The 2020 Memeys

The 2020 Memey Awars
The 2019 Memey Awars

Welcome to the 2020 Memeys! This year was filled with almost nonstop craziness, which of course bled over into memes. You know you have a crazy year when a presidential impeachment doesn’t even seem like a major story at the end of the year. So, while it’s an almost impossible task to pick the best and worst memes when there were major events and freakouts almost every week, here we go.

Winners will be posted after announced on social media (FB, Twitter and Locals).

Lamest Meme

This category was easily crushed by Dan Rather this year. From a tweet a couple months ago, this was serious, and was initially pushed by large meme pages as a clever new slogan, but it was so lame that it never really caught on, thankfully.

Dumbest Pre-Covid Controversy

Before Covid hit, we lived in a much different world. Well, not really, it was still a world where the media was desperate for every opportunity to dunk on Trump. Thus, in late January, many couldn’t resist pointing out that the new Space Force logo ripped off Star Trek’s Starfleet Command logo.

Except, it didn’t. It simply updated the existing Air Force Space Command’s logo, which had been around since 1982. Oh well, it was quickly forgotten and on to the impeachment.

Worst Fact Check

In March, PolitiFact fact checked the claim that drinking fish-tank cleaner won’t prevent COVID-19. A claim that virtually no one made. The only example they could find was an obscure local news headline from North Dakota, which didn’t clarify the rather obvious fact that while chloroquine is an ingredient in fish tank cleaner, that doesn’t mean you should ingest it. But no one was seriously suggesting substituting fish tank cleaner with prescription drugs.

The cautionary tale of the man who died ingesting the fish tank cleaner was a…very fishy story. While police ultimately ruled the death an accident, friends reported the man as level headed and not prone to impulsivity, being a retired mechanical engineer with an extensive science background.

His wife, meanwhile, was described as “not well” by friends, and the marriage rocky and one-sided. She reportedly berated him in public constantly, destroyed his model airplane collection when he returned late for a meal, and was arrested for domestic assault when she swung a mounted birdhouse at him. The charges were later dropped when the husband testified on her behalf.

The wife had other red flags, like being on long-term disability from debilitating mental and physical health problems she claimed came from gender and age discrimination at her job at John Deere (she was in her 40s at the time). This followed another lawsuit against Cedar Valley Medical Clinic, when she was younger and claimed discrimination then for being a young girl. Her psychologist in the Deere trial claimed she had PTSD and was often angry and full of adrenaline.

This is the context to which the man, who was given the fish tank cleaner by his wife which contained 20X the treatment dose of chloroquine, should be viewed. At best, a questionable tragedy, and one that conveniently blamed Trump as the culprit for touting chloroquine. Which, of course, was the real reason for the fact check, like so many others.

Best Quarantine Meme

Quarantines defined 2020. Never before had so much of the world been shut down. They were soul crushing, economically devastating and infuriating, while also being largely ineffective. To make it worse, you were bombarded by a continuous barrage of “stay home stay safe” and “14 days to flatten the curve” messages on your timeline.

But in the midst of the madness there were a few good memes, which got us through and deserve to be honored. The classic “cash me ousside howbow dah” meme found a whole new meaning this year.

Best Pre-Covid Meme

Let’s face it, anything before March was basically a different year, and the most meme-able moment in the first 2 months was Nancy Pelosi ripping up Trump’s SOTU speech. Teamed up with Eric Swalwell’s Fart-gate (a late 2019 meme) this was a powerhouse. But quickly overshadowed.

Stupidest Controversy

The Trump bleach injection memes dominated late April. And, like many other Trump controversies, created their own reality. Few bothered to actually read or listen to the full context, so the memes literally invented a controversy. Here was Trump’s actual comments:

“So I asked Bill a question some of you are thinking of if you’re into that world, which I find to be pretty interesting. So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether its ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said, that hasn’t been checked but you’re gonna test it. And then I said, supposing it brought the light inside the body, which you can either do either through the skin or some other way, and I think you said you’re gonna test that too, sounds interesting. 

“And I then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute, and is there a way you can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it’d be interesting to check that. So you’re going to have to use medical doctors, but it sounds interesting to me, so we’ll see. But the whole concept of the light, the way it goes in one minute, that’s pretty powerful.”

Kind of silly and stupid, perhaps. But nowhere does he suggest injecting bleach or cleaners into people, it’s likely the disinfectant he was referring to was the UV light, which he wanted studied by scientists. Trump didn’t help matters by pretending he was joking afterwards (he was seriously curious) but the resulting controversy was still completely ridiculous.

The press then jumped to push this narrative, with the NY Daily News quickly running a story about how 30 New Yorkers ingested household cleaners in the 18 hours after Trump’s comments. While ignoring that calls to poison control had already spiked in the spring according to the CDC. Almost certainly because everyone was buying and using more household cleaners because of Covid! Which naturally caused more calls to poison control for accidental (not purposeful) ingestion.

Best Reoccurring Meme

The cultural phenomenon from Ghana, where families pay often large sums to dancing pallbearers to perform extravagant funerals, was appropriated by the meme world in 2020.

