With another awards season behind us, it always seems prudent to look back on the year that was. The Grammys and Oscars allow us to trumpet the accomplishments of the arts, but rarely do we get such opportunities to chortle at the missteps as well as the masterpieces.
Now that we are a full two months into 2019, enough time has passed to look back on the worst of the worst in 2018. There were plenty of lows in a truly tumultuous year, so let us take this opportunity to celebrate the fact that these debacles are behind us.
Worst celebrity: Logan Paul
Jonah Baker | Argonaut
This one comes without debate. Logan Paul had arguably one of the worst years of any celebrity in 2018, which is all the more impressive when you consider that Mark Zuckerberg continued to be Very Mark Zuckerberg and Roseanne Barr torpedoed her return to fame in no fewer than three separate instances. Paul had already set himself up for disappointment based on the fact that his target audience is 12 years old while his antics call to mind the most unhinged frat bro ever. Even with that disadvantage, Paul made a fool of himself in January 2018 by uploading a video in which he and his cronies found the body of a suicide victim in Japan and proceeded to make jokes and cause irreparable damage to Paul’s brand and even put a strain on U.S.-Japanese relations.
Many lost subscribers and sponsors later, Paul proved to learn little and posted a video that included jokes about the tide pod challenge and cruel treatment of animals. YouTube temporarily suspended his advertising revenue and cemented his status as one of 2018’s worst.
Worst film: Gotti
Feel free to forgive yourself if you don’t remember this movie. I had to go back and sift through John Travolta’s latest comeback attempt, but I must admit even the briefest of research will suffice for this category. The movie received a perfect 0 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and led all 2018 movies in Golden Raspberry nominations with six. The film resulted in a $5.6 million loss for Vertical Entertainment and MoviePass Ventures, and just about everyone involved deserves blame.
It certainly feels as if mob boss biopics are always chasing the “The Godfather,” but “Gotti” may be the furthest thing from an unrefusable offer. It seems impossible to believe that Travolta played such a polished role in “American Crime Story,” but otherwise it seems impossible to bet on anything Travolta is involved in going into 2019.
Worst album: RECKLESS by NAV
With an unmissable nasally voice, NAV spent most of 2018 trying to be taken seriously as another R&B artist from Toronto, not as moody as The Weeknd and not as preposterous as Drake. RECKLESS was the laborious result of his unfortunate approach. In an already overpacked scene, NAV brought nothing innovative to the table and clearly suffered without the co-authoring and producing help of Metro Boomin from his prior release. RECKLESS proves that there is no end to NAV’s moodiness, and no feature is going to save an album that will ultimately prove easy to leave in 2018.
2019 has already brought us a fresh batch of controversy and conflict, but at least we can firmly say that the (relatively) new year will require zero attention paid to these works of ‘culture.’
Jonah Baker can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jonahpbaker