Pop CulturePop Culture
Every Single Submission We Got for the Millennial Canon Bracket
Because one generation can’t be reduced to just 64 things
By Andrew Gruttadaro • 7 min
On Monday, The Ringer launched its Millennial Canon Bracket, a weeklong, 64-item tournament to determine the thing that best embodies the millennial experience. (You can check out every entry here.) But whittling it down to 64 things was nearly impossible. And sure, there are always some snubs in a bracket, but this time around, it felt like an inordinate amount of gold was being left on the cutting-room floor. So for the first time in Ringer bracket history (a real thing that people track), we are publishing the full list of submissions for the bracket that we received from our staff. For some submissions, it will be obvious why they were cut; for others, you may feel that, if included, they could have gone all the way. Altogether, scanning this list will engender an overwhelming sense of nostalgia, and in some cases perhaps even embarrassment, for anyone born between the years of 1981 and 1996. It will dredge up things that were buried in the nooks and crannies of your brains long ago. Turn on “Party Rock Anthem,” grab yourself a latte, and enjoy skimming through the artifacts of a generation. This is Every Single Submission We Got for the Millennial Canon Bracket …
Check Out the Millennial Canon Bracket
- $16 salads from fast food restaurants
- 24
- The 2008 financial crisis
- 500 Days of Summer
- Abbreviations and acronyms like “legit,” “cray,” YOLO, and FOMO
- Actually going on the computer
- Adam Sandler
- “Adulting”
- Adult Swim
- Akon
- American Apparel
- American Idol
- American Pie
- Andy Samberg
- Ankle socks
- Anne Hathaway
- Anthony Bourdain
- Anthropologie candles
- Anti-MCU elitism
- AOL Instant Messenger
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force
- Asking to charge your cracked iPhone in a bar
- ATL
- Auto-tune
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Avocado toast
- Avril Lavigne
- Aziz Ansari
- The Bachelor
- Bacon
- “Badger Badger Badger”
- Balenciaga City bags
- Barefoot running
- Belief that the self is fundamentally a commodity that exists for consumption by others but that restaurants can be authentic
- Belle and Sebastian
- Bernie Sanders
- Beyoncé
- Big tote bags
- The Blair Witch Project
- Blockbuster
- Blogger
- Blogging
- Blogs getting optioned into books
- Blue Apron
- Boomerangs on Instagram
- Bottom eyeliner
- Bottomless brunch
- Boutique cupcakes
- Boy bands
- Brangelina
- Bratz dolls
- Breaking Bad
- Britney Spears
- Brooklyn
- Burning CDs
- BuzzFeed
- BuzzFeed quizzes
- Call of Duty
- Cargo shorts
- Caring about how coffee tastes
- Carly Rae Jepsen
- Cat-centric internet culture
- Catfishing
- The Cha-Cha Slide
- Channing Tatum as Magic Mike
- Chappelle’s Show
- “Charlie Bit My Finger”
- “Charlie the Unicorn”
- Chatspeak
- Chick-fil-A
- Childish Gambino
- “Chocolate Rain” by Tay Zonday
- Christopher Nolan
- Clear braces
- Cocktail culture
- Coffee shops
- CollegeHumor
- The “cool S” you’d draw in school
- Cracked iPhones
- Craft breweries
- “Crank That (Soulja Boy)”
- CrossFit
- Cruel Intentions
- The crying laughing emoji
- Cutesy sayings about wine
- Dabbing
- Dads tweeting from playgrounds
- “Dancing on My Own” by Robyn
- Danny McBride
- The Dark Knight
- Dating apps
- DatPiff
- Dawson’s Creek
- Debit cards
- The Decemberists
- Derek Jeter
- Doge-speak
- Doing the Barbie arm in photos
- Donald Glover
- The Donnie Darko DVD
- Dragon Ball Z
- Drake
- The Dress
- “Drinking out of Cups”
- Drunk History
- DTC shopping brands
- Dudes tweeting from Waffle Houses as fantasy football punishment
- DVDs
- Dying of dysentery in The Oregon Trail
- Eating food out of bowls
- eBaum’s World
- Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
