Alright, it’s finally time to empty the Google Doc and call it a wrap on 2024 in culture, even though we’re back to the era of surprise news cycles coming toward us at head-spinning speed.
This is one of my favorite posts to write every year as I attempt to leave some document of all the cultural detritus that occupied free real estate in my brain. From movies and more, it was a year marked by many things that started amusingly enough, overstayed their welcome, and eventually came to annoy me. But there were plenty of unabashed joys even amidst the larger pains of living in these frustrating times.
Paid subscribers to Marshall and the Movies get a bonus section of this post: the “Not My Culture” picks. If you want to read those, or just admire the amount of work it takes to catalogue all these things that definitely happened in this calendar year (as far away as many of them may seem), consider bumping up your subscription before 2024 slips away and we enter the second half of the roaring 2020s.
So without further ado, here’s the culture that made me say 2024 was for me:
Ayo Edebiri and Ireland
This is the platonic ideal of something that starts as a weird meme and then blossoms into something wholesome. Please continue including Ayo Edebiri in any list of Irish actors; it brings me joy.
The return of Josh Hutcherson
I think I’ll always feel a certain amount of identification with Josh Hutcherson since we were born two days apart. I’m glad he got some time outside the spotlight but am certainly glad to see him back and having fun. (I still haven’t watched The Beekeeper but it feels like something coming to an elliptical machine near me soon.)
Elmo's tweet and Sesame Street socials
“Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?” 220M+ views later, Elmo found out … not great! But as a social media strategist in my other job, the Sesame team took a post that spiraled beyond its initial intention and became a comfort blanket for the whole Internet. From their pitch-perfect response came future activations with Andrew Garfield (let the waterworks flow) and even an appearance on Chicken Shop Date. Talk about a way to ensure the millennials raised on Sesame Street will keep showing it to their kids by staying relevant!
Cole Escola and Oh, Mary!
I know: I’ve been insufferable all year saying, “Oh, I saw it off-Broadway.” But it’s cool to have been in on the ground level of the most unique Broadway sensation I can ever remember — a wild play reimagining Mary Todd Lincoln as a frustrated wife and aspiring cabaret star. If you can get a ticket, see it! I’ve been so glad to see Cole Escola’s underground humor reaching a wider audience and becoming a genuine cultural phenomenon breaking out beyond the Great White Way.
Chloe Sevigny x New York or Nowhere
Forever my queen of New York. I have memorized Chloe’s perfect anti-L.A. rant as my rationale for not wanting to live there.
Jon Stewart back on The Daily Show
By far my most Resistance-coded behavior is that I waited around every Monday night for the Jon Stewart segments to drop. Still the gold standard in long-form political comedy.
Callum Turner and Dua Lipa
There was only one new couple involving a pop star releasing new music in 2024 and an actor from Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air worth investing in. If you chose Sabrina and Barry, first of all … reflect on that and learn from your mistake. Second, there’s still time to elevate to my favorite lovebirds of the year.
Kate Middleton missing x Glasgow Wonka
I continue to wish the best for Kate Middleton’s recovery from cancer but look. There are sometimes weeks in which two seemingly unrelated events glom together in the cultural dialogue due to their unfortunate concurrence. And the week where we all had our suspicions about the Princess of Wales’ whereabouts and we couldn’t get enough of the scammy, low-rent Glasgow Wonka experience resulted in some of the most delirious content of the year. I couldn’t take my eyes off the posts that found ways to connect the two. (Click to play below for the full experience.)
Dune: Part Two popcorn buckets
Does every movie need meme-able merch that you can pick up at the AMC concession counter? No. (Looking at you, Deadpool & Wolverine, with your cringeworthy bucket that continues the film’s spirit of only making “HA! Gayyyyy” jokes.) But I have no choice but to respect and praise the absolutely unhinged sandworm popcorn bucket from Dune: Part Two. Do they want people to … you know?!
