February 2026 Pop Culture Recap
- Zoey Daniels
- 3 hours ago
- 8 min read
Though February is almost objectively the worst month, pop culture soldiers on. Just because it's cold outside doesn't mean that meaningless news will freeze.
Olympics
Before the Olympics even started, Tate McRae got into some hot water for an ad she did for NBC. In the commercial, McRae is promoting Team USA, which upset many Canadians, as she is a Calgary native. Some were upset that the pop star was supporting the US because of the difficult political situation between our two nations, and others were upset because they felt the switch was traitorous, and/or McRae selling out. McRae responded to the backlash with an Instagram story featuring a childhood photo of her holding a Canadian flag accompanied with text saying "...y'all know I'm Canada down."
Norwegian cross-country skier Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won six gold medals. He now holds the records for most gold medals won at a single Winter Olympics, and most career gold medals won by any Winter Olympic athlete.
Canadian curlers may have cheated. I don't know enough about curling to understand the debate, and I don't care enough to try. The men still won gold, and there were some fun memes.
After winning bronze in the men's 20k biathlon, Sturla Holm Lægreid gives what has been considered one of the strangest post-race interviews ever, where he confessed to cheating on his girlfriend... unprompted. I mean, of course unprompted. Why would that ever be a question? Still, a weird moment after arguably the Olympics' weirdest sport (which as a reminder is a combination of cross-country skiing and rifle shooting) seems pretty par for the course.
As per usual, figure skating is one of, if not the most talked about sport.
Coach Benoît Richaud goes viral for switching coats between performances. Richaud coached sixteen athletes from thirteen countries, meaning he had to change into thirteen different coats.
Alysa Liu wins two gold medals, as girls flock to hair salons to copy her iconic style.
Spanish skater Tomas Guarino Sabate does a minion routine.
My personal favourite performance was Niina Petrõkina skating to the Cell Block Tango from Chicago for the Olympic Figure Skating Exhibition Gala. The routine featured the USA's Ilia Malinin, South Korea's Cha Jun-hwan, and Spain's Tim Dieck, may they rest in peace.
Other notable performances during the Gala were Alysa Liu's "Stateside" performance, and Mikhail Shaidorov's Kung Fu Panda routine. But also, they were all so good. The event is noncompetitive, so it's mainly a bunch of weird fun.
Super Bowl
So the Super Bowl happens, and one of the teams won. I don't really care who. Men ran, they tackled, they fell down, they probably secretly kissed in the locker room.
Bad Bunny does the half time show.
Patriots player Mack Hollins shows up in a very unique outfit.
Lunar New Year Party
Heated Rivalry's Hudson Williams and Bridgerton's Yerin Ha co-host Gold House's Lunar New Year Celebration. Clips from the star-studded party go viral all over social media.
Grammys
So, I have a confession. I don't know anything about music and I don't give a shit about the Grammys.
Here's what I find vaguely interesting:
Cher accidentally giving a Grammy to a dead musician, instead of reading "Luther" by Kendrick Lamar and SZA.
Cher wasn't the only one to mess up a name, as Darren Criss wasn't quite able to pronounce Eusexua by FKA Twigs.
Alex Warren has some technical difficulties with his in-ears, but he handled it like a pro.
Opalite
Taylor Swift releases the video for "Opalite," which features all the celebrities she was paired with on an episode of The Graham Norton Show.
Brigerton Again
Netflix releases Bridgerton Season 4 Part II, and I have to say, I was slightly disappointed. It had it's moments, but overall I liked Part I better. I did love mean Anthony though. Still, I'm sad it will be like another two years until the next season. In my opinion, they should forget finding Eloise love (she doesn't want it anyway), and focus on Posy instead. I'm not satisfied with her just hanging out with a last minute random.
Though Season 4 was by no means it's best (Season 2), it did a couple of things really well. First, we got a lot more Hyacinth screen time, who has been my favourite character for a while, and often has the most underrated one-liners. I was happy to see more of her. Plus, the dance to Charli XCX's "360" is iconic. Second, Francesca's storyline was really interesting, and Hannah Dodd gave a stellar performance. I am really excited for her season.
Wurthering Heights
Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights hits theatres, and receives mixed reviews from critics and audience alike.
Punch the Macaque
Every few months a new animal goes viral, and people get way too attached. This month it was a macaque from a Japanese zoo. Punch the monkey was the talk of the internet due having no friends after being abandoned by his mother, and carrying a stuffed orangutang from IKEA to replace her.
Maybe he has no friends because he has a sucky personality... you know what, never mind. With how intense people have gotten over this, I'll probably get death threats for writing that.
Moulin Rouge
Moulin Rouge announces it's closing on Broadway after over 2000 performances. Oddly enough, after they make this statement, they reveal that Megan Thee Stallion will make her Broadway debut as Zidler. This is strange because stunt casting doesn't usually happen once a show announces their closure, but I'm here for this.
Punxsutawney Phil Bullying
Possibly the weirdest tradition we have in the US and Canada, a groundhog predicted the weather again. Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter, but he was getting a lot of hate. Apparently the famous rodent only has a 35% accuracy rate, and people on social media were not afraid to call him a fraud. Also, he might have had a death hoax?
I honestly think this bullying is deserved. If your local meteorologist sucked this much at their job, they'd be fired.
