1. | Muppets entered the political fray this year, when GOP not-quite-good-enough presidential hopeful Mitt Romney said he would cut funding to PBS and specifically named this Muppet. | ||
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2. | There's this supermodel named Kate Upton, see. And she did this dance called the Cat Daddy. The performance proved to be so explosive that it brought about this unusual development: | ||
The Black Eyed Peas had recorded a song to accompany the dance within two days | |||
It was incorporated into a Barack Obama re-election ad | |||
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YouTube apologized after initially banning the video, and then restored access to the clip | ||
Summer Olympics organizers preemptively banned performances of it from athletic events | |||
3. | Disappointingly, celebrity babies were reasonably named this year. For one of the odder ones, add a color to a name of a plant and you'll get this baby born to Beyonce at the beginning of the year: | ||
Green Rose | |||
Maroon Lilac | |||
Yellow Moss | |||
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Blue Ivy | ||
4. |
![]() In June, we were treated to a YouTube clip featuring Barack Obama "singing" this omni-present song: |
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Somebody That I Used to Know | |||
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Call Me Maybe | ||
Payphone | |||
We Are Young | |||
By way of explanation.....
Dig the Presidential goodness: |
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5. | With Charlie Sheen finally jettisoned from the show, Two and a Half Men producers brought this actress in to portray the character's ghost on the season finale: | ||
Ellen DeGeneres | |||
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Kathy Bates | ||
Tara Reid | |||
Roseanne | |||
6. | Three deaths in quick succession on the set of this HBO show brought production to a halt, with the series ultimately being cancelled: | ||
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7. | We hope you were able to catch a performance of Undisputed Truth, the one-man/woman Broadway show featuring this pop culture curiosity: | ||
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Mike Tyson | ||
Mel Gibson | |||
Axl Rose | |||
Emilio Estevez | |||
8. | Frequent advertiser ____________ made good on its threats to "kill off" longtime pitchman __________: | ||
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Priceline / William Shatner | ||
Allstate / Dennis Haysbert | |||
Nikon / Ashton Kutcher | |||
GEICO / the Gecko | |||
9. | It looks like Jessica Simpson will both begin and end the year pregnant. In between, she served as this weigh-loss company's spokesman: | ||
Jenny Craig | |||
Nutrisystem | |||
LA Weight Loss | |||
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Weight Watchers | ||
10. | The 2012 fall edition of Survivor featured a former child star from this 80s sitcom: | ||
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11. | The heavens sighed, the seventh curtain parted, and this member of the Jersey Shore gang reproduced during the year: | ||
JWoww | |||
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Snooki | ||
The Situation | |||
Paulie | |||
12. | A TV miniseries revisited some of the old-timey a-fussin' and a-fuedin', as these two actors stared in the History Channel's Hatfields & McCoys: | ||
Dennis Quaid and Jude Law | |||
Kevin Bacon and Michael Douglas | |||
Tom Selleck and Daniel Craig | |||
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Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton | ||
13. | Somehow, the career of the creator of this crossing-the-line show wasn't adversely affected when he sent an Emmy mailer referring to award voters as "you bloated, over-privileged Brentwood Jews." | ||
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14. | A nation recoiled in horror as, for a brief time this summer, this young parasite romantically attached itself to a member of the Kennedy family: | ||
Demi Lovato | |||
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Taylor Swift | ||
Amanda Bynes | |||
Lindsay Lohan | |||
15. | Hopefully, we're sorry for what we did and will never do it again, as we have suffered through the existence of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. The wretched show is a a spin-off of this similarly controversial show: | ||
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Toddlers & Tiaras | ||
Jersey Shore | |||
Keeping Up with the Kardashians | |||
Deadliest Catch | |||
16. |
This judge from The Voice freed up time from his/her chair-turning-around schedule to appear in the fall season of American Horror Story:![]() |
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A | ||
B | |||
C | |||
D | |||
17. |
![]() The lad's detractors might have approved of this Complex magazine cover featuring a rather bloodied, beaten up young star. Who is it? |
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Zac Effron | |||
Justin Long | |||
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Justin Bieber | ||
Robert Pattinson | |||
18. | Please identify the name of JK Rowling's 2012 non-Harry Potter novel: | ||
Nevermore | |||
Notorious Nineteen | |||
Cold Days | |||
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The Casual Vacancy | ||
19. | So here's a nice problem to have: This celebrity's annual earnings *fell* by $125 million vs. the previous year, but s/he *still* raked in $165 million, good enough to top Forbes' list of highest paid celebrities. Who are we talking about here? | ||
Tyler Perry | |||
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Oprah | ||
Steven Spielberg | |||
Michael Bay | |||
By way of explanation.....
The top 10: Oprah ($165 m); Bay ($160 m); Spielberg ($130 m); Jerry Bruckheimer ($115 m); Dr. Dre ($110 m); Perry ($105 m); Howard Stern ($95 m); James Patterson ($94 m); George Lucas ($90 m); Simon Cowell ($90 m) |
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20. |
"Don't Wake Up in a Roadside Ditch"
"Don't Drive Into a Pizzeria" "Don't Attend Your Own Funeral" "Don't Have Your House Explode" Such were the lessons at the end of ads aired during the year by this company: |
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Allstate Insurance | |||
Coke | |||
Ford | |||
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DirecTV | ||