Let's remember the strangest internet news moments of 2023

Remember 2023? The answer may be no. It was a lot. Between a flood of important games – Tears of the Kingdom, Diablo IV, Baldur’s Gate 3, Armored core 6And Starfieldto name a few – the stunning cultural moment of Barbenheimer, the writer and actor blows, the transformation of Twitter in Xthe multi-layered legal action against the takeover of Microsoft and Activision and the rise of AI – the year of culture was a constant drone of milestones.

Which can easily lead to forgetting everything different that happened. Below you’ll find selected things that really mattered in the last 365 days that no one would blame you for forgetting.

The M&Ms had a Speekscandy controversy that ended in a Super Bowl

The year started with the desexification of the green M&M, conservative pundits screaming about candy that melts in the mouth, not the hands, and then a Super Bowl commercial that only added to the chaos. 2023 promised to be a year!

There were rumors that Shrek was dead

Shrek, hands behind his head, with a relaxed smile and eyes closed

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was a surprise at the end of December 2022, so we spent a lot of time thinking about what it meant for Shrek in January. Our leading theory: Shrek died. Finally, we had to ask the directors for comment. Believe them if you must.

Two guys tried to steal $300,000 worth of GenCon merchandise and were completely caught

We don’t condone theft, but if you went to GenCon to steal a pallet of MTG cards, wouldn’t you wear a mask? Well, two New Yorkers who thought they were the Danny Oceans of the trading card game scene…didn’t.

E3 imploded

E3 2023 was a no-go, but at least in April 2023, organizers believed there was hope for the legacy gaming event. But unfortunately E3 was 100% dead in the fall. Time to remember the very first E3!

Amouranth, Seinfeld and the Pope all had an AI moment.

An image of a Jerry Seinfeld style character. The character is rendered in chunky 3D pixels and there's a hint of a watermark in the bottom left corner that says

Nothing explains the dizzying, anything-goes moment of AI tools better than the 14-day lifespan of the automated Seinfeld episode generator that – inevitably? – made a transphobic remark and was eventually banned. But maybe something good can come from technology: This sounds like a troll, but in fact Amouranth is all in, if only for the rest. And then there was the Pope down coat…perhaps the 2023rd story of 2023.

BioWare apologized for a memorial statue containing Commander Shepard’s body

“This statue was intended to be part of a series that commemorated some of the series’ most important and emotional moments” – and it did.

Max announced a 10-year Harry Potter TV series

After the publication of Hogwarts legacyeveryone longed for the promise of another decade of Potter discourse, and Warner Bros. Discovery delivered.

Charles Martinet ended a legendary career as the voice of Mario, only getting a cameo in the Mario movie

The Super Mario Bros. movie gave Martinent his due after replacing him with Chris Pratt, and he still has a place at Nintendo, but everything went wrong… in a shady way. At least the new guy seems nice.

The War Thunder Discord somehow found itself at the center of another leak of secret documents

The FBI arrested 21-year-old Jack Teixeira earlier this year for leaking documents that included information about Russia’s war against Ukraine. Note to all gamers: I have no idea what leaks are!!

Grimace trembled, we trembled

An old photo of Grimace the Hamburger and a Birdie and Early Bird sitting at a table eating McDonald's.

It’s not too early to remember simpler times when we ordered purple milkshakes at McDonald’s and pretended to die on the floor.

People were really weird about Oppenheimer’s sex scene

The Barbenheimer double feature revitalized cinema, but some people left the theater worried that it was unnecessary for Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh to go out naked. Come on guys, it was July and really hot outside.

Post Malone bought the $2 million “Lord of the Rings: One Ring” card from Magic the Gathering

Shame on you for forgetting that our premier rapper-turned-Mana-Caster showed up to grab the golden ticket to Wizard of the Coast. (But my goodness, think about the taxes!)

Colleen Ballinger aka Miranda Sings performed a ukulele song to respond to allegations of toxic substances in the workplace

This account of Ballinger’s controversial year contains a lot of sensitive material, but perhaps the most sensitive thing is your ears as you listen to a classic YouTube reaction video set to the accompaniment of a small stringed instrument.

“Planet of the Bass” exploded as a listenable shitpost

A close-up of Kyle Gordon as DJ Crazy Times saying

Song of the summer.

Kai Cenat sparked an uproar in New York City when he tried to give away the PS5

Streamer power is real, and as Cenat taught us all this year, potentially dangerous if used without much thought. Cenat in particular has become an object of curiosity and as we came to the end of the year it was worth exploring.

“You’re so skibidi, so fanum tax”

There’s no quick explanation here, you’re either in or out.

Kojima did a Kojima thing right before he broke up

With most major game releases in the rearview mirror, Hideo Kojima attended the Game Awards to really melt heads with the reveal of OUT OF, a game? Experience? Horror thing? Kojima and Jordan Peele chatted for a while after airing a cryptic trailer, and when it was all over, we collectively forgot everything that happened in 2023, hence this recap.

This is your moment: What has the world collectively forgotten over the past year?