2011
All the Year-End Listicles We Didn't Get Around to Writing in 2011
Maureen O'Connor · 12/30/11 01:45PMThe year-end listicle is a stressful affair. It's important: You are defining a moment in history. It's hard: You have to remember stuff that happened twelve whole months ago, which is multiple millennia in internet years. Finally, it has a strict deadline: If you procrastinate, then the work you've done will be rendered completely irrelevant at the stroke of midnight on January 1st.
The Year in Lies
John Cook · 12/29/11 02:19PMLies: They travel halfway round the world before the truth gets its boots on. If you don't tell them, you never have to remember anything. Ask me no questions and I won't tell you any. The year that now comes to an end was, like all years, riddled with them. Grand lies and small ones, grave ones and frivolous ones, true ones and false ones—check that. They were all false. Here is a list of some of them that really caught my attention.
The Best Instant Celebrities of 2011
Adrian Chen · 12/28/11 02:00PMAll the Viral Videos of the Year in Two Minutes
Matt Toder · 12/28/11 01:00PM2011 offered us an amazing array of viral videos, ephemeral clips whose popularity was sometimes born out of mockery, sometimes out of amazement, and sometimes out of humor. Whether it was a woman falling into a fountain, an incredible time lapse piece, or the inescapable Rebecca Black, all of them found a way to draw millions of eyes. Here are some of the videos that kept the web spinning this year.
The Most Heroic Gawker Characters of 2011
Maureen O'Connor · 12/27/11 11:32AMMost Loathsome Gawker Characters of 2011
Hamilton Nolan · 12/27/11 11:00AMThe Year in Television in Under Four Minutes
Matt Toder · 12/26/11 12:00PMThis year, television gave us some incredible moments, from Charlie Sheen's on-camera meltdown to Oprah and Regis stepping off the stage to, the year offered plenty of highlights and lowlights. This compilation video brings them everything together: the hilarious residents of Pawnee, Indiana and the half-faced drug kingpins of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Christine O'Donnell walking off Piers Morgan's show and Louis CK sucking up to Dane Cook. If you weren't watching enough TV this year, here are all the moments people were talking about and all the spoilers you were warned about (including a NSFW clip near the end).
The Most Popular Gawker Posts of 2011
Gawker Staff · 12/23/11 06:00PMThe Top Online Stories of 2011 Are About Kim Kardashian and Other Rats
Hamilton Nolan · 12/07/11 01:05PMThis Guy Knows How to Throw a Yo-Yo
Lauri Apple · 10/03/11 07:49AMOver the weekend the city of Chico, California hosted the U.S. National Yo-Yo Championships, just like it does every year, and there were winners! Nimble, lightning-fast winners, most of whom were male. In fact, only one woman competed in this year's contest: 19-year-old Ann Connolly, who won the "Best Girl Player" award. WTF, ladies? Stop having babies and get cracking on your Rock the Babies. Stop sleeping and start practicing your Reverse Sleepers. Let's estrogenize that thing next year.
Is This the End of the World?
Richard Lawson · 01/05/11 04:15PMHappy New Year!
Jeff Neumann · 01/01/11 08:58AMWatch William Shatner's Spoken Word Performance of "It Was a Very Good Year"
Matt Toder · 12/31/10 04:15PMEnd Your 2010 with the Birth of a Tiny Bird
Matt Toder · 12/31/10 09:20AMIt's New Year's Eve, a moment to reflect on the year that's gone by and to make some (sure-to-be-unfulfilled) promises about the one about to arrive. As part of that renewal, here's a tiny bird hatching in someone's hand.