It’s September, which means Google has released its monthly list of top trending search terms. Justin Burr, a Google trends expert, joins me to discuss the top trends in entertainment, culture, sports, science, odd news, and food for the month.
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Justin Burr – Google Trends Top September Search Trends Transcript
Mason Paine: As we approach the end of September, Google has released its monthly list of the most trending searches. Justin Burr, Google Trends expert joins me today to discuss what people were searching for in September in categories like entertainment, culture, sports, science, and food. Thanks for joining me, Justin.
Justin Burr: Hey, always a pleasure.
Mason Paine: So tell me what has been going on for this month?
Justin Burr: Yeah. Well, I know the, one of the biggest things in entertainment, and I know you’re super excited about this, is the Emmys. This was this past month and there was a lot of search interest around that. Most notably, who won the most Emmys.
Justin Burr: Well, the answer is White Lotus with 10 Emmys. Honestly. I don’t really know anything about the Emmys, and I don’t know anything about TV either, and I barely even recognize some of these names. Does it mean I’m old? Does it mean I don’t know what I’m talking. I don’t know. It’s hard to keep up with all the TV going on right now, but we’ve got some big search interest around the acting nominees.
Justin Burr: We got Zendaya for euphoria number one trending, and she one lead actress in a drama. There’s also Sheryl Lee Ralph for Abbott Elementary, not super familiar, but I do know at Quinta Brunson, she won best writing in a comedy for Avid Elementary. And there was a lot of controversy because in a joke, the presenters pulled Jimmy Kimmel out on stage, joking that because he had lost so many times in his own category, he got really drunk and passed out and they like pulled him on stage and he was just laying on the stage.
Justin Burr: When Quinta Brunson won and everyone was like, Hey dude, like funny joke, but like, Can you get off the stage so that she can have her moment? Did you see this? It was a bummer.
Mason Paine: Oh my God, I’ve heard about it. I didn’t see it. It was kind of cringe, just like knowing what happened and that’s why I couldn’t really watch it because I get that second hand embarrassment
Justin Burr: Yep, for sure. It was, It was super cringe and also just like not a very funny joke and I feel. Generally Jimmy Kimmel has done well publicly, but that was a huge misstep even I was like, All right, I’m annoyed by this. I, I’m not really sure what the point of that is, but yeah, I, I mean, I don’t, Do you watch any of these shows? Are you, are you tapped in here at all? Do you watch White Lotus Head laugh though?
Mason Paine: Man, I don’t even know what any of that is. The only thing on the list I can think of is Better Call Saul. I know that one. Yeah. I, I watched season one and two of it. I haven’t caught up with the rest. Uh, Stranger Things. I know that one. The rest of it, I’m like, What is this? This is some strange stuff. I’m gonna have to look it up.
Justin Burr: Yeah. I also agree. I know there, well, I think to my, what I was, what I just said was like, it’s, we’re just too saturated with good TV right now, which is a blessing and a curse because it’s just so hard to keep up with all the stuff. But yeah, Ted Lasso won Best Comedy succession one best. I don’t know. I’ll tune in next year maybe.
Mason Paine: Uh, what else happened this month?
Justin Burr: Well, we had the unfortunate passing of Queen Elizabeth, so we made sure rest in peace, but ton of search interest around that. When’s the funeral? Who’s taken over for Queen Elizabeth?
Justin Burr: How much was she worth? So, How do I watch the funeral? Things like that. Also a weird trend that always pops up whenever somebody dies. Everyone wants to know how tall they were. So that was one of the trending questions around Queen Elizabeth. She’s five three. There’s also a lot of search interest around how many corgy’s she had.
Justin Burr: So she had two at the time of her passing, but over 30 within her lifetime. And you know, things like, when did she become queen? It was 1952 at age 25. Ton of search interest around that. I’m sure that you saw some of that.
Mason Paine: Oh my god, 30 corgi’s. Like a dog lives to be, what, 15 years? So she had like 15 dogs at one time or something.
Justin Burr: That is a lot for sure. Right. And and also what I’d like to know more about that is like, I mean, to get, I mean, To me it feels like Corgy’s are like a relatively, I may, maybe this is an incredibly ignorant thing to say. I’m not very well versed in dog breeds, but I don’t know. Was she like a bit of a pioneer with like popularizing corgy’s back in when she became queen in 1952?
Justin Burr: I feel like only recently have like, I’ve seen so many Corgi’s. Were they big back then? Did she ever deviate from the corgi breed to another dog breed and then she didn’t really like it. So show back to corgi’s. Why are you so obsessed with corgi? I love ’em. They’re great and they’re so silly, but I’m curious to know more.
