By umps863powers
Published on The Husband | The Cedar New Digital
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2025 has brought us a collection of internet moments the likes of which we’ve never seen, from farm clips that melt your heart to culture shaking meme wars. A definitive and current list of the ten clips, trends, and twists that had everyone doom-scrolling (and then hitting replay) during a very dark year.
1) The Day AOL Finally Hung Up the Dial-Up—and Fed the Nostalgia Machine
What happened: AOL said in August that it will pull the plug on dial-up service (the last bastion of the Internet with a dial tone) on September 30, 2025. Where a deluge of baby boomers stomped all over the internet, millennials and Gen X took to their feeds with remixes of modem squeal sounds, “you’ve got mail” memes, and “who still uses this?!” stitches. The explainers, throwbacks and reaction reels turned newsrooms into squawking gossips and creator accounts into trend-warped tricks that seemed to last for days on all of our timelines.
Why it blew up:
- Huge place of nostalgia – it’s what the web sounded like in 94/95
- The end of an era: clean meme-ready headline
- Quick bite-sized reaction videos easily digestible for Reels/TikTok
Receipts to peek at: Although the sites all boast major outlets confirming both the shutdown and date of September 30, it took several days for these outlets to pick up on the trend cycle. (The Washington Post & AP News & The Guardian)
Watch out for lines that got in the edit:
- “Kids today will never know…”
- “Gonna go set my text tone to dial-up, brb”
2) The JD Vance “Big Baby/Bald Baby” Meme Blitz
What happened: By opening 2025, an endless flood of surreal projectile images of Vice President JD Vance—moon face and bald head, propeller hats—flooded through X, Instagram feeds, even your kinship charged on the web. During the summer, the memes began to spill off-line: protest placards, a truck with digital billboard in U.K., voices in parliaments and charity events.
Why it blew up:
- They’re immediately recognizable, ludicrous, endlessly memeable
- It basically turns politics into pop-meme culture, visual-first and speedy
Receipts to peek at: The evolution and mainstream bleed-through of the trend were chronicled in subsequent explainers and roundups, with Vance slyly taking note of his own memes. Across the tech/culture press and general news landscape, coverage followed. (Forbes, Vulture, The Independent)
Snackable take: Meme circles turned “Rare Vances” into trading-card-style collectibles.
3) “I’m a Mommy!” Love Island USA™
What went down: A throwaway Love Island USA Season 7 line (Huda, deadpan: “I’m a mommy”) became the quote of the summer. Not only that, but the comic delivery and maximum possible reaction made it a go-to for lip syncs, stitches, and other reacting skits on both TikTok and Reels.
Why it blew up:
- Reality TV + Sound on (short quotable audio) = virality gold
- Easily moldable to any form of video from cat videos to outfit reveals
Receipts to peek at: Over the weeks, news pieces and pop-culture feeds charted the journey of how the sound crept outside from villa to island to swipe through your For You page. (AOL)
Creator prompts: “POV: my plant when I give it water once a month: I am mother”
4) Labubu Fever: Designer Toy To Little God
How it went down: The small brand’s mischief-making toy Labubu stopped showing up solely on niche collectors’ feeds and started causing more mainstream mania. And the pinnacle: a viral street clip of a woman bowing and praying to an oversized Labubu statue — part performance art, half born from sheer fandom — plastered prior to innumerable “rare pull” unboxings spiking views across international territories.
Why it blew up:
- Adorable, eerie design and very high memes/”reaction” potential
- Content engine = Unboxings + scarcity + speculative hype
Receipts to peek at: Culture editors examined the cult-toy phenomenon, while outlets aggregated the “worship” clip and the ensuing back-and-forth. (YouTube)
Mini-trend within the trend: Taxonomy videos for “What my Labubu has to say about me”
5) 100 Men vs 1 Gorilla — The Wildest Debate of the Year
What happened: A bunch of guys got to wondering, “Just how many dudes would it take to beat a gorilla?” — escaped from its niche corners and set X, Reddit, TikTok on fire. Simulations, fight-math breakdowns, and comedy sketches were uploaded by creators. MrBeast unwittingly got wrenched into the mess; timelines were a haze of armchair zoology and madcap reasoning.
Why it blew up:
- A clean and completely ridiculous concept that anyone can chime in on
- Limitless formats: duets, panels, fabricated statistics, boxing posters
Receipts to peek at: Then think-pieces and explainers followed the journey of this oddball mainstream memento from MrBeast-adjacent discourse, through to the meme rule of legs. (Inc.com, Instagram)
Winning caption energy: “All y’all dead — you already know as soon as the gorilla learns Wi-Fi it’s a wrap for y’all”
6) Coldplay’s Cheating Cam Plot Twist
What happened: Coldplay’s “Caught Cheating” jumbotron thing turned into a viral scandal. The reactions of the crowd, the cringe-worthiness, and the aftermath with some on-the-fly detective work made it exactly what we are all obsessed with right now: a real-life soap at a live event.
