which teen trend of 2019 featured scrunchies, Hydro Flask bottles and oversized T-shirts?

VSCO girls became such a meme that TikTok added a filter for the look in August 2019, complete with a sticker-covered water bottle and a side ponytail.