Living long and prospering. Star Trek turns 60 on September 08, and you know its fans, the OG nerds, are going to go all out. In LA, fans are gathering for an open-air screening of The Man Trap. An astronaut aboard the International Space station will be wearing the Delta badge. In London, they’re gathering at the Science Museum to do Spock’s iconic Vulcan salute, and aiming for a Guinness record. Beam us there, Scotty!
Quitting in style. Forget tossing the bouquet at weddings (because who wants to get married, anyway?) Corporate slaves have invented a new ritual. Basically, the person who’s resigned tosses their ID card to a few hopefuls, and whoever catches it will be the next to leave the company. Just don’t do this when your boss or HR is around.
Vibing off. Latino teenagers are hitting the streets in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil to face-off in aura-farming battles. No, this doesn’t involve any wizardry. You strike a pose that oozes swag and bust out a few cool dance moves, and the audience decides who’s more chill and unbothered. Listen, we Millennials thought break-dancing was the height of coolness, back in the day. Let the Gen Z and Alphas have their own cringe moments.
{{/usCountry}}Vibing off. Latino teenagers are hitting the streets in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil to face-off in aura-farming battles. No, this doesn’t involve any wizardry. You strike a pose that oozes swag and bust out a few cool dance moves, and the audience decides who’s more chill and unbothered. Listen, we Millennials thought break-dancing was the height of coolness, back in the day. Let the Gen Z and Alphas have their own cringe moments.
{{/usCountry}}Spraying deodorant. How many things in life can be “maxxed”? Turns out, there’s no limit. Young men are now pheromone-maxxing, aka skipping showering before going on a date, so that their raw, primal scent can attract their partner. Have we learned nothing from all those sexy perfume ads? If you can smell your date from several tables away, RUN.
All caught up. Normies see tangled earphone wires as a nuisance. Swiss artist Omar Amor sees them as works of art. Amor has woven hundreds of them into bags, a chic dress, even a coat. When your lost earphones disappear into the void, this is how they’re reborn. Finally, we know what to do with all our junk tech.
Getting a head start. Are science books for babies just another version of the whole “Books for Dummies” genre? Ruth Spiro’s Baby Loves Science series, which has 27 titles so far, just dropped its newest addition, Baby Love Robotics. Chris Ferrie’s Baby University series has titles such as Quantum Entanglement for Babies, Bayesian Probability for Babies and Statistical Physics for Babies. They’re marketed for “budding baby scientists”. Let’s be so real right now, we might need them ourselves.
Doom-gaming. Before we had AI slop and brainrot content, we had terrible video game ads. There’s always some version of a starving, freezing family whose life you’re supposed to fix or a chaotic house you need to swoop in and clean. There’s one with an annoying uncle you’re supposed to punch (what!!?) and one in which you build a farm and harvest corn, endlessly. Admit it. You’ve downloaded at least one of these and got sucked into a spiral.
Taking a bite. So, you’ve heard of Oreogate by now – the viral group chat in which one mum asks other parents not to pack Oreos for their kids’ lunches, as her daughter isn’t allowed to eat them. The whole drama has been rife with conspiracy theories. Some say it’s a real, unhinged mom face-off. Others say it’s an elaborate meme. Some say it’s clever product placement. Whatever it is, we just know companies are going to copy this into their marketing playbook. If there’s more beef around products on the internet soon, you know where it came from.
From HT Brunch, September 5, 2026
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