2023 Had an Era for Everything

Even with an estimated million people leaving X, spiritually known as Twitter, life online still feels a little crowded. By the time you’ve figured out why people on TikTok are arguing about “time blindness,� another influencer’s old tweets have resurfaced — not to mention the never-ending headlines from the Real World constantly interrupting your peace. The only way to make sense of time anymore is to categorize our life into neurotically specific categories. Going for a walk? That’s me in my athlete era. Taking a shower? That’s me in my cleanliness era. Wearing an oversize blazer? That’s me in my business-casual-Scandi-chic-clean-girl-Matilda Djerf era. That is to say, in 2023, there was an era for everything, including your year online.

Vulture has spent the past year recapping the most notable and niche drama that’s gone down across the biggest social-media apps and deep in the most obscure Reddit forums, but to read it all would take a whole ’nother year. Instead, we’ve gone back through the year to revisit the items we remember — and some we missed — that fall into one of seven distinct “eras� we feel defined this year. If you recognize all the items in a category, then that’s the internet era you were in for 2023. Unfortunately for you, “touch grass� era isn’t an option.

Scroll ahead and ask yourself: In 2023, were you in your …

…gender-studies era?

This year was a battle of the sexes. In one corner stood the girls, just back from a Hot Girl Walk and armed with charcuterie boards and broken calculators. Boys, on the other hand, sought refuge in their Mojo Dojo Casa Houses while blasting the History Channel. 

Girl Dinner

Over the summer, when temperatures were high and productivity was low, the best TikTok had to offer in terms of content was a few cubes of cheese, a piece of fruit, beef jerky, and a full glass of wine. In other words, girl dinner — a meal cobbled together from the errant snacks and other ingredients cluttering your fridge.

Girl Math

Coined by a New Zealand radio show and subsequently ruined by brands everywhere, “girl math� cropped up in August as a term for the mental gymnastics women perform in order to justify an expensive or unnecessary purchase. For instance: Buying something with cash makes it free because the money has already left your account. Girl math.

Roman Empire

While girls were foraging for charcuterie and racking up debt, boys were disassociating to BCE. After a viral September tweet from Kelsey Lewis Vincent, users on TikTok began filming themselves asking the men in their life the same question: How often do you think about the Roman Empire? The trend became so popular that “Roman Empire� is now used to describe anything someone has a long-standing obsession with.

Dylan Mulvaney vs. Bud Light

Back in the spring, Bud Light customers took the term “March Madness� a little too literally. After trans creator Dylan Mulvaney posted a single Instagram post in partnership with the beer company, conservatives kicked off a weekslong harassment campaign against the influencer and instigated a boycott that resulted in a $395 million drop in revenue. But since Bud Light allegedly never even reached out to Dylan during the backlash, I’m not feeling too bad for them.

… business-backlash era?

Blasting a restaurant on Yelp doesn’t hit the same in 2023. To really get justice for a small-business grievance, you have to take it to TikTok — at your own risk. This year, no bespoke knitwear designer or West Virginia bakery was safe from the internet’s wrath.

CakeGate

When West Virginia baker Kylie Rae Allen made a video in April lamenting her “worst client experience so far,� the client responded by posting photos of the custom cake she ordered that had sloppy writing and unevenly applied sprinkles. Allen continued to double down, posting cake-decorating videos that commenters tore apart for their somewhat slapdash appearance. Allen has since closed her business, Kylie Kakes, and is opening up a more traditional bread bakery this winter.

“Was it right of me looking back? No,� she previously told Vulture in a statement. “Does my small business and the way I provide for my family need to suffer at the hands of strangers? No.� Of all the small-business debacles that went down on TikTok in 2023, this one takes the cake.

TattooGate

Bakery drama is just the tip of the small-business icing. In May, @cmonteith brought the same scrutiny to tattoo artists. In a viral three-part video, she details her unpleasant experience commissioning a tattoo from a Canadian tattoo artist who required her to pay thousands for a deposit and consultation fees before ever seeing a sketch. When the sketch turned out to be, uh, nothing like the reference photos, the artist would only fix it for another couple thousand dollars. Monteith’s story went viral across TikTok and resulted in Booking.com flying Monteith out for California-based tattoo artist Matt Vaught to give her the correct tattoo for free — well, “free� plus 2 million views.