Mason Paine: Yeah. Right. Why specifically corgi’s? I know. I think she bred them too. I’m not sure. Don’t quote me on that. If you quote me, I will deny it. ,
Justin Burr: we’re not quoting you. No quoting. No quoting. Well, that’s interesting. There’s also another thing with her like. Don’t quote me on this. This is just me. I’m not really, I’m not super educated on all the queen stuff. But didn’t she like own all the swans in England?
Mason Paine: Yes. Wasn’t that a thing? I think the queen in general, like the royalty, they own all the swans, so they actually pick them up and like for the winter and they put ’em someplace. It’s like she technically owns all the swans. That’s a weird thing to do, right? To own all the swans.
Justin Burr: That’s a weird thing to do. I mean, I am fascinated by it all. I, my, my thoughts go out to all those morning her. But it is a really interesting thing to watch from the United States where we don’t have the equivalent to that really. So yeah, it been interesting to watch it, to watch it unfold.
Mason Paine: Yeah, it definitely is. It is interesting to see someone else’s culture in their heritage, you know, watching from the other side of the pond. And there’s some people who care a lot and there are others who don’t. But you’re right. You know, there was some. Grandmother, Somebody’s, mom that was somebody’s loved one who passed. And you know, my heart goes out to them.
Justin Burr: No doubt, no doubt. I think the last thing to say within the culture section was Hispanic Heritage Month. And so looking at some top trending things around that. So when was Hispanic Heritage Month for celebrated in the United States? 1989. we look at some of the searches around, we got bad bunny. Which is the number one top trending concert in 2020, which bad BU’s from, is in the us but he’s from Puerto Rico. And yeah, we don’t talk about Bruno as one of the top search song lyrics in 2022. Also, worldwide searches for donar, which is the verb to donate, reached an all time high in 2022. And the top trending word associated with Donar was Donar Yukia, which means Ukrainian donations. So yeah, some interesting stuff around Hispanic heritage.
Mason Paine: You know, I feel really bad, Bad bunny. I always get confused with Bad Baby, which is the cash me outside girl. And that’s two different people.
Justin Burr: Oh, rights, right? Yeah. They are definitely two different people. Man, I haven’t cashed me outside. Girl. What a weird thing that was. Go she was what on Dr. Phil and then said that and then she became famous.
Mason Paine: Yeah. She was like, cashed me outside and then she changed herself to Bad Baby and it’s like the bbs, the Bad Baby, Bad Bunny, and then Bad Bunny. I thought for the first time I heard of Bad Bunny, I was like, Did bad Baby change her name? Like is that what happened? Right. But it wasn’t, it wasn’t, And he’s really talented, by the way.
Justin Burr: He’s incredibly, I mean, and also like, it’s, it’s crazy the amount of. Like the amount of interest that he gets a concert? Not, not surprisingly so, because Bad Bunny’s awesome and the tunes are so rad, but like looking at some of his concerts in New York City, for example, I either, I think he played in Madison Square Garden or maybe, or maybe earn Barclays where the Nets play. But, but like the nose bleed seats were go into like $600 a pop just to get in the building which is really incredible. I mean, he is the top search concert in 2022, just overall not related to anything Hispanic trend related. Just the overall concert search in the United States for 2022 was bad bunny. So yeah, people are, people are stoked about him. I mean, I like his tune. Super fun.
Mason Paine: Yeah. And you know, the name screams confidence to call yourself Bad Bunny. And it’s not even like a variation of Bunny, it’s literally B-U-N-N-Y. So he has a lot of confidence and it’s kind of cartoony. I, I didn’t know to take it serious when I first heard of Bad Bunny, but it’s just the fact that he ran with it, He owns it and he’s really good and it’s surprising he took that name. I’m not gonna lie, cuz I think of myself like, Oh, other rappers, they like dmx. It’s like usually very masculine and powerful and it’s like, no, this dude said Bad Bunny,
Justin Burr: Bad Bunny. Sure. Yeah. No, I agree. I agree.
Mason Paine: So was there any sports trending this month?
Justin Burr: There was. We started the NFL and there was a lot of searches around that. So obviously like number one trending player, who can you guess? Tom Brady, No doubt about that. Also, Russell Wilson, You know, Russell’s been making some weird stuff lately and some of his talks are really interesting. And then he just, in the past few days, he released a video. That was like him talking about his danger witch sandwich, I think from Subway. But, and to his credit, like the, the video was uncomfortable because there was no production, there was no sound effect, there was no any sort of visuals. It was just like the raw cut of him doing his read about his sandwich. But Drew some, definitely drew some interest on the social media, people calling it very weird and stuff.
