The Best Viral Moments of 2026 (So Far)

One of the more bizarre moments of this year has been the trend, primarily on TikTok, of determined individuals speedrunning their way through Scientology buildings. The first spot was one of the more well-known buildings in Hollywood, with a few solo speedrunners operating separately, turning into hordes of costumed pleasure seekers bombarding Scientology officials at the door, recording their exploits on their phones and Meta glasses. It got so bad that the Hollywood building had to remove the door handles to thwart speedrunners from gaining easy access.

Not to rewrite something we’ve already ruminated on, but seeing Ryan Coogler’s Sinners go from sixteen Academy Award nominations to four Academy Award wins—including a Best Original Screenplay for Coogler and a Best Actor win for Michael B. Jordan—was, simply, amazing. Coogler has found a way to have Jordan involved in all of his films since Fruitvale Station, and his emotion during his acceptance speech was all you saw that night and the following morning. (“Please sit down, I’m very nervous and they are going to play me off,” Coogler told the crowd. “I’m from Oakland, California and we can talk a lot.”) Jordan made waves after his win, which makes sense when he decided to eschew other events for a dope photo opp (and burger) while greeting fans and well-wishers at In-N-Out.

One of the more random stories of 2026 was, well, silly hats. And when it comes to rocking silly hats, there are really only two ways you can do it: one is in a fashion where you clearly have too much dip on your chip, and the other is like John Travolta, who decided to celebrate his honorary Palme d'Or by showing up at Cannes to premiere his directorial debut, Propeller One-Way Night Coach, cosplaying a beret enthusiast. “The old school directors wore berets and the glasses,” Travolta told CNN when explaining his new look. “And I thought, that's what I'm doing.” Travolta said that he spent time looking up pictures of old school directors and filmmakers, “and I said, ‘I'm a director this time. You're an actor, play the part of a director. Look like an old school director.'” That turned into an array of berets, which didn’t help the fact that his directorial debut made one reviewer feel as if they were "watching a toddler walk into a lamp post."

Now this was an interesting mess, wasn’t it? Fueled by a disdain for how the Duffers chose to end Stranger Things, diehard fans collectively concocted a theory that the finale of Stranger Things was actually fake out, with a NEW final episode airing days later, with a list of “clues” they felt were left in the final season that pointed directly to what was dubbed “Conformity Gate” due to the theorists feeling that the characters “conformed” to societal norms instead of rebelling against them. That episode was theorized to air on January 7, 2026, with Conformity Gaters causing server issues for the streamer as they searched for an episode that didn’t exist.

After mounting his return with Swag and Swag II in 2025, Justin Bieber headlining Coachella made all of the sense in the world, especially for the swath of fans who grew up with Bieber as a talented youngster sharing his passion on YouTube. Color their surprise that, for large chunks of his iconic Weekend I performance—which has since been referred to as “Bieberchella”—Bieber was sitting in front of his laptop, pulling up his classics on YouTube to then perform for the crowd. Bieber in front of the laptop became a meme itself, and the performance was so iconic that it’s getting its own release. Bieberchella forever.

Did Hunxho know that his 2025 single "Birthday Girl" would become what it became in 2026? Probably not, but we hope he saw a solid boost in his stream when everyone started digging for the explanation of saying “you the birthday” to someone. (The phrase stems from the lyrics "she eat, she the birthday girl" in the track.) Maybe it’s the confusion around the term (or the process of understanding the term), which basically means that said “birthday girl” is the center of attention, mostly because videos breaking down the phrase to millennials (and anyone else confused by the term) were what was really being shared. The phrase may have had a short shelf life, but it was the conversation.

The internet wasn’t made for cute animals, but cute animals may run the internet. How else do you explain the overwhelming love and support for the tiny Japanese macaque known as Punch, who fell in love with a large stuffed orangutan toy? Punch, not even a year old at the time of this writing, was transported to Monkey Mountain at the Ichikawa City Zoo in January, and the IKEA Djungelskog plushie helped Punch cope, with Punch needed the plushie less and less as he acclimaited to his surroundings. Someone will always try to mess up a good thing, but the power of Punch lives on.