Never has the refrain “There’s always next year!” felt more appropriate—or widespread—than in 2020. (Hell, this year has been so unexpectedly savage, it’s even got Pats fans saying it now.) Which is why, for this week’s episode of the Complex Canada Report, your host The6ixatSix is taking a journey down memory lane to look back at some of 2020’s biggest fails.
And, yes, we’re well aware that this entire year has basically just been a never-ending string of fails from one into the other—but in the interest of keeping this video under six hours long (and not giving 6ix an aneurysm in the process), we’ve limited it to the top six moments that made us facepalm this year.
Check out the video above for the full list; we’ve got highlights for you below. And here’s to finally turning the calendar on this tire fire of a year.
6. Sony underestimating PS5 demand
If you haven’t been able to get your hands on a PS5 yet, you’re not alone, because these things have been even harder to come by than the COVID vaccine. Sony’s coveted next-gen console has been selling out on retail sites in literal seconds, and shortly after the November launch, Sony released a statement saying that the PS5 launch is the company’s biggest ever, and that demand for the Playstation 5 is “unprecedented.”
To which I say, we’ve all been stuck in our homes since March, so a huge number bunch of people being hyped to buy something shiny and new to distract themselves with seems extremely precedented, if you ask me.
5. Kawhi leaving Toronto for the Clippers
Maybe we’re just biased (this is Complex Canada after all), but for fans of the Toronto Raptors and/or schadenfreude, there was something extra special about watching the 2019 Finals MVP opt out of becoming the de facto King of Toronto (complete with free food, room and board) to go to L.A.’s second team with Paul George… Only to watch Playoff P go 4-for-16 in Game 7 as the Clippers blew a 3-1 lead to the Nuggets, sending Kawhi home after the Conference Semis (aka the same round the underdog Raps lost in)—all amid widespread reports of locker room turmoil. Cue The Laugh.
4. Donald Trump’s entire 2020
From his complete mishandling of the U.S.’ COVID response to subsequently catching COVID (and then passing it around the Oval Office in some kind of bizarro loyalty test) to his embarrassing post-election Twitter meltdowns (still going, BTW!), one thing is for sure: nobody had a worse 2020 than Donald Trump.* (*According to Donald Trump.)
3. Rudy Gobert triggering the NBA shutdown
We’re not going to sit here and suggest that if Rudy Gobert hadn’t been such an ass back in March—by making a point to touch every Jazz reporters’ mic or recorder to poke fun at the NBA’s new COVID precautions—that the league would never have shut down. (In fact, you could probably argue that Gobert’s extremely public self-own actually saved lives, since it forced the NBA to close down earlier than they might have otherwise—with the rest of the professional sports world following their lead.)
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But once Gobert tested positive for COVID two days later, and then infected his superstar teammate Donovan Mitchell, the “joke” didn’t seem quite so funny anymore. (Although considering Gobert just signed a $205 million extension, it’s safe to say he recovered just fine.)
2. The Grammys snubbing The Weeknd
Again, maybe we’re biased, but when an album smashes the record for most weeks in the Billboard 100’s Top 10 while receiving near universal praise from critics and showing up on every major music outlet’s year-end Best Of list, you’d expect it to get plenty of love come awards season. Or, OK, fine, even a single Grammy nomination. But nah.
Then again, it feels like we go through a version of this every single year with the Grammys. It’s the equivalent of Charlie Brown and the football. But hey, maybe next year will be the year the Recording Academy finally pulls their collective heads out of their collective asses. Fingers crossed.
1. The Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020
Sure, we’re all guilty of going a little nuts when it comes to COVID. (I’d rather not disclose how many times I’ve Googled “Do I have COVID or am I just having a panic attack?” over the past nine months.) But back in March, it’s fair to say that folks went a little… overboard, as people reacted to news of a two-week lockdown by raiding the shelves for toilet paper like a combination hurricane/earthquake/wildfire was coming. (In reality, that wouldn’t hit until summer.)
How bad did it get, exactly? I’ll put it this way, it was easier to get a PS5 in November than it was to score a roll of toilet paper in mid-March…