- Eli Manning beating Tom Brady
- Eminem
- Emo
- The ending of The Sixth Sense
- “The End of the World”
- Engagement photos
- English Premier League fandom
- “Epic fail”
- Epic Meal Time
- Etsy
- Even Stevens
- Exclamation point quotas
- Family Guy
- Farmville
- Fight Club
- Firefly
- The Fixies
- Fleece jester ski hats
- Flip phones
- Forgetting Sarah Marshall
- The Frat Pack
- Freaks and Geeks
- “Friday” by Rebecca Black
- Friends
- Frosted tips
- Frozen yogurt
- Funny or Die
- Game of Thrones
- Gaming chairs
- Garden State
- Gawker
- “Get Low” by Lil Jon
- Gifted and Talented programs
- #Girlboss
- Girl Talk
- Girls
- Glee
- Going back and forth between liking and hating Anne Hathaway
- GoldenEye 007
- The Golden State Warriors
- Goosebumps
- Gossip Girl
- Grand Theft Auto
- Graphic tees
- Greige home decor
- Grey’s Anatomy
- Guitar Hero
- “Hack into the mainframe”
- Hamilton
- Hanging on to The Walking Dead for way too long
- Harry Potter fandom
- Harry Styles
- Hashtags
- Hating the Game of Thrones finale
- Hating the Hobbit movies
- Having cable TV
- Having helicopter parents
- “Hey ho” music
- “Hey Ya!” by Outkast
- High School Musical
- The Hills
- Hipsters
- Hockey romance books
- Homestar Runner
- Hot Topic
- How to Get Away With Murder
- The Hunger Games
- Hype Machine
- I Can Has Cheezburger?
- The Ice Bucket Challenge
- IKEA
- Inception
- Indie bands from New York City
- Instagram filters
- Internet rankings
- IPAs
- iPod commercials
- An iPod docked in a JBL speaker
- iPods
- Jackass
- The jacket from Drive
- Jake and Logan Paul
- Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl halftime show
- Jelly bracelets
- Jennifer Aniston
- The Jersey Shore
- Jessica Alba
- Jim and Pam
- The Judd Apatow era of comedy
- Juicy Couture
- Juno
- Justin Timberlake
- Kale
- Kanye West vs. Taylor Swift
- Keep Calm and Chive On
- Kenan Thompson
- Khloe Kardashian saying “hashtag fact”
- The Kia commercial where hamsters dance to LMFAO
- Kickstarter campaigns
- Kid Cudi
- The Killers
- Knowing what an amuse-bouche is
- Kobe Bryant
- Latte art
- Layoffs
- LeBron James
- LeBron James vs. Michael Jordan debates
- “The LeBrons” commercials
- Leonardo DiCaprio
- Liking Gen X sitcoms
- Lil Wayne
- Lindsay Lohan
- LiveJournal
- Livestrong bracelets
- Live tapings of podcasts
- Living in Denver or Portland
- Lizzie McGuire
- LMFAO, the band
- Lorde
- Lost
- Loving the Lord of the Rings movies
- Ludacris
- Luxury vinyl flooring
- Macklemore’s text apology to Kendrick Lamar
- Mad Men
- Making noise/dancing at 6 p.m. every night for the first few months of COVID
- Mario Kart
- Martha Stewart
- Mason jars
- The Matrix
- Matt Damon and Ben Affleck
- Max Martin
- Mean Girls
- Megan Fox
- Men in Black
- MGMT
- MIA
- Michael B. Jordan
- Michael Cera movies
- Michael Moore
- Michael Phelps
- Midnight releases for movies
- Miley Cyrus’s Bangerz
- Millennial pink
- Miranda Sings
- MLB’s steroids era
- Mock drafts
- ModCloth
- Molecular gastronomy
- Moneyball
- “Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture.”
- Mormon mom culture
- The Motorola Razr
- “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers
- MTV
- The MTV and VH1 era of reality TV
- The MTV Video Music Awards
- Mustache finger tattoos
- The Myers-Briggs personality test
- My Favorite Murder
- MySpace
- Nashlorette parties
- Neopets
- Netflix and Chill
- Netflix DVDs
- Never owning a home
- The New England Patriots
- New York Times Magazine editor Willy Staley getting savagely ratioed over a tweet making fun of the Le Creuset partnership with Star Wars
- Nickelodeon
- Nicki Minaj’s verse on Kanye West’s “Monster”
- Nonprescription glasses
- The North Face Denali fleece
- No-show socks
- The Notorious Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- Nu metal
- Obama
- The Obama “Hope” poster
- The O.C.
