Kim Kardashian – complete with a fractured foot – relives most controversial moment of her life that ‘broke the internet’

While she might have competition in the form of Paris, Britney and Lindsay, few can break the internet with such finesse as Kim Kardashian, and now she’s gone and done it again. 

Some ten years after setting the internet alight with *that* Paper Magazine cover (you know, the one that launched countless memes and features a precariously placed champagne flute), Kardashian has recreated the viral moment with pictures shared from the Christmas party of her loungewear brand Skims. The reality star channeled her previous look with a snap in which a friend held a drink atop her perched bum, instantly recalling the magazine cover that had tongues wagging a decade ago. 

Kardashian captioned the Instagram carousel with a gift emoji, and while it’s similar enough to remind us of that moment, there were a few key differences. For starters, she’s wearing a red dress in this updated recreation, instead of the black sequin gown she donned for the original Paper Magazine cover. Oh, Kardashian is also wearing a boot on one foot following an injury earlier this month — an accessory that she wasn’t rocking all those years ago. Some onlookers instantly noticed Kardashian’s recreation, with one adding cry-laugh emojis while writing “Oh, the glass picture.” 

For her part, Kardashian’s sibling, Khloe, said her older sister is “the gift that keeps on giving.” For those not well-versed in the context, the image Kardashian is recreating had a chokehold on pop culture back in November of 2014. The Paper Magazine spread featured nude images of the reality star as well as less racy snaps of her oiled up to a level that could cook fried eggs, with the assistance of photographer Jean-Paul Goude. The publication dubbed it #BreakTheInternet, and it spurred fortnight-long commentary, memes, and media coverage, and even informed a parody sketch on Saturday Night Live. 

Even in the years since it was published, the magazine spread has prompted retrospective think-pieces, and has seen fans return to the cover on social media and express their “nostalgia.” While nothing could recapture that lightning in a bottle moment, Kardashian’s foot injury in the recreation adds a new layer to the image, even though the cause of the incident is not yet known. She did reveal earlier this month in an Instagram story that she had hurt her foot and that it was “broken for the holidays,” and was later pictured using a scooter to prop up the foot at another Skims event in New York City. 

Whatever the cause, it certainly hasn’t proved too much of a hindrance, since she has enough stamina to revive what was perhaps her most controversial moment… and at a work Christmas party, no less! Perhaps the foot injury arose because Kardashian has been constantly outrunning headlines this year, with the last 12 months proving she’s the undisputed queen of getting people talking. In the past few months alone, she’s spawned rumors of a relationship with Tom Brady, ignited a nepo baby debate, vouched for the Menendez brothers’ release from prison, and fuelled speculation that her single life is coming to an end. 

Since it’s Kardashian, she wasn’t going to let 2024 come to an end without causing just one more splash, and in this case, the splash came from a champagne bottle sitting provocatively on her infamous curves.