Tensions at Toronto arts institutions. The decline of the Hulkster. Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake, and AI art. These are the arts and culture moments we’re happy to leave in 2024.
24. Tim Hortons makes a disastrous foray into musical theatre
Tim Hortons should stick to what it knows best: coffee and donuts. The multinational chain’s foray into theatre in June, with a new musical called “The Last Timbit,” was nothing short of a disaster, possibly taking the (birthday) cake (timbit) as the company’s worst publicity stunt ever. Not even a Broadway-calibre cast and a trio of Canada’s best writers could save this 75-minute commercial advertisement, masquerading as a musical. — Joshua Chong
Read more: Our review of “The Last Timbit”
23. The Costco Guys “bring the boom” to your FYP
What started out as an innocent enough shtick — a father-and-son duo from Florida find minor TikTok fame filming short videos clips from inside a Costco warehouse — morphed into a grotesque gluttony of smooth-brained content, much of which is centred around an absurd but admittedly catchy rap-rock song (“We Bring the Boom”) that has spawned an entire cottage industry of music videos, dance challenges, podcasts and spinoffs. In recent months, the Costco Guys extended universe has expanded beyond A.J. and Big Justice to incorporate a roster of astonishingly unremarkable characters, including, but not limited to, The Rizzler — a third-grader from New Jersey known for pioneering “the rizz face.” Devoid of meaning or substance but somehow compelling, the Costco Guys’ content is almost indistinguishable from AI-slop. The fact that it is made by real human beings is a tragedy, the apotheosis of internet brain rot. — Richie Assaly
22. Elon Musk tries and fails to make the “X jump” a thing
Elon Musk might be the richest man on earth, but all that money hasn’t seemed to shield the executive chairman of X and very public Trump ally from making a fool of himself on almost any stage he sets foot on. This fall, Musk tried out a new bit in front of his audiences, where he’d hop a couple inches off the ground, open his mouth wide, and attempt to spread his limbs into an “X” shape, exposing a few inches of his pale midriff. The image of the awkward manoeuvre, which he tried out multiple times over the summer, is one we’d like to forget about in 2025. — Richie Assaly
21. Two theatres head to court
A pair of prominent arts organizations in Ontario became locked in a legal dispute following a cancelled production last year. In September, Factory Theatre in Toronto sued the Blyth Festival for $115,000, alleging the organization breached their agreement by unilaterally pulling a Factory-produced play from its lineup. A month later, the Blyth Festival launched a counterclaim, saying the Toronto company reneged on its own contract and displayed “overt unpreparedness and unwillingness to co-operate.” The case is still open and will likely further play out next year. — Joshua Chong
Read more: The fraught dispute between two beloved arts institutions
20. Reality TV reveals its ugly side
So-called “reality TV” isn’t going away anytime soon with streamers like Netflix and Prime Video jumping on the bandwagon. But it got a black eye in 2024 with everything from lawsuits alleging abuse on “Mr. Beast” and “Love Is Blind,” to the outrage over “Bachelorette” producers’ callous treatment of their first Asian lead. Whatever appears onscreen, the behind-the-scenes reality isn’t pretty. — Debra Yeo
Read more: Mr. Beast is shooting a reality show in Toronto
19. Raygun gives an absurd Olympic performance
The intersection of sports and culture is narrow. But smack dab in the middle of that Venn Diagram sits Rachael Gunn, the infamous Australian breakdancer known as Raygun, who sparked a pop culture firestorm after she crashed out of the Olympics this summer without earning a single point. While the university lecturer-turned athlete may not have embodied the motto of the world’s greatest sporting event (“Faster, Higher, Stronger”), at least she gave all of us hope that perhaps we, too, could find ourselves at the Olympics. Just admit it: how many of you found yourself muttering, “Surely, I can do better than that?” — Joshua Chong
Read more: Raygun is ranked number one in the world — for now
18. Katy Perry takes a hollow stab at a feminist anthem