DIY Drama

When maximalist creator TayBeepBoop fired shots with the since-deleted video accusing fellow creator KaarinJoy of copying her design ideas, she wasn’t prepared for the recoil. KaarinJoy responded by saying that she never meant anything malicious by taking inspiration from TayBeepBoop’s content — which, FWIW, consists mostly of concepts that already exist all over Pinterest — and immediately won everyone over onto her side.

“My behavior has been wild and inappropriate, and I apologize it’s taken me so long to realize that,� TayBeepBoop said in a follow-up, also-now-deleted video released after days of backlash.

Keith vs. Atlanta

When 27-year-old TikTok restaurant critic Keith Lee took a trip to Atlanta to hit up and review some local hot spots, he ended up creating an accidental exposé of the convoluted rules and exclusivity currently poisoning the city’s restaurant scene. “As you can see, there are no bags in my hands,� is the new “baby shoes, never worn.�

KnitGate

And to close the loop of this year’s spate of small-business spats, our final yarn is about … yarn. Specifically, a dispute between Esther Gamsu and Kendall Ross, with the former accusing the latter of copying their sweater design featuring a large paragraph of text. While the text on each sweater was different, the style was similar enough that a number of TikTok videos were traded back and forth before commenters officially ruled in favor of Ross, with one declaring, “tbh there’s only so many ways to do text on a sweater.� Case dismissed.

… de-influenced era?

From products that just aren’t worth the hype to creators who just aren’t worth the views, the influencer status quo has shifted. This year, we saw the downfall of beloved brands and a growing disillusion with the entire creator industry.

Mikayla Nogueira’s L’Oréal Ad

On January 24, creator Mikayla Nogueira posted a sponsored video for L’Oréal’s new Telescopic Lift mascara. “This looks like false lashes,� she claims, aghast. If you ask anyone in the comments section, it’s because they were. Some suspicious camera cuts in the video had TikTok convinced Nogueira used false lashes to make the mascara look more effective than it was. Nogueira has yet to deny it.

Tarte Island

Back in May, two creators — Cynthia Victor and Bria Jones — accused Tarte of treating them differently than white creators on brand trips. This resulted in a bizarre, now-deleted get-ready-with-me apology from Tarte founder Maureen Kelly, which only made matters worse. Not only did it not address the complaints with the seriousness they warranted, but it drew attention to the fact that Tarte still hadn’t been held accountable for the racism it was accused of in 2020.

Shein Factory Tour

After notorious fast-fashion brand Shein invited a handful of influencers to its factory headquarters in China earlier this year, creator and “confidence activist� Dani DMC repaid the favor by doing a bunch of free crisis PR for the company in June. Her initial now-deleted factory vlog received backlash from people accusing the creator of doing propaganda for a brand that has documented labor-law violations. Dani initially doubled down in similarly deleted posts before finally apologizing almost two weeks later.

Dream Face Un-reveal

A little over six months after YouTuber Dream broke the internet by finally revealing his face (and by “broke the internet,� I mean “HE’S UGLY� trended on Twitter), he announced in June that he was going back under the mask. The creator promised he would resume wearing the mask in videos and “even in public, at McDonald’s, or any place I need to go.� Time heals some wounds, though, because the original face-reveal video is back online.

Kai Cenat’s PS5 Giveaway

Gen Alpha’s favorite Twitch streamer Kai Cenat hosted a PlayStation 5 giveaway in NYC in August that turned into a riot, resulting in the arrest of 65 people, including 30 minors. In a subsequent livestream, Cenat harshly condemned what happened: “I am beyond, bro, disappointed in anybody who became destructive that day, bro.�

Lil Tay Death Hoax

In August, a now-deleted post appeared on the account of 16-year-old creator Lil Tay claiming she had passed away. While TMZ reported the next day that it was all a hoax, a Rolling Stone profile of the creator revealed that there’s still no clear culprit behind the stunt: Tay accuses her father of orchestrating the hoax to sabotage her career, which he denies.

… silly-song era?

It may have been a silly-song summer, but 2023 was putting out hits year-round. From Flyanna Boss’s “You Wish� to D.J Crazy Times’ “Planet of the Bass� to T.J. Mack’s entire oeuvre, the world isn’t ready for your Spotify Wrapped.

