Causing a stir online is not that hard to do nowadays. But to cause a mammoth of a buzz on the internet is no small feat. Many people become viral sensations purely by accident, with internet fame just falling into the palms of their hands. Other times (see Kim Kardashian’s Paper magazine cover) it’s done with purpose. Either way, “breaking the internet” is achievable in one way or another. Lets take a look at ten times in which we really got people talking.
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1. Jon Snow’s shenanigans
Emilia Clarke, aka the Mother of Dragons, shared her greatest Instagram post ever back in 2017. It featured Kit Harrington, who plays Jon Snow on the hit HBO series Game of Thrones, pretending to be a dragon. The post received nearly 20 million views, and was picked up by dozens of news outlets, including Mashable, Bustle, Insider, and more.
2. The “Apparently Kid”
Noah Ritter cemented his legacy in the meme world all the way back in 2014 when he gave an on-air interview with WNEP at the Wayne County Fair in Pennsylvania. When reporter Sofia Ojeda asked the then nine-year-old how he was enjoying the fair’s rides, he went on a rant that including far too many uses of the word “apparently”. Soon after, The Laughing Squid published an article titled “Cute Kid Noah Ritter ‘Apparently’ Steals the Show During an Interview at the Wayne County Fair in Pennsylvania.” The video was then covered by the likes of UpRoxx, E!Online, Us Magazine, and Jezebel. The original video currently has nearly 36 million views. Go Noah!
HELP ME PLEASE. A MAN NEEDS HIS NUGGS pic.twitter.com/4SrfHmEMo3
— Carter Wilkerson (@carterjwm) April 6, 2017
3. A quest for nuggets
When hungry teen Carter Wilkerson asked Wendy’s how many retweets he would need to get free chicken nuggets for an entire year, the company set the bar unrealistically high at 18 million. While Carter never did reach that milestone, he did gain 3.5 million retweets, which was good enough to earn him a year’s supply of free nugs. Carter eventually made his way onto The Ellen Show and even made an appearance in Katy Perry’s music video for “Swish Swish”. Carter shot his shot, and he scored.
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4. Stormi Webster’s Instagram debut
The Kardashian’s own the social spotlight, and so do their offspring by extension. When Stormi Webster—daughter to Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott—made her debut on Instagram, 18 million fans gave the pic a double tap.
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5. Justin Bieber announces engagement
This one either made or broke peoples’ day. Shortly after the Fourth of July, pop icon Justin Bieber unexpectedly announced his engagement to Hailey Baldwin. The post gathered it’s fair share of likes and comments, but the news created waves all across the internet, including on CNN, TMZ, BBC, USA Today, and more. Breakdowns of the couples’ relationship history soon followed, with Cosmopolitan publishing “A definitive timeline of Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin’s relationship” and E News sharing “Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin’s Road to Marriage”.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zackdangerbrown/potato-salad
6. This insane Kickstarter campaign
This one is pretty obscure, but it all started when a guy by the name of Zack “Danger” Brown got a craving for potato salad. Naturally, he started a Kickstarter campaign asking for just $15.00 to cover the cost of ingredients. “Basically I’m just making potato salad,” he stated on his fundraising page. “I haven’t decided what kind yet.” Under the “Risks and Challenges” section of his fundraiser, he went as far as to admit that “It might not be that good. It’s my first potato salad.” In a matter of days, Brown received more than $55,000 from nearly 7,000 backers. He then used the money to throw a public party called PotatoStock in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio, which raised money for nonprofits that fight hunger in the area.
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7. Beyonce drops pregnancy bomb
While Beyonce claimed to be the one blessed two times over, it was in fact the fans that had been blessed on that cold, February 2017 day. Beyonce’s announcement that she would be having twins garnered over 11 million likes on Instagram, and collected more than half a million comments. If this isn’t twinning winning, then I don’t know what is.
If only Bradley's arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars http://t.co/C9U5NOtGap
— Ellen DeGeneres (@EllenDeGeneres) March 3, 2014
8. Ellen’s Oscar selfie
By far the strongest display of selfie game to date, Ellen’s Oscar night selfie included some of Hollywood’s hottest stars, including Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Meryl Streep, Lupita Nyong’o, Channing Tatum, Brad Pitt, and more. Kevin Spacey was there too, but we’ll just pretend he wasn’t. The photo earned itself more than 3 million retweets and 2 million likes back in March of 2014.
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9. Christiano Ronaldo arrives for Juventus
Ronaldo is no stranger to the spotlight, and he’s had his fair share of popular posts over the years. In fact, a 2017 photo announcing the birth of his second child earned 11 million likes. But his most recent move to Juventus in July of this year also made waves to the tune of 9 million likes and 61,000 comments. Save some likes for the rest of us, guy.
10. This Reddit gif
For those that don’t know, Reddit is a social aggregation site that lets user share content, links, and more to the site. There are many strong opinions within the Reddit world about reposting content, as many feel it degrades the quality of the site itself. When one user got sick and tired of people misusing the platform, they created this Guardians of the Galaxy-themed gif, and watched it rocket to the front page with more than 283,000 upvotes. That’s good enough to be the most liked post on the site, ever.