15 Craziest Moments Of 2016

There's really no contest, 2016 has to be the craziest year in recent memory. Can you believe it's actually on its way out in just a couple weeks? Everyone starts the new year by thinking it will be the best year yet, but for those of us who had big, hopeful ideas about 2016, we were quickly proven wrong. In the last few weeks of 2016, you'll probably see a ton of lists about the most important moments of 2016. It was definitely a year worth documenting, and we (hopefully) won't see another one like it for a long, long time. With 2017 just around the corner, it's almost time to let go of this long, wild year and move on to something new, but for now, let's take a little time to remember this rollercoaster ride of a year. Let's take a walk down memory lane here are the 15 craziest moments of 2016.

15 Donald Trump becoming President

Look, this just has to be the first thing on the list. The most unbelievable moment of 2016 was definitely when Donald Trump won the US presidential election. People still can't believe it actually happened. Ever since he announced his campaign, no one ever believed that he would win. And every time he would say something offensive, everyone said that it just had to be the moment that his supporters would back off and vote for someone else. But it never happened. Somehow, Trump only got more and more popular, and he eventually gained enough support to win the election. But since it's 2016, things had to get weirder: he didn't even win the popular vote, just the electoral college. Well, if this is a sign of things to come, the next four years might be even more unpredictable than 2016, but we'll just have to wait and see how it all goes down.

14 When everyone was addicted to Pokemon Go

When Pokemon Go came out over the summer, it was like everyone on the planet, no matter how old they were, remembered their childhood dream of being a Pokemon trainer. What better way to fulfill that fantasy than playing Pokemon Go for hours on end? Everyone was glued to their phones, wandering around their neighborhoods searching for rare Pokemon. It was a great idea, tap into everyone's nostalgia, get them addicted to the game, and then make all the players actually get some exercise by sending them outside to look for Pokemon. The hype eventually died down, but it was a ton of fun while it lasted! The Pokemon Go trend was one of the better things to happen in 2016. Who knows, maybe there will be some cool updates or new versions of the game in 2017 that will get everyone playing again, and we'll all be searching for Pokemon next year.

13 #KimExposedTaylorParty

Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift two people who can never seem to stay out of Twitter drama! Taylor usually tries to put on a sweet face, but Kim caught her in a lie over the summer. Taylor said that she had never approved of Kanye West's lyrics about her in his song “Famous,” but he went ahead and referenced her anyway. She made a pretty big deal out of being offended by the song. However, Kim had all the proof on her phone. She posted videos of Taylor telling Kanye that she was okay with him referencing her in the song and that she would not be offended by his lyrics. And then Twitter went crazy and basically threw a #KimExposedTaylorParty. There were a lot snake emojis involved. Well, if we can all learn one thing from this, it's that you shouldn't mess with Kim Kardashian, she'll just expose you to her millions of followers.

12 When Beyonce Released Lemonade

It's a proven fact that Beyonce can do no wrong. No point in arguing that. And when she released Lemonade, it just showed once again that she's a musical and visual genius. Lemonade was so much more than just an album. Beyonce goes above and beyond for everything she does, so she wasn't going to just release something typical. Instead, the whole album had a story that was woven together through video. People were going absolutely crazy over it! Beyonce has always been a master at putting together great music videos, remember all the videos that accompanied her surprise album a couple years ago? But Lemonade was just on a whole new level. This is a pretty exciting development for the future of music, and it was a highlight of the year in terms of entertainment. Maybe more artists will get more into producing quality videos that tell a story in the coming years.

11 The end of Brangelina

2016 was the year that proved love was definitely dead. No matter what happened in your own relationship, the fact that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got a divorce shows that love is just not meant to last. They had six children together, three of which were adopted, and they were just the ultimate power couple it seemed like they would stick together through everything. Sure, their relationship had a dramatic beginning there was the whole Angelina-Brad-Jennifer Aniston love triangle thing. But eventually, the drama was left behind, and it looked like they were madly in love ever since. However, 2016 wasn't kind to anyone, and if there was ever a year that would leave us with the breakup of Brangelina, it would be 2016. What does this mean for Hollywood couples in 2017? Maybe there will be a few more high profile celebrity break ups and divorces, but there's no telling just yet.

10 Kylie Jenner's prediction

In the beginning of 2016, Kylie Jenner revealed her predictions for 2016 in an interview. She said that 2016 would be the year of “realizing things,” without getting specific about what kind of things we would be realizing. Of course, everyone laughed at the whole thing, and the video was quickly forgotten about. However, as 2016 got weirder and weirder with each passing day, the video started going around again but this time, people were agreeing with Kylie. 2016 was definitely a year of “realizing things” like the fact that in just one year, the whole world really can go crazy, and everything we never thought would happen could actually totally happen. Well, who knew that Kylie Jenner had 2016 pegged from the start? Guess we can't laugh off her predictions next time. When she shares her thoughts about 2017, maybe we'll actually have to listen you never know what could happen next year.

9 Celebrity deaths

We should've known that 2016 was going to be a rough year when David Bowie died. Some people think that his death was some kind of curse on this whole year, and the way things ended up going, it's kind of hard to argue against that. But sadly, David Bowie wasn't the only celebrity we lost in 2016. Alan Rickman, Gene Wilder, Prince… the list goes on and on. It really seemed like more famous people died in 2016 than any other year. That might not be accurate, but it definitely feels that way. Maybe one reason it was such a tough year was because we lost so many great artists and musicians who we looked to for inspiration. Celebrity deaths happen every single year, but maybe 2017 won't hit us quite as hard. Either way, all the famous faces that we lost in 2016 will definitely be missed for years to come.