Melania
Amazon spends $40 million on a documentary about Melania Trump (technically this came out on January 30th), in an attempt for Jeff Bezos to get the opportunity to suck Donald Trump's dick. There are no reports yet to know if Bezos has been successful, but there are reports that the movie hasn't been. A month after its release, Melania has not yet made back half its budget, which I guess was never the point anyway. It has one of the largest gaps between audiences and critics I've ever seen, which allows you to imagine the level of media literacy in the type of movie goers this film attracts. I do think Rotten Tomatoes has a stupid rating system though, so I looked at IMdB, to see that the film only has a 1.4/10 there, and a 1.1/5 on Letterboxd.
Parasocial Divorce
Beauty influencer Mikayla Noguiera goes viral for expecting people to care way too much about her divorce announcement. Noguiera is often the subject of discourse, for things like ALLEGEDLY using fake lashes to sell a mascara, failing to disclose ads, faking a ridiculously heavy Boston accent, and making a video saying being an influencer is really difficult and "absolutely fucking insane" because she has to work until 5:19 pm. These are the things I knew her from at least, and I didn't know or care that she was married, but supposedly her followers did. Still, I can't imagine even the most devout of her subscribers caring as much about her divorce as she seems to think they will. The way she's talking to her audience sounds like she's talking to their children or something.
Manon's Temporary Hiatus
Manon Bannerman, one of the six members of the international girl group KATSEYE, is announced to be taking a indefinite break from the group. HYBE x Geffen, the group's label, put out a statement saying, "after open and thoughtful conversations together, we are sharing that Manon will be taking a temporary hiatus from group activities to focus on her health and wellbeing."
Fans were shocked and outraged, as there were seemingly no signs leading up to this announcement. A conversation opened up about how Black women are treated in the music industry, and many speculate that race may have had something to do with this decision. Manon put out a statement saying "I'm healthy, I'm okay, and I'm taking care of myself ... Sometimes things unfold in ways we don't fully control, but I'm trusting the bigger picture."
Connor Storrie Hosts SNL
Connor Storrie hosts SNL. I would link his monologue here, but it features American hockey players wearing gold medals, and I just don't think it's ethical to repost that.
I actually thought he had probably one of, if not the, best SNL photoshoot I've ever seen. Storrie has been involved in the LA clown scene, and that made for some really cool photos/videos.
The last sketch of the night (which was technically in March) had Storrie playing a stripper who had just been hit by a car but insists on continuing his act, which was a character he brought to SNL from his days in clown school.
Eric Dane Passes Away
Eric Dane, an actor known for shows like Grey's Anatomy and Euphoria, passes away at the age of 53 from ALS. After his death, Netflix aired an interview with Dane as part of their series Famous Last Words.
Reality Check
Netflix airs the three part series Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model. Though wildly popular while in aired throughout the 2000s and 2010s, America's Next Top Model was rewatched by many during the pandemic, who with new maturity and the changing times had a wildly different take away than before. The show became known for its problematic shenanigans.
Survivor Season 50
The fiftieth season of Survivor begins airing. The cast is made up of twenty-four returning players, including Mike White, who I guess is taking a break from being the writer/director/creator/showrunner of The White Lotus.
Art in the Louvre
After his arrest and subsequent release, a photo of the man formerly known as Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (which I don't think will catch on) goes viral for how stupid, ugly, and embarrassing he looks. Just a truly unfortunate photo all around, but it's so good, that activists decide to frame it and put it up in the Louvre with a plaque saying "He's Sweating Now." The picture stays on the wall for somewhere between 15 minutes to an hour before security removes it.
Nirvana: The Band - the Show - the Movie
Nirvana: The Band - the Show - the Movie hits theatres, for some fun, critically acclaimed, and Toronto-centric entertainment.
SNL UK
The UK version of SNL announces the cast for its first season. The players are a bunch of UK comedians who look vaguely familiar, but whose names mean nothing to me.
BAFTA Awards
The BAFTA Awards got into some controversy for poorly handling a moment where a racial slur is shouted. One of the people in attendance was John Davidson, the inspiration behind the movie I Swear, which was nominated for several awards. Davidson has Tourettes, and the audience was warned that there might be some involuntary interruptions, although the announcement failed to detail that the remarks may be harmful language. While Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting an award, Davidson shouted a racist slur. The situation was complicated to say the least, as the involuntary nature of the incident doesn't eliminate the harm that is felt.
The true issue is that the BAFTAs aired the incident, uncensored, and the show IS NOT LIVE! They furthered the harm and embarrassment for absolutely no reason.
Unrivaled Delay
Rachel Reid, author of the "Game Changers" book series (Heated Rivalry is book number two), announces that the release date of the seventh book of the series Unrivaled will be pushed back to June 1, 2027 as a result of her battle with Parkinson's disease. Reid shared the news on Instagram saying, "there’s nothing more important to me than 'Unrivaled' being the best book it can possibly be." This is devastating news for me personally, as I cannot express how excited I am for this book, having read The Long Game, and needing to know what happens next. Still, I understand and wish Reid the absolute best.
Finally, and most importantly...
The Muppets are Back
Disney+ brings back the Muppets with a thirty minute special of The Muppet Show featuring Sabrina Carpenter. It is the perfect example of if it ain't broke, don't fix it, as it had the exact same format and charm of the original Muppet Show, and it worked just as well. Carpenter was a great choice, and she did phenomenally, or almost as well as Miss Piggy.
