Laugh your heart out with these weird and funny happenings of the year 2012. We bet you’ll be left asking for more.
1. The World did not end by year 2012!
First off, lets all be thankful that the world did not end on the 21st December as supposedly predicted by the Mayan Calendar. While the world did not end, it did however cause many people to resort to some pretty weird behaviour.
According to an article published on the Yahoo.sg website, a Christian cult in China has been distributing leaflets informing people of the impending apocalypse. Singaporeans too seem to have been affected by the doomsday rumours.
An article from the same site reports that a 47-year-old public policy researcher has stocked up on rations and tools to last his family for 6 months. This is pretty confounding since if the doomsday prophecy was true, everyone will be dead and stocking up on supplies not going to be helpful in the least bit.
2. World domination of Psy
Korean stars like Girls Generation and the Wonder Girls have been trying to crack the Western market for ages, but with little success.
It is thus a little perplexing that Psy, a chubby short man who dances like a horse is the one who manages to succeed. Psy’s catchy song, ‘Oppa Gangnam style’ is now currently the highest viewed youtube video in history closing in on 1 billion views on Youtube and has managed a 7-week streak on the Billboard hot 100 chart.
The phenomenal popularity of the song has even affected influential figures like President Obama, Madonna and Britney Spears who have all danced the famous horse dance shown in the viral music video. We too have a kiddy version–an original production of theAsianparent.com. Check it out here.
3. Strikes in Singapore
Strikes are illegal in Singapore and I am sure it is quite reasonable to assume that all of us will never expect to witness a strike in Singapore during our lifetime.
Singapore has not had a strike in 25 years and it must have been pretty weird and shocking to read about the strikes which occured in November. The illegal strikes were by Chinese bus drivers and the reason behind it was over a salary dispute with their employer.
4. Mystery of PSLE top scorer
Every year, the spotlight shines strongly on the top scorers of the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) when the PSLE results are released.
It has become something of an annual tradition that these top scorers often go on to endorse chicken essence. However in a highly surprising move, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has decided to keep the names of the top scorers anonymous. Unsurprisingly, this move only served to fuel interest in identifying who the top student is and which school he is from.
5. Steven Lim got a girlfriend
Infamous ‘celebrity’ Steven Lim who rose to fame stripping to his underwear on Singapore Idol managed to snag himself a girlfriend this year! It is no secret that Steven is desperately looking for a girlfriend and once even offered $5000 to whichever girl who is willing to take up that offer but he reportedly did not receive any offers at all. While Steven has had girlfriends before, they are usually underage teenage girls.
This time however, his girlfriend Fiona Boo, is surprisingly not another teenager but someone closer to his own age. However, it looks like their relationship is over as according to his Facebook page, his relationship status has changed to ‘single’ in December 6th.
6. Lesbian kiss on Singapore TV
The last thing you expect to see in conservative Singapore is a lesbian kiss but that is exactly what took place at the Star Awards earlier this year.
Mediacorp artiste Vivian Lai kissed her colleague Kate Pang after winning a coveted spot as one of Channel 8’s Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes. According to a report on the asiaone website, the kiss lasted for only a second but sparked outrage among the public.
7. 50 shades of Grey
Every now and then, a book comes along and takes the world by storm. Judging from history, these books are usually targeted at children as evidenced by the ‘Harry Potter’ series and the ‘Twilight’ saga.
This time however, 50 shades of Grey, an erotic novel aimed at adults managed to unexpectedly find the same kind of success as the Potter and Twilight series. It’s very popular among some groups of mummies.
8. Continuing curse of names beginning with ‘A’
It seems like people who become infamous overnight and become the target of public rage all seem to have names starting with the letter ‘A’. Previously, some of these infamous individuals include Aaron Tan and ‘Adelyn Hosehbo’.
The weird trend continues this year as Alex Ong, Amy Cheong and Alvin Tan all had their 15 minutes of fame for various reasons. Alex Ong pushed an old lady of a bus, Amy got fired for her racist Facebook comment and Alvin and his girlfriend became the target of scorn due to their racy sex blog. Looks like this peculiar trend doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon.
9. Cheating celebrities
While most people would barely raise an eyebrow if celebrities such as Charlie Sheen cheats, journalists had a field day when Hollywood actress Kristen Stewart, PAP politician Michael Palmer and even teen sensation Justin Bieber reportedly cheated.
Since Robert Pattison has millions of girls swooning over his good looks, everyone was surprised that his girlfriend, Kristen Stewart who is honestly not much of a looker cheated on Robert with married director, Rupert Sanders. In the case of Michael Palmer, it came as a shocker that a PAP politician would stray especially after the PAP condemned the Workers Party when its member, Yaw Shin Leong cheated.
The PAP has always enjoyed a clean reputation. So it was a shocker that even the PAP could get involved in a scandal.
There are even unconfirmed reports that Justin Bieber cheated on his girlfriend, Selena Gomez with a Victoria Secret’s model. News of Bieber’s alleged infidelity shocked his fans as the singer has always enjoyed a squeaky clean image.
10. Shocking celebrity antics
2012 also saw a slew of celebrities who behaved in the most peculiar ways. First there was singer-actress Miley Cyrus, who pulled a Britney and shaved her head. This made her look like actor, Tom Felton who played Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films.
Next there was popstar Rihanna who reportedly got back together with her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown. This, despite the fact that he famous beat her up in 2008.
Then there was the controversial decision of Chanel to use Brad Pitt in its advertisement. The resulting advertisement has become considered as one of the worst advertisements ever made. Not to forget, it made Brad Pitt into the butt of jokes.
Also read: Things to be thankful for in 2012