Not everything that went viral this year mattered. Some moments were light, others strange, a few oddly revealing. None of them fixed the world. But all of them reminded us that humanity, for better or worse, remains endlessly entertaining. Here is our carefully unscientific, proudly subjective selection of the WTF and pointless viral moments of 2025.
Someone Knocked From Inside The Coffin
We begin where disbelief peaked. At a Buddhist temple in Thailand, moments before a cremation was due to begin, staff heard knocking from inside the coffin. Inside was a woman believed to have died two days earlier. She was alive, eyes open, knocking to be let out.
Relief followed shock. Shock gave way to silence. The internet collectively froze. Then came the quote that sealed the moment, when her brother reportedly said he felt indifferent upon discovering she was still alive. Some stories simply do not need commentary.
A Kiss Cam That Made Coldplay Relevant Again
Coldplay concerts are built on love, harmony and collective emotional release. Enter the kiss cam.
During a Boston show, the camera landed on a couple sharing an affectionate moment. When they realised they were on the big screen, panic set in. Chris Martin joked. The internet did what it does best.
Within hours, the couple were identified as senior executives at the same tech company. Days later, both resigned following an internal review.
Then came the plot twist no screenwriter would dare pitch. Astronomer hired Gwyneth Paltrow, former wife of Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, as a temporary spokesperson to manage the PR crisis. PR crisis. What a magnificent phrase. Coldplay, a band without a new album in what feels like a small geological era, suddenly found itself culturally relevant again. Not through music, but thanks to what may go down as the most beautifully circular HR scandal of the year.
Seven Minutes In Paris
In Paris, in broad daylight and while tourists wandered nearby, thieves dressed as construction workers staged a robbery that felt lifted straight from a film script.
Using a crane, they smashed a window, entered a museum and escaped with priceless French Crown jewellery linked to emperors and queens. The entire operation took less than seven minutes. One crown was dropped during the escape. The rest vanished.
Elegant, audacious and deeply cinematic, the jewellery remains missing. The story does not.
Katy Perry Leaves Earth Briefly, Returns A Meme
Pop culture met space tourism when Katy Perry joined an all-female crew aboard a Blue Origin flight.
She floated weightless for four minutes, became the first artist to sing in space and kissed the ground upon returning to Earth. Designer flight suits were worn. Quotes were delivered. Memes followed.
It was short, spectacular and slightly baffling. Exactly as expected.
Nothing Beats A Jet2 Holiday (Especially When It All Goes Wrong)
An advert meant to sell calm, family-friendly holidays became the soundtrack to chaos.
Creators paired Jet2’s relentlessly cheerful voiceover and Jess Glynne’s Hold My Hand with footage of holidays falling apart, from storms and arrests to pure travel mayhem. The contrast was irresistible.
A ten-year-old song became TikTok royalty. Marketing teams everywhere quietly updated their crisis manuals.
Ozzy Osbourne’s Final Bow, And A Perfect Cover
Not everything viral was pointless. Ozzy Osbourne’s final performance, seated on a black throne and reunited with Black Sabbath, was raw, emotional and unmistakably his. Weeks later, he was gone.
What he left behind was not only a farewell show, but arguably the best cover of the year: Changes, reimagined with aching restraint by Yungblud. It was tender, stripped back and unexpectedly perfect. Some moments go viral because they deserve to.
The 6-7 Trend That Means Absolutely Nothing
Say six. Say seven. Watch teenagers react like you pressed a hidden button.
The 6-7 trend spread everywhere, complete with gestures, chants and dances that even language experts admitted meant nothing at all. At its peak, it even prompted a British prime minister to apologise after accidentally encouraging it during a school visit.
Meaningless. Harmless. Completely unstoppable.
Labubus And The Year Of the Cute Frenzy
Tiny, furry dolls from China took over the world. Demand became so intense that shops paused sales to avoid fights. Counterfeits flooded the market. Millions of pounds’ worth of fake Labubus were seized, many failing safety checks. Cute, slightly unsettling and oddly compelling, they became a case study in internet-driven obsession.
And Then There Was Kris Jenner
When new photos of Kris Jenner surfaced, they did not break the internet. They did something subtler. They reminded us that the old fairy-tale question, mirror mirror on the wall, has quietly been replaced by another one: how much does it cost?The reaction was not outrage, but recognition. Ageing, it seems, is not defeated. It is outsourced.
So What Did We Learn?
Very little. And that is the point. In a heavy year, these moments offered relief, disbelief and the occasional laugh. They reminded us that not everything needs depth to see the light of day. Sometimes, all a story needs to do is make you pause, smile, and think: humanity remains gloriously strange.