The year in pop culture: AI slop and rage bait | The Assignment

A scrappy Canadian gay hockey romance becomes the internet’s obsession while big-budget, star-packed shows vanish without a trace. AI-generated slop blurs the line between pop culture and parody and rage-bait memes (some from government accounts) keep hijacking the national conversation. Together, these jolts sketch a culture where nothing is guaranteed to break through and everything is competing for a blink of attention. Audie and New York Magazine staff writer Rebecca Alter dive into this 2025 chaos spiral, trying to trace the strange logic of what counts as pop culture now.

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