meme-review

KYM Review: The Wackiest Stories Of 2024

Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience, UHC Shooter, Daniel Larson Arrest and Verbalase 50k video from the wackiest stories of the year.
Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience, UHC Shooter, Daniel Larson Arrest and Verbalase 50k video from the wackiest stories of the year.
By Phillip Hamilton
0 views
• Published about an hour ago

Published about an hour ago

There are two ways to look at most of the biggest news stories of 2024: dystopian and wacky. Here at Know Your Meme, for the sake of everyone's mental health, we prefer to lean towards the latter.

In the past year, we as a species have gone through a lot of wacky things, whether it was a so-called Willy Wonka experience that was far more terrifying than it had any right to be, a squirrel named Peanut meeting his untimely demise or the tragic arrest of one of the biggest lolcows of the decade.

Honestly, there are so many bizarre things that happened this year that it kind of hurts your head to even try and dig them all up. So, here are 10 of the undeniably wackiest stories of 2024 and some runners-up to remind us all just how weird our timeline has become.

The Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience

Back in February, House of Illuminati, a mysterious group with an even more mysterious name, went viral after posting a strange series of AI-generated posters advertising the "Willy Wonka Experience" in Glasgow, Scotland. With little to go off but a date of February 24th and some weird artwork, people decided to try their luck, pack up their kids and check it out for themselves.

Sure enough, the "experience" they got was one they won't soon forget.

The Willy Wonka Experience turned out to be one of the most nightmare-inducing events of 2024, especially for its intended child audience. The colorful, exciting (and typo-ridden) AI posters hyped the event up to be something truly magical, but what attendees really got was a bunch of cheap decorations in a warehouse. Think Dashcon but it's babies who were disappointed rather than Tumblr's strongest soldiers.

Highlights of the Willy Wonka Experience included an Oompa Loompa actor who appeared to be cooking up something much stronger than Fizzy Lifting Drinks and a horrifying original character named The Unknown described (by its AI-generated script) as an evil chocolate maker who craves the "anti-graffiti Gobstopper" … whatever that means.

The whole thing ended up with an apology from the event's creator, Billy Coull, who was found to be somewhat of an AI aficionado (meaning he's written and sold several AI-generated books). It also resulted in old allegations against Wonka's actor, Paul Connell, being dredged back up into the public's eye.

On the other hand, the actors without troubling allegations ended up doing the media circuit and getting a good 15 minutes of fame, so at least there's that. Here's hoping for Willy Wonka Experience 2: Electric Boogaloo in 2025.

Paris Poop Protest

Leading up to the 2024 Paris Olympics, as an act of defiance, a group of Parisians decided to stick it to the man by taking a poop in the Seine River at the same time that French President Emmanuel Macron and Paris' Mayor Anne Hidalgo swam in it.

The Paris Poop protest never happened, but imagine how cool it would have been if it had.

@zozomccormack the 💩 paris protest is happening tomorrow!!! will president emmanuel macron be able to swim in the seine before the paris olympics..? very interested to see how this plays out! #parisprotest #parisseine #seineparis #seineriver #laseine #emmanuelmacron #parisolympics2024 #parisolympics #olympics2024 ♬ original sound – ZOE IN PARIS 🇫🇷

The protest was inspired by a billion-euro campaign to clean up the river before the Olympics in order to make it swimmable for the athletes. Unfortunately, all the euros in the world weren't enough to make any noticeable progress. Despite this, the President and the Mayor of Paris promised to swim in the river on June 23rd to prove that it was safe, giving protestors their devilish idea.

Unfortunately for everyone, the protest was flushed a few days before June 23rd when Macron and Hidalgo announced that they'd no longer be swimming in the river for vague "political reasons," showing themselves to be true cowards in the face of a little feces.

@jilrockproductions My contribution to the recent flashmob 🚽💩 . French President Emmanuel Macron promises to swim in the Seine River to prove It’s clean enough for Olympics. . After France spent $1.5 billion to clean up the Seine in preparation for this summer's Olympics, water tests in the Seine in Paris have shown that the river is still too dirty to swim in, two months before the start of the Olympics ☠️ . Seine river -- largely off limits to bathers since 1923 . #JeChieDansLaSeineLe23Juin . . . . #jo2024 #macron #JeuxOlympiques #france #paris2024 #paris #jeuxolympique #jechiedanslaseine #laseine #macron #hidalgo #jechiedanslaseinele23juin #seine #23juin ♬ оригинальный звук – jilrockproductions

@honeybadger_news Want to swim in the Seine River? #poop #paris #seineriver ♬ original sound – honeybadger_news

Verbalase's $50K Hazbin Hotel AMV

In January, one of the most bizarre things happened to YouTuber Verbalase. That month, he was exposed for having paid about $50,000 for a Hazbin Hotel AMV in which he's chased by the character Charlie, who is infatuated with him.

Not exactly an accusation that you can just beatbox your way out of, is it?

The video was first passed around Discord servers, then it was discovered by X users around January 9th, 2024, becoming one of the biggest stories on social media. People were understandably shocked that Verbalase spent so much on one AMV, which was confirmed when Discord screenshots of Verbalase talking about the animation with others were leaked online.

