#pop-culture

#pop-culture

In the 40+ years since its birth in Orlando, Florida, Olive Garden has not only expanded to over 900 locations, but the restaurant has also created a massive footprint in pop culture, appearing in sketches on Saturday Night Live, tongue-in-cheek punk songs, and an extended bit where Jimmy Fallon ended up owning the rights to the catchphrase "When you're here, you're family."

If you haven't been living under a rock, you'd know that Heated Rivalry has taken the world by storm. Since its release, the gay hockey romance has gone from a niche fan favourite to a full-blown pop culture moment. In an extremely short amount of time, the two leads (Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams) have already gone on to present at the Golden Globes, appear on late-night TV, and even secured a confirmed second season.

"Wake Up, Beauty!": The Superb Digital Concept & Fantasy Art Works of Tony Sart "Stranger Toys": Illustrator Re-Imagines The Characters Of Stranger Things As Adorable Figurines 'South Park' Irks White House, Scientology With Trolling Mobile Billboards Artist Creates An Installation That Takes From The Rich To Give To The Poor Stunning Digital Female Portraits By Irakli Nadar Machinery In Black And White: Cool Rapid Sketches By Paul Heaston '25 Things I've Learned'

Of our 20 predictions for this past year, only two have definitively come true: one great ( Beyoncé won album of the year !) and one terrible (a Jared Leto exposé finally dropped -not that it appears to have really affected him at all ). A couple of others remain possibly true ( Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have been seen together a number of times in recent months); some were obviously wishful thinking ( Marcello Hernández movie vehicle when??); and some were flat-out wrong ( Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco didn't break up, they got married!).

From faithfuls and farming to salons and sinking ships, Ireland has an insatiable appetite for watching celebrities and civilians doing silly things

"The years go by so fast, and that's how 'The Year' goes by, the program.,"

They're all part of the new strain of Mormon mania sweeping American culture. When I asked "Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" star Heather Gay about the phenomenon last week, she called it "undeniable and crazy." "I just think that the Mormon moment is because we're taking over, we're industrial, we're enterprising," Gay said. Two percent of the US population self-identifies as members of the Church of Latter-day Saints, but they've dominated our screens and conversations in 2025 like never before.

Ah, the '80s - a time when blowing into Nintendo cartridges like it was a life-saving ritual was a regular occurrence, Saturday mornings belonged to cartoons, and the biggest flex was having the perfect Trapper Keeper. If you ever got frustrated trying to solve a Rubik's Cube or begged your parents for a neon Lisa Frank folder, this one's for you. Take the poll below and tell us just how deep your '80s kid cred really goes!

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

YouTube has published its list of the top trending topics of 2025, and once again, gaming and pop culture were popular choices for what people watched on the video-streaming website. Out of the trending topics--which aren't ranked in any particular order--US YouTube viewers devoured any content related to the Switch 2 console, Roblox, and the RPG-strategy game Cookie Run Kingdom. Other topics of interest in the US included KPop Demon Hunters, Labubu collectible dolls, and the hit anime series Blue Lock.

Pop music may have been central to the New Left, but today's listeners are mostly reduced to hunting for Easter eggs, finding anti-Trump messaging in the likes of octogenarian Neil Young's tossed-off anthems. The eager critical embrace of Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, based on a 1990 Thomas Pynchon novel steeped in the backwash of curdled 1970s left-wing militance, serves chiefly to underscore the film industry's studious disregard of the way America lives now.

Any extremists of any kind we make fun of. We did it for years with the woke thing. That was hilarious to us. And this is hilarious to us.

tendency manifests in statements and gestures that are, at their best, a bumper sticker tagline about how Republicans are a bunch of Dementors from Harry Potter , or at worst, literal fascist propaganda dressed in 's imagery . Even just yesterday, as we headed into election night, the official social media accounts of the Democratic party were using my favorite song from KPop Demon Hunters to paint President Donald Trump as an agent of the evil, soul-eating demon Gwi-ma, and it gave me the ick.

Cougars. The term is finally taking on a whole new meaning. Traditionally, it's been used derogatorily to label older women who date younger men as predatory. But now, there's a reclamation happening, and you only need to look at TikTok to see it. There are currently over 113,000 videos under the hashtag #CougarTok , and more than twice that number under #cougar . The videos aren't just thirst traps or jokes; they're sparking conversations about age-gap relationships that feel fresh, confident and celebratory.

1 Which media giant began in 1997 as a DVD rental service? 2 Which Hindu god is often depicted holding a bowl of sweets? 3 #BalanceTonPorc was the French counterpart of which movement? 4 Which fruit frequently contains a dead wasp? 5 In what Asian language does one, two sound like itchy knee? 6 Slugworth, Prodnose and Fickelgruber were whose commercial rivals? 7 What competition does Alaska's Katmai national park hold each autumn? 8 Cornwall in 1337 was the first English creation of what?

He cites the example of "Communion: A True Story" (1987), the bestseller in which horror author Whitley Strieber describes his alleged alien encounters the book was later was later made into a film starring Christopher Walken. "The book's cover featured the now-iconic grey face the kind seen by people who've claimed to have had abduction experiences or first contact events [with aliens]," he tells DW.

Kevin Garnett hits the over on steals. Kevin Garnett hits the over on blocks. Kevin Garnett hits the over on points. Celtics win the opening tip. Adam Sandler's character bets big on KG having a really good night. I was just stretching my legs out! (Season 2 of Curb Your Enthusiasm) BA-BA-BA-BA-BA-BASKETBALL GIMME GIMME GIMME THE BALL BECAUSE I'M GONNA ________ IT. How will people know it's about basketball?

Yoga's introduction to the West began in the late 1800s, but it wasn't until the early 1990s that yoga began to gain in pop culture popularity. Suddenly, yoga was everywhere. Celebrities including Sting (featured on a YJ cover in December 1995), Madonna, and Oprah touted the benefits of the practice; magazines began to feature the practice, noting its benefits in health and fitness columns; and it started to show up in movies and sitcoms.

Only someone living under a rock or in House Speaker Mike Johnson's 1950s fantasy America, doesn't know that the Super Bowl halftime show is one of the most anticipated performances of the year. It's not just about football. It's a pop culture phenomenon and capitalism rolled into just 15 minutes. Even people who don't know the difference between an extra point and a field goal tune in for the music, the costumes, the surprise guests,

"Brand building is a bit like pointillism ... Every time you activate your brand, you're placing a dot in somebody's brain," said Kaplan, explaining that those individual dots cluster over time to form richer perceptions of a brand. Marketers who have a strong grasp of such perceptions can act with confidence on whether and how to deploy their brands in different cultural contexts while those who don't may simply create more noise.

Taylor Swift made an unexpected soccer reference on Friday with the release of her new album, "The Life of a Showgirl." The 12-track record features the song "Wi$h Li$t," in which the American pop star compares the dream of signing a contract with Real Madrid to other lofty ambitions such as winning an Oscar or the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

I love The Simpsons. It's also the worst thing on television. Revealing yourself as a Simpsons fan comes with inevitable qualifiers: Not the new episodes! Most people want their favourite show to last as long as miserly TV executives will allow. Not me. I would gladly see The Simpsons sent to the knacker's yard, rather than given a second movie, as was announced earlier this week.

"One of my students asked if I knew a song that they had put in their recent 'oldies' playlist. I gave them permission to play it since we were near the end of the period, and everyone was just finishing up their last tasks. I was expecting them to play something by The Beatles or Queen, or whatever else, so I was absolutely stunned when they started playing 'Closer' by The Chainsmokers. Huh?!?" -Ryan, California