“Sexy, confident / So intelligent / She is heaven-sent / So soft, so strong,” Katy Perry sings joylessly on her universally panned comeback single “Woman’s World,” a song with lyrics that, in the words of Star writer Emilie Hanskamp, ”read like an affirmation board you’d find in a HomeSense liquidation section.” The song was released along with a music video filled with imagery so retrograde that people were genuinely puzzled over whether it was satirical. Arriving in the midst of an exciting, women-led pop revival, Perry’s track landed like a tonne of bricks, offering up an accidental reminder of how far we’ve come: “In this era of complicated womanhood,” wrote Hanskamp, “the lowest hanging feminist fruit is no longer sufficient. That is something to celebrate.” — Richie Assaly
Read more: Katy Perry’s “Woman’s World” is good for women — here’s why
17. Les Misérables revs up
Jean Valjean sure was in a hurry in Mirvish’s recent presentation of “Les Misérables.” If you’re a fan of the classic musical and caught the show at the Princess of Wales Theatre, you may have felt it was being performed in hyperdrive. You’re not wrong. It was. This North American touring production increased the tempos of songs and rushed through scenes at a frantic pace, all to keep the total run time under three hours so they wouldn’t have to pay the company for overtime. The result was not just noticeable, but disappointing. — Joshua Chong
Read more: Our review of “Les Misérables”
16. Grimes bombs at Coachella
Listen, I will always defend Grimes, the Canadian singer who has evolved into a controversy-magnet since entering the orbit of Elon Musk, because Grimes made two of the best indie pop albums of the 2010s. But I was unable to deny myself the schadenfreude of watching her Coachella set go completely off the rails last spring. “I have not practiced the math because I am not fast at math,” Grimes desperately tried to explain to a massive Sahara tent audience stunned by the silence caused by what she says was a “major technical problem.” She eventually apologized, and figured things out for weekend two, but that didn’t deter the memes. — Richie Assaly
15. Hot Docs faces layoffs, resignations and allegations of toxic behaviour
Canada’s largest documentary film festival now faces an uncertain future following months of internal turmoil. Earlier this year, 10 employees resigned en masse, while the festival’s now-former artistic director faced multiple allegations of “grave mismanagement” and fostering a “toxic work environment.” Then, later in the summer, Hot Docs president Marie Nelson abruptly left the organization, just a year into her tenure. In addition to the departures, the festival also faced what it described as “urgent” financial challenges. That led to a temporary closure of its flagship Toronto theatre, which only reopened earlier this month following a financial restructuring. — Joshua Chong
Read more: The implosion at Hot Docs
14. The “Where is Kate?” media circus gets louder
When Princess Catherine largely removed herself from the public eye earlier this year, a frenzied, “Where is Kate?” media circus ensued. It got messy and, frankly, cruel. Conspiracies spread like wildfire. Blame was levelled against the princess and her family. It all highlighted the perverse and dangerously obsessive nature of social media and the paparazzi. Kate, of course, later shared that she was diagnosed with cancer. Let’s hope the public remorse that followed will serve as a lesson moving forward. — Joshua Chong
13. Harbourfront Centre announces dance theatre closure
In a major blow to the city’s performing arts scene, the Harboufront Centre announced in November that it planned to shutter the Fleck Dance Theatre, the city’s only purpose-built dance theatre. The impending closure, which will leave many established companies without a home, marks the latest setback for the arts organization, which has faced major financial challenges since the pandemic, leading to staff layoffs. — Joshua Chong
Read more: The closure of this dance theatre leaves a massive hole in the arts community
12. “Rogers” concert venues proliferate
When Live Nation Canada announced it was building a new concert venue at the former site of Downsview Airport, attention quickly turned to its name: Rogers Stadium. That the telecommunications giant was the namesake for yet another venue — not to be confused with the Rogers Centre in downtown Toronto, Rogers Arena in Vancouver or Rogers Place in Edmonton, to name a few — signifies the out-of-control monopoly major corporations have over naming rights, much to the annoyance and confusion of spectators. It’s not just Rogers, though. In Toronto alone, there’s also the CAA Theatre and the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, along with Meridian Hall and the Meridian Arts Centre. — Joshua Chong
Read more: Will Rogers Stadium be ready in time for Oasis?
