The internet in 2026

2026 was the year of Merlin the Duck, The Viking Row, Scientology speedrunning and The Super Bowl LX bushes. Part of the last few years.

• View original The Viking Row Trend · Jun 2026
• View original Scientology speedrunning Trend · Mar 2026
• View original The Super Bowl LX bushes Moment · Feb 2026
• View original Punch the Monkey Trend · Feb 2026
• View original Conformity Gate Trend · Jan 2026
• View original Macron's "for sure" Phrase · Jan 2026
• View original The Great Meme Reset Trend · Jan 2026

1. 10 January

   AI slop The American Dialect Society names “slop” its word of the year for 2025, as Merriam-Webster had. Wikipedia — AI slop

2. 5 February

   Punch the Monkey The zoo posts his story. Wikipedia — Punch (monkey)

3. 17 February

   Punch the Monkey IKEA, which makes the toy, donates thirty-three of them. Wikipedia — Punch (monkey)

4. 25 March

   Scientology speedrunning The first video is posted. Wikipedia — Scientology speedrunning

1. January

   Golden The lyric video passes a billion views on YouTube. Wikipedia — Golden (Huntrix song)

2. 7 January

   Conformity Gate The hour believers had named passes with no new episode. Netflix has a technical outage shortly before it. Wikipedia — Conformity Gate

3. 12 January

   Conformity Gate A second predicted date passes. Wikipedia — Conformity Gate

4. 13 January

   Tenor It announces that the service other apps use to fetch its GIFs will be switched off at the end of June. Wikipedia — Tenor (website)

5. February

   Me at the zoo The Victoria and Albert Museum in London acquires the video together with a reconstruction of the early YouTube page it sat on. Wikipedia — Me at the zoo

6. March

   Democracy Manifest The sound of the speech is added to the National Film and Sound Archive’s Sound of Australia archive. Wikipedia — Democracy Manifest

7. 5 March

   Punch the Monkey The zoo reports that he is holding the toy less and mixing with the adult monkeys. Wikipedia — Punch (monkey)

8. April

   Italian brainrot Two of the characters are added to Fortnite as costumes. Wikipedia — Italian brainrot

9. April

   Scientology speedrunning The church removes the door handles and closes public access at the Hollywood centre. Wikipedia — Scientology speedrunning

10. May

    Badger Badger Badger The British Film Institute preserves the animation. Wikipedia — Badgers (animation)

11. May

    Scientology speedrunning Teenagers in Seattle are charged over one such incident. Wikipedia — Scientology speedrunning

12. May

    This is fine A video game based on the strip, This is Fine: Maximum Cope, is released. Wikipedia — Gunshow (webcomic)

13. 18 May

    Punch the Monkey Two men are arrested for entering his enclosure to promote a cryptocurrency. He is unharmed. Wikipedia — Punch (monkey)

14. 29 May

    The Backrooms The feature film is released in the United States. Wikipedia — The Backrooms

15. June

    Waka Waka The video has passed 4.5 billion views. Wikipedia — Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)

• The saxophones are getting louder View original
• Non mi innamorerò The story
• Fruit Love Island The story

On this page: 11 named things from 2026, 1 video, 3 sounds and sayings and 6 trends among them.