2016 was the worst year in living memory for losing beloved celebrities.
After Terry Wogan, Alan Rickman, David Bowie and Prince all went early in the year, we thought we’d been punished enough, but 2016 just did not let up.
We lost Muhammad Ali, Andrew Sachs and countless others, before George Michael passed away on Christmas Day.
And even then it wasn’t over, with Carrie Fisher leaving us two days later. 2016 sucked, essentially, and that’s before we even mention that it was also the year of Brexit and Donald Trump’s election.
To display the magnitude of 2016’s shittiness, British artist Chris Barker put together a poster, in the style of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover.
After initially deciding he wouldn’t repeat the work for 2017, Chris changed his mind, and has now updated the image for 2017. It looks a whole lot more apocalyptic, thanks to the hurricanes and flooding in America being one of the year’s biggest stories.
The likes of Adam West, Roger Moore, Sir Bruce Forsyth and Hugh Hefner are front and centre in this year’s effort, while we also see Paddington Bear and Wallace and Gromit hanging out down the front, in honour of Paddington’s creator Michael Bond and voice of Wallace Peter Sallis, who both passed away in 2017.
At the back of the picture, you can see Grenfell Tower and the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay Hotel, where 58 people were killed by gunman Stephen Paddock in October.
Speaking to indy100, Barker said: “I said I would never ever do this again but then I realised I could use the meme to deliver a different message about climate change and how we need to start thinking about the lasting effect man is having upon the world.”
We really hope nothing else needs to be added to the poster before the year’s out, but right now, World, you just can’t be trusted.
(Image: Chris Barker)