11. AI art breaks the internet
There are few clearer signs of the slow decline of the internet — and perhaps art in general — than the proliferation of bizarre AI image slop infesting everything from search engines to your great-uncle’s Facebook feed. Trolls and disinformation dealers are having a blast churning out scandalous images of multi-fingered politicians and pornography of unconsenting women. But the tech is cheap, fast and convincing enough to bleary-eyed doomscrollers — virtual gold for profit-obsessed megacorporations. Watching Coca-Cola’s eerie, fully-AI-generated Christmas ad campaign this year, one has to wonder — are we staring at a fad or the soulless embodiment of our future? — Kevin Jiang
Read more: Some Toronto theatres have been duped by AI-generated reviews
10. TIFF pauses screening of controversial war documentary
The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival featured a host of major films, including possible Oscar contenders “Anora” and “Emilia Pérez.” But the two-week event was largely overshadowed by the controversy surrounding “Russians at War,” a documentary by Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova. Armchair critics, including prominent politicians, claimed it was piece of Russian propaganda. But many of those who saw it dismissed those allegations, instead praising the film for its detailed insights and humanity. In his four-star review for the Star, film critic Corey Atad described the work as an “excellent and bracing documentary.” The festival, however, still faced unrelenting protests, forcing organizers to pause screening of the film due to “significant threats.” — Joshua Chong
Read more: Opinion: Censoring “Russians at War” is a typically Canadian kind of cowardice
9. Taylor Swift vs Beyoncé narrative continues
They’re the two biggest pop stars in the world and they’re women: in the shallow disc that often serves as internet culture, a feud narrative was inevitable. (Doesn’t mean it’s not exhausting.) At year’s end — after the Grammys, the Eras Tour, “Cowboy Carter” and “The Tortured Poets Department” — Billboard entered the chat with a list of the greatest pop stars of the 21st century that it slowly dripped, day by day, like sparkly poison. When Taylor Swift was announced as the number two artist, the number one was clear — and immediately controversial. Fandoms gonna fandom: they got right into it online, taking the manufactured bait. The next stage for the drama is the 2025 Grammys, where Swift and Beyoncé are both nominated for Record of the Year and Album of the Year. Friendship bracelets, anyone? — Laura deCarufel
Read more: 10 highlights from Taylor Swift’s Toronto visit
8. Charli xcx unwisely wades into political discourse
On the campaign trail just weeks ahead of the U.S. presidential election, Sen. Amy Klobuchar asked Democratic supporters to conjure up an aspirational image of the future. “Picture this,” she said. “Bernie Sanders and Dick Cheney together holding a sign that says ‘Brat fall.’”
This moment, which for many felt like a terrible omen and an indictment of what would eventually prove to be a disastrous campaign by the Democrats, was also a very good example of what happens when politicians get a hold of a good meme: what was once fun and unifying becomes cringey and eventually meaningless.
This all started, of course, when Charli xcx posted a simple message on X: “kamala IS brat.” The tweet was a reference to her recent album title, which had become an internet sensation as a symbol of a certain type of messy, party-girl lifestyle. One can’t exactly fault the English singer — at the time, Kamala Harris seemed like the Democrats’ only hope of defeating Donald Trump.
But the tweet quickly went viral, forcing hundreds of confused journalists and news anchors around the world to twist themselves in knots trying to explain the meaning of this meme, Like almost anything related to U.S. politics in 2024, the Kamala-brat discourse quickly became messy and divisive, signalling a bitter end to “brat summer.” — Richie Assaly
Read more: Our review of “brat”
7. Toronto’s cultural scene faces financial headwinds
Over the past year, scores of arts organizations and artist spaces in Toronto have been forced to permanently shutter or drastically cut programming, the result of financial headwinds and operational hurdles that were induced by the pandemic but have spiralled into a wider crisis across the sector, leading to a reckoning — among artists, patrons and public officials — about the viability and future of the once-thriving industry.
It fomented under a perfect storm. As these organizations resumed in-person programming following months-long pandemic closures, they were met with changing consumer trends, inflationary pressures and a cost-of-living crisis that drove many artists out of the sector. At the same time, arts funding across all levels of government remained stagnant, while other sources of revenue from private and corporate donors have largely evaporated.
The challenges affected organizations both large and small, and across a variety of disciplines. In March, the Shaw Festival reported its largest deficit in its history. That same week, Just For Laughs announced it was cancelling its annual festival in Toronto and seeking to restructure its business. As well, more than half of independent cinemas in the country reported that they were operating at a loss. — Joshua Chong
Read more: Toronto’s cultural scene has been shredded. Can this multimillion-dollar plan help reverse the crisis?
6. Hulk Hogan stumps for Trump
The most surreal pop culture moment of the year arrived earlier this summer, when the former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan delivered a fanatical address at the Republican National Convention in support of Donald Trump, his self-proclaimed “hero.” Just how far did the Hulkster go? Well, it’ll be hard to erase that image of Hogan ripping off his shirt and suit jacket to reveal a tank top emblazoned with the Trump-Vance logo. How ironic that in the same stump speech, the rabble rouser also said: “As an entertainer, I try to stay out of politics.” Perhaps some of these entertainers need to try a bit harder. — Joshua Chong
Read more: At a wild Republican convention, the fashion was anything but conservative
5. “Hawk Tuah Girl” makes us wonder if the internet was a mistake
A video clip of a young woman making a crude joke becomes an ultra-viral meme. Young woman cleverly capitalizes on her fleeting internet fame by leaning into the absurdity of the moment, begins selling merchandise, appearing at campus events around the country. Young woman appears on Bill Maher’s podcast. Young woman launches “Talk Tuah,” which bafflingly becomes one of the most popular podcasts in America. Young woman launches her own cryptocurrency, “$HAWK,” which briefly explodes in value before collapsing into dust. Young woman tells her livestream that she is “going to bed,” then disappears from the public eyes for two weeks, before resurfacing to offer a tepid legal statement.