Why it blew up:
- Real-time spectacle with he-said/she-said cliffhangers
- The viral pipeline of the “Concert cam” genre
Receipts to peek at: News centers recapped this saga and edited together fan footage to make a long timeline which viewers lapped up. (YouTube)
Derivative formats you saw: “POV: the Cheating Cam getting you in your section”
7) The Accidental Dance King – Blue Shirt Guy
How it went down: A video from a dance demo in a ballroom during which an everyday guy in a blue shirt is getting his groove on next to two flawless dancers inspired countless wholesome edits. It was algorithmic kryptonite, thanks to the feel-good vibes (and the ideal loop point).
Why it blew up:
- Not just viral dance moments, but: sincere and funny, not cruel
- This clip has an ultra-loopable rhythm, making it ideal for “try not to smile” clips
Receipts to peek at: Blue Shirt Guy began trending, and trend trackers noted his rise — and why it had managed to itch the collective brain of the internet. (Instagram)
How creators riffed: Split-screen “me vs. my expectations” edits of the same move
8) Patrick the Orangutan’s Double-Knot Masterclass
What happened: Metro Richmond Zoo shared a video of Patrick, the 34-year-old orangutan, knotting his rope in a double cascade style. The internet then virtually cheered. Then we see round-two, a video reenactment of Patrick drawling and mewing for the camera.
Why it blew up:
- Competence + Animals + Slight Humor = viral gold forever more
- Comment sections were as good as paying 50 cents extra for a live crowd at a sports game: “WHEN HE DOUBLE-KNOTTED IT??!”
Receipts to peek at: The local-to-national pickup only fanned the flames, and the zoo went all in with more pieces of content and some behind-the-scenes tidbits. (Axios)
Bonus trope: Replies were flooded with “He ties better than my ex” punchlines
9) The Plane Kangaroo Support — and the AI Reveal
What happened: A jaw-dropping video showed a passenger resisting efforts to bring a kangaroo aboard the plane being restrained by what appears to be its handler. That set off the take-storm: shock, disbelief, “but only in 2025.” That is, until sleuths (and platform AI) caught it as originating from AI, turning the story into an educational one about deepfakes.
Why it blew up:
- It pushed all the right buttons to get it shared before any fact-checking could even go into action
- The gotcha reveal went viral, too
Receipts to peek at: Both broke down in detail how the public fell for it and why the clip only looks real enough to fool millions. (News.com.au)
Creator playbook: The following week, the number of side-by-side “real vs. AI” tutorials exploded
10) Texas Kid + Goat = Happiness
What happened: At a Kingsville, Texas livestock show, 5-year-old Milo Garza won fourth place with his goat Teddy Bear. He was later asked about it by reporters, giving the best quote of the year in calling his goat “fat legs.” The original clip and excerpts from it notched tens of millions of views.
Why it blew up:
- Not a speck of cynicism, all sincerity and creaturely love
- The perfect antidote to doomscroll tiredness
Receipts to peek at: The clip bounced from Instagram to TikTok to national outlets in a matter of days, with millions of views on the platforms. (Mitú, New York Post, TikTok)
Comment section greatest hits: “Keep your eye and hand on Milo and Teddy Bear”
Why Did These Moments Go Viral? Particles and Physics
Instant hooks in less than 3 seconds: Every single moment, from just the one-liner (“I’m a mommy”) to all of the bald-baby edits is an instant grab.
Remix-ability: Creators get to spin a thousand different takes, be it a soundbite, a dance loop, or some hypothetical matchup.
Emotional polarity: Nostalgia (AOL), feel-goodism (Milo & Teddy), WTF-ness (gorilla debate), FOMO (Cheating Cam), and mistrust of kangaroo AI each get shared in their own unique ways.
Cross-platform lifecycles: Many of these began on a single platform, but they jumped — reframed — into the rest to expand their reach.
What could be next on your For You page?
We are also likely to see meta-content explode: explainer stitches about why a video is viral, not just the video itself. Keep an eye out for further AI-enhanced fakery ruining the well as fast as it fills—followed by cottage industries of verification bootstrapped on top.
Quick Creator Notes (if you want to jump on the wave)
Lead with the moment: The twist or the line should hit from 0:00–0:02.
Add value, don’t just repost: Context (here’s what you’re seeing), humor, or a clever opposing opinion allows you to stand out.
Credit the source: It enhances trust and makes your comment neater.
Leave a gap for the comments: Tight either/or: “Team 10 men or 100?” or issue a stitch (“Show me your Blue Shirt Guy fit check”).
The Shortlist (That You Should Rewatch)
- R.I.P. AOL Dial-Up, You Rise And Nostalgia Wave! (The Washington Post, AP News)
- JD Vance “big/bald baby” meme goes IRL (Forbes)
- Love Island USA baby sound effect (AOL)
- Labubu The Little God & Toy-craze Unboxings (YouTube)
- Thought experiment: 100 men vs gorilla (Inc.com)
- Coldplay cheating-cam saga (YouTube)
- Blue Shirt Guy dance loop (Instagram)
- Patrick the orangutan double-knot (Axios)
- Fake: AI ‘support kangaroo’ plane (News.com.au)
- Milo & Teddy Bear: 4th Place Champions (New York Post, TikTok)
If your timeline starts to feel like it has been on “replay” this year—you are not the only one. The highlights of 2025 are being not just viral, but shareable; as in watch-again-with-your-friends, family, and roommates viral.
