We had a doozy year. Almost everyone had experienced more twists and turns than anyone should have expected when toasting on New Year’s Eve at midnight. We were challenged to eliminate social interaction and remain confined to our homes while taking new precautions to stop coronavirus spreading. Hence, we turn to memes to cheer ourselves up.
Although COVID-19 is in the minds of many, there are also essential explanations why 2020 has been completely crazy. Some called March 2020 the strangest month of the twenty-first century so far. After everything that has gone on, it’s not an argument you would want to debate over.
Below are some of the best memes about the most challenging, concerning, and downright odd year.
My plans vs. 2020
Let’s continue with the meme that really says this everything beyond this chaotic year. My plans: The picture is good / positive / hopeful 2020 until the year becomes bad / dumb / world-is-a-dumpster-fire.
Then on a related topic, there’s this picture of just how the year went, month by month.
Zoom meetings
Operating from home became the latest trend for many due to social distancing directives. Zoom sessions replaced IRL check-ins. Originally a procedure reserved for check-ins with remote loved ones, video calls quickly became de rigueur for anything from a job-status to a happy hour after job. There have been limitations and challenges, as one might suspect.
Surprisingly, certain unintended advantages and could even turn into a meme. These include changing the backdrop of a video call or pose as a potato during a meeting. You can also hide under the bed throughout an early morning conversation. It rendered Zoom a modern distraction to a period of confusion.
These and more reasons have been the basis for endless videos regarding the latest way of communicating in 2020.
Karen
Over several years, the word “Karen” has been bandied around as the punchline to stories regarding the wealth to a few age-old suburban white people. Still, it is certainly no joking matter. This year it was Twitter slang for the oppressive sexism and overt entitlement violence displayed by white people. The meme gained momentum from individual white women who ignored COVID-19 stay-at-home instructions with viral incidents.
The most blatant case of that in 2020 was that of Amy Cooper, a white woman who alerted the police on a bird-watching Black guy in Central Park. This case was a significant explanation of why Karen went viral this year, taking a global discussion on privilege.
The case sparked national outrage, culminating in Cooper finally losing her job. Her employer issued a statement about the accident. They said they “do not tolerate racism of any kind.”
Trump: Person, woman, man, camera, TV
Converting Donald Trump‘s moldering tweets and brain bursts into meme-able moments seems like a very 2017 thing to do. This is the sort of comfort we might tend to think about while just waiting for three or four world problems to unlock. Still, the explanation of why his ideas are fantastic enough came pre-prepared with a little bit of organic butter on top ready to put right into the oven.
Trump appeared to indicate that his success in this specific exam is conclusive and compelling evidence that he’s some sort of outstanding genius. However, some have pointed out the examination he’s thinking about: the Quebec Cognitive Test. The exam is actually just demonstrating that you have symptoms of depression, Alzheimer’s, or other degenerative disorders.
The part isn’t the memorizing part. (It’s not much of a joke, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and the associated degenerative disorders it diagnoses.) It’s where he went “person, woman, man, camera, TV,” repeatedly. Clearly, it is an American phenomenon. Still, the meme bleached itself over the coasts.
Leave a Reply