Justin Burr: Aaron Rogers, Alvin Kamara and Joe Burrow are the top trending players. and yeah, I mean it’s interesting. I, I like the nfl, the charges of my team, but they left San Diego, so I’m sad about that. I love Justin Herbert cuz he went to the University of Oregon, but now the charges aren’t that great. So I don’t know. My search interest is, is kind of waning at this point.
Justin Burr: Was Mahomes up there at the top?
Justin Burr: Nope. Wasn’t, wasn’t up there. But wow. There was some search, there was a lot of search interest around the chiefs and you. They’re, they’re sick. A lot of search interest heading into the season and throughout the entire month as well in increasing amount. But the number one trending team, cowboys, cowboy.
Mason Paine: What? Wait, wait. So does that mean that Dax was, searched a lot or just cowboys in general?
Justin Burr: Just, just the cowboys in general. What Dax isn’t important. Geez. He’s the quarterback. He should be. He’s not .
Justin Burr: I know, I know. I don’t know. Are you big NFL fan, sweet team?
Mason Paine: I’m still going with the Bucks, uh, just because I like Tom Brady and I know I, I jumped on the bandwagon a few seasons ago and, the upcoming game Bucks versus Cheaps, I wanna see. That’s the game I wanna see. But other than that,
Justin Burr: I’m not Tom, Tom Brady’s great. I, I want, I want Tom, I want Tom to win another and keep playing forever. Just incredible to watch. And I just, I don’t know, it’s just such a spectacle. You gotta admire it.
Mason Paine: Yeah. Honestly. I want him to have a ring for every finger. So far he has seven, so he’s got three more fingers to fill up with rings. So, I’m waiting for that to happen. I think that would be hilarious. Personally, I think
Justin Burr: absolutely. I agree. The longevity’s insane.
Mason Paine: What else happened during this month? Anything in like science or tech?
Justin Burr: Yeah, this is my favorite section and I’m fired up on it. So we found some dinosaur bones or some dinosaur tracks, I should say, in Texas. That are to be dated back that I’ve been dated back to around 113 million years ago. And it was because there was a drought in Texas, so there’s like a receding water and they just found these dinosaur prints and listen, I am super fired up on this. They’re in this, they’re in this like riverbed. And then it dried up, but like 113 million years ago in a riverbed tracks. I mean, it’s just so interesting, like how is that possible? Water generally degrades materials. It washes things away and this, this stuff was like in mud, so it’s interesting. I certainly believe it. I’m fired up, but I need to know more and I need to know what type of dinosaur too. There’s also another big dinosaur skeleton found in Portugal. We’ve got a lot of dinosaur stuff.
Justin Burr: 82 foot long dinosaur found the skies backyard. He was just trying to like do, my understanding is he like, he was like doing a renovation or something and just was like digging in his backyard and like found this dinosaur skeleton, which was pretty.
Mason Paine: What do you do with that? That would be such a strange thing. You’re digging in your backyard not thinking much of it, and you come across these bones and you’re like, What in the world? The first thing I would think of, is it worth anything? And two, can I keep it ?
Justin Burr: Yeah. Yeah. It’s gotta be worth something. I mean, it’s the largest dinosaur. it’s the largest dinosaur skeleton ever found in Europe and.
Justin Burr: Dude, I, I was actually looking this up on around T-Rex skeletons, um, recently, and there’s only like 32, uh, adult t-rex skeletons that have ever been found, and they sell for a bunch. I think, like, you know, upwards of like 10 plus million dollars. But I would assume that this guy’s gonna be able to make a couple coins off this. I don’t know what type of dinosaur it is, but gotta be worth something, especially 82 feet. Dude, it can be. That’s huge.
Mason Paine: Yeah. But I mean, can I keep. I mean, that’s a hell of a conversation piece, right? Have it right in your living room, , or at least just a tiny, tiny portion of it, and the rest of it hangs out the window.
Justin Burr: That’s true. And you know, I just went to the Natural History Museum in New York City like two weekends ago, and it was really cool. It was really fun to look around and look at all the old bones. They have they have, but like, man, 82 feet, You gotta have a pretty large CAA to fit that in there. . But yeah, maybe just like a little like, like a fingernail bone. Just, just so you can be Okay. By the way. This is from the largest skeleton I ever found in, in Europe and is a fingernail. So what’s up?
Mason Paine: Right? Like you should be able to keep something, not like a replica. Like I, I actually wanna keep something. This was in my backyard, pass it to my children and say, this is, this is what I found and now it is yours. It is a dinosaur nail. Oh, totally. Right.
