2019 has been a long year, and personally, I’m ready for a nap. Between work, maintaining a social life, and staying caught up on seven different Real Housewives franchises, there isn’t much room in my brain our brains for miscellaneous info. Because of that, random pop culture happenings tend to leave our collective consciousness as fast as they enter (except Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello kissing, sadly we can’t unsee that).
You probably remember a lot of the highlights of this year, from Miley and Liam’s breakup to approximately seven million celeb weddings, but that’s not all that happened in 2019. This year came with lots of random moments in pop culture, from relationships to babies to memes that were just too easily forgotten. Here are all the 2019 moments that you definitely already forgot about.
1. Fiji Water Girl
Does the name “Kelleth Cuthbert” ring a bell? Honestly, probably not, and that’s okay. I’ve worked hard to purge the word “shook” from my vocabulary, but I was 100% shook when I realized that the Fiji Water Girl was from the 2019 Golden Globes. As in, the one that happened this year. Kelleth, whose Instagram bio somehow doesn’t mention Fiji, has 200k followers, and her modeling career seems to be going well. After the Golden Globes, she actually sued Fiji, claiming that they were using her image without properly compensating her. They sued her back, and that was basically the last anyone heard of it. And somehow, all of this has been within the last year. Weird.
2. Psalm West
Oh yeah, Kim and Kanye did have a baby this year! Their fourth child, Psalm, was born via surrogate in May, and while none of our name predictions were exactly right, we did guess that they would go with something religious. And if you can’t remember if Khloé and Kylie had their babies this year, nope, that was 2018. There really are too many Kardashian babies to keep track of, but god damn it, we can try our best.
3. Andy From Fyre Festival
Lots of weird things have happened in 2019, but nothing else was weird in the same way as Netflix and Hulu releasing competing documentaries about Fyre Festival literally one week apart. While it was fascinating to get an inside look at the f*cked up planning of the event and the even more f*cked up mind of Billy McFarland, the most important thing to come out of this whole cultural event was a meme. Specifically, Andy King saying that he was prepared to suck d*ck for water. You just can’t make this sh*t up.
4. Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper’s Oscar Performance
Remember that three-week period where everyone couldn’t stop talking about how Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga definitely wanted to f*ck each other? That was 2019, baby! They already looked like they were in love during their A Star Is Born press tour, but the rumors reached a fever pitch after their, um, passionate performance at this year’s Academy Awards. Every body language expert in the world scrambled to analyze Irina Shayk’s reactions, and it wasn’t surprising when she announced her split from Bradley just a few months later. Now, it really does seem like Bradley and Gaga were just friends (and compelling actors) all along, but a little part of all of us will always be… far from the shallow.
5. Pete Davidson & Kate Beckinsale
https://twitter.com/septimbers/status/1196642111090761730
Okay, let’s straighten out the Pete Davidson timeline for a second, because he’s been a busy man for the last couple of years. The whole thing with Ariana Grande happened LAST YEAR. 2018. My coworker really thought it happened in 2019, and I had to double check to make sure I wasn’t in the Sunken Place. This year, Pete was busy dating a wide variety of women, but most notably Kate Beckinsale. Their public romance only lasted a couple months, but boy, was it strange. These days, Pete’s moved on to the barely-legal Kaia Gerber, and Kate’s moved on to… well, IDK, I don’t really keep up with her. I hope she’s doing well!
6. All The Jordyn Woods Drama
Okay, let’s be real, you probably didn’t forget about this, but it really deserves one more moment in the spotlight. Basically, the entire world collectively lost its mind after Kylie’s BFF Jordyn was spotted leaving a late-night hangout with Khloé’s baby daddy, Tristan Thompson. To be honest, I don’t know if there’s ever been a more scandalous story. Jordyn moved out of Kylie’s house, Khloé dumped Tristan’s pathetic ass, and we all actually got tricked into watching Red Table Talk. I still can barely believe all of this actually happened.
7. The Starbucks Cup In ‘Game of Thrones’
https://twitter.com/ItuByNature/status/1197770513684275200
And now, onto the other biggest scandal of the year. Okay, not really, but people were basically acting like the Starbucks cup left on set in Game of Thrones was the end of the world. As an avid GoT-non-watcher, I didn’t really care about this when it happened, and now, eight months later, I certainly don’t care. In fact, I barely even remember this happening. I don’t know if anyone got fired over this, but let’s hope not, because who f*cking cares. But maybe this is why the show got snubbed at the Golden Globes?
8. #FreeBritney
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwnqpG5g7qn/
Am I the only one who forgot what a giant sh*tshow Britney Spears’ personal life was for a second this year? After canceling her Vegas residency to focus on her dad’s health, there were reports that Britney Spears was being held against her will in a mental facility. And then, when she did resurface on social media, we weren’t really sure whether she was posting what she wanted to, or just doing what someone else was telling her. As far as I can tell, we never really got answers about any of this, but I guess our attention spans are too short to keep caring. Love you Brit, hope everything is good!
9. Area 51
https://twitter.com/NATCpod/status/1150784655169347586?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1150784655169347586&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbetches.com%2Fa-roundup-of-the-funniest-area-51-memes%2F
I didn’t really realize Facebook events were still a thing, except for my extra AF friend when it comes to her Ugly Sweater Party, but apparently I was wrong. This summer, millions of people RSVP’d to a Facebook event promising to raid Area 51, with the logic that if everyone tried at once, someone would be bound to make it through and find the top-secret government info about aliens. Of course, the vast majority of them didn’t show up, which is probably why there hasn’t been any crazy news about aliens. The truth is out there!
10. Bella Thorne’s Poetry Book
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0Rtqz0n0yu/
Surprise, bitch! Bet you didn’t remember this, but Bella Thorne released her first book of poems, The Life of a Wannabe Mogul: Mental Disarray. The Amazon page features rave reviews from celebs such as Zendaya, Snoop Dogg, and Lena Dunham, so it’s really a shame that I haven’t gotten myself a copy yet, but Bella, if you want to send me one, let’s get in touch. And don’t forget that this was also the year Bella Thorne made her directorial debut in porn, proving that she really can do it all.
What pop culture moments topped 2019 for you? Please tell me what I forgot that I forgot in the comments, because it really has been a long year.
Images: sloganagain, septimbers, itubynature, natcpod / Twitter; Netflix; britneyspears, bellathorne / Instagram
