I’ll get you, my pretty! And your little pygmy hippo, too! Forgive us the shameless attempt to link the fantasy hit “Wicked” to the delightful Moo Deng. But there’s something the two had in common this year: Escapism. Whether we found it on the yellow brick road or in videos from a Thailand zoo, or perhaps in unlikely Olympic heroes, we gravitated toward fantasy and feel-good pop culture moments this year.

And for some inexplicable reason, we became obsessed with celebrity lookalike contests. After a year where much changed but some things held steady — Taylor Swift and Beyoncé kept breaking records and making history — here’s our annual, very selective trip down pop culture memory lane: January It starts as a cheery tweet from a beloved “Sesame Street” figure: “ ELMO is just checking in! How is everybody doing?” The answers hint at something deeper and more worrisome. “Not great, Elmo.

Not great,” one milder reply said. Doing much better is the viral phenomenon “BARBENHEIMER,” which makes its awards season debut at the GOLDEN GLOBES . LILY GLADSTONE , the first Indigenous winner of best actress in a drama for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” begins her remarks in the language of her tribe, Blackfeet Nation.

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