This year, YOLO was the type of slang parents could use to really humiliate their teenage children. The acronym for “You Only Live Once” was popularized by rapper Drake in his song “The Motto” and actor Zac Efron, who had “YOLO” tattooed on his hand. “Every now and then, a bit of slang comes along that draws a bright red line between young and old,” linguist Ben Zimmer wrote in August. “In 2012, that slang term is YOLO.” The meaning is something like carpe diem, though young people also use it to jokingly justify poor decisions, particularly those that seem to yield instant gratification. (Like, say, getting blackout drunk.) The word came into the year trendy and got stale by the end, though YOLO is far from exhausting its ironic-usage phase. As in, “Yeah, I decided to just not wear my pocket protector today. YOLO.”
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5. YOLO
Full List
Top 10 Animal Stories
Top 10 Apologies
- 10. Comedian Daniel Tosh, for Making Rape Jokes
- 9. Joe Biden, for Upstaging the President on Gay Marriage
- 8. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, for Agents Gone Wild
- 7. Libyan President el-Magariaf, for the Benghazi Attack
- 6. Kristen Stewart for Cheating on Her Twilight Co-Star
- 5. Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld, for Bungling Facebook’s IPO
- 4. Congressman Todd Akin, for His Comments About ‘Legitimate Rape’
- 3. Apple CEO Tim Cook, for the Crappy Maps App
- 2. David Petraeus, for His Extramarital Affair
- 1. Mitt Romney, for His ‘47%’ Fiasco
Top 10 Buzzwords
Top 10 Comebacks
Top 10 Crime Stories
- 10. ‘Cocaine Queen’ Griselda Blanco Murdered
- 9. Drew Peterson Convicted
- 8. Anders Breivik Sentenced
- 7. The Saga of Kim Dotcom
- 6. Trial of Jerry Sandusky
- 5. The Wisconsin Sikh Temple Shooting
- 4. The Worst Possible Way to Lose Face
- 3. Solved at Last? The Murder of Etan Patz
- 2. The Dark Knight Rises Massacre
- 1. The Trayvon Martin Shooting
Top 10 Feuds
- 10. Jon Hamm vs. Kim Kardashian
- 9. Oscar de la Renta vs. Cathy Horyn
- 8. Drake vs. Chris Brown
- 7. Anderson Cooper vs. M.I.A.
- 6. Jackson vs. Jackson
- 5. British Royals vs. the Paparazzi (Episode 6,213)
- 4. Silicon Valley vs. SOPA
- 3. The NFL vs. the Refs
- 2. Bloomberg vs. Big Soda
- 1. Rush Limbaugh vs. Sandra Fluke
Top 10 Fleeting Celebrities
Top 10 Memes
Top 10 Numbers
Top 10 Quotes
- 10. “Listen, Schettino, perhaps you have saved yourself from the sea, but I will make you look very bad. I will make you pay for this. Damn it, go back onboard!”
- 9. “It’s like a real Chinese version of The Shawshank Redemption.”
- 8. “Mom, gold is good!”
- 7. “The players kind of look to us like the substitute-schoolteacher syndrome, like, ‘Let’s see what we can get away with.'”
- 6. “What defines me? Ryan Lochte.”
- 5. “I had a bet with Gordon Kane of Michigan University that the next particle wouldn’t be found. It seems I have just lost $100.”
- 4. “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.”
- 3. “We’ve been waiting for it for 7,000 years. For the first time in history, we have our own President, elected by us.”
- 2. “You can make people buy broccoli.”
- 1. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
Top 10 Religion Stories
- 10. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Pat Robertson.
- 9. The War on (the Date of) Christmas: The Pope Weighs In
- 8. Who Do Burma’s Buddhist Monks Hate? Muslim Migrants
- 7. The Conquest of Jerusalem by Ultra-Orthodox Jews
- 6. The Church of England’s Woman Problem
- 5. The Revolt of the Nuns
- 4. Pussy Riot vs. the Russian Orthodox Church
- 3. Syria’s Alawites: A Sect Under Siege
- 2. The Pope’s Butler Did It
- 1. Innocence of Muslims
Top 10 Scandals
- 10. Football’s ‘Bountygate’
- 9. Banks Sued for Rigging LIBOR
- 8. Bo Xilai Falls from Power
- 7. The Secret Service and Its Prostitutes
- 6. The Boy Scouts’ Hidden ‘Perversion Files’
- 5. Penn State, Part 2
- 4. Chick-fil-A and Gay Marriage
- 3. Lance Armstrong Is Stripped of His Titles
- 2. Susan G. Komen Defunds Planned Parenthood
- 1. The General’s Mistress: David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell
Top 10 Overreported Stories
Top 10 Underreported Stories
Top 10 Best Tweets
- 10. Twitter Breaks the News
- 9. Olympics Backlash
- 8. Beliebers Have Feelings, Too
- 7. Twit Lit
- 6. We Live-Tweet Everything — and We Mean Everything
- 5. Obama’s Tweet Slam
- 4. Tweet if You Love Big Gulps
- 3. Tweets from Mars
- 2. When Athletes Snap at 140 Characters
- 1. Election Night, and the Most Popular Tweet of All Time
Top 10 Worst Tweets