Previously on Adam Riff™:
There was an idea… To bring together a group of disparate people… To see if we could create something more…than a year-end list.
12 people select 10 things they loved from 2020 without any overlap, creating a "best of 2020" list unlike any other.
THE LEAGUE
—
In randomly-generated snake draft order:
Drew
Travis Scott
"K.K. Gumbo"
Rihanna vs. Madonna
Russell
Quavo
"K.K. Cruisin'"
Metallica vs. Guns N' Roses
Jeff
Quavo
"Hypno K.K."
Taylor Swift vs. Tom Petty
Stan
Quavo
"K.K. Reggae"
Phil Collins vs. Adele
Noelle
Quavo
"K.K. Cruisin'"
Janet Jackson vs. Mariah Carey
Ben
Quavo
"Comrade K.K."
Fleetwood Mac vs. Paul Simon
Jon Y [me]
Diplo
"Soulful K.K."
Blur vs. Oasis
Molly
Quavo
"K.K. Bossa"
Mariah Carey vs. Whitney Houston
Jon B
Diplo
"K.K. Metal"
Robert Smith vs. Morrissey
EJ
Travis Scott
"K.K. Cruisin'"
Aphex Twin vs. Boards of Canada
Aaron
Quavo
"Café K.K."
Mariah Carey vs. Jennifer Lopez
Adam
Travis Scott
"K.K. Metal"
Rick Rubin vs. Ross Robinson
Poor J Balvin.
Alright.
With the first pick in the 2020 Draft, Drew selected…
R1 • Drew
1. Donald Trump, one-term president
R1 • Russell
2. David Guetta shouting out George Floyd's family with a remix of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech
R1 • Jeff
3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and it releasing one week into COVID-19 lockdowns
R1 • Stan
4. The entrancing, 10-minute "Silly Games" dance scene in the middle of Small Axe: Lovers Rock
R1 • Noelle
5. Harry Styles hinting at his sexual fluidity in the music video for "Watermelon Sugar"
R1 • Ben
6. The Last Dance saving our sanity in April and May
R1 • Jon Y
7. How To With John Wilson
Adam: I knew you'd get my number one. I knew it would be your first pick. Amber can attest because I was yelling about it when I found out I picked last.
Jon: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I work at Four Seasons Total Landscaping in PA pic.twitter.com/cX6bIMkag8
— Christine Nangle (@nanglish) November 8, 2020
R1 • Molly
8. Four Seasons Total Landscaping
R1 • Jon B
9. Possessor
R1 • EJ
10. PlayStation 5
R1 • Aaron
11. The Last of Us: Part II
R1 • Adam
12. Quibi's absolute and total failure
R2 • Adam
13. Reply All #168: "The Case of the Missing Hit"
R2 • Aaron
14. Dua Lipa
Ben: AAARRROOONN!!!
R2 • EJ
15. All Gas No Brakes
R2 • Jon B
16. Ted Lasso
R2 • Molly
17. The Old Guard, and Gina Prince-Bythewood finally getting her snaps
R2 • Jon Y
18. The Great
R2 • Ben
19. Verzuz
R2 • Noelle
20. Lovecraft Country
R2 • Stan
21. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
R2 • Jeff
22. ZeroZeroZero
R2 • Russell
23. Normal People
R2 • Drew
24. Rudy Gobert as America's COVID coal mine canary
R3 • Drew
25. Folklore by Taylor Swift
R3 • Russell
26. Nyles and Sarah's bar dance in Palm Springs
R3 • Jeff
27. Phoebe Bridgers
Stan: Fuck. Jeff took Phoebe Bridgers one spot ahead of where I was going to do it.
Jeff: Okay, well, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Palm Springs, and Folklore were pretty much my entire list otherwise. She was all I had left!
R3 • Stan
28. I May Destroy You
R3 • Noelle
39. Dave
Jon: Goddammit!
Noelle: You snagged The Great from me, so now we're even.
Adam: Just Dave? Not Dave pooping? Booooo!
Noelle: The whole show, every detail about it is so incredible. I couldn't pick!
