2025 has been an eventful yet eccentric year for popular culture. Thinking back over the past 12 months, here are some of the most internet-shattering and memorable events that extended beyond the confines of pop culture and had a profound impact on cultural identity, socio-political deliberations, economy, and tech-culture.#1 The arrival of Ghibli AI artOne of the most pivotal trends that marked the 2025 pop-cultural trajectory was the surge of AI-generated, Studio Ghibli-style images flooding social media feeds. The trend emerged when OpenAI launched its GPT-4o model update, enabling netizens to transform personal images into animated versions, emulating the artistic style of the Japanese animation studio.As ChatGPT showed off its supposedly innocent image generation capabilities, darker sides of the social media trend became apparent. Cybersecurity experts cautioned users of the privacy concerns AI-tools posed, citing vague terms of services, prevalence of deepfakes, and leakage of facial data and inscribed metadata such as location coordinates and timestamps.However, the rush of eye-catching results, fast interactions, viral filters, accessible platforms, and seemingly harmless digital exchanges, often overshadow pragmatic decision-making, exposing users to unprecedented vulnerabilities. The risk of data breach looms larger now than ever owing to the irreversible nature of shared biometrics data.Furthermore, this trend normalised providing AI-bots access to something as personal as private camera rolls, popularised and propagated by high-profile celebrities and politicians jumping on the trend. Several public figures shared animated photographs of themselves, bolstering the netizens to follow suit.Regardless of its deep-rooted impact on contemporary popular culture, Ghibli AI art inherently mocks human creativity by providing readily available copies of hand-drawn masterpieces. The organic warmth and whimsy which made Hayao Miyazaki’s art so popular is all but reduced to trite duplicates, endangering authenticity, and the raw, genuine appreciation of human experience.Image shared by the official BJP X account, pushing propaganda while appealing to the aesthetic, Photo: @BJP4India, X.#2 The 11-minute Blue Origin flight to (the edge of) spacePop-star Katy Perry’s contentious trip to space – along with CBS anchor Gayle King, aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, activist and bioastronautics researcher Amanda Nguyen, producer Kerianne Flynn, and journalist and Jeff Bezos’ then-fiancee Lauren Sánchez – drew widespread criticism and rolling news coverage from left and right-wing media alike, making the ‘feminist mission’ one of most talked-about cultural flashpoints of 2025.On April 14, 9:30 AM, EDT, the all-women crew boarded Bezos’ Blue Origin Shepard rocket for what was dubbed as a ‘milestone for women in space.’ The livestream launch received vehement criticism, with critics deriding the loose usage of the term ‘astronauts’ while female professionals who have spent decades training for space missions remain anonymous.Perry did not help the PR debacle with performative statements such as “putting the ass in astronaut” and tone-deaf claims that she “couldn’t recommend this experience more,” given that only the mega-rich iota of society can afford an almost-10-minute sojourn to space. A significant fraction of the criticism centred on the emphasis the crew put on glamour – a trend increasingly associated with billionaire-led space tourism ventures.There is no question regarding the relentless scrutiny women face while existing in the public eye. Yet, not all backlash was sexist in nature. The event cannot be labelled as a ‘feminist milestone’ through any interpretation of the concept, rather serving as a joyride for the uber-rich, performatively disguised as empowerment. At a time when gender equality is at an all time low in the United States with reproductive care being rolled back and wealth inequality disproportionately impacting women, the equivalence of a billionaire-funded trip to a ‘feminist win’ seems absurd.Katy Perry kissing the ground after her flight in Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-31, Photo: Blue Origin, YouTube.#3 The India-Pakistan meme war India launched “Operation Sindoor” on May 7, targeting terrorist hotspots in Pakistan and POK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir), in retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attacks which claimed 26 civilian lives. The India-Pakistan conflict reached a troubling standpoint in May, with India organising mock war drills and issuing emergency warnings, engendering feelings of mass anxiety and fear. However, an unprecedented “memefication of war” on platforms like Instagram and X quickly gained traction, dispelling the tense atmosphere and providing a humorous respite.As news of the operation spread online, media feeds were flooded with a hilarious meme frenzy– Indians and Pakistanis collaborating in a unique form of warfare, providing unexpected comfort in troubling times. The Internet was abuzz with jokes shared between the two nuclear-armed nations, creators engaging in what was termed as “fifth generation warfare.” Although the countries continued to exchange fire and maintained strained geopolitical ties – with India threatening to cut off Pakistan’s water supply – the developments merely served to create entertaining mayhem, fuelling more memes.In contrast to the April attack when Indian media was dominated by patriotic sloganeering and civilian outrage, the May conflict observed a starkly different course. The conflict set forth a new realm of “hashtag politics,” where memes became a tool of influence, contestation, and digital diplomacy.They established themselves as veritable soft power, contextualising global events and simultaneously humanising the supposed ‘enemy.’ Memes were effectively used as channels of cultural identity and political discourse, bypassing conventional debates to appeal to the human side of the dispute. Apart from emotional resonance, memes also enabled cross-country dialogue, several users making an attempt to spread the message that wars are fought between countries and never the people.A number of Pakistani nationals offered their condolences after the Pahalgam attack and several responded good-naturedly to India’s threat of cutting off water supply in May, shifting the narrative from animosity to snarky, humour-based camaraderie. Thus, the memefication of the India-Pak war was an unanticipated yet refreshing addition to digital diplomacy, underlining the impact of popular culture on shaping political communication.#4 Consumerism as the final boss: The Labubu craze The distinctive monster-like grin of Labubus – fluffy, elfish creatures with serrated teeth – has become commonplace across social media platforms, red carpets, and fashion houses alike. The Labubu hashtag alone generated over 1.4 million TikTok videos, massively boosting sales and incrementing revenue to almost double for its parent company, Pop Mart.Inspired by characters from Nordic folklore and European fairytales, artist Kasing Lung created the design in 2016, envisioning a character which invokes collective childhood memories while resonating with publics across cultural boundaries. The Labubu mania has managed to achieve exactly that by tapping into consumer psychology, nostalgia, and the digital age’s vulnerability to designating objects as social status symbols.Critics have brought attention to phenomena such as the “lipstick effect”– an economic theory which proposes a rise in “mini luxuries” consumerism during times of recession and inflation. People prefer spending $50 dollars on a luxury mini-good (embodied by $40 Labubu collectibles) as forms of emotional survival when long-term economic goals seem implausible in an anxious economy.Hyper-cute collectibles fuel comfort consumerism; the thrill of blind boxes and rare editions driving micro-trends such as 24-carat gold or even a life-sized Labubu. The image of the viral toy on Karl Marx’s grave in Highgate Cemetery, inscribed with the words “workers of all lands unite,” has got to be one of the most ironic yet poignant manifestations of late-stage capitalism. Marx theorised the diminishing value of usefulness in a commodified world, in lieu of market power and symbolic meaning. Commodity fetishism and the power attributed to inanimate toys in establishing social in and out-groups epitomises the very idea.Despite the early popularisation of Labubus by celebrities and the uber-rich, mainstream adoption of the toys paradoxically signals the end of their cultural cachet. Fashion, especially social status-driven consumerism, moves fast. As soon as a commodity becomes accessible to wider publics, it loses its exclusivity and consequently, its social value, merely serving to fill already-overflowing landfills and oceans.The Labubu doll left among letters and flowers on German philosopher Karl Marx’s grave in London, Photo: The Straits Times, Screengrab from TikTok, Roisin.#5 Performative male summerFrom the release of the critically acclaimed drama series, Adolescence, to the onset of the “performative male” epidemic, 2025 has been an eventful year for delineating what it means to be masculine in the modern world.What it means to be a “performative male”The term came to the forefront of popular media when Instagram reels started to highlight examples of disingenuous attempts by men at acting as feminists. Social theorist Judith Butler popularly argued that gender is a performance. The “performative male summer” trend is the direct embodiment of this statement.Rooted in a deep-seated desire to appease and grab attention, the trend calls out insincere acts of choosing to surround oneself with strategically curated items, ranging from pop cultural references, to ‘woke aesthetics’ like carrying tote bags and wired earphones, performatively reading in public spaces, listening to carefully selected artists like Clairo, and drinking matcha tea. Based on online validation, gender norms, pop culture, social media algorithms, and trends, “performative male summer” characterises how much of modern existence has become focused on being seen.“Performative male” is often seen as the masculine counterpart to the feminine “pick me” culture as both behaviours are driven by core motivations of validation and approval. While performative male culture is based on feminist performativity and pseudo-wokeness, pick me trends derive from self-depreciation and adulation to appeal to the male ego. These trends are usually popularised by men and women disparaging and roasting such behaviours, inadvertently and ironically setting the murky boundaries for what connotes as acceptable and what crosses the line into being cringey.Men deceptively pandering to feminism is problematic, however, so is condemning men for engaging in conventionally feminine behaviour. Both discourage any substantive move toward inculcating gender parity and imbibing the true virtues of feminism, without using it as a ploy to fulfil pop cultural fantasies. Participation in the online sphere comes with scrutiny; making evident the drawbacks of forgetting that all gender is performative at a time when the society is trying to break past the binary.Photograph from a performative male contest held at Wicker Park on 9 August 2025, the winning prize being a coupon to Homebody Matcha, Photo: Hailey Hoffman for Block Club Chicago.