New Year: There have been many 'foot-in-mouth' moments from 2010-2019, including the Flat Earth movement
As this decade comes to an end, there have been quite a few moments that people have hoped and prayed had never happened. While these 'foot-in-mouth' moments have numbered in the hundreds and thousands in this decade itself, we've rounded up ten of the choicest moments, some of them quite embarrassing for those concerned. This list of ten moments includes not just personalities in India and across the world, but also certain events that have had a number of consequences for those involved.
Here is a list of this decade's most 'foot-in-mouth' moments, in descending order:
10. Flat-Earthers
Flat-earthers deny that planet earth is round
Flat-earthers are those who believe, simply, that the earth is not round, but flat. No matter the evidence given, flat-earthers do not recognise the earth to be an oblate-spheroid, to use the terminology scientists have given to the planet's shape. This movement has been around for a long time, but has grown in popularity with the rise of social media and conspiracy theories. The movement has also attracted a few celebrities to ridicule or support the movement. In 2017, a rapper from the US started a GoFundMe page to crowdfund satellites to prove the earth was flat.
9. Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan's goof-ups on 'Koffee With Karan'
Alia Bhatt's debacle on 'Koffee with Karan' had her saying Prithviraj Chavan was the president of the country (File)
Bollywood celebrities Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan probably wished they would have brushed up on their general knowledge before slipping up on filmmaker Karan Johar's show, 'Koffee With Karan'. On being asked who the President of the country was, Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan said 'Prithviraj Chavan' and 'Manmohan Singh' respectively. Both celebrities were massively trolled online for their answers and were the laughing stock of social media users for quite a long time.
8. Fyre Festival and the 'sad' but viral cheese sandwich
The 'sad' cheese sandwich that sparked outrage and was the beginning of the end of the Fyre festival
The Fyre Festival promised to be a modern-day Woodstock, with the festival's organisers doubling down on the lavish promise of a grand music festival on an exotic island filled with food, drinks, music, luxurious bungalows to stay in and famous supermodels. Rich people who could afford the extravagant price tag, upwards of $10,000, flocked to the island, located in the Bahamas, only to be greeted with torrential rain a day before the festival was to kick off, small tents with dirty mattresses and...two breads with a cheese slice, tomato slices and lettuce leaves for food. A photo of the 'sad' cheese sandwich went viral on social media and marked the beginning of the end of festival. After a user posted the photo of the cheese sandwich, news of the disaster that was the Fyre Festival broke out and went viral on social media.
One of the festival's organisers Billy McFarland, was convicted of fraud, while the other, famous rapper Ja Rule, distanced himself from the festival.
7. Kendall Jenner and the infamous Pepsi Ad
Bernice King, the daughter of civil rights activist Martin Luther King, wrote a scathing response to the ad on Twitter: "If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi," with a picture of her father being pushed by a police officer (File Photo)
Global soft drink brand Pepsi hoped to capitalise on the anti-establishment fervour in 2017, with an advertisement featuring celebrity socialite Kendall Jenner cutting across protestors and offering a policeman a can of Pepsi. With the 'Black Lives Matter' protests that had sparked in the US, the ad provoked an outcry and was widely derided on social media. Bernice King, the daughter of civil rights activist Martin Luther King, wrote a scathing response to the ad on Twitter: "If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi," with a picture of her father being pushed by a police officer.
Watch the ad here:
6. Union Minister Piyush Goyal's 'Einstein' Remark
Piyush Goyal said Albert Einstein discovered gravity. Twitter pointed out that it was Isaac Newton who had done so (File Photo)
Union Minister Piyush Goyal became the centre of attention on social media in September this year while commenting on the state of the economy. Mr Goyal, while defending the government's handling of the economy, said "If you're looking at a five trillion dollar economy, the country will have to grow at 12%. Today it's growing at 6%. Don't get into those maths. Those maths have never helped Einstein discover gravity... If you'd only gone by structured formulae and what was past knowledge, I don't think there would have been any innovation in this world". Social media was quick to point out that it was Isaac Newton and not Albert Einstein who discovered gravity. After being derided for the remarks on social media, the minister said that some "sought to remove the context, pick up one line and create a very mischievous narrative."
5. Alternative Facts
Donald Trump's former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway coined the infamous phrase 'Alternative facts' (File Photo)
'Alternative facts' was a phrase famously coined by US President Donald Trump's then White House advisor Kellyanne Conway. The phrase was coined after Trump's former White House press secretary Sean Spicer's alleged false statement on the number of people who had attended Trump's inauguration ceremony. Conway used the term to justify Spicer's claim that a large number of people had attended the ceremony, whereas photographic evidence proved otherwise.
4. Donald Trump's remarks on climate change
Donald Trump has been notorious for his comments on climate change, including his recent barbs aimed at climate change activist, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg. "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive," Trump had tweeted in 2012. In another tweet, Trump said that global warming was needed because it was freezing and snowing in New York.
3. Elon Musk's 'Pedo' comment for Thailand cave rescuer
Elon Musk kicked up a storm when he said one of the Thailand cave rescuers was a "pedo guy" (File Photo)
Elon Musk stoked controversy last year, when the incident involving several children being trapped inside a cave in Thailand made headlines the world over, saw the tech billionaire play a role in rescue attempts as well. Following a disagreement with Vernon Unsworth, a British diver involved in rescuing the children, Elon Musk in a tweet, called him a "pedo guy". Unsworth had described Musk's proposal to build a mini-submarine to rescue the children as a "PR stunt". The comment has proved to be costly for Musk, with an ensuing lawsuit as well as several clarifications issued by him. As recently as this month, Musk's attorney Alex Spiro said "pedo guy" meant "creepy old guy" in South Africa, in a bid at damage control.
2. Former Union Minister Satyapal Singh's comment on evolution
"Nobody, including our ancestors, have said or written that they ever saw an ape turning into a human being," said Satyapal Singh, a former IPS officer-turned-politician (File Photo)
Former Junior Education Minister Satyapal Singh had last year claimed that the theory of evolution put forth by naturalist Charles Darwin was "scientifically wrong". "Ever since humans came to Earth, they have always been humans," he had said, adding that "Nobody, including our ancestors, have said or written that they ever saw an ape turning into a human being. No book we have read or the tales told to us by our grandparents had any such mention". The comments provoked a sharp reaction from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who in a harsh rebuke to his partymen, had said that "we make mistakes and give 'masala' to the media... as if we are great social scientists and experts to analyse issues... the moment you see a camera you start speaking. So this half-baked stuff is picked up".
1. Indian Army's 'Yeti' sighting
The Indian Army in April this year, tweeted that it had spotted "mysterious footprints of the mythical beast Yeti", also known as the 'abominable snowman'. The army shared photos on Twitter claiming that a mountaineering expedition team had found the Yeti's "mysterious footprints measuring 32X15 inches".
In the images, the prints appear to be of a single foot. Scientists soon called for more credible proof before citing claims over the mythical beast, with one scientist telling NDTV that the finding by the army be "best left as amateur speculation that needs to be debated further". Social media didn't take too kindly over the army's claim either, with several users mocking it online. "Couldn't you guys call a single animal expert before posting this?" one person wrote, with another asking if it was a "prank". Yet another user mocked the image of the single footprint, saying that the beast "travels by jumping."