The Conversation (0)
Greg Evans
Dec 24, 2019
Let's be honest, 2019 wasn't exactly the end to the decade that many of us wanted.
British politics somehow managed to get worse, the planet was plunged further and further into a climate crisis (which made people irrationally hate a 16-year-old girl), Trump is still president and we still haven't eradicated inequality.
Was there anything worth cheering about? Well, maybe there was.
While the real world descended into some sort of hellscape, the good folks on the internet managed to find no end of fun and hilarity with an almost never-ending stream of memes and jokes
Taking inspiration from practically anywhere, memes were all over Twitter this year and without any more hesitation here are some of our favourites from the past 12 months.
Ivanka Trump tries to talk to world leaders
In May, Ivanka Trump attended the G20 summit in Japan. While there she tried to talk to some world leaders. It didn't go well and soon became a meme with her randomly placed into significant moments in history.
Kombucha Girl
Before Brittany Tomlinson tried the current hipster drink of choice, Kombucha, she was just another person on TikTok. Then she tried the famed drink and meme history was made.
John Bercow
Although John Bercow is no longer the Speaker of the House in Westminster his random bellows of "ORDER!!!" and his unusual pronunciations of MPs names will live on in memes form forever.
The Fyre festival guy
Anyone who watched Netflix's Fyre festival documentary at the start of the year will be more than familiar with Andy King, aka the man who was asked to perform oral sex in return for a favour from a customs officer. His remarkable story became one of the funniest memes of the year and is long overdue a return.
The Joker
Joaquin Phoenix's Joker was one of the biggest and most divisive films of the year, but one thing that everyone agreed on was the memes, especially the one of the villain sitting in the back of a police car.
Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds
After stories emerged that police had been called to the house of Johnson and Symonds after neighbours heard an argument, a photo was released of the pair sitting happily hand-in-hand in a picturesque garden. People couldn't resist having fun with it.
Sharpiegate
Back in September, Donald Trump got into a massive row after he claimed that Hurricane Dorian was going to hit the state of Alabama. It didn't, but that didn't stop him altering a map with a sharpie pen to show what he had said was going to happen. In turn, people created their reinterpretations of history using sharpies. The results were spectacular.
Paul Rudd
Everyone's favourite never-ageing Avengers cast member had quite a year. Firstly, people couldn't believe that he was 50 years old (actually older than Jacob Rees-Mogg). But he also became a meme thanks to a random bit of dialogue on his appearance on Hot Ones.
'OK Boomer'
2019 was the year that young people had finally had enough of the older generation thinking that they know better than everyone else. This resulted in youngsters using the words 'OK boomer' every time they saw an older person on social media saying something that they disagreed with. It kinda got out of hand.
Lisa Nandy loves towns
This one is very specific to the UK but if you are aware of Labour backbencher Lisa Nandy, you will know that she is very passionate about British towns and people cannot get enough of it.
Sonic the Hedgehog
If in 1999 you would have told someone that in 20 years' time that CGI in major movies would still be so bad that people would be ruthlessly mocking it on the internet, they probably wouldn't have believed you. Step forward the forthcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie, which looked so bad that the studio had to redesign the character completely.
Cats
Sonic wasn't the only one struggling with bad CGI. Tom Hopper's much-maligned Cats featured such bad CGI that it actually defied the laws of biology.
'30-50 feral hogs'
In August, everyone was very happy to have a joke at the expense of one man in America who claimed that his yard was going to be overrun by '30-50 feral hogs.' It soon turned out that the joke was on us when stories of feral hogs actually made their way into the news.
Marianne Williamson
The Democratic debates haven't been as exciting as we would have hoped but at least Marianne Williamson was there to provide us with some levity as she rambled on about love and magic or whatever she could literally conjure up to defeat Trump in 2020.
Baby Yoda
Even if you haven't been watching the Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian it has been impossible to escape Baby Yoda memes, as images and jokes using the cute little alien have been all over Twitter for weeks now and to be honest, we're not even bored.
Marriage Story
Much like Joker, Marriage Story was the movie that not everyone could agree on this year but thanks to one scene involving a tense and emotional argument between Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, we had a fun meme which everyone could revel in.
Coleen Rooney vs. Rebekah Vardy​
Undoubtedly the news story of the year was the epic feud between footballers wives Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy and the allegations surrounding stories that had been sold to tabloids about Rooney. Her incredible investigation into what was happening led to a mind-blowing tweet that was so good that it became a meme that even Jeremy Corbyn tried to use to get himself elected as prime minister.
'A little bit of the bubbly'
When wrestler Chris Jericho was celebrating a big win for the AEW Championship he spied a bottle of champagne and uttered the immortal words of 'Ooooh...a little bit of the bubbly.' This happened in September and has been on Twitter ever since.
Jacob Rees-Mogg
When Tory MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg decided to have a little lie down in the House of Commons during a debate about Brexit he probably thought he was being really clever and no one would notice but people did notice and they turned it into a meme.
Nancy Pelosi clapping
To end the year on a high, this is what Donald Trump had to look at after Nancy Pelosi applauded his State of the Union address in February. Truly iconic.
HT BuzzFeed
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