#6 Coldplaygate On July 16, a Coldplay Kiss Cam video went viral on TikTok, amassing 100 million views within days. The video recorded Astronomer’s chief people officer, Kristin Cabot, and CEO, Andy Byron, in an intimate position, watching the concert with their arms around each other while married to other people. The pair were called out by the band’s lead singer, Chris Martin, after they quickly ducked out of the frame.The incident became an epicentre of a corporate crisis with Cabot and Byron resigning from their positions and divorcing their partners. One cannot go to a huge concert and expect anonymity, yet the scandal is a jarring reminder of the state of surveillance we live in and the internet’s insatiable appetite for public shaming, speculation, and backlash. The awkward moment was quickly turned into public moral judgement and endless memes, people enacting the seconds-long clip at later concerts and kiss cams.Both faced immense public humiliation but, unsurprisingly, it was Cabot who was put through relentless criticism over the ordeal. Months after the clip went viral, Cabot opened up about the emotional toll the scandal took on her family, the death threats she received, the imposed labels of being a ‘gold digger,’ and how people believed she “slept her way” to her professional achievements, making it invariably hard to find employment again. She talked about how her children were afraid of stepping out of the house, fearful of the backlash they would face, and being unsure about how to protect her family.Cabot has decided to reclaim the narrative by taking onus of her actions and setting the record straight. She claimed that paparazzi caped outside her house for weeks and random people would come up to her in public to criticise her behaviour. Although Cabot and Byron were equally responsible for their actions and entitled to their privacy, a misogynistic and genderised society defaulted to trolling the woman – calling her her names, scrutinising her appearance, labelling her as insufficiently pretty, and doxxing her with hundreds of phone calls weeks after the ordeal.Screengrabs from the viral video dubbed as #coldplaygate, Photo: TikTok.#7 Anti-corruption protestsA black manga flag, featuring a straw-hat-wearing, pirate-style skull, hanging on the gilded gates of the burning Singha Durbar palace became one of the most widely circulated images in September this year.On September 4, the Nepalese government imposed a ban on major social media sites, catalysing the mass protests of September 8 and 9. Thousands of mostly GenZ protesters took to the streets; questions of digital rights evolving into expressions of broader frustrations spurred on by years of corruption, unemployment, stalled infrastructure, and attempts at curbing criticism.The initially peaceful protests, however, escalated into violent altercations after the security forces killed 19 protesters and injured hundreds. This unlawful use of force agitated an already aggrieved generation, disillusioned with empty promises of democracy and development. What followed was one of the largest youth-led protests with several politicians, including the Prime Minister, stepping down, and government buildings along with residences of leaders being vandalised.In the midst of this chaos, the cartoon flag, originating from the 1997 Japanese Manga One Piece, emerged as a symbol of youth-led resistance, transcending borders and languages. During the span of the protests the flag appeared in multimodal forms, donning creative appropriations: some photoshopped images of corrupt political leaders in One Piece’s “wanted posters” while others incorporated the flag into protest banners. Media coverage further amplified the flag’s visibility, propelling it into the digital sphere.The flag has appeared in a myriad youth-led movements across Indonesia, Philippines, Peru, Madagascar, and Mexico, often linked to anti-government sentiments. Such enthusiastic engagement with the manga’s broader socio-political and anti-autocracy themes reflects how pop-cultural infrastructures can embody channels of political mobilisation.Protestors celebrate in front of a parliament building after it was set on fire during a protest in Kathmandu, Nepal, on 9 September, 2025, Photo: AP Photo, Prakash Timalsina.#8 The language after Charlie Kirk’s assassinationRight-wing American activist, Charlie Kirk, 31, was fatally shot in the neck while speaking on behalf of Turning Point USA at the Utah Valley University on September 10 while sitting under a sign that read “Prove me wrong.” Kirk co-founded Turning Point USA, a student organisation aimed at promulgating conservative ideas on college campuses, at the age of eighteen. Famous for his combative style and right-wing Christian worldview, Kirk had been a leading voice for the Maga (Make America Great Again) youth and a staunch supporter of Donald Trump.With more than 5 million followers on X and another 7 million on TikTok, Kirk played a vital part in mobilising youth vote during the recent US Presidential elections. A favourite of Trump, the conservative activist often trended on social media platforms for his extremist takes and willingness to argue in conventionally hostile settings. The most recent set of videos that brought Kirk to the limelight were his debates with left-leaning students at the University of Cambridge and University of Oxford.He could be seen defending right-wing Christian stances and taking on controversial topics such as reproductive and LGBTQIA+ rights, holding his ground despite being proven wrong time and again. His contentious politics and fundamentalist statements have drawn widespread criticism over the past years, claiming problematic stances on sensitive topics such as racism and school shootings while evading evident labels – a practice similarly employed by Trump.Hoping to pioneer a new model for conservative political advocacy, his death garnered significant attention with mixed reactions. While the right-wing mourned the loss of their new-age champion, several were unafraid to refuse parading his death as an act of ‘martyrdom,’ cognisant of his hateful ideas propagated under the guise of “encouraging dialogue.”Kirk was widely considered a generational figure by many, redefining conservative politics advocacy and impacting GenZ culture for his followers and allies. His death opened avenues for doubling down on “left-wing extremism” and curtailing free speech– Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show was suspended for comments deemed offensive to Kirk. Nevertheless, the fact that Kirk’s assassination video garnered millions of views and his death reportedly led to a spiritual resurgence in parts of the USA, denotes the level of his influence– something that Erica Kirk actively continues to monetise off, months after his death.Charlie Kirk moments before his assasination during Turning Point USA’s visit to Utah Valley University on 10 September, 2025, Photo: Tess Crowley, The Deseret News, AP.