Too much has happened in 2020 - enough to make the lexicographers at Oxford Dictionaries throw their hands up in the air and declare that they simply cannot pick a single word to define the year. Merriam Webster went the obvious way and picked the P word (pandemic) as the 'word of the year.' But if you ask me - I think 'boycott' should be the word of the year. At least for Indians.
We've spent the year at home glued to the screens, somehow finding the random-est things to get offended by. And what do we do once we find that thing? We start a templatized #Boycott trend on Twitter and leave everyone confused.
1. When #BoycottTwitter Trended on..Twitter
The irony of this hashtag is beyond me! In June, Twitter had briefly suspended the account of Amul after the latter shared a cartoon on China. Netizens outraged in response as #BoycottTwitter became the number one trend on the platform.
I just wanna understand how these people thought they would boycott Twitter while using...Twitter?
2. #BoycottBingo For Allegedly Mocking SSR..
Even though late Sushant Singh Rajput wasn't even mentioned in the ad. Recently, a Bingo Mad Angles advertisement showed Ranveer Singh talking about science at a party. Users felt this disrespected SSR because.. SSR loved science. And as we all know, scientific knowledge belongs only to one person. Duh.
3. #BoycottKapilSharmaShow - Again, Because of SSR
In October, The Kapil Sharma Show aired a parody segment that mocked news channels for aggressively covering the death of Sushant. Once again, Twitter users felt it was disrespectful to SSR as it trivialised the fight for the actor's justice.
SSR fans have zero chill.
4. #BoycottSwiggy For Just Being Logical
Amid the ongoing farmers protest in Delhi, #BoycottSwiggy became the top trend for...
It's actually difficult to describe and I suggest you take a look yourself:
Who needs farmers when you have Swiggy, right???? LOL
Anyway, here's what that led to:
5. #BoycottZomato For Basically Doing Their Job
Recently, Swara Bhaskar called out Zomato for advertising on "hate espousing channels" like Arnab Goswami's Republic TV. What did Zomato's social media team do? Respond nicely because that's their job.
Next thing you know, people are threatening to switch from Zomato to Swiggy.
What if we make a venn diagram of people who want to boycott Zomato and people who want to boycott Swiggy?
6. #BoycottMirzapur Right After The Trailer Dropped
The lengths people go to in order to find reasons for boycotting something always fascinates me.
After the trailer of Mirzapur 2 dropped, Twitter users dug out an old tweet by Ali Fazal (one of the actors in Mirzapur 2) where he allegedly implied that he supports the nationwide anti-CAA protests taking place at that time.
Ek hashtag ke liye itni mehnat? Waah!
7. #BoycottErosNow for Some Suggestive Memes
For Navratri, it seems the social media team of Eros Now decided to get a little more creative than required and posted some sexually suggestive content.
Now, the memes they posted aren't universal in taste and I get that, but there's no need to go all out and just threaten to boycott.
Breaking news: If you don't like something on the internet, you can just ignore it!
Also why is this person typing a normal sentence in upper case like it's a headline??
8. #BoycottTanishq Happened 2 Times This Year
In October, people outraged because Tanishq put out an ad that showed an interfaith marriage. They thought the ad promoted 'love jihad.' So, Tanishq took the ad down. The second time around, they put out an ad that showed a bunch of women talking about their personal wish to have a 'cracker-free' diwali. People got offended. AGAIN. So Tanishq took down the ad. AGAIN.
I suggest Tanishq just stay lowkey until the rest of this year passes...
9. #BoycottNetflix Because of a Fictional Scene
In A Suitable Boy, there's a scene where two characters (a Hindu girl and a Muslim boy) kiss in front of a Hindu temple. This offended several people who claimed the scene hurt their religious sentiments.
Just take a moment to realise how it's 2020 and we're still getting upset over a voluntary fictional kiss...
10. Boycott! Why? Because 'Love Jihad'
'Love Jihad' has been a popular reason to boycott things in 2020. An Assamese show called Begum Jaan as well as Akshay Kumar's Laxmii were both accused of promoting it and calls to boycott them became top trends on social media.
I want to say that I hope things change next year because I do.. But at this point I have more faith in my January new year resolutions (which will not last beyond a few weeks) than the internet.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)