Largely driven by TikTok (another prominent feature of 2020) the video of these men was paired with a techno song to give hilarity to all sorts of fail videos. It also fit perfectly with the morbidity of coronavirus memes.

The meme reached mainstream prominence when the Trump campaign spliced the video with Biden’s “you ain’t black” gaffe and his campaign logo on the coffin. The media was appalled, but it was an admittedly great use of the meme. Since then it’s largely vanished, and while Biden lost some black support, his campaign was far from dead.

Best Social Distancing Meme

Social distancing was probably the most iconic phrase of 2020, and this meme made it necessary to create this category!

That Didn’t Age Well Meme

In a pandemic with a new virus, the “science” will likely rapidly change as new information is gathered. Thus, it’s entirely reasonable from a scientific point of view to change opinions and recommendations when new data is available.

Which is why scientists and medical leaders should always couch their statements, particularly when there’s a lot of unknowns, as best guesses and recommendations based on the available science. NOT as authoritative decrees. 

To be fair, lots of doctors did do this, but plenty didn’t, and were outspoken in their certainty about masks, infection projections, etc. Which unfortunately squandered their trust with much of the public, and was never regained.

An interesting side note is that early on in the pandemic, many on the fringe right/libertarian side were very pro mask, and the establishment left was the one railing against them for public use. This completely flipped within a month, and demonstrated the tribal nature that dominated 2020.

Most Hypocritical Meme

Occupy Democrats couldn’t resist sharing this meme from their sister account Ridin’ With Biden. Which is fine, all is fair in love and meme wars. But just weeks later, they blamed the shutdowns on their opponents. Even though many in the Biden celebrations weren’t wearing masks, drinking, hugging and all other types of unapproved pandemic behavior.

Unfortunately, this hypocrisy was common in 2020. Blame the ignorant rubes for the pandemic spread, while attending and cheering protests, traveling and dining at swanky dinner parties. And the people truly responsible for the shutdowns were the politicians who shut things down.

The Left CAN Meme

The left gets lots of grief for not being able to meme, but this being a day of benevolence, let’s recognize they can occasionally meme. These memes about Biden’s tax plan were simple, abundant with countless variations, and effective.

Best “Fact Check” Meme

2020 saw social media companies begin to fact check posts and memes on a large scale. Of course, this meant many supposed fact checks were clumsy, questionable or simply unnecessary. For instance, I had two posts flagged for false information because FB didn’t recognize that I was trying to debunk the meme I was sharing (with FALSE plastered on top, no less)!

These “fact checks” predictably backfired. They didn’t slowdown misinformation, they mostly just annoyed people. And they tended to go in one direction, there are plenty of false and misleading posts from TO98% and OD that haven’t been touched by FB.

They’ve gotten so absurd that Trump has probably hundreds of fact check notifications alone by Twitter in the last couple months. We get it, “this claim about election fraud is disputed.”

Most Annoying Meme

There was incessant gaslighting over the summer about Antifa. It was simultaneously not a real organization and just an “idea,” while at the same time a brave movement fighting fascism. Even as Antifa groups occupied, burned and destroyed sections of American cities, memes continued to claim they were akin to American soldiers in WWII.

Even though Antifa would now consider the average WWII vet a racist perpetrator of toxic masculinity and Western hegemony. They also seemed to ignore that Stalin was anti-fascist.

Most Hysterical Meme

In August, Post Office panic memes were everywhere for weeks. It became a full blown conspiracy theory in the true sense of the term, and was supposed to result in massive election interference.

The reality was mail volumes had declined for decades, almost 50% since the peak in 2001. Prior to Covid, the USPS was already planning on a “5 year plan” to revamp and restructure their system. Most of the locked mailbox pictures were anti-theft measures to prevent “fishing” (aka mail theft) after hours, and had been around for years.

There was never any evidence of a conspiracy, and the fears never panned out.

Dumbest Mask Meme

This meme appeared early in the pandemic, as many establishments started requiring masks. It had a veneer of being official, but obviously the Freedom to Breathe Agency isn’t an authoritative organization. And all of the arguments were BS, as I covered in an earlier post.

The fact was, like it or not, stores could require you to wear a mask, and presenting this card or using its arguments would not exempt you. Nor would the ADA or Patriot Act, which are laws that limit, not expand rights. This represented the denial stage of the pandemic for many. Soon after, it was quickly rendered moot as most state governments just imposed mask mandates on businesses.

This meme was a distraction from actual rights, and the battle which should have been fought. There’s no right to walk into a store without respecting their rules regarding masks. But there is a right to keep your business open, or to patronize those of your choosing.

Best Mask Meme

Almost every current event can be related to a Seinfeld episode, few better than this.

Worst Covid Meme

Of all the terrible decisions made in the pandemic, the failure to open schools ranks at the top. The fear mongering over it was never based on the science. Neither the WHO or the CDC recommended closing schools. They noted the risk to children was small, and particularly smaller children don’t appear to be spreaders of Covid.

Repeated studies showed that opening schools wasn’t associated with increased spread of Covid. Most child infections occurred at home, not at school, and most school outbreaks were introduced by adult staff, not children.

