June 2026 Pop Culture Recap
- Zoey Daniels
- 16 hours ago
- 3 min read
Okay, we're halfway through July and this is a short one. Not because nothing happened in June; I would say a normal amount of things happened in June. In fact, June is my favourite month, and I would love to write more about it. The thing is, I have a real full time job now that will last the next couple months, so I don't have the time I usually do to procrastinate writing a recap. Expect this trend to continue until at least September.
You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love
It's not the first time I've started a Pop Culture Recap with those words, and Olivia Rodrigo's new album is finally here! This girl can do no wrong. She is so talented and has seemingly never written a bad song. I think my favourite song off the album is expectations, but it's hard to choose.
Elmo vs. Knicks Fans
While the New York Knicks were in the NBA Finals, Elmo made the mistake of posting this tweet:
Elmo is from Sesame Street though, which is in New York. Safe to say New Yorkers were not happy about his lack of commitment:
Toy Story 5
The fifth Toy Story movie comes out to the lowest reviews of any of its films: achieving a measly 93% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. Toy Story 5 features an original Taylor Swift song called "I Knew It, I Knew You."
Bridgit Mendler Music
An EP by the criminally underrated lawyer-doctor-singer-actress Bridgit Mendler appears on Spotify. The songs sound very 2016, which is to say, they were bops. The music was taken down shortly after, as it was never meant to be up in the first place. This crushed a countless amount of fans, as people have been begging Mendler to realease more music for about a decade. Mendler took to Twitter to break the news that she was not the one who put up the music, but hinted that she might release more music some day.
Las Culturistas Culture Awards
Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang return for the fifth annual and second televised Las Culturistas Culture Awards.
Miss Piggy got a surprise award for The Grand Dame Diva of Culture, Divahood, & Porcine Glamour, because of course!
The World Cup
The World Cup happens, and soccer supposedly takes place, but my favourite part was all the headlines about Scotland fans making the city of Boston run out of beer, which literally started on the plane ride over.
Daisy Chain Fields
Olivia Rodrigo announces Daisy Chain Fields, a new music festival that will happen in August. The festival will have an all-female lineup, and all the profits will go to organizations supporting women and girls. Performers include Chappell Roan, Stevie Nicks, Katseye, Doechii, Sarah McLachlan, and more.
Iconic By Mistake
"Iconic By Mistake" is released by girl groups Illit, Le Sserafim, and Katseye, which means this song has fourteen performers on it. All of the groups have the same label, so I think this was HYBE's way of giving all three groups another song to perform at a concert for the price of one.
The Room Returns!
A remake of The Room, a 2003 film known as one of the worst movies ever made, called The Room Returns! premieres at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. It was made by Actors for a Cause, and all the profits went to charity. The premise of the remake was to flip The Room on its head, as the original film took a year and $6 million to make, so they filmed it in a day for no money at all. Bob Odenkirk played the lead role of Johnny, and I know you're wondering, "who could they have gotten to play the absolutely iconic role of Chris-R, because Dan Janjigian, former actor and Armenian olympian bobsledder could not be beat?" Well, I haven't seen it, but I think they probably found a pretty appropriate replacement in Greg Sestero, who originated the role of Mark, and co-wrote one of the best books I've ever read, The Disaster Artist (the movie adaptation does not do it justice).
The Room has a 3.6 rating on IMDb, while The Room Returns! has a 7.5.
CN Tower Lookalike Contest
To celebrate the CN Tower's 50th birthday, a group of people came together to throw it a party. The lookalike contest, not affiliated with the tower itself, took place at the base of the CN Tower and had a good amount of attendees. The group sang "O, Canada" in addition to "Happy Birthday," and cake was handed out. Chad Pierre, the contest's first place winner, said, "I thought my costume kind of sucked." Despite this, Pierre took home $200, with second place winning $100, and third winning $50.
(despite what this photo implies, my brother Jayden was not in attendence, nor did he win)
