Sometimes, memes are just joke competitions about whatever just happened.

Sometimes, they're much more.

Not to discount other common coping mechanisms—wine, weed, and Animal Crossing—but memes proved indispensable for processing each horrifying new 2020 trauma.  They were outlets for people to make sense of what was happening by making fun of it, which made the whole thing a little more bearable.

Here's a look back at 23 memes that helped us deal with the current confluence of clusterfucks.

Bernie is once again asking

When perennial champion of the middle class Bernie Sanders had to ask his base to "once again" pony up for his primary bid, the internet turned his query into a meme—one that Sanders himself later repurposed to talk about mask safety.

me to ppl i've met four times pic.twitter.com/QrmyIrqXAQ

— sadgayboi (@sadgayboi) February 5, 2020

my cats moments after i've filled her food bowl pic.twitter.com/6oRYYK5Onl

— rae ????‍⬛ paoletta (@PAYOLETTER) February 3, 2020

When Columbia House sent me a bill after I got 12 CDs for a penny:

pic.twitter.com/f6Yfs9IdB1

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) February 5, 2020

Musical hand-washing

Before much of the country went into lockdown, the scientific community urged Americans to wash their hands for the length of a song chorus. Americans then had no choice but to make memes about which song it should be. As goofy as these jokes were, though, they helped start to transition everyone who made or read them into a pandemic mindset—including some bands.

https://t.co/4CU0elbU54 pic.twitter.com/4Kell6SCnM

— Sam Mintz (@samjmintz) March 9, 2020

Washing in the name of…

On this occasion it's best you do what they tell ya pic.twitter.com/unDdBh1HDh

— Rage Against The Machine ???? (@RATM) March 9, 2020

Working from home

Memes were how Americans started grappling with suddenly not having an office to go to. These memes seem kind of adorable now, though, for how little their creators knew about how long the pandemic would last.

Live footage of me, my wife and my daughter all working from home today (and for the next two weeks) pic.twitter.com/c8NuSQit3Q

— Dan Saltzstein (@dansaltzstein) March 11, 2020

working from home for 1 day because you feel like it
vs
working from home for weeks because you have to pic.twitter.com/gIpiMcPHHr

— laser (@bobby) March 10, 2020

Who's Zooming whomst?

Around this time, in early March, we also first started making jokes about Zoom, the remote meeting technology that would soon become as familiar to us all as our own faces.

The original Zoom meeting pic.twitter.com/WSCYkaTCHP

— John M. Cunningham (@jmcunning) March 28, 2020

please check your basement https://t.co/6X2rfkmv3p

— ponyo fishy in the sea (@niazahraaa) March 19, 2020

unknowingly provides shelter to two people in his basement https://t.co/ifPWHWAT02

— Hanif Abdurraqib (@NifMuhammad) April 24, 2020

The short reign of Tiger King

Early into lockdown, seemingly everyone in the world watched Netflix's Tiger King at the same time and, sure enough, found ways in which the series reflected our rapidly shifting reality.

Michael Jordan gets the opposite of a cryface

After Tiger King lost its luster, the cabin-feverish masses glommed on to the Michael Jordan documentary, The Last Dance, and found relevance buried within it.

Me looking at my electric bill after being home for 30+ days pic.twitter.com/I06ZHDt5qv

— Black Adam (@AD_Renaissance) April 27, 2020

Us: "Sports are coming back soon!"

Coronavirus: pic.twitter.com/OHFC9wvlMT

— Eli Hershkovich (@EliHershkovich) May 11, 2020

Nature is healing, we are the virus

In firing off a solid joke about the prevalence of Lime scooters in his town, Twitter user @taladorei created one of the most prevalent catchphrases of the pandemic. It quickly got absorbed into online culture and became a setup for jokes about how Earth would be better off without humans.

Wow. Cows are returning to the sea. Nature is healing. ???? We are the virus. ???? pic.twitter.com/xoZ2Rj1wHJ

— Tiago P. Zanetic (@TPZanetic) April 11, 2020

This photo of the Hudson River was taken yesterday. The earth is healing. We are the virus. pic.twitter.com/QDTizi2i6Q

— Mark Lee (@meesterleesir) April 12, 2020

Baking bad

As the pandemic stretched on, it suddenly seemed like most of the world adopted the same hobby at once, while the rest of the world adopted a side hobby of making fun of that hobby.

scientists say week two of quarantine is when you become someone who bakes their own bread or someone who posts their own nudes. there's no in between. these are the only choices

— Matt Bellassai (@MattBellassai) March 23, 2020

I don't want to bake bread I want to go outside and have sex

— mary beth (@marybethbarone) April 1, 2020

My plans vs. 2020

Gradually, people started to realize that this new arrangement wasn't going to be as temporary as it first seemed, and that whatever they had planned for the year beyond February was probably off the table.

My plans/2020 pic.twitter.com/m4njkGM1fZ

— Brian Lynch (@BrianLynch) May 18, 2020

My plans 2020 pic.twitter.com/sjAYcNbUDn

— mad men pics (@madmenpics) May 18, 2020

A reverse boycott for beans

Not that there was ever a boycott of Goya products to begin with, after the company's CEO publicly voiced support for President Trump, but there was indeed a reverse boycott once Ivanka Trump shilled for the company. Followed by many jokes about it.

Ivanka está loca: pic.twitter.com/8A01WrldBi

— St. Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) July 15, 2020

don't mind if i do! pic.twitter.com/0JL0tqGHVK

— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) July 15, 2020

Antagonist of the day

After a while, it seemed like every day would bring about a new viral star, who became briefly infamous for overreacting to inconvenience. These were people like Fajita Wife, whose husband raged against long wait times in pandemic restaurants, and people like the St. Louis Gun Couple, who bared arms against Black Lives Matter protesters passing by their house.