R3 • Ben
30. Literally everything Marc Rebillet did, "Essential Workers Anthem" in particular
R3 • Jon Y
32. Nomadland
R3 • Molly
32. High Fidelity: "Uptown"
R3 • Jon B
33. Betty
R3 • EJ
34. Yves Tumor
R3 • Aaron
35. The Saved by the Bell revival
R3 • Adam
36. Dick Johnson Is Dead
R4 • Adam
37. Ahsoka Tano's live-action debut in The Mandalorian: "Chapter 13 – The Jedi"
R4 • Aaron
38. The Ellen DeGeneres Show's toxic work environment
R4 • EJ
39. QAnon
R4 • Jon B
40. VFW
R4 • Molly
41. John McEnroe's narration for Never Have I Ever
R4 • Jon Y
42. Nate: A One Man Show
R4 • Ben
43. Despite its ending (ugh), the NBA bubble
R4 • Noelle
44. Jolene saying "Good job, cracker" at the end of The Queen's Gambit
R4 • Stan
45. PEN15
R4 • Jeff
46. The mindless comfort of binging network sitcoms
47. Fleetwood Mac regaining cultural relevance with the Cranberry Juice Skateboard Guy
R4 • Drew
48. Megan Thee Stallion's New York Times op-ed
R5 • Drew
49. The Flight Attendant
R5 • Russell
50. P-Valley
R5 • Jeff
51. Hamilton Leithauser's quarantine concerts from his rural family farm
R5 • Stan
52. Fetch the Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple
R5 • Noelle
53. The "Brown Skin Girl" section of Black Is King
R5 • Ben
54. After Hours by The Weeknd
R5 • Jon Y
55. What We Do in the Shadows
R5 • Molly
56. Americans figuring out how much Prince Charles sucks while watching The Crown
R5 • Jon B
57. Hawkeye: Freefall
— Bradley Whitford (@BradleyWhitford) November 11, 2020
R5 • EJ
58. People being repeatedly dunked on for making Parasite memes that show they don't understand the film's themes
R5 • Aaron
59. Marvel's Avengers, the worst game I've ever put 100+ hours into
R5 • Adam
60. Dorktown: The History of the Seattle Mariners
R6 • Adam
61. RMR – "Rascal"
R6 • Aaron
62. Harley Quinn
R6 • EJ
63. Travis Scott's copious brand collaborations
R6 • Jon B
64. Beef House
R6 • Molly
65. You Must Remember This' Polly Platt series
R6 • Jon Y
66. Mario Judah, enfant terrible
R6 • Ben
67. Hasan Piker's Twitch channel
R6 • Noelle
68. Little Fires Everywhere
R6 • Stan
69. The fertility dance in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Stan: I may have been inclined to take this slightly earlier to ensure the most dance-heavy draft ever.
R6 • Jeff
70. 18.xx games
R6 • Russell
71. Black Squares
R6 • Drew
72. The simultaneous ascensions of DaBaby and Lil Baby
R7 • Drew
73. The 12-minute, one-shot action sequence in Extraction
R7 • Russell
74. WarnerMedia destroying theatrical windows after the pandemic release of Tenet and the launch of HBO Max both flopped
R7 • Jeff
75. Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen, and its perfect timing
R7 • Stan
76. Ziwe Fumudoh's interview show
R7 • Noelle
77. Amber and Barnett from Love Is Blind
R7 • Ben
78. YHLQMDLG and El Último Tour del Mundo by Bad Bunny
R7 • Jon Y
79. The Safdie brothers' music video for Oneohtrix Point Never's "Lost But Never Alone"
R7 • Molly
80. Sohla's triumphant rise from the ashes of the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen dumpster fire
R7 • Jon B
81. Bandcamp Fridays
R7 • EJ
82. Act II: The Patents of Nobility (The Turn) by Jay Electronica leaking online, to him releasing it still unfinished as a Tidal exclusive, to it being removed from Tidal
R7 • Aaron
83. Schitt's Creek, and it winning all the Emmys
R7 • Adam
84. The Follow-Up
R8 • Adam
85. Jonathan Mann's remix of Jolee Dunn's "I Wonder What's Inside Your Butthole"
R8 • Aaron
86. The actual release of The New Mutants ushering out crappy Fox X-Men films
R8 • EJ
87. Mitch McConnell looking like Tarman from Return of the Living Dead
R8 • Jon B
88. The Microphones – "Microphones in 2020"
R8 • Molly
89. Brad and Jen's Zoom flirting during Dane Cook's Fast Times at Ridgemont High virtual table read
R8 • Jon Y
90. John Cena and Bray Wyatt's Firefly Fun House "match"
R8 • Ben
91. Cori Bush, Marie Newman, and Jamaal Bowman successfully primarying shitty centrist libs
R8 • Noelle
92. Addison Rae's weird and not-so-borderline-inappropriate friendship with Kourtney Kardashian
R8 • Stan
93. Time
Jon: Three of your picks are Amazon Originals.
