50 Fun Facts About 2021 Pop Culture

Which Korean drama about deadly playground contests became Netflix's most-watched series in 2021?

Squid Game was written in 2009, but creator Hwang Dong-hyuk could not find a company to fund it until Netflix took an interest about a decade later.

Which waterway did the container ship Ever Given block for six days in March 2021?

The Suez Canal stayed shut until fourteen Egyptian, Dutch and Italian tugs pulled the 400-metre ship free, after strong winds had wedged it across both banks.

Which senator's mittens and face mask at the January 2021 presidential inauguration became a viral meme?

Bernie Sanders wore mittens made by Vermont teacher Jen Ellis, then sold sweatshirts of the photograph and raised at least $1.8 million for charity.

Which retailer's shares soared in January 2021 as Reddit traders squeezed hedge fund short sellers?

GameStop shares rose so fast that app brokerages such as Robinhood halted buying on January 28, a move that drew dozens of class action lawsuits.

Which sitcom's six stars reunited on HBO Max in May 2021 for an unscripted special?

Friends returned to Stage 24 in Burbank, the Warner Bros. soundstage known as The Friends Stage, where the cast revisited the apartment and Central Perk sets.

Which pop star's conservatorship, in place since 2008, did a Los Angeles judge end in November 2021?

Britney Spears had lived under the arrangement for nearly 14 years, and a New York Times documentary released that February set off a public outcry over it.

Which new name did Facebook's parent company adopt in October 2021 to signal a shift toward virtual reality?

Meta was announced after a period of damaging whistleblower leaks, by a company that had started out in 2004 as TheFacebook, Inc.

Which actor returned beside Andrew Garfield as an earlier Peter Parker in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home?

Tobey Maguire had last played the hero in 2007, and his return helped the film gross $1.92 billion, the biggest box office total of any 2021 release.

Which Disney actress topped the Hot 100 for eight weeks in 2021 with her debut single, Drivers License?

Olivia Rodrigo broke Spotify's record for the most single-day streams of a non-holiday song on only the fourth day after the release.

Which Star Trek actor flew to the edge of space at age 90 aboard a Blue Origin rocket in October 2021?

William Shatner flew as a guest of the company and paid nothing, taking the age record from 82-year-old Wally Funk, who had held it for only three months.

Which British singer returned after six years with the 2021 album 30 and its lead single, Easy on Me?

Adele persuaded Spotify to remove the shuffle button from albums for premium users, arguing that the tracks tell a story in the order she intended.

Which sportswear giant sued over the Satan Shoes, modified sneakers promoted by Lil Nas X in 2021?

Nike won a settlement that made art collective MSCHF offer refunds on the 666 pairs, each priced at $1,018 and said to contain a drop of human blood.

Which singer began re-releasing her early albums in 2021 with new recordings of Fearless and Red?

Taylor Swift made the new versions after her master recordings were sold, and a ten-minute track from the second became the longest chart-topper the Hot 100 had seen.

Which K-pop group's English-language single Butter spent ten weeks atop the Hot 100 in summer 2021?

BTS knocked itself off the top with another single, Permission to Dance, then returned a week later, the first act to displace itself in consecutive weeks.

Which Canadian singer spent $7 million of his own on his Super Bowl halftime show in February 2021?

The Weeknd was the first Canadian solo artist to headline the show, singing in a red blazer in front of a set built to resemble the Las Vegas Strip.

Which rock band won the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest for Italy with the song Zitti e buoni?

Måneskin started out busking on the streets of Rome and came second on Italy's X Factor in 2017, four years before the victory in Rotterdam.

Which Swedish group released Voyage in 2021, its first album of new songs in forty years?

ABBA then staged concerts fronted by digital avatars of the four members, based on how they had looked on their late-1970s tour.

Which duo did Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak form, topping the Hot 100 in 2021 with Leave the Door Open?

Silk Sonic got its name from funk bassist Bootsy Collins, who came up with it after hearing the album and appears on the record as its guest host.

Which kind of traditional song became a TikTok craze in early 2021 after Nathan Evans sang Wellerman?

Sea shanty videos spread so widely that the trend was nicknamed ShantyTok, and a remix of the Scottish singer's cover reached number one in the UK.

Which Dua Lipa song was Billboard's top Hot 100 single of 2021 despite never reaching number one?

Levitating was only the fourth single to lead the year-end chart without a week at the top, and the first since Lifehouse's Hanging by a Moment in 2001.

Which Denis Villeneuve film with Timothée Chalamet hit US cinemas and HBO Max on the same day in 2021?

Dune adapts only the first half of Frank Herbert's novel, and the studios approved the second film only after seeing how the first one opened.

Which film about a woman living in her van won Best Picture at the Oscars held in April 2021?

Nomadland cast real-life nomads as versions of themselves, and it made Chloé Zhao only the second woman to win the directing Oscar.

Which Disney film's same-day debut in cinemas and on Disney+ in July 2021 led its star to sue the studio?

Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson said the release broke her contract, and the suit was settled two months later, reportedly for more than $40 million.

Which actor made his fifth and final appearance as James Bond in No Time to Die, released in 2021?

Daniel Craig first proposed killing off the character in 2006, after the premiere of Casino Royale, and producer Barbara Broccoli agreed.

Which Disney+ series, the first made by Marvel Studios, paid homage to decades of American sitcoms in 2021?

WandaVision shot its first episode in monochrome before a live studio audience, after its makers sought advice from sitcom veteran Dick Van Dyke.

