Listicle: 10 of the biggest letdowns of 2024

More like folly, a don’t. After all that hype (and Lady Gaga), this was the biggest movie letdown of the year. They did audiences wrong. They did fans wrong. They did the actors dirty. And they basically insulted the rich musical genre with their one-note storytelling. The only thing we can say is *clown face emoji*.

The fact that @5.Min.Crafts still has 48.3M Insta followers and 81.1M YouTube subscribers is befuddling. Because instead of showing actual crafts, they’ve begun trolling viewers with useless hacks that no one asked for. Epoxy resin jewellery takes more than five minutes to make. Who needs ramen noodle flip flops in a hurry? Ripping apart tampons to use as gauze? Somebody stop them.

Lightweight design, long battery life, and oh yes, finally, books in colour! But the colours are so... dull. Readers wanting to shift from paperbacks were also taken aback by the high price (It’s ₹24,000). People who read on their iPads are smirking in the corner. People who were reading on OG Kindles are fine as they are.

The Color Purple. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. Uglies. The Tearsmith. Damsel. It Ends With Us. Each screen version lacked depth. Plots were rushed, special effects sucked, and unfortunately, each failed to fully or properly portray all of the moral dilemmas that the books offer. Uglies was literally about a revolution, but the books just showed people excited to get pretty.

We saw so many deepfakes this year. During both, the US and Indian elections, people were hit with phone calls from voices mimicking those of politicians. Aamir Khan and Ranveer Singh showed up in campaign videos without their consent or knowledge. In January 2024, a video of actor Rashmika Mandanna went viral. It wasn’t real. Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Taylor Swift were the most deepfaked people of 2024. Who’s next?

Perry’s awful album,143, with songs marketed as feminist anthems, backfired spectacularly. Enough people saw the video for Woman’s World to convince the rest of the world not to bother. The worst part: She teamed up with Dr Luke for this. The same Dr Luke who singer Kesha spent a decade fighting in court; she’d accused him of drugging and raping her.

Aka, the most delayed game of all time. It was announced in 2002 but was never released. It was supposed to release on the Game Boy Advance. That went out of production in 2009. They released it this year, 22 years on, probably banking on the nostalgia market. Too bad they didn’t think about making a good game in all that time. Yes, on top of everything, it sucks.

For a minute there, we all believed in true love again. We wondered whether our exes could still be The One. We should have known better. Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce from Ben Affleck on their second wedding anniversary. People commented that she collects engagement rings like Thanos. Both seem happier apart. As for us, we’re just waiting to believe in true love again.

A chance to work closely with a CEO? In one of our fav food delivery companies? Getting to learn from industry experts? Unlimited flex points? Count us in! Just one more thing — we have to pay the boss for the privilege of working there. What was Zomato thinking/drinking/smoking/ordering? They aimed for unconventional, they came off super privileged and tone deaf.

The trailer for Jigra had us so excited. Vivek Gomber, OMG. Vedang Raina, woah. Directed by Vasan Bala, ufff. And Bhatt doing some real action, nice. It gave off a pulpy vibe that is largely missing in Indian cinema. But it was such a letdown. Where was the intensity? Where was the emotion? Where was the connection between the siblings that made us actually want to root for them? How did Alia Bhatt go from most bankable star to most annoying housewife?