( CNN ) -- There are years of shockers . There are years of groundbreakers . And then there are years of `` meh . '' 2012 was one big stream of meh . `` Meh , '' as defined by The New York Times Magazine ( which features a weekly `` Meh List '' ) , describes `` all those things in life that exist at the top of the fat middle of the bell curve of taste . '' They do n't inspire wonder or excitement . They do n't arouse fury or contempt . As the Times puts it , they 're `` not hot . Not not . Just meh . '' So consider 2012 . Lindsay Lohan allegedly drunk , in a car accident , arrested ? Whatever . `` Call Me Maybe '' and all of its YouTube parodies ? Next . `` The Dark Knight Rises '' ? It was OK. 2012 : Highs and lows of women in Hollywood . It was the kind of year in which buzz faded quickly -- if it ever started at all . Not even Justin Bieber could shake things up . ( See ? You yawned when I mentioned `` Justin Bieber . '' ) Pop culture is being made , remade , remixed , rebooted and churned up so fast that , sometimes , the only reaction is a slightly exasperated , seen-it-all-before sigh . There were exceptions , of course . Jennifer Lawrence blossomed into a major star with her performances in `` The Hunger Games '' and `` Silver Linings Playbook '' ; the fact that she describes herself as `` just really boring '' bodes well for her career ( as an actress , not a tabloid staple ) . Comedy Central 's dynamic duo -- Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert -- seldom missed when skewering the hypocrisies of an over-the-top election campaign . Moreover , a number of the year 's deaths caused us to catch our breath , including the tragic passings of such notables as Whitney Houston , Levon Helm and Dick Clark . Usually , though , events went by with the weight of a breeze . `` Gangnam Style '' was fun the first million or so times you saw it ; by the time its YouTube counter passed 100 million , it was time to ask Psy , what more do you have ? One Direction is packing them in , but so did the Jonas Brothers , New Kids on the Block and the Bay City Rollers . Honey Boo Boo may be a sign of the reality TV apocalypse , but there 's a new one of those every six months . Sure , it 's the nature of pop culture . Once Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton ruled the planet ; now they 're the subject of a much-mocked TV movie . Still , it 's striking how little from the entertainment world 's 2012 will likely be remembered in a year or two . Before long , the year will be the subject of one of those History Channel specials , sandwiched between a Hitler documentary and `` Ax Men . '' And then we 'll glance up , grab the remote and say , `` Meh . What else is on ? ''
Year 's entertainment events seldom stood out . They failed to establish themselves : Lindsay Lohan 's death , new wave bands . Life was marked by tragic deaths , including that of Whitney Houston . But in general , pop culture recycled so fast the new quickly became old .