As 2022 drew to a close, Twitter witnessed a downfall for the ages. 

Misogynist TikTok star Andrew Tate taunted environmental activist Greta Thunberg with a tweet about his cars that ended "Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions", only for the 19-year-old to reply: "Yes, please do enlighten me. Email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com."

Just one day after being comprehensively owned by a teenager, Tate was detained in Romania as part of a human trafficking and rape investigation.

In a since-deleted tweet, right-wing pundit Julia Hartley Brewer quoted Thunberg's reply to Tate and said: "I'd choose Andrew Tate's life *every single time* over the life of a half-educated, autistic, doom-mongering eco-cultist. And the only car I own is a diesel Tiguan."

That neither Hartley-Brewer or Tate have found their way into our rundown of the year's most spectacular celebrity downfalls is testament to the sheer stupidity, cynicism and arrogance of the 10 figures below (and also testament to the list having been submitted in mid-December...). 

If you've finally finished your Christmas leftovers and are now hungry for some schadenfreude, here are 10 high-profile figures who won't look back fondly on 2022.

PETER HEBBLETHWAITE

You know you’ve had an interesting year when you google ‘most hated man in Britain’ and your name comes up. That’s how Labour MSP Monica Lennon described Peter Hebblethwaite in March, after the P&O Ferries boss sacked nearly 800 staff by video message and replaced them with cheaper agency workers.

Fortunately for Hebblethwaite, ‘most hated man in Britain’ isn’t the only way he’s described online. You can also find him by googling ‘UK most hated CEO’. 

MATT HANCOCK

Prior to this year, ‘cow’s anus’ and ‘camel penis’ were just popular nicknames for Matt Hancock. In 2022, they became his dinner.

Having resigned in 2021 after an extramarital workplace winch breached social distancing guidelines created by whoever was Health Secretary at the time, he attempted to rehabilitate his reputation by entering the ‘I’m a Celebrity…’ jungle. Fellow contestant Boy George described Hancock as “slimy and slippery”, but not everyone was so complimentary.

BORIS JOHNSON

If you’re a fan of watching incompetent blondes escorted from Downing Street, 2022 was the year you were waiting for. Boris Johnson’s downfall was as embarrassing as it was overdue, and yet such was the scale of his successor’s failure that he was soon talking up the prospect of a return.

His failure to corral enough support from MPs for a run in October’s leadership election was the icing on a particularly moreish cake.

JAMES CORDEN

For years, James Corden has inspired contempt, but until 2022 it was hard to give a substantial reason beyond ‘just seems very annoying’.

This year he gave us all something meatier to chew on, with high-profile New York restaurateur Keith McNally calling him “the most abusive customer to my servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago” and “a tiny cretin of a man”. Bit harsh - the man’s almost 5’ 8”. 

READ MORE: How 'tiny cretin' James Corden left bad taste in restaurateur's mouth

DAVID BECKHAM

Barely scraping by on a reported net worth of just £369 million, Beckham found much-needed work as an ambassador for the Qatar World Cup.

Comedian Joe Lcyett denounced Beckham’s promotional work for a country in which LGBTQ+ people are not tolerated, and pretended to shred £10,000 after the former England captain ignored his challenge to give up the role.

Much like his country after the quarter-finals, Beckham’s reputation as an LGBTQ+ ally was finished.

READ MORE: Qatar ambassador David Beckham proves he's bought and paid for

LIZ TRUSS

While this paragraph might initially seem like it’s going nowhere, it will soon make sense. This instalment in a series dedicated to public figures who failed in 2022 runs to 45 words. That’s one word for each day Prime Minister Liz Truss was in office. 

ELON MUSK

What’s the most cringeworthy attempt you’ve made to make friends? Laughed a bit too loud in the pub? Faked your way through a conversation about a film you’ve not seen? In 2022, Elon Musk spent $44 billion acquiring a social media platform, and only succeeded in making more people laugh at him.

Since Musk’s takeover, Twitter has shed half its workforce and welcomed extremists back to the site, with hate speech spiking and users leaving in their droves. He did at least back up his ‘free speech champion’ claims by…suspending people who criticise him.

READ MORE: Twitter boss Elon Musk proves he can definitely take a joke

MICHELLE MONE

The Herald: 'After a harrowing 12 months, Michelle Mone's downfall gave us reason to smile''After a harrowing 12 months, Michelle Mone's downfall gave us reason to smile' (Image: PA Images)

Between the cost-of-living crisis, spiralling NHS waiting times and numerous strikes, it has in many respects been a grim year for Britain. When the history books recall 2022, however, it will be fondly remembered as the year of Michelle Mone’s downfall.

The businesswoman and Tory peer took a leave of absence from the House of Lords in December after it was reported that she and her children had secretly received £29m which originated from the profits of a PPE business that had been awarded large government contracts after she had recommended it to ministers.

After a harrowing 12 months, a weary nation finally had reason to smile.

CRISTIANO RONALDO

Ronaldo has built his reputation on defying the odds. In 2022, critics suggested the 37-year-old was incapable of positively influencing Manchester United’s results. By dropping him to the bench, however, United became a far better side. Take that, cynics. 

After flopping at the World Cup with Portugal, Ronaldo's only remaining fans were Piers Morgan, some 17-year-olds on Twitter and Ronaldo.

SUELLA BRAVERMAN

In a banner year for incompetent Tories, Braverman stood out from the pack. When she wasn’t breaching ministerial rules by sending an official document from her personal email to another MP, the Home Secretary was blaming protests on “the Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati”.

READ MORE: Liz Truss mocked in response to Suella Braverman tofu rant

Having resigned from the role on October 19 and been reappointed on October 25, hers was a year so surreal it must have felt like a dream. Although, as per an interview in October, her dream is actually “to be having a front page of the Telegraph with a plane taking off to Rwanda”. 

DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS: Salt Bae, Jeremy Clarkson, LadBaby, Richard Madeley, Piers Morgan, Will Smith, Kanye West.