“‘Hawk Tuah’ Girl Haliey Welch’s Memecoin Project Sued After Crash” read a Dec. 19 headline from TMZ — a nearly unintelligible string of words that nonetheless offers a neat summary of the most inane story of 2024, a story that doubles as a bleak warning about the blurring of the internet and the real world. — Richie Assaly
4. The Giller Prize divides literary community
In the lead-up to the 2024 Giller Prize Gala, hundreds of authors and cultural workers joined a boycott of the prestigious literary event, accusing the Prize of “artwashing” genocide, and demanding that the Giller Foundation cut ties with Scotiabank and other sponsors “invested in the oppression of Palestinians.” The boycott marked the culmination of a high-profile campaign that for over a year had sought to draw attention to Scotiabank’s investments in an Israeli arms manufacturer, a campaign that in many ways has come to represent how the war in Gaza has fractured arts communities across Canada. “It is our position that the only way to remedy what has been a deeply divisive period in Canadian arts is for the chief funders of so many arts prizes and organizations in Canada — banks such as Scotiabank — to divest from companies whose products are currently being used in mass killing,” wrote eight former Giller Prize winners in an open letter published by the Star. — Richie Assaly
Read more: Inside the Giller Prize and Scotiabank controversy
3. Diddy is accused of sexual misconduct
Sean “Diddy” Combs, the hip-hop superstar who ruled the music world for more than two decades, faces charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, along with accusations of sexual misconduct from at least 120 people. Combs’ arrest earlier this year a stunning unravelling of Combs’ career and public image, beginning in November 2023 with a lawsuit filed by his ex-girlfriend. The music artist has repeatedly denied the allegations, which are currently before the court. — Joshua Chong
Read more: What we know about Diddy’s indictment
2. Kendrick Lamar drags Drake through the mud
It feels superfluous, at this point, to recount the many humiliations suffered by Drake in the wake of his culture-shifting feud with Kendrick Lamar. As the dust settles following Lamar’s knockout punch — the brutal, chart-topping diss track “Not Like Us” — the Toronto superstar has shrunk from the spotlight, a shell of his former self: isolated and litigious, posting lonely selfies from his sprawling Bridle Path mansion, betrayed by his friends and abandoned by the city that once worshipped him.
Of course, Drake is too big to fail. A generational hitmaker, the 38-year-old is destined to return to the charts and to the cultural zeitgeist. But it seems unlikely that he will ever fully recover from the central critique of “Not Like Us”: that as an artist he lacks authenticity. That he’s a “culture vulture” who attaches himself to whichever rising star or burgeoning regional scene he can profit from the most. That he doesn’t represent real hip hop or Black culture, but appropriates. “No, you not a colleague, you a f——-’ colonizer.” What makes this critique so devastating — more damaging even than Kendrick’s baseless claim that Drake is a “pedophile” — is the fact it reveals something that, deep down, we might have suspected all along. — Richie Assaly
Read more: Why did Toronto abandon Drake?
1. Alice Munro falls from her pedestal
Book lovers were devastated twice in a few months with news of writer Alice Munro: first of her death in May at age 92, then again in July when her youngest daughter, Andrea Robin Skinner, revealed she had been sexually abused by Munro’s long-time partner, Gerry Fremlin. When Munro found out about it, she stayed with him anyway. The news created headlines around the world accusing Munro of being a bad mother, and of readers who felt betrayed. I broke the story along with crime reporter Betsy Powell and witnessed its impact first-hand. Munro has always been beloved by readers, particularly for revealing the darkness that lurks in the lives of girls and women. Andrea changed the narrative around sexual abuse by taking control and telling her own story. She inspired other survivors of sexual abuse, and sent scholars around the world to rethink their approach to her mother’s work. — Deborah Dundas
Read more: My stepfather sexually abused me when I was a child. My mother, Alice Munro, chose to stay with him