Verbalase responded to the controversy by further confirming that he paid for the video, claiming that he intended to upload it to a more adult-themed channel he wanted to start. Ultimately, he ended up deleting the video to focus on his usual content, but it was too late. The video had already been saved and his fate had already been sealed.





Vaush's Horse Folder

This year was a rough one for leftist political streamer Vaush, who made the ultimate mistake in February when, during a livestream, he opened a folder containing some very questionable horse and alleged drawn child-related content.

Honestly, it probably would have been better if the man literally opened Pandora's box on stream, because the fallout was intense.

Vaush quickly became the laughingstock of the internet in the weeks after the incident. Many people completely abandoned their support for the streamer due to the nature of the content in the folder. To his credit, Vaush owned up to it, albeit with some much-questioned claims, like, "I thought they were shortstack goblins," and, "I'm a size-queen."

Some content creators had an absolute field day with the event. Most notably, Ethan Klein of the H3 Podcast spent several streams dunking on Vaush and his defenders, even wearing a horse costume during one episode. Ultimately, Vaush has continued streaming, but those images and their implications will remain burned into the heads of many for years to come.





Bass Pro Shops Swimmer

You could literally say there was something in the water in January 2024, because that month, while Verbalase was going through his whole ordeal, a man was arrested for swimming naked in the Bass Pro Shops tank in Leeds, Alabama.

The 42-year-old man, referred to only as Owens, was purportedly having a pretty erratic day when he jumped into the Bass Pro Shops tank. Reports claimed that he drove into a pole in the store's parking lot, stripped naked and then ran into the store around closing time to take his big swim. He faced a few charges for the incident, including public lewdness, resisting arrest and criminal mischief.

The man made a big splash in the meme-verse for his daring dive, with some even threatening to recreate the act if they hit a certain number of likes. For all we know it never happened, but the story was huge at the time, as opposed to Owens' "fish," which became the subject of many of the biggest memes. As George Costanza said, "It's shrinkage!"

Acorn Cop

The police sure can be wacky individuals, can't they, folks? A February incident known as the "Florida acorn cop shooting," in which cops fired at their own patrol car after an acorn fell onto its roof, is all the proof you need to back up that statement.

The bodycam footage of the incident, which shows the cop yell, "Shots fired!" after the acorn made an impact, followed by them rolling three times and then firing off a few shots, went viral across social media, including subreddits like /r/PublicFreakout and /r/ProtectAndServe. Many decided to take the footage as an excuse to dunk on the cops, resulting in a lot of memes that month. Others saw this as just another example of police incompetence.

The story got more ridiculous after the findings of the County Sherriff's investigation came out, which claimed that one of the officer's "use of deadly force" was "not objectively reasonable," but the other cops' use of deadly force totally was.

One highlight of the video comes when one of the cops claims that he's been hit, even though nobody fired at him. Truly, it was one of the cop moments of all time.

Peanut the Squirrel

In somewhat related news, a squirrel named Peanut made what seemed to be the entire world cry in October after he was euthanized for biting someone involved in an investigation into his living conditions.

According to reports, Peanut's owner, who runs an animal sanctuary in New York, was in the process of getting papers that would allow him to have Peanut, when the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation came to investigate his situation. For reasons unknown, Peanut bit one of the investigators and he had to be put down to test him for rabies.

Peanut was already pretty well known on TikTok and Instagram, but like many artists, his popularity skyrocketed after his death. Fundraisers were started and his owners made please for NYSDEC reform. Also, Peanut's owner's OF account was found, which was an interesting little twist in the story.

What was also interesting was how the Trump campaign took the story and spun it into political gold, framing it as the Democrats "murdering the Elon Musk of squirrels." Did this have anything to do with Trump's big win? We may never know for sure, but we can speculate.

Daniel Larson Arrest

Daniel Larson's ascent (or descent?) to major lolcow status has been both fascinating and stressful to watch these past few years. But things took a particularly troubling turn when he was arrested in Colorado on six counts of "Use or Threatened Use of Explosive" and one count of "Interstate Communication of Threats."

Every Daniel Larson fan on social media seemed to have an opinion on the arrest, with some finding it ridiculous and others finding it kind of understandable. Larson has numerous clips in which he makes threats and even alludes to bombs and bombing, which went viral along with news of the arrest.

This is only one of a few times that Larson has been arrested in the past. To top things off, FBI agent Daniel MacDougall also got caught in the crossfire of memes after Larson posted his business card on Instagram. Ultimately, it was just another chapter in the wacky saga of Daniel Larson, which will inevitably only get wackier in 2025.

Kendrick Drake Beef

One of the biggest fights in recent memory took place in 2024 and no, we're not talking about the extremely depressing Paul vs. Tyson fight. We're talking, of course, about the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef.

The feud started when Drake and J. Cole linked up for "First Person Shooter," in which Cole raps that he, Drake and Kendrick are the "big three" in hip-hop. Lamar clapped back by rapping, "It's just big me," on the song "Like That," resulting in a massive back-and-forth of diss tracks between Kendrick and Drake.

