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From Jurassic World to Lamar Odon: Check out the top Google searches of 2015

Chris Pine and Bryce Dallas Howard stand in front of a dinosaur in Jurassic World
Universal Pictures / Universal Pictures
Ever wonder what the millions of people around the world are punching into the Google search engine as you do the same? Google is helping break this data down with its Year in Search 2015 lists, which include the top-searched, well, pretty much everything, for the U.S. and globally. The lists include everything from the top overall searches, to top-searched people, sports, and even memes. And it should come as no surprise that, of the top-10 overall searches, half were for movies and video games.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the top searches on the entertainment side.

Related: Netflix, HBO cleanup in Rolling Stone’s list of 2015’s 25 best shows

Movies

The 10 top-trending searched movies featured a mix of action, romance, comedy, and animation (so, movies). Jurassic World snagged the top-spot (duh), followed by American Sniper, Straight Outta Compton, 50 Shades of Grey, Furious 7, Pitch Perfect 2, Inside Out, Avengers Age of Ultron, Minions, and Mad Max. It seems all of the Star Wars mania of the last few months wasn’t quite enough to rank the upcoming film on the list, though we can likely expect to see it appear for 2016. And Google notes that it did garner more than 155 million searches during the month of December in the U.S. alone.

TV

On television, the Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul was the top trending show. Most interesting on the list is the recently-released Netflix original series Jessica Jones, which came in second. Debuting in November, that show has clearly made quite the impression in a short time: Rolling Stone also recently named it one of the top-25 best shows of 2015. Rounding out the top 10 shows was The Walking Dead spinoff Fear the Walking Dead, Empire, American Horror Story: Hotel, Game of Thrones, Daredevil, Scream Queens, Quantico, and Lip Sync Battle. It looks like everyone was dying to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt decked out in (spoiler alert) full Janet Jackson gear as he lip synced and danced to Control.

Celebrities in entertainment

Americans love controversy, as Charlie Sheen and Bill Cosby were the top-two trending actors, and Gary Busey and Randy Quaid came in at number-eight and nine, respectively. Our beloved Tracy Morgan, who survived a horrific car accident and went through months of physical therapy, made it to number 10.

The stunning Ruby Rose, who joined the cast on the latest season of Netflix original series Orange is the New Black, clearly had Americans intrigued, as she ranked first on the top-trending actresses list. Comedy “it” girl Amy Schumer, not surprisingly, made number-two. Interestingly, when it comes to athletes, two females snagged the top two spots as well: Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm following their much-talked-about fight where Rousey was finally defeated. The ladies led on the musical side as well, with Adele and Sia taking the top spots, followed by Fetty Wap, Eazy-E, and Sam Smith. And if you’re wondering what song lyrics Americans were most curious about, those were Adele’s Hello, Hozier’s Take Me to Church, and Taylor Swift’s Blank Space (no, contrary to popular belief, she doesn’t say “Starbucks lovers.”)

Memes and random hits

By the way, if you’re wondering about the top-trending memes, Pepe the Frog was tops, followed by the ever-great Rickrolling (whereby a video or message is interjected with Rick Astley’s music video for Never Gonna Give You Up), Who Knows, Florida Man, O Rly, Rick Astley, Jontron, Ceiling Cat, Bread, and Nothing Much. The top-trending GIF was Just Do It. And who had the most-searched selfie of the year? Presidential daughter Malia Obama.

The top-trending overall searches in America were: Lamar Odom (following his shocking overdose), Jurassic World, American Sniper, Caitlyn Jenner, Ronda Rousey, Paris, Agar.io, Chris Kyle, Fallout 4, and Straight Outta Compton.

Some more interesting tidbits: the top-trending beer was Bud Light Mixxtail and the top cocktail: sangria. Americans really wanted to know how many calories were in a toasted graham latte; and the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu was the top-trending car. When it comes to pets, we’re most curious as to why dogs wag their tails. And Americans are extremely interested in how to use the new Snapchat update and how to solve a rubix cube. When it comes to travel, Mexico was a hot destination, as Americans wondered what to pack for Cancun.

As for the meaning of life? The two words that could potentially lead to a seriously existential question, “what is…,” didn’t quite yield such heavy results. Americans simply wanted to know “what is 0 divided by 0.” Perhaps we’ve become a little too reliant on Google.

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Christine Persaud
Christine has decades of experience in trade and consumer journalism. While she started her career writing exclusively about…
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