- The Office
- The Old Kanye
- The Olsen twins
- One Direction fanfic
- Online piracy
- Open floor plans
- Original recipe Four Loko
- Owning 300 houseplants
- Owning a Toyota Prius
- Panera’s death lemonade
- Paris Hilton
- Parks and Recreation
- Peer-to-peer file sharing
- Peloton
- People singing like Regina Spektor
- Peplum tops
- Pete Buttigieg
- The Pete Wells New York Times review of Guy Fieri’s American Kitchen & Bar
- The phone game Snake
- The phrase “getting the bag”
- Pickleball
- Pineapple Express
- The Pirate Bay
- Pitbull
- Pitchfork
- Pitchfork album scores
- Pitch Perfect
- PlayStation 2
- Podcasts
- Pokémon
- “Pokémon Go to the polls”
- “Pop, Lock & Drop It” by Huey
- A pop of leopard print
- Post-credits scenes
- Posting photos from Iceland on Instagram
- Pre-GPS navigating
- Pretending not to care whether Gen Z hates you
- Printing a document in the “computer lab”
- The proud yet incorrect belief about being the first online generation
- The PSX loading screen
- Punk’d
- Quitting Facebook but not Instagram
- The Quiznos commercial
- Quoting Anchorman
- Raven-Symoné
- Reality TV
- Realizing late in life that recycling is probably kind of a scam but still recycling anyway
- Refusing to purchase important things like flights on a phone
- Rick and Morty
- Rihanna
- The Romeo + Juliet soundtrack
- RuPaul’s Drag Race
- Ryan Reynolds
- Ryan Seacrest
- Sally Rooney
- Saying “no worries”
- The Scary Movie franchise
- Schitt’s Creek
- The screech of dial-up internet
- Seinfeld reruns
- Selfie sticks
- Serena Williams
- Serial
- Seth Rogen
- Settlers of Catan
- Sex and the City
- Sex tapes that were actual tapes
- Sexy vampires
- Shepard Fairey
- Shock websites like Tub Girl and Lemon Party
- “Shoes”
- Shopping centers
- Shrek
- Silent discos
- The Simple Life
- The Simpsons
- The Sims
- Skinny jeans
- Skirts or dresses over jeans
- Snapchat
- The Social Network
- SoulCycle
- Soundboards
- South Park
- Space Jam
- The Spice Girls
- SpongeBob SquarePants
- SportsCenter
- Starter jackets
- The Star Wars prequels
- Statement scarves
- Status updates and away messages
- The Strokes
- Student loan debt
- Stunna shades
- Substacks
- Superbad
- Super Smash Bros.
- Survivor
- T9 texting
- Taylor Swift
- Taylor Swift’s Red and 1989 eras
- “Teach Me How to Dougie” by Cali Swag District
- Teen movie Shakespeare adaptations
Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles in ’10 Things I Hate About You,’ the ur–teen Shakespeare adaptation
- That one night in 2016 when “Battle of the Bastards” and Game 7 of Warriors-Cavs aired on the same night
- The theme from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
- Thin eyebrows
- Think pieces about avocado toast
- Tiger Woods on the cover of Page Six
- “Tipsy” by J-Kwon
- Titanic
- The T-Mobile Sidekick
- Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man
- Toe socks
- Tom Brady
- Tom Green
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2
- The total collapse of the distinction between liking things genuinely and ironically
- Total Request Live
- Toy Story
- T-Pain
- Trucker hats
- True crime as a hobby
- T-shirts over long-sleeve shirts
- Tumblr
- TV-VCR combos
- Twilight
- “Unforgivable”
- Urban Outfitters
- Using a variation of your first college email password forever
- Vampire Weekend
- #VanLife
- VH1’s Best Week Ever
- VH1’s I Love the … series
- Vine
- Vinyls
- Vote for Pedro T-shirts
- “We Are Young” by fun.
- Wearing tights under shorts
- Wes Anderson movies
- Wii Sports
- Will Smith
- The word “artisanal”
- The word “dog” used to mean anything other than dog
- Work-life balance
- “Wunderkind bloggers” Matthew Yglesias and Ezra Klein
- “Yeah!” by Usher
- Your friend telling you about this new biergarten with large adult Jenga in “the river revitalization district” of a mid-tier city on the rise that they read about on urbanist YIMBY Bluesky
- YouTube
- Zach Braff
- ZIRP
- Zooey Deschanel