#9 The Mamdani masterclass in political PROn November 4, Zohran Mamdani, 34, defeated a former governor to become the first Muslim and South Asian mayor of New York in one of the most highly followed and anticipated mayoral elections. A democratic socialist, Mamdani’s politics deviates sharply from his predecessors, advocating for free bus travel, freezing rents in regulated flats, piloting city-run grocery stores, and providing universal childcare for pre-school children.Focusing on the city’s cost-of-living crisis, Mamdani tailored his campaign to be accessible, repeatable to canvassers, and centred on vast volunteer and door-to-door networks. Dubbed the “internet’s mayor,” a large part of Mamdani’s success can be attributed to the eminence placed on his social media campaign. In an interview with Wired, Mamdani talked about the “social media machine” built by his team, posting interactive short-form content featuring candid conversations with Trump voters or other skeptics. Complemented with a diverse cultural dimension, ranging from videos in Hindi, resurfaced original rap songs, and various endorsements from left-leaning celebrities, the campaign paid the due diligence to the power of popular culture in a post-modernist, digitally-driven society.He understood the importance of talking to diverse groups, considerably increasing youth participation in the voter turnout – 84% women and 67% men between the age groups 18 and 29 voted for Mamdani, as per statistics. Despite facing sustained attacks over his politics and views on the Gaza genocide – Trump calling him a “communist,” and billionaires and Wall Street moguls raising over $40 million to defeat him, Mamdani stuck to the facts, throwing light on the opposition’s shortcomings while staying true to his socialist ideals.Gabriella Zutrau was the brainchild behind Mamdani’s viral ‘Instagram-organising machine,’ racking up thousands of views and DMs through creative yet hard-hitting content. Mastering the ability to connect with a broad electorate, Mamdani presented a favourable and clear promise of an “affordable New York” as opposed to Andrew Cuomo’s vague declarations of turning things around.His influence was not limited to the US but extended thousands of miles with an obsessed Indian media and the left viewing Mamdani as “an authentic representation of modern India.”Zohram Mamdani during victory speech at mayoral election night watch party, Photo: Yuki Iwamura, AP.#10 The internet’s reaction to the Epstein files The push to release the infamous “Epstein files” escalated to an all time high during November this year. Charged political debates dominated news coverage while social media users called for transparency around Epstein’s “associates,” including former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak, Prince Andrew, President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Noam Chomsky, Larry Summers, Michael Jackson, Woody Allen, and Deepak Chopra.The “Epstein files” refer to a collection of records, evidence, and documents collated by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation against Jefferey Epstein, American Financier and convicted sex offender, accused of operating an underage sex trafficking network. Amid hiking pressure, Trump signed the bipartisan ‘Epstein Files Transparency Act (H.R. 4405)’ on November 19, mandating the DOJ to publicly release all non-exempt materials within 30 days.Jeffery Epstein’s email correspondence released by the US government, Photo: Screengrab from jmail.world.Prior to the files’ release, a group of Epstein’s victims had circulated a video sharing pictures of themselves at ages when they had met Epstein, inviting derision over the abhorrent acts committed and the people who enabled them. The video generated widespread social media buzz with people calling out government officials on the delay in implicating Epstein’s various accomplices.The recently released albeit heavily redacted files, display harrowing visuals of girls, as young as fourteen, tied and in positions with Epstein and several others that indicate abuse. Several netizens have uploaded videos discussing the newly released files, demanding justice for the victims, spreading awareness, and denouncing those involved with Epstein.The files have taken the internet by storm. Software developers, Riley Walz and Luke Igel, created jmail.world— a platform replicating Gmail’s interface, allowing users to login as Epstein and surf the released emails —in an attempt to increase public transparency. Such multifaceted digital interaction with the Epstein files emphasises its influence on popular culture and impact on social media activism. Every time another one of Epstein’s accomplice is named, the world is forced to grapple with the macabre truth of how deep these networks run, rich old men protecting the sins of one another.Ritvi Jain is an editorial intern at The Wire. She graduated from Ashoka University in Political Science and Economics. She is interested in conflict studies, high-risk collective action, and identity politics.