Lisan Al Gaib/Dune monoculture
I just think it’s neat that I was able to walk the streets of Austin on a Saturday night, say the phrase “Lisan Al Gaib” casually, and have a group of bros walking by overhear and all scream “LISAN AL GAIB!” It’s so nice to have a major franchise movie that we can all rally around to share a common cultural vocabulary.
Boeing
We still don’t know what’s going on with those whistleblowers turning up dead, and someone should look into it! What’s going on with these planes? Are we safe?
Cowboy Carter
The purest expression of the chaos, charm, and contradiction that is to grow up in Houston. I’m sorry, Bey, that you weren’t my #1 artist on Spotify Wrapped after gifting us this genre-redefining work. Maybe we can make AOTY happen in 2025.
Spice Girls reunion dance
It was but a few glorious seconds, but David Beckham won Wife Guy of the Year for capturing this shot of pure serotonin for millennials.
Challengers
My entire personality for the month of April. Saw it three times with friends who were all dying to see it, and I was more than happy to oblige. Play the Challengers score in the club!
Pop Girl Spring
It felt like every week we were getting fed — some more robustly than others — but what a run! (And wild to have three new superstars in Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, and Chappell Roan define the summer following all of this.)
Drake vs. Kendrick rap battle
I can’t think of Drake’s music without remembering that post pointing out that his songs still work if you took one of his beats and read any screenshot from a Google Images search of “insane breakup text.” So I’m always down to have that strange, petty man in a barrel … and the pettiness and specificity with which Kendrick dismantled him was a feud for the ages. (No one tell Ryan Murphy.)
"Because of Woke" meme format
I realize this one predates 2024, but it started popping on my timeline a lot more this year. These always got a reliable laugh out of me even as I kept in the back of my mind how legislators are chipping away at the small progress we’ve made on diversity and equity.
Kinds of Kindness trailer edits
More people should have seen the latest Yorgos Lanthimos movie, which maybe followed a little too closely on the heels of Poor Things to make an impact. It’s a shame because his movies often have the best trailers, and the Internet really took to making some great edits of the Kinds of Kindness teaser. I consumed them all and still get them suggested to me on my YouTube homepage consistently.
Brat Summer
Why lie, Charli was #1 artist on Spotify Wrapped — and even inspired a full post on this newsletter!
It was fun to have something enter the cultural bloodstream in such a major way for an innovative pop icon long overdue recognition for pushing boundaries. “Let’s work it out on the remix” deserves to stick around long after the puke green fades into a memory.
Justin Timberlake DWI
“This is going to ruin the tour … the world tour.” A phrase that simply will never get old to me. It’s a hall of fame celebrity arrest quote, up there with Reese Witherspoon’s “I’m an American citizen … this is BEYOND.”
Jiminy Glick returns
I’m significantly behind (like, several seasons) on Only Murders in the Building, but I’m thankful that it has given our culture an opportunity to more fully appreciate the comedic gifts of Martin Short. The revival of his infamous Jiminy Glick character, a parody of odd celebrity journalists that are creatures of the press junket à la the “holding space” lady, was built for this moment.
The K-Hive Resurrected
We needed this moment of joy to remind us that a rematch of two geriatric candidates was simply not what anyone wanted. I’m convinced these memes help glide the way.
Glen Powell's charm offensive
Huge for all of us who bought Glen Powell stock low after Everybody Wants Some!!, a perfect movie. Love to see a nice Texas boy succeeding (and watching grown women lose their composure is a beautiful byproduct).
J.D. Vance and the couch
I don’t support the spread of online misinformation, but I’ve never seen a more demonstrative test case of how anything will stick if it seems like it could be true based on a person’s vibes. This felt like the beginning of a karmic payback for all the crap Hillary Clinton took over the years.
Trump and Hannibal Lecter
Just an abjectly insane thing to keep bringing up on the stump. But I hate to admit: this recurring bit made me laugh. (That absolutely wild emphasis on “INSANE ASYLUMS” kills me.)