8 The downward spiral of Kanye West

Honestly, 2016 was a challenge for all of us. But it really seems like no one had a worse year than Kanye West. Look, his new album, The Life of Pablo, was amazing, but during his tour, everything started to go downhill. He started showing up to shows hours late, going on crazy rants after he finally did show up on stage, came under a ton of heat for saying that he didn't vote but supported Donald Trump, and eventually was hospitalized for exhaustion. He had to cancel the rest of his tour and will probably be laying low for the rest of the year. Both he and Kim Kardashian have canceled all of their engagements until 2017. Hopefully, they won't be the next celebrity couple to divorce! Clearly, 2016 threw some obstacles in everyone's way, and it just handed Kanye a few too many. Maybe he'll have better luck next year.

7 Brexit

This falls pretty far outside the realm of pop culture, but it was definitely one of the most important events of 2016 and it was just as unexpected as Donald Trump's election night victory. Over the summer, the United Kingdom narrowly voted to leave the European Union. International politics can be kind of confusing, but even though this might not seem like a big deal, it could actually have a major impact on the global economy and political relationships throughout Europe. No one is really sure how it's going to go, and no one really saw it coming because the vote was so close! Plus, the UK government doesn't have much of a plan in place for the transition. There are a lot of factors that are up in the air, but as we get closer to 2017, we'll have a better idea of how this is all going to play out.

6 The creepy clowns

Back in October, the US and some parts of the rest of the world was swept with a creepy clown epidemic. It was like something out of the movie It. You definitely did not want to run into one of these clowns while you were walking alone at night. Of course, this happened a couple weeks before Halloween, so lots of people were scared to go trick or treating, how would you know if someone was just dressed up as a clown, or if they were one of the genuinely creepy clowns? Sometimes, the clowns got more than they bargained for. One night, there was a clown sighting at Penn State University, and thousands of students left their dorms to go hunt down the clown. And of course, Twitter was flooded with clown jokes and memes for weeks. Eventually, the sightings died down, but who knows if the clowns could make a comeback.

5 Leo winning an Oscar

Fans of Leonardo DiCaprio have been waiting for him to win an Oscar for years. He had been robbed so many times it was almost becoming painful to watch. He had been nominated for his acting roles in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, The Aviator, Blood Diamond, and Wolf of Wall Street, but in 2016, he finally took home the little golden statue for his role in The Revenant. Seeing him finally win was such a relief he's an amazing actor who totally deserved the award! Watching the Oscars and waiting in anticipation to see if he would win was nerve-wracking, but it all paid off. You can definitely expect more great movies from Leo in the future, and hopefully a few more Oscar wins as well! The next Oscar night is only a couple months away, and maybe there will be some exciting wins to look forward to in 2017 as well.

4 The Arthur memes

Everyone remembers the TV show, Arthur. It was probably a big part of your childhood. It was a cute show for kids that taught some good life lessons, and a lot of people remember watching it fondly. But for some reason, people started making memes about it a couple months ago. Where did that begin, and why? Well, no one really knows, but it took off on Twitter. You couldn't log on without seeing a ton of pictures of Arthur and DW with weird captions. Some of the Arthur memes got pretty inappropriate and not okay for a kids show! They were so popular that the creators of the show actually noticed what was going on and commented on it. They were flattered that there were so many fans of the show, but they would rather not have offensive jokes attached to the characters. Which kids show will become a meme in 2017? Who knows!

3 The Harambe obsession

A lot of people think that 2016's downward spiral all started with this gorilla. It's pretty odd that for some reason, Harambe's death set off one of the most popular memes of the year that became so much more than a meme it was pretty much a pop culture obsession. When a child fell into Harambe's enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo, zookeepers shot him to save the child, and the gorilla died. Of course, this was quite sad, and it made the national news. For a while, the news about Harambe died down but then it resurfaced in the form of a meme. Suddenly, it seemed like the entire nation was constantly referencing Harambe and “mourning” his death. This continued for months thanks to social media, and you could barely go on Twitter without scrolling past a series of Harambe jokes every day. Hopefully, this overused joke is left behind in 2016.

2 The mannequin challenge

Social media challenges are always so confusing. Where do people even get these ideas? And why do so many people choose to participate in them? Well, probably for attention, likes, and retweets. One of the weirdest challenges that popped up on social media in 2016 was “the mannequin challenge.” For the mannequin challenge, one person walked around the room with a camera while everyone else had to stay perfectly still. They were usually frozen into silly poses. And that's it. That's literally the whole point of the challenge. When you were younger, that was probably called freeze dancing. The mannequin challenge was pretty silly, but watching the videos was kind of entertaining. Tons of celebrities got in on it, and even some politicians, Hillary Clinton's campaign staff even filmed a mannequin challenge video. There will probably be even weirder challenges going viral on social media in 2017, so get your cameras ready.

1 Nostalgic TV

Producers of a few nostalgic TV shows knew what they were doing when they chose 2016 for their release. If there was ever a time we needed to feel like we could just relax and rewind a few years, it was 2016. This was a great year for TV shows, even though it was a bad year for almost everything else. We got a season of Fuller House and got to spend some time hanging out with the characters we knew and loved growing up. We also got new episodes of Gilmore Girls and had a great time returning to Stars Hollow for some binge watching. And finally, we got the awesome new Netflix series Stranger Things. This wasn't a reboot or renewal, but it did have an awesome 80s vibe that hit everyone with a serious dose of nostalgia! When season 2 is released, everyone will go crazy for it all over again.