Whoever the antagonist of the day was quickly got memed into oblivion.

My wife, date night after 3+ months locked up on quarantine. Waiting for shredded cheese as it's the only way she can eat fajitas. We've asked 4 people, going on 18 minutes now. Just unreal at Allen, TX location. We gotta quit blaming #COVID19 for crappy service. pic.twitter.com/vGG4k7fboP

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) June 28, 2020

My wife, date night after 3+ months locked up on quarantine. Waiting for shredded cheese as it's the only way she can eat fajitas. We've asked 4 people, going on 18 minutes now. Just unreal at Allen, TX location. We gotta quit blaming #COVID19 for crappy service. pic.twitter.com/dhhSbQNKvC

— alex (@alex_abads) June 28, 2020

When the Applebee's server says there's no Michelob Ultra left pic.twitter.com/UIrkHD6pzC

— Eric Renner Brown (@ericrennerbrown) June 29, 2020

the NIMBYonese Liberation Army pic.twitter.com/0k4XnehSJ0

— the dumb cities initiative???? (@uhshanti) June 29, 2020

Mentally I'm here

An aspirational tweet from @milkygoddess sparked a meme that encompassed both whimsical wishes for travel beyond home, and weird, funny things that people couldn't stop thinking about for whatever reason, like that inexplicable baseball game in Twilight.

Mentally I'm here pic.twitter.com/1QAmMMUEWX

— maria miguel café (@vffangirl) July 24, 2020

mentally i'm here pic.twitter.com/FuzCxrop7D

— sabrina (@tyincherryknots) August 18, 2020

Everything is cake

At a time when nothing was as it should have been, it only made sense that everything would secretly be cake.

so what you're telling me is while i've been locked in my house for months everything is now a cake

— nesrin danan (@blackprints) July 12, 2020

Everything is a cake, Earth is a hyper-realistic cake pic.twitter.com/8y3wkvb3Dl

— 'åntë???? (@cornrowkin) July 13, 2020

How it started vs. how it's going

From its humble beginnings as a cute timeline for romantic relationships, this before-and-after meme gradually evolved into a vehicle for commenting on a wide variety of the year's most important issues.

Mitch McConnell promised to save coal jobs.

How it started How it's going pic.twitter.com/akMviYMZ3a

— Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) October 27, 2020

how it started how it's going pic.twitter.com/DhJXU3yy1f

— pixelatedboat aka "mr christmas" (@pixelatedboat) October 30, 2020

How it started: How it's going: pic.twitter.com/9yFXKyYNuR

— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) December 21, 2020

Electoral purgatory

In the four days between the election and its (initial!) conclusion, not one but two memes emerged about a wearying moment of electoral purgatory.

First there were the jokes about Trump's "STOP THE COUNT!" tweet.

You can't stop the count. That's what he does. pic.twitter.com/KwRVY2DBim

— StoneHeadof (@StoneHeadof) November 5, 2020

https://t.co/n7zCQnuhm7 pic.twitter.com/ZM279tAC2y

— Fascism flattened, but never the webrant????——???? (@web_rant) November 5, 2020

Then a crop of memes emerged after Joe Biden officially won in Pennsylvania, all but assuring his overall victory, an outcome that seemed only too fitting after Trump's much-maligned warning: "Bad things happen in Philadelphia."

Philadelphia: pic.twitter.com/co1F9d5Ju1

— alex (@alex_abads) November 6, 2020

I guess GOOD things happened in Philadelphia. pic.twitter.com/qgpqN8pCCM

— Rob McElhenney (@RMcElhenney) November 6, 2020

This claim is disputed

Twitter sure seemed to give Trump a flyer on blatant lying throughout his presidency. Once he appeared to be on his way out the door, however, the company decided to slap a warning on his tweets lying about the election outcome. Considering how often Trump lied about the election in subsequent tweets, this warning became a very familiar sight on Twitter. It eventually also became meme fodder.

I hate this website pic.twitter.com/LdqfMf5Nui

— Steven Castillo (@STEEEZUSCHRIST) November 16, 2020

FEELING PRETTY GOOD RIGHT NOW ABOUT THINGS!

⨂ ???????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????? ???????????? ???????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????

— jonny sun wrote a new book! (@jonnysun) November 16, 2020

Don't worry about it

Finally, with the election wrapping up and several vaccines on the way, a pair of memes emerged six weeks apart, putting in perspective the relative safety of both Biden's tax plan and the vaccine.

If your pillow looks like this DO NOT worry about Biden's tax plan ???? pic.twitter.com/SEjtU2gD1S

— ????coco puff???? (@cocoxlong) November 2, 2020

if you use these as your bathroom trash bags YOU DO NOT NEED TO WORRY about biden's tax plan pic.twitter.com/wQHapOeGwv

— ????????Full Christmas Woods???????? (@dcwoods89) November 3, 2020

If you've ever applied the five second rule, you don't need to worry about what's in the vaccine

— ADHoliDean (@ADHDeanASL) December 15, 2020

If you have ever picked up one of these with your barehands, you don't need to worry about what's in the vaccine. pic.twitter.com/LlObdM5G4n

— FunctioningSadaholic (@JacobDisagrees) December 18, 2020

Taken together, the many memes of 2020 are a tribute to the indomitable nature of the human spirit. If we memed our way through the apocalypse, we can make it through anything.

So, bring it on, 2021. No matter what you take away from us, we'll still have our sense of humor.

(Although it is fairly easy to imagine the words Bring it on, 2021 being the first half of a withering "how it started vs. how it's going" meme at some sad later date.)