By Producer James Hockaday
There’s been no shortage of strange news this year, from the launch of the world’s first AI-generated actress to the world’s first half-marathon between humans and robots.
Perhaps then, it shouldn’t be surprising that 2025 has been a year of weird and downright surreal moments on the internet – many of which have provided some comic relief amid seemingly endless headlines on global instability and war.
Sometimes a meme becomes so popular that it becomes the story (looking at you, Jet2holidays), while other times a story comes along that is so perfect for the internet that it quickly becomes immortalised in the internet hall of fame.
Here, ITV News takes a look at the funniest, the most memorable, and downright bizarre internet moments of 2025.
‘Baby’ JD Vance
Picture yourself as a historian in the year 2130.
You are trying to figure out what US Vice President JD Vance actually looked like, and are confronted by a vast stream of cartoonish and over-the-top images of his face.
This year, saw a flood of edited pictures showing a wide-eyed and bald-headed Vance with exaggerated chubby cheeks to make him look as weird and as baby-like as possible.
Other variations show him looking like a mid-2000s emo kid, wearing a novelty propeller cap and holding a colourful lollypop, with long and curly hair, or with a bright purple face.
Another shows him edited onto the body of Kim Kardashian in that picture that broke the internet in 2014.
Norwegian tourist Mads Mikkelsen (not to be confused with the Danish actor) claimed in June that he was denied entry to the US after authorities found one of these memes on his phone.
Customs and Border Protection denied this and said the decision was due to the traveller’s admission to drug use.
Vance seems to have taken the joke in his stride, however, and even went dressed up as himself in meme-form for Halloween this year.
‘Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday’
This year saw a sudden rise of the voiceover and music from Jet2 holiday’s advert being paired with clips on social media platforms, including Instagram and TikTok – and has even been sampled by DJs in clubs.
The ad, featuring Jess Glynne’s ‘Hold My Hand’, has often been used for footage of calamitous situations on holidays gone wrong.
The song has since been named TikTok’s UK song of the year despite it being released a decade ago.
For example, it’s been used for a video on TikTok viewed over 1.8 million times showing a woman almost drowning in a pool and having to be saved by lifeguards, and for clips of people fighting and being arrested on planes.
The advert is often used ironically to contrast Jet2’s idyllic depiction of its holidays with chaotic or disappointing.
Credit: TikTok/maalmask
Zoe Lister, who performed the voiceover live at a DJ set by Capital Breakfast’s Chris Stark, opened up to the Radio Show about how “completely nuts” it has been to go viral.
“The last few months have just been ramping up, and the videos are getting funnier. I thought it was just like, ‘it’s got British appeal, you know, we’ve got a good sense of humour.”
She said she has also been getting messages from fans in Brazil, Canada, Algeria, and the Philippines. Someone has even made a Chinese version of the voiceover.
However, Lister wasn’t so happy to hear that her voice had been used in a White House video promoting ICE deportation flights in July, decrying the US government for using her work to “promote their nasty agenda”.
The Coldplay kiss-cam
If there’s one thing we can learn from Coldplay’s now-infamous Boston show from July 16, it’s that you should think twice before taking your mistress to a concert.
Andy Byron, head of the data infrastructure company Astronomer, was spotted cuddling a woman, identified as his colleague and Chief People Officer Kirstin Cabot, at the British pop-rock group’s gig.
Far from playing it cool after realising they were being shown on the “kiss cam” in front of the entire crowd, the pair quickly separated and attempted to hide their faces, with Byron ducking down and the woman turning her back to the camera.
Arguably, this reaction, along with singer Chris Martin’s commentary, explains why the painfully awkward moment quickly became a viral sensation.
“Whoa, look at these two,” Coldplay singer Chris Martin said. “Either they’re having an affair, or they’re just very shy.”
In another clip circulating on social media, the musician can be heard saying: “Did we rumble you? Holy s***. I hope we didn’t do something bad.”
Oasis even joked about the incident during their reunion tour, telling fans at Manchester’s Heaton Park: “Don’t worry, we ain’t got any of that Coldplay, snidey f***ing camera s***.
“It doesn’t matter to us who you’re f***ing mingling with, or tingling with, or fingering with. None of our f***ing business.”
In an interview with the Times in December, Cabot said they were both separated from their partners at the time and that she received a barrage of abuse afterwards.
“I became a meme, I was the most maligned HR manager in HR history,” she said.
The rise of ‘six-seven’
If you have children of your own, you may already be familiar with the “six-seven” plaguing teachers up and down the country.
For those who don’t know, children in Generation Alpha have been yelling the words “six-seven” while performing a gesture that involves moving their hands up and down with upward-facing palms.
Don’t expect to understand what it means, because it is pretty much meaningless.
Although the phrase was thought to have originated from a song by the rapper Skrilla, it’s become something that children say just because it’s fun to say.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer got himself in trouble with the teacher after performing the juggling gesture during a visit to Welland Academy in Peterborough in November.
After one of the pupils pointed out that they were on pages six and seven of the book they were looking at, Starmer pounced on the opportunity and got a laugh out of the class.
A teacher told him afterwards: “You know, children get into trouble for saying that in our school… We are not over that yet, the 6-7, it’s still very much a thing.”
Starmer sheepishly apologised.
Chicken jockey
On to another trend this year that might be a bit bewildering to older generations.
“A Minecraft Movie”, a film based on the popular video game, includes a scene where Jack Black shouts the words “chicken jockey” to announce the appearance of a creature in the game.
This moment captured the imagination of younger fans, some of whom went crazy at the line, jumping up and down in the cinema and throwing popcorn at the screens.
Some might call it poor cinema etiquette, and recording inside the cinema is certainly frowned upon, but presumably Minecraft fans knew what they were letting themselves in for.
Katy Perry goes to space
Katy Perry, American TV personality Gayle King, American journalist Lauren Sanchez, and three others became the first all-female space crew when they took to the skies in April this year.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket blasted off from West Texas for a flight lasting all of 11 minutes, taking the crew more than 100km over the boundary of the Earth.
Such a short journey might have made it seem all the more dramatic when Perry kissed the ground after returning to Earth with a parachute-assisted landing.
In another moment that made some on social media roll their eyes in contempt and others show their admiration, Perry, while floating in zero gravity, was filmed singing while holding a daisy to the camera, in tribute to her daughter, Daisy.
Speaking after her return to Earth, the Roar singer said: “I feel super connected to love, so connected to love.
“I think this experience has shown me you never know how much love is inside of you, like how much love you have to give and how loved you are until the day you launch.”
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