40 Priceless Photos That Perfectly Sum Up 2020

When is a year like a cookie? When it promises so much and fails to deliver! Instead of a chocolate chip-filled wonder, you get this: a barren oatmeal wasteland devoid of sugary goodness. The original poster on Twitter described it as “the saddest chocolate chip cookie ever.” But that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

This meme comes to you courtesy of The Powerpuff Girls, and it’s oddly suited to the style. Take a dash of the Spanish flu, add a little of the civil rights movement and leave to simmer in the Great Depression. Then you’ll have created your own 2020!

No matter what goes wrong, you can always depend on your trusty umbrella to shelter you from the rain. And then you realize what year it is. This photo’s original poster had a similar experience. They wrote on Reddit, “‘It might rain today, I think I’ll take my umbrella out...’ that went well!”

Imagine being this Reddit user and getting a beautiful chocolate cake topped with those fancy icing flowers. You look forward to it the whole day and when you finally open the box, this is staring back at you. If that’s not 2020 in a nutshell, we don’t know what is. Looks like you really can’t have your cake and eat it, too!

Remember the heady times of late 2019 when you had a great Christmas and were ready for the new year? Looking back, you felt untouchable. And then 2020 unexpectedly happened and hit us all right in the eyes! It’s a new year again now, though. Time we got some better armor.

You could see 2020 as being a complete tire fire, or you could see it from a different angle. Take this photo, for example. The poster of this picture posted on Reddit, “Got a sandwich stuck in [the] vending machine. Bought a drink to push the sandwich. Damn.” But maybe it’s just storing the good stuff up for later. Or, as one commenter added, “The jackpot is growing!”

We really feel for the poor Twitter user who posted this soul-destroying photo. They wrote, “This is the worst day of my life. All these Oreos have no frosting in them, I’m crying! What is this?” When you think about it, the year 2020 was like an Oreo sans frosting.

Besides the obvious pandemic, 2020 was also known as the year of Zoom fails. For example, Twitter’s Rachele Clegg explained how her “boss turned herself into a potato” via a fun filter. The social media user explained, “... She was just stuck like this the entire meeting.” No doubt she eventually got to the root of the problem.

In 2020 Texas attorney Rod Ponton attended a Zoom court meeting with a cute kitty filter on. Naturally, he adamantly insisted he was “not a cat.” It was hilarious, and a cat attorney still isn’t the most unbelievable thing to have happened that year.

If spilling salt is supposedly bad luck, then we have a few questions. For instance, how does that apply to pepper? And how much misfortune would a spillage like the one this Reddit user experienced carry? It’s okay though, this happened in November 2020, so the bad luck well was beginning to run dry. It must have ruined breakfast, though.

The best part of a watermelon is the lovely juicy red center. And the effort’s all worthwhile once you get through the bitter flesh and remove the seeds. That is, unless you bought a melon in 2020 like this Twitter user did. It’s the perfect representation of the year’s disappointing contents.

This Reddit user uploaded a picture that they claimed “speaks for itself.” The cursed year took a lot away – including toilet paper and freedom. In this instance, it also denied someone their smart phone. Let’s hope they had accident insurance! Yikes.

Clean up in aisle five! If you think your quarantine year was bad, spare a thought for all the retail workers out there. More specifically, let’s take a moment to remember the ones who had to clean up this massive olive oil spill. But don’t worry, one Reddit user had the perfect solution to this problem. They wrote, “Throw the whole store away.”

You know that feeling you get when you think you have a really great idea that doesn’t work out? And if you’re thinking what it would look like as a visual, then wonder no more. Here it is! It seemed like things were going so well when he first started, too.

Those of you who have left anything too close to the oven will feel this pain. Melted stuff doesn’t just smell awful. It makes a hell of a mess, and it’s a pain to clean up, too. If a year was an oven, 2020 would be this one and the message is what planet Earth would leave for us.

The pandemic introduced us to a new way of life via regular hand sanitizer use. And if one image represents how integrated into society it’s become, this is the photo. According to the Twitter user who posted it, someone thoughtfully provided demonstrators in 2020 with bottles of hand sanitizer duct taped to streetlights. What a bright idea!

The year 2020 was chaotic – whether you were scrabbling for your mask or hunting for the last roll of toilet paper. That’s why it’s super surprising someone managed to create a graph to sum it up. What’s more, there’s actually some straight lines in there somewhere. We dare say the graph plotter was a lot more organized than most of us.

It’s fair to say that the pandemic wasn’t the only weird thing that happened in 2020. There were some pretty strange tweets regarding then-current events, too. For example, that year President Donald Trump suggested that drinking bleach would keep you healthy. Because... reasons.

This Reddit user’s 2020 apparently started with a bang. They posted a picture titled, “Feeling like Kevin from The Office right now.” The individual stepped on their cat while carrying a bowl of chili – redecorating their carpet in the process.

Remember when 2020 was young and you had all those glorious plans for the year? Well, who would have thought those 365 days could be represented in pancake form! The original poster explained on Reddit, “Thought I’d make some pancakes tonight.” Alas, this is what happened when they flipped their cuisine.