This doesn’t even factor in the harm to children in closing schools, which is legion. Yet, 2020 saw a large portion of society willing to sacrifice the well being of children in order to save the elderly, while simultaneously failing to do that. And worse, it was done with righteousness.

Best Covid Meme

Considering it was the biggest event and influence on 2020, this was a highly competitive category, but this Office meme was perfect.

Best Pence Meme

Besides a brief stint of notoriety as the head of the mostly failed White House coronavirus taskforce, Pence was seldom talked or memed about in 2020. Until the VP debate, which launched one of the most meme-able moments of the year, when a fly landed on his head.

Pence had a decent debate performance, but no one remembered that, only the fly.

The fly quickly reached absurdity, with media outlets like the Washington Post and Slate writing actual essays from the perspective of the fly. The Lincoln Project’s Steve Schmidt called it a sign of the devil on an MSNBC appearance, harkening back to when Alex Jones made the same comparison with Obama and Hillary.

Many of the fly memes were terrible, a sign of the vindictiveness and humorlessness the left had reached under Trump. They ranged from making low IQ quips about flies landing on shit, to nonsensical jokes saying Pence must let the fly’s eggs come to term. This was one of the few good ones.

Best Harris Meme

It remains to be seen if this happens!

Best Trump Meme

This meme captured the essence of Trump’s action on the coronavirus. Aloof and indifferent, wishing the problem would just go away. One could argue that the virus would have spread just as much with another president, or that at least Trump didn’t impose severe national restrictions. But it’s hard to argue that he was a competent leader on the biggest issue in 2020.

His most touted achievement was banning travel from China, but dozens of other countries took similar measures before or around the same time, it was hardly unique. The only hope was to test, trace and isolate early on in the pandemic, which the US (and most other Western countries) failed at. After that, no amount of masks or lockdowns would stop the spread.

Tests were designed in Jan and available by Feb, but the US initially refused to use and distribute the WHO approved kits, instead relying on flawed tests from the CDC. Trump’s other touted achievement of the vaccine was also not his. Moderna had developed their vaccine on Jan 13, just 2 days after the genetic sequence had been revealed, before China had even acknowledged human to human transmission. By the time of the first US death it was manufactured and ready for phase I trials. All Trump needed to do was get government out of the way, which he only partly did. His only win in it was the clueless media types who ridiculed his vaccine projections.

Trump could have been laissez-faire in a good way, concentrating on protecting liberties and blasting lockdowns on principle, but he often waffled, embracing certain restrictions while vaguely wanting things to open up. Above all, he seemed uninterested in tackling the problem seriously and preferred concentrating on other matters, continually projecting a confidence and optimism not warranted by reality, and not shared by most of the public.

Best Biden Meme

Biden botching the Declaration of Independence was perhaps his funniest gaffe of the year, and this meme capitalized on it brilliantly. One good thing about a Biden presidency will be non-stop gaffes and hopefully great memes, we shall see.

Dumbest Meme

This category was nearly impossible to whittle down this year, given all the idiocy. But this meme arguing looting was humanity demanding to be recognized reached a painful level of stupidity.

Funnniest Meme

In a year with a continuous barrage of depressing, annoying and hysterical memes, funny memes were much needed. Thankfully, there were many, but it’s hard to beat this one.

Worst Meme

To earn this award in 2020, the meme had to be especially bad. Like so bad it caused deaths and destruction of a city. Which the Jacob Blake memes unfortunately did.

When police shot Blake in late August, memes immediately went wild with accounts of a black man trying to stop a fight, being shot in the back as he was walking back to his car with his children inside. This initiated a narrative that was false, but that caused mass outrage.

It turned out that police were dispatched to the scene because Blake was at the home of a woman he had an outstanding warrant for sexual assault. He wouldn’t leave, and reportedly had her keys and wouldn’t give them back. This echoed the scene 3 months prior, when he was arrested for felony sexual assault and reportedly took the same woman’s car and debit card. Police were made aware of the outstanding warrant prior to arrival.

Before the shooting, Blake wrestled with two officers, putting one in a headlock and fought off 2 tasers. A knife was found on the car floorboard where Blake was ultimately shot. According to the police attorney, officers heard a woman say, “he’s got my kid. He’s got my keys.” Potentially making them think he was trying to flee with the kids.

All the facts are still unknown as the case is being investigated, but that’s the point. No one seemed to care about the facts, they jumped on the first narrative. The reaction was fierce, and ranged from the inconsequential, like the NBA cancelling games. To the awful, like Biden and Harris meeting with his family. To the horrific; violent riots and destruction of Kenosha.

The aftermath of the destruction included the Kyle Rittenhouse debacle, which unleashed terrible memes of its own that jumped the gun and didn’t wait for facts. But that confrontation would never have materialized if not for the initial rush to judgement . Something which characterized this whole year.

Best Meme

Best meme should be simple, memorable and effective, while capturing a major theme of the year. It’s hard to capture 2020 better than this!

1 Comment on "The 2020 Memeys"

  1. David Conklin | December 20, 2020 at 4:11 pm |

    And a better meme to push masking would be …

    That’s what I thought.

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