The Pop Culture Junkie podcast is re-running a special series of episodes looking back at the past decade, chronicling the highs and lows, at least from a pop culture standpoint. Each episode deals with two years, so we had to leave some stuff out. A year is a long time! So as a companion piece, here is a more in-depth look at each year in pop culture.

2018 HAD US ASKING…

• What is your favorite flavor of Tide Pod?
• Did you survive “The Snap?”
• What put you in your feelings this year?
• Just what are you flossing when you do the Fortnite dance?

THE FILMS

Most of the top-grossing films this year told the stories of heroes or villains (or both.) Of course, Marvel dominated, even after Thanos wiped out half of the living universe with a snap in Avengers: Infinity War. The MCU was also represented by Black Panther, and Ant-Man and the Wasp this year, but the DCEU was also represented with Aquaman, and the other reliably profitable movie mega-franchise scored with Solo: A Star Wars Story. But wait, there’s more! The not-quite-MCU anti-hero Deadpool (20th Century Fox) returned for another adventure, and in Venom (Sony), a Spider-Man villain appeared in a non-Spider-Man movie for the first time. Sony did bring us an animated Spider-Man (lots of them, actually) with the story of Miles Morales in Into the Spider-Verse. Pixar brought back The Incredibles in a long-awaited sequel, and those heroic dinosaurs fought off Chris Pratt and company in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Disney gave both Wreck-It-Ralph (Ralph Breaks the Internet) and a recast (Emily Blunt) Mary Poppins sequel, Bumblebee from the Transformers headlined his own movie, and Tom Cruise was back (not for Disney) in Mission Impossible-Fallout, where he beat up Henry Cavill in the men’s room (and did some other dope stunts.) Villains took the lead in several movies too, in Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindewald, and Blumhouse’s Halloween, which reinvigorated the franchise where Michael Myers can neither be killed, nor can he kill the object of his murderous attention, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis.) There were big-eared beasties in The Quiet Place, a giant freaking shark in The Meg, and on the lighter side, Dracula and pals were back for Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation. There were also movies that weren’t just popcorn fare, like the Sandra Bullock-led heist Ocean’s Eight, family drama abroad in Crazy Rich Asians, family drama (to put it mildly) at home in Hereditary, and Lady Gaga’s award-worthy turn in A Star is Born. This year also gave us the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, which was reverent yet controversial in telling the story of the legendary Queen frontman, played by Rami Malek.

THE TUNES

Thanks in part to a breathtaking music video, Childish Gambino, aka Donald Glover, topped the charts with “This is America” a single he released while doing double duty as host and musical guest on Satruday Night Live. The protest song/political statement swept the Grammys, winning Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rap/Sung Performance and Music Video of the Year, it was that stellar. Drake also had a great year, with top singles “Nice for What” and “God’s Plan” scoring big airplay, and his “In My Feelings” was the song of the summer, behind a viral dance challenge and a phrase from the song (“Kiki, do you love me?”) becoming a cultural touchstone that still resonates today. Ariana Grande also made a most meme-able tune with an ode to her exes called “Thank U, Next.” Written during her (temporary) engagement to Pete Davidson, the song references Grande’s other exes – Big Sean, Ricky Alvarez and the late Mac Miller. Other big hits this year include Ed Sheeran with “Perfect,” three hits including “Better Now,” “Rockstar” and “Psycho” by Post Malone, “Meant to Be” by Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line, “The Middle” by Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey, “Havana” by Camila Cabelo, “I Like It” from Cardi B with Bad Bunny, “Girls Like You” by Maroon 5 backed by Cardi B, “One Kiss” by Dua Lipa and Calvin Harris, and “Lucid Dreams” by Juice WRLD. Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper won an Academy Award for “Shallow,” their duet from A Star is Born.

THE TELEVISION

Strike Hard! Strike Fast! No Mercy! The show Cobra Kai premiered in 2018, and it carried on the rivalry between Daniel and Johnny from the Karate Kid movies from the 80s – only this time, Johnny was the hero (sort of) and Daniel was the villain (sort of). William Zabka and Ralph Macchio returned as the grown-up versions of their characters, but even as adults, karate was the driving force of their lives. The sometimes silly but always entertaining show started off as a YouTube exclusive, but became a massive hit once Netflix picked it up. Speaking of Netflix, and speaking of reboots, Netflix also launched Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, based on the Archie comics property, like the CWs Riverdale it was a more adult take on the characters, and darker than the 90s sitcom, which it spoofed in one episode. 2018 also brought us your mom’s favorite show (thanks to Kevin Costner) – Yellowstone – about a Montana ranching family. We also got the timey-wimey mystery Manifest, about a group of passengers on a plane who arrived back home five years after they departed, and You, which starred Penn Badgely as a mild-mannered murderous stalker. Mike Flanagan’s first Netflix mini-series, The Haunting of Hill House debuted this year, about a family who moved into a creepy haunted house. The show, which starred Henry Thomas and Carla Gugino (and other Flanagan favorites) and what happened to them when they experience paranormal phenomena as kids and then again as adults. It was heart-breaking and neck-breaking at the same time. Other notable debuts this year include HBO Max’s superhero drama Titans, HBO’s business drama Succession, and Amazon Studio’s Jack Ryan series, which cast newly-buff John Krasinski of The Office as the super spy guy.

