The moments that broke the internet in 2018

Yanny or Laurel
So, which did you hear? This meme was guaranteed to split up families even faster than Trump's immigration policies.

Plaid Shirt Guy
During a Trump rally in Montana, student Tyler Linfesty could clearly be seen behind the president, looking by turns bemused and incredulous at The Donald's outrageous claims.

The Climbing Raccoon
In June the internet was on tenterhooks as a raccoon scaled a skyscraper in Minnesota. Spoiler alert: he made it to the top.

Cambridge Analytica
In the biggest data misuse scandal of the year. The firm was accused of harvesting information from 50 million Facebook subscribers and using it to target voters with specific ads, political messages and even fake news, influencing election outcomes. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was hauled in front of a US senate committee to explain his company's links with Cambridge Analytica.

This year they said . . .

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Rental market dysfunction set to continue through 2019

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It may be decades before real house prices again rise strongly

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Donald Glover
The rapper and actor also known as Childish Gambino blew the internet apart with his hard-hitting new single and video, This Is America, a searing treatise on gun violence and racism.

Stormy Daniels
The adult film star went public with salacious details of her alleged affair with Donald Trump, claiming she'd been paid to keep schtum about the schtupping. A twitter war erupted between the president and the porn star, Trump calling her "horseface", while Daniels responded with "game on, tiny".

Elon Musk
The Tesla head had a promising start to the year when his SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched successfully, carrying Musk's own Tesla Roadster as a dummy payload. But things quickly went FUBAR when Musk's increasingly erratic online behaviour saw Tesla's stock yo-yo up and down.

The "Caravan"
A group of migrants travelling on foot from South America to the US border became a vehicle for Donald Trump and his supporters to stir up fear among voters in the run-up to the mid-term elections. It was claimed the caravan had been infiltrated by Isis, that it would bring smallpox and leprosy into the US, and that it was filled with "big, strong men".