Brandwatch Bulletin #145: 2022’s Defining Online Moments

What a year it's been.

16 December 2022

It’s the last bulletin of the year, making it the perfect time to reflect on 2022. To help you do that, we’ve pulled together a list of some of the defining online moments of the year, including the day social posts peaked for each event.

Let’s get to it.

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West Elm Caleb

Posts peaked on January 21

The year started off with a guy named Caleb becoming the internet’s villain for a week. It all started on TikTok, with meemshou posting a video about a disappointing dating experience with a Caleb.

This prompted multiple comments from people saying they had been lovebombed and ghosted by their own Caleb who worked at West Elm (meemshou has since clarified this was not the same Caleb as her Caleb), and before long “West Elm Caleb” was trending as more women came forward with their own stories.

This sparked a lot of debate about the morality of modern dating and ghosting, but also on the ethics of publicly naming Caleb and if his behavior warranted such attention.

Wordle

Posts peaked on February 6

Wordle, the simple and addictive word game, was created in 2021, but absolutely took off in 2022. Millions of people have since shared their scores online, while Josh Wardle, the game’s creator, eventually sold it to the New York Times for a seven-figure sum.

But are people still playing?

While levels are nowhere near their peak, around 45k people still share their scores online every week. Clearly the game has staying power.

Big Jet TV

Posts peaked on February 18

As Storm Eunice battered the UK, most people stayed indoors. But not Jerry Dyer. As he’s done countless times before, he headed to London’s Heathrow Airport to film planes coming in to land for his YouTube channel Big Jet TV.

Due to high winds, the live footage was more dramatic than usual as planes struggled to land, or aborted landings at the very last second. This, combined with Jerry’s excellent and enthusiastic commentary, led to Big Jet TV going viral, enrapturing hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

And if you missed it the first time round, don’t worry. You can watch the full 8 hours of footage here.

Will Smith slaps Chris Rock at the Oscars

Posts peaked on March 28

What can we say about the slap that hasn’t already been said? The internet was completely taken over with memes and arguments about The Slap. You really can’t beat some real-world drama to get people talking.

Elon Musk and Twitter agree purchase deal

Posts peaked on April 26

With 1.6m people talking about this moment in a single day, Twitter accepting Musk’s acquisition of the company is the biggest story on the list. Of course this is only one part of a saga that has been playing out ever since.

We’ll return to Musk and Twitter shortly. But first, it’s back to memes.

Louis Theroux’s ‘Jiggle Jiggle’ goes viral

Posts peaked on June 14

Theroux is famed around the world for his documentaries, and now for his musical talents, too. During a Chicken Shop Date interview, Louis recited some rap lyrics he had performed on an episode of Weird Weekends two decades before.

From there musicians Duke & Jones autotuned the lyrics, added a beat, and posted their creation to TikTok where it took off. Soon after Theroux and Duke & Jones recorded a proper version of “Jiggle Jiggle”, with the hit becoming one of 2022’s biggest TikTok songs.

Goblin mode

Posts peaked on August 26

One of the more bizarre stories of 2022 saw the phrase “goblin mode” go viral due to a fake news headline about Julia Fox. Fake or not, people’s interest in goblin mode was piqued, with 23k users posting about it in a single day.

That wasn’t the last we saw of goblin mode though, with it named the Oxford word of the year just last week. We encourage everyone to take some time to go goblin mode in the new year.

Musk’s purchase of Twitter is completed

Posts peaked on October 28

We return to Elon Musk and Twitter as the deal finally closed, despite Musk’s best efforts to get out of it. From Twitter Blue to the return of Trump, a lot has happened with Elon’s attempts to reforge the company.

With sign ups and user activity at all time highs, people clearly don’t want to miss whatever comes next.

Goncharov

Posts peaked on November 21

Our final moment on the list is the mass creation of a fake Scorcese gangster film, along with plot, actors, themes, and posters. You can read the full story here but ultimately this was a heartwarming event which pooled the creativity of thousands into a project where the only goal was to entertain other people.

Goncharov has gotten so popular, it’s even leaked into the real world.

How the moments stack up

To finish things off for the year, let’s see which moments got the most people talking.

Elon Musk and Twitter were the biggest moments by a wide margin. Goncharov, thanks to a ton of Tumblr posts, takes 3rd, with Worlde coming in 4th.

It’s quite a mixed bag of moments, but we didn’t expect anything different from the internet.

Now let’s see what 2023 throws up.

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See you next time,

The Brandwatch Bulletin team

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