Ariana DeBose’s BAFTA Performance

For some reason, the lyrics “Angela Basset did the thing� were not enough to earn Ariana DeBose’s February BAFTA performance a Grammy nod this year. The painfully earnest rap that featured references to various women in attendance elicited a reaction of such mockery and embarrassment that DeBose deleted her Twitter account — which, given everything that’s happened on there since, means she actually came out on top.

Colleen Ballinger’s Apology

Colleen Ballinger, however, did make a return to the internet a few months after dropping the worst apology video of all time: one sung to the ukulele. The combative and dismissive “Toxic Gossip Train� was the 36-year-old’s supposed defense against accusations of behaving inappropriately with fans, but only confirmed what appears to be a career’s worth of bad judgment.

“Harry Potter Chess Scene Remix� by Zēo

Known simply as “Harry Potter Chess Scene Remix,� the song by Australian music producer Zēo went viral after it was used as the soundtrack to an animated video posted by Frever. The song riffs on dialogue from the end of the Sorcerer’s Stone movie, adding auto-tune and a drop to Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s tense wizard chess negotiation. By the looks of this video, if they had just challenged Voldemort to a dance-off, those movies would have ended a lot earlier.

“Sticking out your gyat for the rizzler�

“Sticking out your gyat for the rizzler / You’re so skibidi / You’re so fanum tax� is not the result of ChatGPT with a virus but are actual lyrics to a song posted by TikTok user @ovp in October. It’s been widely regarded as a harbinger of Gen Alpha culture to come — so it’s fitting that it’s mostly nonsense words, since they are literal babies.

… meme-star era?

2023’s graduating class of main characters isn’t made up of just small-business owners and singers. We may be hurtling into an AI dystopia, but the simple magic of a meme or viral video will never be outdated, and these people brought this year’s crop to life.

Octopusslover8

Jake Shane’s (@octopusslover8) niche impressions, ranging from “Diet Coke finding out about Coke Zero� to “the founding fathers after John Hancock signed his name super big,� earned him his first million followers back in February. In the months since, not only has he doubled his following, he now regularly appears in videos alongside creators like Alix Earle, which, given that he was already among the crowd at Sofia Richie’s wedding, was probably going to happen anyway.

Snoopy Sister

Snoopy is having a resurgence thanks to Gen Z, and perhaps specifically because of the work of TikTok user Snoopy Sister. The teen first went viral last December, when her older sister made a TikTok about her hobby of making Snoopy videos, but made even bigger waves on April 4 when she got grounded and couldn’t use her phone. Followers new and old rioted in her absence, until she returned on April 20 with another classic Snoopy edit. “YOU CANT GROUND ME FOREVER IM FREE !!!!!!� she captioned the post.

“Attenzione pickpocket�

The 57-year-old Italian woman behind the viral “Attenzione, pickpocket� phrase actually ended up having links to far-right politics, so instead we celebrate 22-year-old Amine Ouadrhiri, who made the viral trend his own. He began shouting the phrase at passersby on the streets of Paris.

“Every video that I did with ‘Pickpocket,’ got like 10, 20, 30 — I dunno, the views are crazy,� he told Vulture back in July. “It goes viral viral.�

Tube Girl

Started on the Tube, now she’s walking Paris Fashion Week. Twenty-two-year-old Sabrina Bahsoon started going viral in August for his videos dancing like no one was watching (they were) on the London Underground, earning her the nickname “tube girl� and collabs with people like Troye Sivan and, most important, Amine Ouadrhiri.

“I literally manifested it,� Bahsoon told Vulture in an interview. “Earlier on in my videos, it was just me pretending to be a runway model on the platform … The fact that I’m here, what is going on?� And that was even before Saturday Night Live parodied it.

… unhinged-stan era?

While viral moments may penetrate the zeitgeist, it’s fandoms that make the internet go round. This year saw no shortage of bizarre fan behavior, from the legions dedicated to the world’s most powerful pop star to those hiding out in niche influencer Reddit communities.

Caroline Calloway vs. Reddit

In the 20-minute Vice documentary released on February 16, notorious Instagram author turned grifter turned Florida retiree Caroline Calloway infiltrated her own sub-Reddit. She ended up getting on the phone with some of her most obsessive snarkers, one of whom threatened Calloway with their lawyer.

“I always imagined these people as urban young professionals doing their jobs, but they’re all basement-dwelling mouth-breathers,� she told Vulture at the time.