The beef got very messy, especially for Drake, who by all accounts seems to have lost the battle. While the feud itself was pretty straightforward, it resulted in a lot of crazy lyrics and theories about Drake's alleged love of youngins and a secret daughter.

One of the craziest things to come from the beef was an account called EbonyPrince2k24, who started leaking photos of items allegedly owned by Drake at one point, including pill bottles, clothes, receipts and various pieces of garbage.

Most notable was an ominous screenshot shared by EbonyPrince2k24 showing Drake with journalist Christian Alvarez. Many thought that Alvarez was a child, but really he just has thanatophoric dysplasia Type 2, a fact that gave everyone a sigh of relief upon finding out.

The Assassination of CEO Brian Thompson & Luigi Mangione

Listen, maybe the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson isn't exactly the most "wacky" story you can think of, but it's hard to argue that the response to the situation hasn't been exactly that in recent days.

On December 4th, it was reported that Brian Thompson was gunned down outside of the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan. The shooter fled the scene and a manhunt ensued, which ended with suspect Luigi Mangione being caught in a McDonald's five days later. Case closed, right? Wrong.

Unlike most suspected murderers, the internet has rallied around Luigi and made him out to be a hero for taking out one of the most seemingly hated types of people on earth: a rich health insurance CEO whose company apparently loves to deny claims. Also, Luigi is hot, likes Pokemon, and shares his name with a much-memed Super Mario character, adding another few layers of wackiness to the story.

The more that comes out about this story the crazier the discourse around it gets, whether it's about the message left on his bullets, conspiracy theories that he's not the guy or the very hopeful campaign to "free Luigi" that's going around the internet. It's not going to happen, but watching this all unfold over the next few months is going to be truly fascinating.

Honorable Mentions

Death of Boeing Whistleblowers

In March and April, the deaths of two former Boeing employees-turned-whistleblowers made the rounds on social media. Inevitably, this resulted in an explosive conspiracy theory claiming that the two were killed for speaking out.

Of course, there were reported reasons for the deaths, with Joshua Dean reportedly testing positive for Influenza B and MRSA and later contracting pneumonia. The other man, John Barnett, was said to have died by suicide.

None of this really helped quell the conspiracy theories, but we're about eight months past that now and hardly anyone seems to be talking about it anymore. So, mission accomplished, Boeing. Allegedly.

Lunchly Mold Scandal

In October, Logan Paul, MrBeast and KSI came under fire after YouTuber Rosanna Pansino, who already had a bit of a grudge against MrBeast, found mold in her Lunchly.

Lunchly is a collaborative Lunchables-like snack made by the three content creators, which was already the subject of criticism before this for arguably being unhealthy and scammy. The mold incident only made people more wary of the product, especially as other videos of people finding moldy cheese in their Lunchlys went viral.

Since then, MrBeast reportedly denied the mold being a serious issue. Rumors that the product was being recalled because of the mold also went viral online, although the accuracy of these claims has been contested. What is a sure thing though is that the incident gave people a whole new way of using the "I like my cheese drippy bruh" meme, which is … something.

Disney Wrongful Death Lawsuit

A very bold move by Disney went viral in August after it was found that they were attempting to avoid a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a widower after his wife died of an allergic reaction at a Disney Springs restaurant.

So, how was Disney trying to wiggle their way out of this one? Well, they claimed that because the man had signed up for Disney+, he legally had to settle any disputes with the company via arbitration. Remember how we said lots of the top stories of 2024 were pretty dystopian? Yeah, this is one of those.

We're still waiting on the results of this one, but Disney didn't get a whole lot of support when it went viral and if they win, it won't exactly be considered a W for the company. Nobody will care enough to cancel their subscriptions or anything, but still, massive L, Disney.

Doge's Death

To be honest, this one is anything but wacky. However, we'll include it because of all the wacky memes that the iconic Shiba Inu Doge gave us over the years and will continue to give us in the decades to come — especially considering the well-known line "wacky dog do uncharacteristic thing" associated with it.

On May 24th, 2024, Kabosu, the beloved dog known online as "Doge," died at the age of 18. Kabosu's death made a ripple in the meme-verse, inspiring mourning and posts of memorials across social media.

Doge will always be remembered as one of the most iconic and influential memes of all time. She even has her own day that is celebrated in Japan to pay homage to her virality every year.

We may never see a meme as big as Doge again, but thankfully, memes live on as long as the internet wants them to. It'll be a cold day in hell when the internet chooses to forget Doge.

Looking for more of this year's best viral phenomena and memes? Be sure to check out our other 2024 meme roundups below:

Tags: wacky stories 2024, glasgow willy wonka experience, paris poop protest, verbalase, vaush horse folder, bass pro shops swimmer, master debater, daniel larson arrest, peanut the squirrel, kendrick drake beef, uhc, 2024 review, acorn cop,

Related Entries ( 32 )

Categories

Interviews (148) In the Media (164)
White Papers (21) Episode Notes (1)
Behind the Scenes (10) Meme Review (365)
Collections (7055) Poll (132)
Guides (2362) Meme Insider (329)
Insights (25)

Comments ( 0 )

Sorry, but you must activate your account to post a comment.