There’s no doubt about it – 2023 was a wild year for news, with plenty of weird and wonderful stories emerging in the past 12 months.

To be fair, some months were a bit crazier than others.

There were stories about animals fighting back, while others made a mess. Burgers went under the microscope for being too small and there was a bizarre backlash about the lack of sex appeal of M&M’s.

Another month revealed “proof” aliens have visited us, while an unlikely country was deemed to be a UFO hotspot.

Here are some of the weirdest, wildest and most bizarre stories The New Daily covered in 2023.

January

Outlandish criticism from the far-right in the US led to the sweet treat M&M’s ditching its “spokescandy” mascots in the first month of 2023.

It followed an update just months earlier that left conservative commentator and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson deeply unimpressed.

“M&M’s will not be satisfied until every last cartoon character is deeply unappealing and totally androgynous. Until the moment you wouldn’t want to have a drink with any one of them. That’s the goal,” Carlson said.

Meanwhile, 1980s British popstar Rick (Never gonna give you up) Astley filed a lawsuit against American rapper Yung Gravy, claiming the rapper’s song Betty (Get Money) used an impersonator trying to replicate Astley’s vocals.

The rapper said he and his team cleared their version of the song with Astley and his record label. But Astley said while he had agreed to that, he’d never given Yung Gravy permission to copy his voice.

In September, the LA Times revealed the parties had settled their dispute out of court. The terms remain secret.

Cult-classic hit maker Rick Astley sued Yung Gravy.

February

Harry Styles kicked off the Australian leg of his tour by doing a shoey.

“This is one of the most disgusting traditions I’ve ever heard of,” he told his fans in Perth, before downing the contents of his own shoe.

Tweet from @caffeinette

Pranksters in Japan caused havoc for sushi trains across the nation by deliberately contaminating various utensils, dishes and condiments.

In one gross video, a customer licked a communal soy sauce bottle and in another, the same person grabbed an unused teacup from a shelf, licked the entire rim, then returned it to the shelf.

Australian TV sensation Bluey left American viewers scratching their heads at the pronunciation of the word “airport”, seemingly confused by the strong Aussie accent.

March

While many cities do all they can to lure tourists, the city of Amsterdam went the other way in March.

It brought in rules as part of a ‘Stay Away’ campaign, with the goal of deterring tourists – including those who descend on the Dutch capital for wild parties.

In the same month, Toblerone announced it would get a makeover in 2023, after it moving its operations from Switzerland to Slovakia.

The shift means the famous Matterhorn mountain peak showed on the chocolate’s labels has to be removed, in line with “Swissness” rules.

Toblerone will get new packaging when it moves production to Slovakia.

April

Filmmaker Wes Anderson helped people romanticise their mundane lives this year.

The Wes Anderson trend was all over TikTok and people would emulate his style in short form, documenting their daily lives.

Also in April, an AI-generated newsreader named Fedha made her debut in Kuwait.

Fedha, an AI-generated newsreader, was unveiled in Kuwait. Photo: Twitter/KuwaitNews

May

Orcas had plenty of fun ramming into boats and yachts in 2023, making Hollywood depictions of other species banding together against humans appear more of a reality.

In May, a boat was sunk after an attack by orcas off Europe’s Iberian coast.

Sailors off Europe are having more frequent – and expensive – encounters with orcas.

June

When the submersible owned by an eccentric billionaire imploded deep under the Atlantic Ocean, it became one of the more tragic stories of the year.

All five aboard the Titan died – British billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding, 58; Pakistani-born business magnate Shahzada Dawood, 48, and 19-year-old son Suleman, both British citizens; French oceanographer and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77; and Stockton Rush, the US founder and chief executive of the company that owned the submersible – died.

They had been on their way deep into the ocean in the 6.7-metre home-built Titan to explore the wreck of the Titanic.

As the tragedy unfolded, Titanic director James Cameron said he wished he raised the alarm sooner about the Titan, which was run from an Xbox controller.

In a slightly happier story, cockatoos drove innovation at Campbelltown City Council.

Plagued by pesky parrots opening bins and strewing rubbish along its streets, the western Sydney council decided to trial some the clever birds can’t open.

Dr John Martin at The Lab of Animal Ecology at Western Sydney University told The New Daily the birds targeted the bins because they were a food source.

July

Just in time for Shark Week, experts revealed a theory that sharks might be feasting on cocaine off Florida’s coast.

Sometimes smugglers dump drugs in the ocean to prevent getting into trouble with authorities, and occasionally the drugs wash up on the shore – so cocaine-fuelled sharks isn’t such a wild theory.

Speaking of all things ocean-related, a large mysterious object washed up on a remote beach in Western Australia in July. It remained unidentified – and the subject of intense scrutiny – for weeks.

“We have concluded the object located on a beach near Jurien Bay in Western Australia is most likely debris from an expended third stage of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle,” the Australian Space Agency eventually said.

“The PSLV is a medium-lift launch vehicle operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation.”

Later in the same month, the team behind Peaky Blinders wasn’t too happy with the camp of Florida governor Ron DeSantis after footage from the hit show was used in a confusing campaign ad.

Tweet from @ThePeakyBlinder

The video featured footage of DeSantis’s Republican opponent Donald Trump making supportive remarks about the LGBTQI+ community.

Then it jumped to a montage of DeSantis and various film and TV characters, along with headlines about Florida’s extreme anti-trans and drag queen laws.

August

In one of the more disturbing stories of the year, a Canberra woman who had complained of forgetfulness and depression was found to have an eight centimetre-long roundworm in her brain.

It was the first time the parasite, which is typically found in carpet pythons, had been found in a human.

Elsewhere, takeaway behemoth Burger King faced claims it had cheated hungry customers with ads that inflated the size of its Whoppers.

Customers in the US brought a class action lawsuit against Burger King, alleging its burgers appeared 35 per cent bigger in advertisements than what buyers actually got. A judge ruled the chain would have to defend the claims.

Burger King claims its food advertisements are meant to look appetising.

September

In September it was all about the aliens.

A report from the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office declared that Japan was something of a UFO “hotspot”.

The AARO is part of the US Office of the Secretary of Defence. It also unveiled a website dedicated to declassified information about UFOs (which government officials in the US prefer to call UAPs).

The alleged aliens were displayed for the cameras in Mexico.

Also in September, alleged alien corpses were presented to politicians in Mexico.

“We are not alone,” Mexican journalist and long-time UFO enthusiast Jaime Maussan told Mexico’s Congress.

October

Bed bugs were all anyone could talk about following Paris Fashion Week.

The City of Love grappled with a “crisis” with the wretched bugs being spotted on public transport, among dozens of other places you really wouldn’t want them to be.

Tweet from @ABC

November

The phenomenon known as STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) got a bit of love this year, outshining its “cousins” the northern and southern lights.

STEVE got its name only in recent years and it’s all thanks to the film Over The Hedge.

Steve is different from other spectacular wonders in the sky.

Rats – dead and alive – washed up in Queensland towns such as Normanton and Karumba.

At one point, at least 1000 dead rats were removed from Karumba’s boat ramps every day, thanks to wet weather and flooding which flushed the bush rodents into the sea.

December

Drew Barrymore got a little too handsy while interviewing Oprah Winfrey.

Winfrey was there to promote her film The Color Purple, and Barrymore repeatedly grabbed her hands, holding them close to her chest and face as the pair spoke.