Daily Dot Hall of Fame Week 4: Cultural Moments

Our life online is measured not in years but in cultural moments that shook us.

From controversial dresses to civilian professionals getting canceled on Twitter mid-flight, we remember where we were the day we lost Harambe.

For this year’s Daily Dot Hall of Fame nominees, in which we’ll induct a new class of web icons, we revisit the cultural moments category.Last year, we celebrated the Dress, 30-50 feral hogs, Damn Daniel, Kony 2012, and Baby Yoda. The vote wasn’t close: Baby Yoda, the adorable plush doll and stroke of Disney marketing genius, ran away with your votes.

This year, we’re hoping a weirder crop of nominees sparks a closer competition. 

Only subscribers of web_crawlr get to vote in the Daily Dot Hall of Fame. If you want to vote on next week’s nominees, subscribe to web_crawlr here.

Martin Scorsese’s Marvel Beef

Was Iron Man 3 art? That’s the enduring question at the heart of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s fandom. It’s an evergreen topic debated by nerds all over the internet. That includes celebrated director Martin Scorsese, who made his position absolutely clear in2019.

He’s become a Gen-Z icon for his out-of-the box, ahead-of-the-curve thinking. Like #based olds such as the late Betty White and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Scorsese is proof that good takes age like fine wine.

When Scorsese, let’s be honest the most stylish and fun filmmaker of the past 50 years, criticized the MCU, he made it near impossible for anyone to take the Avengers seriously. I can’t prove this but it sure seems like intellectual discussions from IPA drinkers over board games about the hidden depth found within Captain America: Winter Soldier have ceased nationwide since Marty’s ether moment. The verdict is in: Marvel films may be fun and entertaining, but let’s be real they’re for preteens. 

Subscribe here to vote on next week’s nominees.

Nepo Babies

What does your father do for a living?

We’re finally asking the right question, especially when it comes to the people telling us what to do and think. Be it actors or journalists, the truth is that many professionals were born on third base and thought they hit a triple. When we began discussing institutional nepotism at our highest levels of power online, the “nepo” discourse made everyone question all things Rashida Jones.

A Twitter user recently joked that Osama bin Laden was uncancelled for his anti-capitalist, anti-American takes that younger TikTok users resonated with… but then he was instantly (and rightly) re-canceled when they realized that even bin Laden himself was a nepo baby. 

Oftentimes we don’t realize that someone is a nepo baby, like Dakota Johnson or the Please Don’t Destroy guys, and once we find out that their influence is a result of their wealth and privilege and ability to, say, study the arts, their entire deal becomes unpinned. At last.

Subscribe here to vote on next week’s nominees.

Tipping

We explored this topic in a recent newsletter but the gist is that tipping culture has reached a tipping point (no pun intended) in the United States. 

It’s no longer as simple as “tip 20% or you are inconsiderate and ridiculous as a consumer.” Now the question is: “Should I tip an inanimate object?” Someday soon it will be “Should I tip a robot that delivered Cava to my building?”

We don’t know yet. Like, seriously, who is responsible for this robot and did they do a good job programming the robot? How do we know that they did a good job? How can we reward a robot when a robot will not absolve the inherent guilt that comes with our rampant consumerism?

The great tipping debate is ongoing, with no end in sight.

Subscribe here to vote on next week’s nominees.

Filming Men Being Bad On Dates Or At The Gym

Women have long had to navigate the world with men looking at them. The unrelenting male gaze informs everything about society.

But sometime around 2021, women pushed back in earnest by posting their harassers online in an act of righteous, overdue vigilante justice. They captured the mundane microaggressions of their daily lives like their fiances lying in order to win an argument that implicitly subjugated them. They called out exes who wouldn’t leave their LinkedIns alone or men who got jealous because they cuddled a male dog. Uber drivers called out men for cheating. They texted the dads of men who fat-shamed them.

Online is a sisterhood with more societal accountability than ever.

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West Elm Caleb

Every city has a West Elm Caleb. A charmer who dates around and is flippant about it because he ghosts at a moment’s whim. He sends multiple women the same Spotify playlist in a love-bombing offensive. OK but in the future, this nonchalant Casanova gets roasted online to the tune of 18 million views on TikTok. Was it an all fair in love and war situation or a dangerous overreaction that threatened to dox a private citizen? The answer remains unclear but the moment’s virality speaks to the crippling anguish felt by players everywhere.

Subscribe here to vote on next week’s nominees.

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