One of the highlights for some of us in 2020 was seeing our furry friends. And when Christopher Ruz’s pet cat Muffin leapt into his lap it interrupted an important business call he was on. They just wanted to see the little critter! He wrote on Twitter, “Everyone needs cats in these trying times.”

During quarantine, Zoom meetings quickly became essential for many businesses. But even if you’re in the privacy of your own home, it doesn’t mean you’re necessarily alone! That’s easy to forget, as one man found out when he streaked during his better half’s online meeting. You aren’t alone buddy; accidental flashing is endemic in the pandemic.

An interesting side-effect of Zoom is how it allows colleagues or even strangers to see inside your house. So take BBC reporter Gareth Barlow’s advice and make sure your wall art is family friendly. He tweeted in 2020, “I’m a little mad you can’t tell quite how gold and glittery it is. Skype doesn’t do it full justice.”

When 2020 rolled around it scuppered many a holiday plan. Flights were missed, vacations were lost and memes were created. This one comparing the Sydney Opera House to a pile of dishes is among the most apt. Instead of seeing world landmarks, people were elbow-deep in the washing up. Thanks, 2020.

Some of 2020’s digital interviews were more revealing than others for all the wrong reasons. Take reporter Will Reeves, for instance, who spoke to Good Morning America about drones delivering prescription meds. Well, his topic was slightly undercut by his lack of pants – though Reeves himself is adamant he was wearing shorts!

How many reminders of 2020 can you get in one picture? Well, apparently a lot if this tweet by is anything to go by! The poster captured a passenger on a plane who succinctly sums up the dreaded year. And we could be wrong, but we don’t think he’s wearing that mask properly…

We all dealt with lockdown in our own way, of course. Some of us binged on TV shows, while others took up drinking. Looks like the person in this meme titled, “Stocking up for a week in quarantine” is ready for both. It’s great practice for becoming a Tetris grandmaster, too.

Did you know gardening became a big thing in 2020? The yard was the closest some people got to the outside world. This Twitter user’s thoughts hit the nail on the head with his offhand tweet about seeing a Four Seasons van. He wrote, “This is like seeing a celebrity in real life.” Everyone line up in a socially distanced fashion for an autograph!

Can we interest any of you in a nice cup of 2020? It has pandemics, lockdowns, murder hornets, UFOs, controversial world leaders, wildfires and riots. That’s it: don’t ask what flavor it is. Just pick up the pointy cup and take a long gulp.

As if history wasn’t hard enough for kids. You have all those kings, queens and founding fathers to learn about. Then along came 2020 and essentially said, “Hold my beer.” This meme nicely illustrates the concept of future generations trying to learn about the year. Maybe you should just skip ahead to 2021.

The year 2020 was when of those times when it felt like you were buried up to your neck in sand. And just when you got used to the pressure, the seagulls came. Don’t worry though ‒ you just had to wait for the encroaching tide to clean it all away. Oh wait, that’s not good...

Could things have got any worse in 2020? Oh yes: well, according to Nate Inc.’s comic here anyway. Several outside forces were just lining up to take a shot at our planet that year. Mind you, we don’t think space invaders would stand a chance on coronavirus Earth.

If you’ve ever wanted more comedy in your religion, check out parish priest Paolo Longo. During a digital blunder he turned on some fun filters for a sermon. He then proceeded to address his audience in humorous hats and a shower of confetti! Longo didn’t mind, though. According to Entertainment Tonight, he commented later, “Even a laugh is good.”

Maybe you’ve heard of a show called The Office? Yeah, that’s the one, it spawned a zillion memes over the course of its eight-year run. Well, that means there’s at least one for every occasion – including the fiasco that was 2020. We’ll let Steve Carrel’s character Michael Scott take it away in his own words.

Just like 2020, this flat screen TV fell flat on its face. Maybe just leave it there until the year’s over. Sure, we could point out that whoever installed the TV should have probably used more support. But to be fair, we could have all done with some in 2020.

We’re pretty sure the “if 2020 was a slide” meme is a work of fiction. But it’s hard to be sure. Perhaps the imaginary inventor of this monstrosity designed it just to keep us on our toes. You know, just in case things weren’t chafing enough.

They say everything happens for a reason, but 2020 sure tested everyone’s patience in that regard. Nothing says it better than this meme posted on Twitter, which literally put the writing on the wall. It asks the question that was on all our lips.

They say don’t work with children or animals. But that theory goes right out the window when your house is also an office. That’s what this Twitter user discovered when the “new co-worker” at home video-called his boss. But the girl is so adorable, maybe she could negotiate him a raise?

If you’re wondering what could possibly go wrong with a pizza, just take a look at this. Forget the wonderful scattered pieces of pepperoni across an 8-inch delectable disk. All you get is a single slice of meat surrounded by cheese and a crusty base. Does this sound like a certain year to you?

You have to admit, 2020’s events read like an exaggerated sci-fi series or a bad movie plot. Well, why not throw in an underwater ghost village just for good measure? Not today, ghost village, we have enough curses, thank you. Put that thing back where it came from or so help me!