2020 has been a hard year, with Coronavirus and rampant political upheaval, but the memes about it being written by Stephen King aren't accurate. There's no doubt that 2020 has turned out to be an unexpected endurance test for most people, especially in America, but by no means exclusively. After a 2019 that proved to be a bit of a roller coaster, many had hope for a better 2020, and maybe that would've come to pass, if not for the viral boogeyman known as Coronavirus, or COVID-19.
The Coronavirus went from being what seemed like a possible worry into a worldwide pandemic in what seemed like mere days, and before long much of the world had been brought to its knees. While many countries have since mostly recovered, millions of lives have been lost worldwide, with America ending up with the worst outbreak of all. Understandably, such a prevalent and dangerous contagion led many to compare Coronavirus with Stephen King's epic story The Stand.
Since then, lots of memes have cracked wise about how 2020 was written by Stephen King, due to not only Coronavirus, but so many other mounting societal ills. King himself has joked about the suggestion, but despite him being the master of horror, there are big reasons why 2020 is actually too dark to be a King tale.
Why 2020 Is Too Dark to Be a Stephen King Story
To be sure, Stephen King isn't considered the master of horror for nothing. His books are often scary as hell, and contain lots of dark material, sometimes shockingly so. However, the King wrote 2020 memes are missing the other side of the King coin. King is very fond of sentimentality, celebrating the various close bonds that can form between people, and asserting that the strength of those bonds can allow humanity to overcome even the biggest challenges. He's also seemingly a big believer in the power of good to overcome the power of evil, and how even the smallest amount of hope can fuel an eventual triumph over even supernatural adversity.
Basically, King may write dark stuff, but it usually has a light that shines through at its core. By contrast, 2020 has just seemed to get worse and worse, with very few signs of hope, again, especially in America. The Coronavirus continues to run rampant, killing hundreds, if not thousands, per day. Political gridlock has left millions of unemployed people without financial relief. The election for president has devolved into childish bickering, and tensions are so high that a new civil war seems possible. While it would be great to imagine that the hand of God was eventually going to come down and right things like in The Stand, or the collective will of the oppressed and frightened many would overcome a dominant power like in IT, the fact is, those kind of hopeful happy endings usually only happen in Stephen King books.