Justin Burr: Yeah. Growing up I was pretty fascinated by dinosaurs. So yeah, you got some kids from a dinosaur bone, they’re be pretty fired.
Mason Paine: Was there any other odd news like that?
Justin Burr: Yeah, the last little bit. So we’ve got two sections of odd news dictionary updates. Merriam dictionary added 370 words to the dictionary this month. And this one’s always perplexing because one of the, One of the words, or, Yeah, one of the words they put in there was pumpkin spice. But pumpkin’s already award and so is spice. But pumpkin spice is now. Food the dictionary, which you know, makes sense like cuz pumpkin and spice, if they’re separate from one another, mean different things, but them together means something. And our society is so obsessed with pumpkin spice. So that’s finally in the dictionary. We’ve also got adorkable, which is in the dictionary as well. Also sub variance, surprising that sub variance wasn’t already in the dictionary, but obviously. Covid, 19 pandemic. There’s a lot of subverant and that is now in the dictionary, which is very interesting. And then we’ve got some food trends. Number one, my favorite thing, I didn’t know anything about this. Let’s see if you know what it is. It’s the butter board trend. You know what that is?
Mason Paine: No. What is a butter board?
Justin Burr: Yeah. Honestly, I didn’t know what it was until I saw it trending, and I’m pretty fired up on it. So basically it’s. Kind of like nice artisanal butter that they like mix on like a cutting board with like cool toppings. But it’s basically just like an entire cutting board, like filled with butter. And then you just use the bread and you kind of like dip it into the butter of sorts. So it’s kinda like our Schär-Cuterie Board, but it’s just for butter and makes a lot of sense. It takes, first off, it takes kind of like the butter spreading on from the knife onto the B bread mechanism out of play and you’re just like dipping bread and butter. It’s different butters. It’s interesting, it was invented by this chef apparently in Brooklyn. So what’s up? Shout out Brooklyn and I’m stoked about it. There’s some good comes some nice mouth watering photos online. I butter board trend.
Mason Paine: Oh my god, that sounds delicious. But also my cholesterol went up just listening to it like that. .
Justin Burr: Enjoy and moderation for sure. I think a couple other food trends that make me kind of just disgusted. Pumpkin spice Margarita, when will the madness stop? I get that. We like pumpkin spice, Merriam dictionary, just put it in their freaking book. But do we really have to go that far? Pumpkin Spice Margarita, people, come on.
Mason Paine: Apparently it’s not far enough. I mean, they’re gonna put pumpkin spice in everything. Pumpkin spice medicine, pumpkin spice, car oil. I mean, we’re gonna do everything. Let’s go all the way.
Justin Burr: Honestly, pumpkin spice me medicine. That’s honestly exactly what I was thinking. Like, hey, like you’ve got, you’ve, you’ve got a nice flu. Here’s pumpkin spice NyQuil. Celebrate fall while you get better. That’s insane. You know, like, but you’re right. We’re not gonna. Until, Well, it’s everyone’s tall. Everyone keeps buying pumpkin spice stuff. So obviously there’s a market for it. So we’ve, we’ve made this bad and now we gotta sleep in it. ,
Mason Paine: we all did this. Be proud of yourself. Yeah. This is what we’ve done. Pumpkin spice, everything. Pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin spice. Too much pumpkin spice on top of, you know, butter. I bet there’s pumpkin spice butter. I bet you there.
Justin Burr: Gotta be. Oh, gotta be. Yeah. That’s true of pumpkin spice butter boards, right? I mean, there’s so many. Yeah, there’s probably gonna be Pumpkin Spice Day in the nfl. I bet you pumpkin spice is gonna just permeate every single trend that we talked about throughout this entire day, and it’s just gonna take over until one, until we just turn into one big pumpkin spice
Mason Paine: I can see that happening. Pumpkin spice perfume. It’s gonna happen. Pumpkin spice shampoo. I bet there is pumpkin spice shampoo. I bet you, I bet you .
Justin Burr: Oh, there, there’s gotta be pumpkin spice shampoo. I feel like that’s kind of low hanging fruit body wash and stuff to smell like it. Yeah, I mean, whatever. I guess I’m just, you know, gotta Can’t beat him. So you might as well just join them. I love pumpkin spice. Gimme a pumpkin spice Margarita. It’s been a tough week, .
Mason Paine: Well, Justin, thank you so much for joining me and for those listening, where can they find these trends at.
Justin Burr: Go to google.com/trends. That’s where we got all the info.
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