Brain rot 2024: the best and funniest viral moments of the year

From holding space to a baby pygmy hippo, there's much to be learned about the world through the memes and trends that dominated our social media feeds this year

Brain rot" has been named Oxford's word of the year, meaning the supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging".

But no matter how trivial" or unchallenging" the content may be, there's still a lot to be learned about our culture through the trends, memes and storylines that dominated our social media feeds this year. So let's embrace the brain rot and take a journey back through the 10 best and funniest viral trends that the internet had to offer in 2024.