38 Miscellaneous Jokes: The 2016 “Augmented Reality & Upside Down” Edition

In 2016, reality felt like it was being scripted by a chaotic AI. It was the year we all achieved world peace for exactly two weeks while chasing a Charizard into oncoming traffic, watched a gorilla become an internet martyr, and realized that “Stranger Things” happen when you mix 80s nostalgia with a bunch of kids on bikes. From the shocking “Leave” vote in the UK to the Chicago Cubs finally breaking a 108-year curse, 2016 was a rollercoaster that simply refused to stop for air.

The 2016 Top 10: The “Pokémon & Politics” Classics

1. The Pokémon GO Summer: Why was the park full at 2 AM? Because for fourteen glorious days, we all forgot our problems and decided that catching a high-CP Dragonite was the only thing that mattered for human survival.
2. The Brexit Vote: Why was the UK googling “What is the EU?” the day after the election? Because 2016 was the year we learned that “protest votes” actually count and that leaving a union is a lot harder than hitting “Unsubscribe” on an email.
3. Harambe the Gorilla: Why was he everywhere? Because a tragic zoo incident turned a silverback into the internet’s most enduring and confusing meme, proving that 2016 humor was officially beyond explanation.
4. Stranger Things Debut: Why did we all buy Eggo waffles? Because Netflix took us to the “Upside Down,” making us nostalgic for a decade half of us weren’t even alive for and making Christmas lights the scariest way to communicate.
5. The Chicago Cubs Win the World Series: Why was the ghost of a goat finally leaving? Because after 108 years of waiting, the Cubs proved that miracles actually happen—and that 2016 was definitely the year where the “impossible” became “regular news.”
6. The Launch of the iPhone 7 (No Headphone Jack): Why were we all “brave”? Because Apple removed the 3.5mm jack, telling us that “courage” meant buying $159 AirPods that we would immediately lose in the couch cushions.
7. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Fires: Why was the phone banned from airplanes? Because Samsung accidentally created a handheld explosive device, giving “burn-in screen” a much more literal and terrifying meaning.
8. The “Mannequin Challenge”: Why was everyone standing perfectly still? Because a song by Rae Sremmurd convinced the entire world to pretend they were frozen in time, including the Beatles, NASA, and your grandma.
9. The Death of David Bowie & Prince: Why was the sky so purple? Because 2016 decided to take all our musical legends at once, leaving us feeling like the “Starman” had finally gone home and the party was officially over.
10. Leonardo DiCaprio Wins His Oscar: Why did he hug a bear? (Wait, he didn’t). Because after years of memes about him being ignored, Leo finally got his trophy for The Revenant, and the internet had to find a new joke to run into the ground.

The Full 2016 Miscellaneous Jokes Archive

11. Deadpool: Why was the superhero swearing? Because Ryan Reynolds proved that a red suit and a lot of fourth-wall breaking was the only way to save a franchise and our bored interest in capes.
12. The Launch of TikTok (as Douyin): Why was a short-video app starting in China? Because the seeds of our future 15-second attention spans were being planted, and we were still too busy with Vine to notice.
13. The “Killer Clown” Craze: Why were people dressing up as Bozo in the woods? Because 2016 decided that regular news wasn’t scary enough, so we added “random clowns jumping out of bushes” to the mix.
14. The Launch of the Tesla Solar Roof: Why was the roof a battery? Because Elon Musk wanted our houses to look normal while secretly powering our cars with the sun—provided we lived in California.
15. Hillary vs. Trump: Why was the TV always on? Because the most surreal election in history turned every dinner table into a debate stage and every tweet into a news headline.
16. The “Damn Daniel” Video: Why the white Vans? Because 2016 was the year a high schooler saying two words in a specific voice could get you a lifetime supply of shoes and a spot on Ellen.
17. No Man’s Sky Launch: Why was the universe so empty? Because 2016 gave us a game with 18 quintillion planets, but forgot to give us anything to do on them (until the 50th update).
18. The Launch of Nintendo Switch (Announcement): Why was he playing Zelda on a plane? Because Nintendo showed us a “toaster” with a screen, and we realized we never wanted to be tied to a TV again.
19. Beyoncé’s “Lemonade”: Why was she holding a baseball bat? Because she released a visual album that taught us all about “Becky with the good hair” and why you never, ever mess with Queen Bey.
20. The Launch of “Overwatch”: Why were we all “maining” Hanzo? Because Blizzard gave us a colorful world where “Play of the Game” was the ultimate flex and everyone was shouting “It’s High Noon!”
21. The “Bottle Flip” Challenge: Why were kids flipping water? Because 2016 was the year that landing a half-full plastic bottle upright became a skill more respected than algebra.
22. Arrival (Movie): Why were the aliens ink-blots? Because Amy Adams showed us that linguistics is a superpower and that “time” isn’t a straight line—kind of like a 2016 news cycle.
23. The Launch of Instagram Stories: Why did it look like Snapchat? Because Facebook decided that “copy-pasting” a competitor’s main feature was the best way to make sure we never left their app.
24. The “Hodor” Reveal: Why were we all crying at a door? Because Game of Thrones gave us the most heartbreaking origin story for a character whose only word was “Hold the door.”
25. The Launch of Google Pixel: Why was it “Made by Google”? Because they finally gave up on the Nexus and decided they wanted to make a phone that actually took pictures better than the iPhone.
26. Suicide Squad (The First One): Why was the Joker barely in it? Because we spent six months looking at Jared Leto’s tattoos just to watch a movie that felt like a two-hour neon music video.
27. The Launch of “Daydream VR”: Why were we putting our phones in a fabric box? Because Google thought mobile VR was the future, right before we all realized it just made our phones overheat and gave us a headache.
28. Zootopia: Why was the sloth at the DMV? Because Disney delivered the most accurate social commentary of the year using a bunny cop and a very, very slow civil servant.
29. The Launch of “Slack” Giphy Integration (Peak Chaos): Why was the office full of GIFs? Because 2016 was the year we stopped using words and started communicating entirely through 3-second loops of Parks and Rec.
30. La La Land: Why were they dancing on a highway? Because Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone made jazz and sadness look beautiful, right up until the Oscars gave the award to the wrong movie.
31. The Launch of “Auto-Chess”: Why were the pieces moving themselves? Because a mod in Dota 2 started a genre that proved we like strategy games, but only if the computer does the hard work.
32. The “Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen” Video: Why was he wearing a leopard-print scarf? Because a 45-second song from Japan proved that the internet’s taste in music was officially broken.
33. The Launch of “Super Mario Run”: Why was he running by himself? Because Nintendo finally put Mario on a phone, but made us pay $10 to see what was behind the fourth level.
34. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story: Why did everyone die? Because Disney proved that they could make a Star Wars movie without Jedi, as long as they had a sarcastic droid and a very scary Vader scene.
35. The Launch of “Facebook Live” (Mainstream): Why was everyone broadcasting their lunch? Because we gave every human the power of a TV station, and they mostly used it to film Chewbacca Mom laughing in a car.
36. Westworld Debut: Why were the robots waking up? Because HBO needed a new Game of Thrones, and they decided that “existential dread in a cowboy hat” was the way to go.
37. The Launch of “AirPods”: Why do they look like electric toothbrush heads? Because in 2016, we mocked them for being “ugly,” but three months later, they were the only status symbol that mattered.
38. New Year’s Eve 2016: Why were we so relieved? Because after 12 months of constant shocks, deaths, and political shifts, we just wanted to go into 2017 and have a “normal” year. (Spoiler: We were still dreaming).