Which Apple TV+ comedy, based on a character from NBC Sports soccer promos, won seven Emmys in 2021?

Ted Lasso earned 20 nominations for its first season, the most for a freshman comedy up to that point, and Jason Sudeikis won for the title role.

Which actress won a 2021 Emmy for playing a small-town Pennsylvania detective in HBO's Mare of Easttown?

Kate Winslet and her castmates were noted for a mostly accurate Philadelphia accent, a dialect seldom heard in mainstream film and television.

Which Big Bang Theory actress began sharing the Jeopardy! hosting job with Ken Jennings in 2021?

Mayim Bialik holds a real doctorate in neuroscience from UCLA, close to the field of her sitcom character, the neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler.

Which HBO satire about wealthy guests at a Hawaiian resort began in 2021 as a six-episode limited series?

The White Lotus was shot at a Four Seasons, the only hotel operator on the islands willing to hand HBO a whole property for 13 weeks.

Which 2021 Disney animated film follows the Madrigals, a Colombian family blessed with magical gifts?

Encanto featured songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and its soundtrack became a breakout hit that reached number one on the Billboard 200 album chart.

Which three-letter kind of digital asset did the artist Beeple sell for $69 million at Christie's in 2021?

NFT stands for non-fungible token, a unique identifier recorded on a blockchain. Beeple's piece was a collage of 5,000 images, one made every day for more than 13 years.

Which cryptocurrency, created as a joke in 2013, rose more than 800 percent in one day in January 2021?

Dogecoin jumped to seven cents after a burst of attention from Reddit users, partly encouraged by Elon Musk, who kept posting about it for years afterwards.

Which puzzle of five-letter guesses, built by a software engineer for his partner, went public in October 2021?

Wordle was made by Welsh engineer Josh Wardle, who cut its word list when his partner struggled with obscure words, and The New York Times bought it in January 2022.

Which stackable item did people climb like a staircase in a risky viral challenge of August 2021?

Milk crates stacked into a wobbly podium caused injuries as serious as broken wrists and torn ligaments, so TikTok blocked searches for the challenge.

Which slang word for off-trend tastes, coined by a Beverly Hills student, spread from TikTok in 2021?

Cheugy was Gaby Rasson's 2013 label for people who were slightly off trend, and a New York Times article eight years later carried it far beyond the app.

Which mental block, nicknamed by gymnasts, led Simone Biles to withdraw from Tokyo Olympic events in 2021?

The twisties make a gymnast lose her sense of position in the air mid-twist, and Biles said she had never before felt them on the uneven bars and balance beam.

Which quarterback won a seventh Super Bowl ring in February 2021, his first with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers?

Tom Brady won it at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, where the Buccaneers became the first team to play a Super Bowl in its own home stadium.

Which sponsor's bottles did Cristiano Ronaldo swap for water at a June 2021 press conference?

Coca-Cola then lost billions in market value and headlines blamed the snub, but the fall was later found to have had nothing to do with him.

Which former fiancé did Jennifer Lopez reunite with in 2021, seventeen years after their first romance ended?

Ben Affleck grew close to her while they filmed the flop Gigli, and the press soon fused the pair's names into the nickname Bennifer.

Which royal couple gave Oprah Winfrey an interview that CBS aired as a prime-time special in March 2021?

Harry and Meghan's interview reportedly cost CBS a license fee of $7 million to $9 million, and it aired in Britain on ITV a day later.

Which video game's universe is the setting for Arcane, the animated Netflix series launched in 2021?

League of Legends maker Riot Games oversaw the series, which was animated by the French studio Fortiche and follows the sisters Vi and Jinx.

Which game about parents trapped inside their daughter's handmade dolls won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2021?

It Takes Two can only be played by two people, online or in split-screen, because director Josef Fares built the whole design around collaboration.

Which Kim's Convenience actor played the martial-arts title hero of Marvel's 2021 film Shang-Chi?

Simu Liu was paid $100 in 2014 to model for stock photos, which later turned up in adverts, in pamphlets and on textbook covers.

Which comedian made the 2021 Netflix special Inside alone in his guest house, without a crew or audience?

Bo Burnham won three Emmys for the special, for its writing, directing and music direction, and later a Grammy for one of its songs.

Which exercise bike brand featured in the death of Mr. Big in the 2021 premiere of And Just Like That?

Peloton answered with an advert narrated by Ryan Reynolds in which the character is alive and well, after its share price had dropped sharply.

Which founder of the Off-White label, Louis Vuitton's menswear chief since 2018, died in November 2021?

Virgil Abloh trained as an architect, first met Kanye West at a Chicago print shop, and kept his 2019 diagnosis of a rare cancer private.

Which anime's film Mugen Train set a North American opening record for foreign-language releases in April 2021?

Demon Slayer took $21.2 million in that opening weekend, after its Japanese run had already made it the highest-grossing film worldwide of 2020.

Which poet read The Hill We Climb at the US presidential inauguration in January 2021?

Amanda Gorman was the youngest poet to read at a presidential inauguration, and weeks later she became the first to perform a poem at the Super Bowl.

Which TikTok trend of September 2021 had students stealing soap dispensers from school bathrooms?

Devious licks began with a box of masks that one user claimed to have taken, and ended with student arrests and TikTok removing the videos.

Which French actor played gentleman thief Assane Diop in Lupin, a Netflix hit released in January 2021?

Omar Sy's series was watched by 76 million households in its first month, more than any non-English Netflix show had managed before it.