Stan: It's not sponcon.
R8 • Jeff
94. Tracy Chapman's election eve performance on Late Night with Seth Meyers
R8 • Russell
95. MJF and Chris Jericho dueting aggressively in "Le Dinner Debonair"
R8 • Drew
96. The OnlyFans economy going mainstream
R9 • Drew
97. America's simultaneous disgust and fascination with Emily in Paris
R9 • Russell
98. The Bill Simmons Podcast: "A Truly Sad Week in America, Plus the 2005 NBA Redraftables With Ryen Russillo"
R9 • Jeff
99. The Strokes' improbable comeback with The New Abnormal
R9 • Stan
100. Gunda
R9 • Noelle
101. Saweetie and Quavo's DM origin story igniting the "How it started vs. How it's going" meme
R9 • Ben
102. Among Us
R9 • Jon Y
103. Boys State
R9 • Molly
104. Dolly Parton donating $1 million to vaccine research and basically saving the world
R9 • Jon B
105. Chris Fairbanks: Rescue Cactus
R9 • EJ
106. Ho, Why Is You Here? by Flo Milli
R9 • Aaron
107. The Sonic the Hedgehog mulligan becoming the highest-grossing video game film of all time
R9 • Adam
108. Eric Andre surprise tucking at the end of Legalize Everything
Final Round Wild Card Pick
Along with your final pick, please select something from 2020 that you have yet to experience as of 15 December 2020 but are keen on.
R10 • Adam
109. Tim Robinson parodying a Michigan stay-at-home protest
+ Promising Young Woman
R10 • Aaron
110. Xbox Series X/S
+ Wonder Woman 1984
R10 • EJ
111. Ghost of Tsushima
+ Kendrick Lamar's fifth album
R10 • Jon B
112. The dialogue between Blair and Sterling Wesley on Teenage Bounty Hunters
+ Synchronic
R10 • Molly
113. Dionne Warwick's niece teaching her what Twitter is
+ Bridgerton
R10 • Jon Y
114. BPM: Bullets Per Minute
+ Hades
R10 • Ben
115. Matt Cutshall's emo joke videos culminating in "A Letter to Ashley," the best song parody in years
+ Better Call Saul
R10 • Noelle
116. "It's the for me"
+ Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
R10 • Stan
117. Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee
+ One Night in Miami
Jon: Heh. Another Amazon Original.
Stan: I had no choices! Fuck Bezos.
R10 • Jeff
118. [My uncle] Dan Baum's New York Times obituary
+ Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
R10 • Russell
119. Class Action Park
+ The Midnight Sky
R10 • Drew
120. Paddy Considine's flawless Southern accent in The Outsider
+ Sound of Metal
UNDRAFTED!
90 Day Fiancé / Big Ed
The Boys
Carson Shearer's dance
Clubhouse / Parler
Cyberpunk 2077
Dancing Ghanian pallbearers
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
Final Fantasy VII Remake
First Cow
Gal Gadot's "Imagine" video
"Glizzy"
Griselda Records
Hamilton
The McCloskeys photo
Patrick Mahomes
"private island all tested negative multiple times wear a mask"
Roddy Ricch – "The Box"
This you?
Thom Brennaman's apology
Tiger King
The XFL