Olympics
[Stefon voice] This year’s Paris Olympics had everything: LeBron crossing the Delaware! Celine’s comeback! Conservatives mad about a Last Supper parody! The wild surfer photo! Pommel Horse Steve! Snoop Dogg big eyes! Bob the Cap Catcher! Colin Jost’s trip from hell! Simone Biles subtweeting MyKayla! The Turkish shooter! Everyone getting big mad about the Algerian boxer and maybe J.K. Rowling and Elon getting hosed legally! The hung pole vaulter! Raygun the breaker! (All separate links!) I was glued to my TV for three weeks, and it honestly might have been better than any movie I watched this year.
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Industry Season 3
The only TV show that I really cared about in 2024, admittedly. The best show about the contemporary workplace has an uncanny understanding of what makes young people raised in a culture that prizes achievement over all else tick. It’s coming back for season 4, so get on board!
We Live in Time horse
I need Ronan Farrow levels of investigative journalism to find out if the wild carousel horse in a promotional still of We Live in Time was intentionally engineered to create memes. Or, if not, how many people had to look at and approve that image without realizing this patently absurd component was staring them in the face.
In Springfield, they're eating the dogs
This is why “brain rot” was the Word of the Year for Oxford. God help us all for what’s to come.
Moo Deng
Who am I to deny a cute animal? Big Hippo hasn’t gotten such great PR in years, and they need this to distract us from the fact that hippos are among the most vicious and violent creatures you could encounter in the wild.
Olivia Nuzzi-RFK affair
An all-time Internet day. I was supposed to be writing my review of The Brutalist, but then I saw this breaking news alert and knew all hope was lost. The eventual prestige miniseries on this is going to be wild, and I’m so excited because I love mess.
Cal football memes
A rare W for left-leaning folks in the online manosphere. Plus, I love seeing FSU in pain after having a roommate whose fandom for them pissed me off. I’m not generally a petty person, but I hope he saw these and was thrown into a tizzy getting trolled so viciously.
Rachel Sennott/Fatima
The original tweet about rising star Rachel Sennott that set this all off — “she kinda look like her name is Fatima but in a white way” — first hit in 2023, but the moniker didn’t really seem to catch on until this fall. It just makes me chuckle every time I see it for being the right combination of dumb and delightful. (Jordan Firstman, please stop being both wrong and loud by claiming that “Fatima works a 9 to 5.” Stop.)
Andrew Garfield press tour
He continues to be my white whale of interviewees, but I will continue to consume any piece of Andrew Garfield content that comes my way.
Cynthia Erivo meltdown
Maybe she won you back with the “holding space” moment, but lest we forget … Cynthia Erivo had a full-on hissy fit on her Instagram Stories in October over a fan edited poster. Are we sure theater kids deserve rights?! (I say this as a theater kid in recovery.)
Timothée Chalamet lookalike competition
We’ve taken these way too far, but the event that started it all was New York at its finest. A weird idea spread far and wide, even reaching such a fever-pitch that the man of the hour himself had to show up. Gotta love this city. (And, lest we forget, it bequeathed us the unforgettable ClubChalamet phrase “this benefits me in ways you can't imagine.”)
Workwear guy
Derek Guy, best known by his handle @dieworkwear, is my favorite reply guy bar none. Educational at his core but not with an acid tongue and a keen eye for BS.
Luigi Mangione meme culture
Murder bad. Healthcare system valuing profits over people’s lives bad. Memes good. We’re closing the year on the best example I’ve ever seen of how thoroughly broken everyone’s brains are by this year and by this culture. If we can’t band together to rise above these forces that seem so intractable and immovable, the consensus seems to be that we might as well just throw up our hands and having a good time laughing at them. I’m not sure entirely where I stand on surrendering certain tenets of decency and decorum, admittedly. But I’m exhausted and will take whatever small piece of deranged joy I can find at the end of 2024, period.
And now, on to the “Not My Culture” section — broken into two parts:
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