2021 Year in Review: Viral/Trending Videos
Let's look back at the most viral/trending videos of 2021
2021 was a rough year, maybe not as rough as 2020, but still, rough enough.
Thankfully, there was no shortage of riveting viral videos and time-sucking trending topics.
To give us welcome, momentary distractions from the real world!
Jeremy roth recaps some of the year's most captivating and infamous topics!
Where the hot mess that was 2020 left off, 2021 came stomping right in and took over with its own brand of viral chaos like a herd of elephants that broke free from a nature reserve in China.
And blazed a trail of destruction across the land, while millions watched with hope and bewilderment .
That actually happened, by the way.
The year kicked off with Bernie Mitten Mania going viral, as Senator Bernie Sanders was spotted sporting a pair of fashionable wool warmers at President Biden's inauguration.
Is fashionable the right word?
Opinions were split. Folks were either smitten by the mittens or ready to smite as the gloves came off.
And the mania made Sanders become a meme, for better or worse.
Speaking of meme-worthy, "I'm here live, I'm not a cat."
What else can you say when a zany zoom call filter makes you look like a cat?!
That's what happened to a Texas lawyer reportedly using his secretary's computer to attend a district court video hearing.
You gotta be kitten me!
The epic feline fail eventually got sorted out and when he went viral, the lawyer didn't take it purrrr-sonally.
2021 was a big year for the "NFT" trend.
Not sure what's a NFT?
Non-fungible tokens became the latest cryptocurrency craze, allowing unique digital content to be verified, sold and traded with assets of the same value like trading dollar bills.
There's more to it and you may not get it, but get this, some NFT's sold in 2021 included:
Jack Dorsey's first tweet for $2.9 million and a GIF of a poptart-bodied cat leaving a rainbow trail for about $600,000.
Veterinary doctors made headlines this year by giving a tiny puppy born with upside-down paws a new leash on life!
Experts say little Siggi's inverted front paws were the result of a rare congenital condition.
Oklahoma state university vets used radiographic study and surgery to re-orient and stabilize the paws. And now, Siggi's walking tall on the road to recovery.
2021 saw a pair of viral TikTok challenges enjoy trending status before enjoying outright banishment.
One was the "Milk crate challenge" where participants would climb a stack of rickety crates and try not to fall-emphasis on the word, "try."
The other was called "Deviouslicks," which basically challenged people to swipe and/or vandalize school property.
Both challenges resulted in millions of views on TikTok.
And both saw their questionable content eventually removed from the format.
Ugh, this is why we can't have nice things, people...speaking of nice things:
A fancy-pants superyacht turned heads and garnered clicks when it was squeezed through a town's tiny inland canals in Holland.
The 308-foot behemoth vessel was one of many to use the route to go from shipyard to sea trials with very little room to spare.
An Alabama sheriff's deputy's viral fame became solid as a rock, all because he looks like the Rock!
Eric Fields went viral thanks to a TikTok video. The real Rock, Dwayne Johnson, took to Twitter thanking fields for his service and inviting him someday for a drink and to swap "Rock stories."
Marine researchers became starstruck during an undersea exploration when they spotted the real life versions of Spongebob Squarepants and his buddy Patrick Star side by side on the ocean floor!
An image of the iconic duo was tweeted by an expert who promptly killed everyone's buzz by speculating that the star was likely preparing to devour the sponge.
Our last story went viral for all the right reasons - "The marines are gonna help us!"
Car riders, whose vehicle became stuck in the Washington, D.C. area floodwaters, witnessed the true meaning of military might and heroism as a busload of uniformed marines marched through the flood to help push them to safety.
"This is the most American thing ever!"
Over 4 million views later, the moment perfectly encapsulates the turbulance and togetherness of 2021.
