The year 2016 has been called everything from “a dumpster fire” to simply “the worst.” The country saw a new president elected — one whose rhetoric is, surprisingly, not completely in line with the political positions of most of us here at City Paper. Folks in the U.K., our longtime ally, voted for Brexit. And in Pittsburgh, we lost a progressive police chief committed to improving police-community relations.

To say it’s been a rough year for liberals and progressives would be an understatement. So we thought, what better way to move into 2017 than to use humor to recap a year that made us all die a little inside? On the following pages, you’ll find memes of some of the stories CP covered in 2016, and others that have been ingrained in the collective consciousness of Pittsburghers (we’re looking at you, kid who got stuck between two buildings).

We should definitely pray that 2017 is much brighter. (Although as we type this, Donald Trump is tweeting that he wants to “greatly strengthen and expand” America’s nuclear capability. Here’s hoping the bright light on the horizon isn’t courtesy of a mushroom cloud.) So before we embark on our unknown future, let’s reflect on the past year — the heartache, the broken promises, and the traffic.