Viral Moments Everyone References

These are the moments people reference without explaining, because they assume everyone was there. Now you were.

The YouTube era

Charlie Bit My Finger (2007): A British toddler bites his brother's finger. One of YouTube's first mega-viral videos. In 2021 the family sold it as an NFT for about $760,000.

Gangnam Style (2012): PSY's horse-riding dance took over the planet. It was the first YouTube video to pass 1 billion views. Two years later it had been watched so many times that YouTube had to upgrade its view counter to handle bigger numbers.

The challenge era

The Ice Bucket Challenge (2014): Dump ice water on your head, donate, tag three friends. Everyone from Bill Gates to LeBron did it. The ALS Association raised over $100 million in about a month, and that money funded research that helped identify a gene linked to the disease.

The Dress (2015): A photo of a dress that some people saw as white and gold and others as blue and black. It split friend groups and families. It was blue and black.

Storm Area 51 (2019): A joke Facebook event to "raid" the secret military base got about 2 million RSVPs. On the day, a few thousand people showed up, mostly to party in the Nevada desert.

The meme celebrities

"Cash me ousside" (2016): Danielle Bregoli's catchphrase from an episode of Dr. Phil went so viral that she became a rapper, Bhad Bhabie.

Bernie's mittens (2021): A photo of Senator Bernie Sanders sitting cross-legged in big knitted mittens at the presidential inauguration got photoshopped into everything. His campaign sold merch of it and raised money for charity.

Hawk Tuah (2024): A clip from a street interview turned Haliey Welch into an overnight celebrity with her own podcast. A memecoin launched in her name crashed within hours.

The 2024–2025 wave

Moo Deng (2024): A baby pygmy hippo at a zoo in Thailand who became the internet's favorite angry baby.

Chill guy (2024): A cartoon dog in a grey sweater, hands in pockets, totally unbothered. It's used for anyone acting relaxed in a situation they shouldn't be.

Labubu (2025): Pop Mart's toothy little monster dolls, sold in blind boxes and clipped onto designer bags. After BLACKPINK's Lisa was seen with them, people queued for hours and resold them for crazy prices.

Aura farming (2025): A kid dancing coolly at the front of a racing boat in an Indonesian festival went viral. "Aura farming", meaning doing something to look effortlessly cool, became the phrase of the summer.

6-7 (2025): Kids everywhere started yelling "six seven" and doing a see-saw hand motion. It traces back to Skrilla's song "Doot Doot (6 7)" and basketball edits. It doesn't mean anything, and that's the point. Dictionary.com made it their Word of the Year.