Ashley Leechin vs. Taylor Swift

When Ashley Leechin, a creator and Swiftie who rose to fame on TikTok for her resemblance to the singer, announced in a now-deleted video that she was “partnering with the Grammys,� viewers were suspicious. She had long been accused of manipulating and over-exaggerating her likeness to the singer, and it seems general skepticism over why she’d be invited was validated when, on February 4, Leechin revealed she had been “uninvited� while on the LAX airport tarmac. There are a number of unanswered questions about her story, including if she had ever been officially invited at all, but Leechin didn’t let the road bump deter her. She emerged again in the summer for a stunt in which she walked through a mall and even Downtown Disney with fake bodyguards, resulting in a flurry of fans who erroneously thought she was Swift.

Club Chalamet

On September 4, Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner attended Beyoncé’s concert, seemingly confirming their long-whispered dating rumor. This was too much for Simone, the Gen-X fan behind Club Chalamet, who made a series of widely mocked Instagram Stories to help fellow heartbroken Chalamet fans process the news and later hosted a Spaces on X that, at one point, had over 8,000 people tuning in — a number Wonka can only dream of.

Harry Daniels vs. Literally Everyone

If there’s a celebrity in NYC, you can bet 19-year-old Harry Daniels is in line waiting to sing for them. He’s serenaded everyone from Greta Gerwig to Doja Cat, earning millions of views in the process.

“When I’m not making videos, my favorite pastime is to pierce ears at Claire’s and help out beekeepers,� he told Vulture back in September.

Disney Adults vs. Rachel Zegler

Back in August, Disney fans decided to entertain themselves during a slow news season by digging up old Rachel Zegler interviews about Snow White and taking them very, very personally. In interviews at the D23 Expo in September 2022, Zegler said that her version of Snow White is “not going to be saved by the prince, and she’s not going to be dreaming about true love.� This blasphemous statement awoke the kraken of Disney adults who decided to launch another harassment campaign on top of the one Zegler was already receiving because of her race.

… dystopian era?

It’s AI’s world, we’re just living in it — only some people are ready to fully worship at the altar of the technological dystopia that awaits us. “Girl dinner� and bad cakes are distractions from the truly otherworldly bullshit that’s happening unchecked just underneath the internet’s surface. 

AI Pope

The first widespread AI event was not, thankfully, the invasion of our impending robot overlords but an image of the Pope wearing Balenciaga. Or whatever this Midjourney art posted on Reddit by u/trippy_art_special looks like to you. All I know is even celebrities were duped into thinking the Pope really was strolling the Vatican in a large white puffer jacket and bejeweled cross pendant.

NPC Streamers

Fedha Sinon, 27, who goes by the moniker Pinky Doll, became the pioneer of “NPC streaming� when her livestreams imitating a video game “non-playable character� not only went viral but became a brand-new genre attempted by people like Trisha Paytas and those two guys who are always in Soho.

OpenAI’s Implosion

Back in March, when Emmett Shear announced he was resigning as the chief executive of Twitch after 16 years, it seemed like just another news bulletin in Silicon Valley’s revolving door of chaos. Cut to November, and Shear has reappeared as one of the key players in a revolt at OpenAI. The company that brought us ChatGPT pushed out its CEO, Sam Altman, on Friday, November 17, and brought in Shear as the second interim replacement after days of inner turmoil … before ultimately hiring Altman again. Good thing the technology that could potentially wage war against humanity is in such stable hands!

Meta Chatbots

Meanwhile, at Meta, the company recruited celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Kendall Jenner to be the faces of its AI chatbot model. “Coke, all the way!� Jenner, or rather her chatbot alter ego, Billie, told Vulture in a DM last month when asked if she preferred that or Pepsi. “I’m a Southern girl, and we take our sweet tea and Coca-Cola seriously down here! Pepsi is just not the same …�

Everything about this is forebodingly dystopian, but if the choice is between a company that goes through multiple CEOs in a weekend or Snoop Dogg, I’m choosing Snoop Dogg.

NFT Party Injuries

There ain’t no party like an NFT party because stage lighting at a November 3–5 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT party reportedly gave attendees something called “welder’s eye.� That’s on top of the even more serious ailment they all appeared to already be suffering from: still buying NFTs. What is this, 2022?

More From This Series

• The 10 Best TV Needle Drops of 2023
• The Weepiest TV Moments of 2023
• Our 78 Favorite Comedy Moments of 2023

See All