TV moments of 2019 we’re going to have to explain to our grandkids
Look: 2019 was a weird year. Honestly, there are no more "good" or "normal" years anymore; there are just years. Assuming that things will still be rolling on when it comes time to tell your grandkids "how you met your 2019..." or whatever it's worth to look back at some of that weirdness.
The Hot Priest
We're not talking about Jude Law. 2019 was the year that an objectively terrific season of television was both praised and celebrated as such and distilled into one particular facet: Its Hot Priest (Andrew Scott). 2019 was a weird f***ing year.
Why people liked Alec Baldwin's Trump impression
This one truly is inexplicable, but for some reason, people like Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump impression. It's not good — it's all pursed lips — and it's not funny. But for some reason, it's also not going anywhere. We were promised that it would end, only for it to return with this latest season.
Literally everything the real Trump did
This one says it all, really. Explain any of it to a sane or decent person.
Paul Rudd "Look at us..."
Paul Rudd is charm personified. In fact, he might just be a Paul Rudd clone. (That was a "Living With Yourself" joke. "Living With Yourself" is Paul Rudd's Netflix show.) So much so that he can make a bit in YouTube's "Hot Ones" go viral, simply by virtue of it being the most distilled version of said charm. This was that.
Peloton ad
Where were you when you first saw the infamous Peloton ad and the sheer look of terror on the "Peloton Lady's" face...and then when Peloton suffered greatly — stock prices plummeting, all those thinkpieces — as a result? You're going to want to remember that, so you can tell your future grandkids. Then you're going to have to explain to them what stationary bikes are, because by that point they'll only have stationary hoverboards.
The Peloton ad follow-up
Then you'll have to tell these futuristic grandkids that Ryan Reynolds got in on the fun and created a sequel to the Peloton ad — starring Peloton Lady, Mercedes from "America's Next Top Model," and Mandell Maughan from "Bajillion Dollar Properties" — to capitalize on the meme and sell his gin. She is finally safe from her Peloton-gifting husband.
Baby Yoda
Explain to your future offspring's offspring that they'll never be as cute as Baby Yoda, so they shouldn't even try. In a Cute Off, Baby Yoda always wins.
Who won the "Game of Thrones"
Honestly, it'll be pretty amazing if "Game of Thrones'" legacy as a TV series lasts that long... but if it does, you and the family can all have a good laugh over Bran winning the "Game of Thrones." I mean, it's so funny that I had to double-check that it did, in fact, happen, because it's still just so preposterous.
Area 51 raid/memes
2019 is also the dumbest year — and we're all only getting dumber — which is how we got this meme ("Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All Of Us") that got thousands of people to go to the desert. At this point, your grandchildren are worried for you: "How did you make it out of this time as a well-adjusted human being?" You can never tell them that you did not. Technically not a "TV moment," but it's still worth a shoutout.
Bird Box challenge
"The Bird Box Challenge consists of people living their everyday lives blindfolded as if they were in the movie." Of all the Sandra Bullock movies, this was the one that got a challenge. (It was a Netflix movie, so technically TV.) A "While You Were Sleeping Challenge" (wearing the best knit sweaters; not lying about being a comatose man's fiance) would've been better. A "Practical Magic Challenge" (being a good sister; not killing a man) would be fun. Again, in 2019, everyone was dumb.
Aunt Becky going to jail
When Operation Varsity Blues broke, there was a minority of people who didn't get why everyone was calling Lori Loughlin "Aunt Becky." But to the majority who understood it... It was really, really funny (funnier than Felicity Huffman also getting caught — and complicit husband William H. Macy somehow getting off scot-free and allowed to keep holding "Shameless" hostage — to be perfectly honest), especially as it led to her getting booted off "Full House" (and her Hallmark show) and to this joke that keeps on giving.
Nancy Pelosi clapping at Trump
Nancy Pelosi did the clap in February of 2019. It is December, and Kate McKinnon is still doing that in her Pelosi impression on "Saturday Night Live." Some say Kate McKinnon will still be doing the clap in her Pelosi impression when your grandkids watch "SNL." They will need you to explain to them why.
Meghan McCain on "The View"
Luckily, you probably won't have to explain generational terribleness — and how annoying people who regularly remind others (who never forgot) who their father was — to your grandkids. They'll just get it. They'll definitely get every reaction Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg had toward her.
"OK Boomer" possibly becoming a TV show
First of all, the "OK Boomer" meme is really more about a state of mind than a generation, so let's just get that straight. And yes, you might have to tell your grandkids that said meme became a TV show. Because Fox's game plan for the past two years has been to try (and not really succeed) at being the new CBS, it is now attempting its own version of "$#*! My Dad Says." Turning a meme — instead of an entire Twitter feed that at least made sense as a form of storytelling — into a TV show is actually a worse idea.
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