Let’s face it, memes were our medicine this year. We had other medicine too, but memes really hit the spot in these hard times. Never in meme history have we needed them so bad. And given how much downtime we had, it’s no surprise this year’s crop was so good.
We recently polled 1,000 Americans, asking them to rate their favorite memes of 2020. The results make up an official, undisputed list of the 25 top-ranked memes of the year. Enjoy.
Featuring none other than Meme Man, this debuted shortly before the pandemic started, a perfect vehicle for all our pre-pandemic fears.
Based on fight scenes from the movie Marriage Story with Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, this meme captured our wall-punching rage perfectly
Technically started in 2018, this meme didn’t really reach maturity until 2020, once it was combined with the “Ohio vs. The World” meme.
Ahh, the classically polite opener for emails to strangers and acquaintances. Problem is, no emails found us well this year, if they ever found us.
Karen memes certainly didn’t begin in 2020, but after Kidz Bop Karen poked her head into our lives in late 2019, 2020 was destined to become the Year of Karen.
D.W. is a cartoon character from the Arthur book and TV series, and this image of her trapped behind a fence was all of us this year.
After Jong Boon Ho’s Parasite won Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars in February, he did what any of us would’ve done… when we were six.
Sometimes the villain on the movie poster isn’t the most evil character in the film.
This year we did a lot of checking in on our mental health, and sometimes it helped to let people know exactly where we were at.
In early August, journalist Jonathan Swan sat down for an interview with President Trump. His facial expressions became an instant meme classic, pure reflections of “WTF?”
Definitely the most meme-worthy show of the year, this Netflix series was released exactly one week into quarantine, on March 20. The rest is history.
Michael Jordan’s reign as a meme champion continued in 2020 with the release of ESPN series The Last Dance. It’s not as legendary as Crying Jordan, but then again, what is?
This meme was the perfect vehicle for guys to express all their feels in the early pandemic.
Funny because it’s true. The natural world let out a collective sigh of relief for the first time in a century, once we all chilled out for a minute already.
This clip from a Bernie Sanders ad is so relatable. We would’ve liked to help you Bernie, but hey man, we’ve got our own causes too.
A classic visual set-up, this meme shows the many roles we play in our lives online.
This is the first of seven out of our top ten highest-ranked memes that’s a direct response to the pandemic. It perfectly encapsulates the whiplash that was 2020.
Another meme not technically born in 2020, but 2020 is the year this boy became a man.
As it turns out, Reese Witherspoon was the one to invent this meme, originally featuring… Reese Witherspoon.
Remember when we were all so dumb we needed to be taught how to wash our hands, using a child’s song? Ten-thousand washes later, we’re all grown up.
Very similar to “2020 Is Our Year” (but apparently a bit more effective), this meme perfectly skewers the hubris that defined us in, like, every single other year we can remember.
This was back when we thought being cooped up biting our nails at home for four weeks was a big deal. Still hilarious. So much snacking that month.
Baby Yoda memes emerged in late 2019 with the release of The Mandalorian, but 2020 was Baby Yoda’s year. Well, for a few months. Then, you know, everything.
No doubt one of the funniest memes of the year, this is when we found out how fragile we are.
Among the many ways we’ll remember 2020, we’ll remember watching it all go down on our screens.
