2020s

'Bombastic side eye. Criminal offensive side eye.' — a sound of escalating judgement laid over any video of someone looking at something they disapprove of. The reaction audio of early 2023, and the reason 'side eye' had a busy year.

A song named after a Korean drinking game — 'apateu, apateu' — which was the world's most-played chorus in late 2024 and taught every playground a word for 'apartment'. The record's entry for the drinking game as a pop hit.

The arm-crossing, finger-pointing choreography from Gaga's 'Abracadabra', learned by TikTok in a weekend and performed in kitchens and on cruise ships. The dance that made 'recession pop' a compliment.

The stiff-armed, side-stepping dance to Doechii's 'Anxiety', done in doorways, kitchens and one memorable airport, which turned a song about panic into the spring of 2025's most-copied choreography.

A hand-choreography to Charli XCX's 'Apple', invented by a fan, learned by the artist, and performed by Charli on stage with the fan who made it. Brat summer's dance, and the one that Apple the company also tried, unsuccessfully.

A cartoon aardvark's clenched hand, used for every minor injustice. PBS asked people to keep it clean, which they did not, and it wore out in two years.

'Berries and cream, berries and cream, I'm a little lad who loves berries and cream' — a 2007 sweet advert with a man in a bob wig, revived on TikTok in September 2021 as a sound, a dance and a nightmare. The record's entry for the advert that waited fourteen years.

John Cena, in Mandarin, holding an ice cream — 'bīngqílín' — in a promotional video, which became the internet's 2021 phrase for anything Chinese, ice cream, or John Cena, and a 'social credit' joke that the record files separately. The record's entry for a wrestler's Mandarin.