2022 in pop culture month by month, from Taylor Swift breaking Ticketmaster to Elon Musk to THAT Will Smith moment at the Oscars

2022 has been a wild ride for pop culture – we take a look at some of the biggest moments, from January’s private Golden Globes to December’s Avatar sequel

Will Smith slapped Chris Rock in March, while Kim Kardashian divorced Kanye and dated Pete Davidson – then broke up with him months later

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Remember THAT moment Will Smith smacked Chris Rock at the Oscars? Picutred is a graffiti mural showing the scene that took place at the Academy Awards. What other pop moments have you missed from 2022? Photo: EPA

Published: 6:15pm, 31 Dec 2022Updated: 5:04pm, 8 Jan 2023

Taylor Swift was up. Elon Musk was in, out, in and maybe out again. Tom Cruise was back. BTS stepped aside, and so did Serena Williams.

But the slap? The slap was everywhere.

OK, so maybe it was not on the level of a moon landing, or the selection of a pope. But henceforth all you need say is “the slap” and people will know what you mean – that moment Will Smith smacked Chris Rock at the Oscars and a global audience said, “Wait, did that happen?” Even in the room itself there was a sense everyone had imagined it, which helps explain why things went on as normal, for a bit.

The pandemic was over, phew! Well, of course it was not. But live entertainment pushed forward in 2022, with mask mandates dropping and people rushing to buy things like, oh, Taylor Swift tickets!

In October, a New York court dismissed a sexual misconduct lawsuit brought against Kevin Spacey. Photo: AFP

We will take any segue to mention Swift, who already had a big year in 2021, but just got bigger – heck, she broke Billboard records and then she broke Ticketmaster.

It was a year of celebrity #MeToo cases, featuring the likes of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein (again), singer R Kelly (again), actor Kevin Spacey, screenwriter Paul Haggis and actor Danny Masterson. And every excruciating turn of the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial was captured on television.

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