THE TRENDS, TOYS AND TECH

First there was the “gallon challenge,” then the “cinnamon challenge,” but then the internet upped the ante by convincing teens to eat something truly irresistable: Tide Pods. The challenge had participants posting videos to social media showing them biting into the detergent packets, or cooking them in frying pans, then eating them and spewing out soap bubbles. The idea came from an article in The Onion, as all great ideas do, but after 37 teens were inadvertently (or advertently) poisoned by the pods, some marketing flak at Tide had to do something they never could have imagined as part of their job description: issue an official message begging people to not eat detergent. In 2015 we had “The Dress”, but in 2018, the big debate was “Yanny” vs “Laurel.” An audio clip went viral because people couldn’t agree on what they were hearing – both sounds were audible in the clip, but what you heard depended on what frequencies your ears were capable of picking up. In other news, this year, the most normal (?) Royal, Prince Harry, married American actor Meghan Markle, Logan Paul became more of a household name after he found a dead body in Japan, Beyonce headlined Coachella, and a dance craze was born from the videogame Fortnite. People everywhere discovered that flossing (the dance) was easier to do than flossing (the dental hygiene procedure.)

Another great idea that proved to be less so was the self-driving car, which in 2018 was the cause of a pedestrian’s death in a road accident in Tempe, Arizona. Uber was testing a self-driving car when pedestrian Elaine Herzberg was struck and killed as she pushed her bike across the street. Though police ruled that Herzberg was at fault in the accident, Uber suspended its self-driving car tests after that. Luckily, 2018 was also the year that gave us rear-view cameras to help us back up without running over anyone.

THE MEMES AND CATCHPHRASES

In February of 2018, “comedian” Steven Crowder tweeted a picture of himself seated behind a sign that read “Male privilege is a myth. Change my mind.” Naturally, people began photoshopping other words onto the sign almost immediately. Some made fun of male fragility, while others were just goofs on the concept. Another durable meme that emerged this year was the arguing dad and son from American Chopper. Paul Teutel senior and Junior started bickering about Junior’s tardiness, and screenshots of the argument became an all-purpose meme to illustrate two opposing positions. Other popular memes that date back to 2018 include the surprised Pikachu face, the “Is this a…” butterfly guy, tired Spongebob and an unblinking, affectless Mark Zuckerberg, speaking before Congress, who accidentally outed himself as an android.

“Adulting” became shorthand for being responsible in 2018, and a phrase commonly associated with various iterations of Batman’s archenemy got a lot more traction this year. Though its origins go all the way back to Seinfeld, in 2018, a fan c;reated a petition to “make Joaquin Phoenix say ‘we live in a society'” in the upcoming Joker movie. That dream came true, though it was spoken by Jared Leto in the Snyder Cut of the Justice League movie. This year also brought us the slap in the face to decency that was “I really don’t care, do U?” as well as phrases like “on brand,” “thot,” “Fam,” “swole,” “clapback,” and the must-be-ironic “big dick energy.”

SAYING GOODBYE

This year we said RIP to our childhood, as Toys “R” Us closed its doors, a victim of the internet marketplace. (The brand lives on, though, both online, as a pop-up, and as a store-within-a-store in retailers like Macy’s. Also this year, Roseanne got cancelled – the actor, not her show (which was renamed The Conners after she departed.) Also this year, physicist Stephen Hawking passed beyond this plane of existence, and Stan Lee filmed his last Marvel movie cameo. Excelsior! The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin died, as did rapper Mac Miller, Spongebob Squarepants creator Stephen Hillenburg, Austin Powers‘ ‘Mini-Me’ Verne Troyer, musician Avicii (Tim Bergling), and Burt Reynolds. The suicide of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade made us think (if only briefly) about our national mental health crisis. Former President George H.W. Bush died at age 94, preceded earlier that year by his wife Barbara. Former presidential candidate John McCain died this year, as did writers Tom Wolfe, Harlan Ellison and Ursula K. LeGuin, Cranberries frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan, actor Jerry Van Dyke, actor and magician Harry Anderson, “Schoolhouse Rock” composer Bob Dorough, Lois Lane portrayer Margot Kidder, rapper XXXTentacion, Joe Jackson, Charlotte Rae of The Facts of Life, playwright Neil Simon, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous presenter Robin Leach, Hee Haw‘s Roy Clark, and Laverne herself, Penny Marshall, director of A League of Their Own.

And that’s a bigger, better look at the year in pop culture, circa 2018.