It’s the only way to make it all end.
If you’ve never seen 1995’s Jumanji, starring the late, great Robin Williams, then congratulations, you have no taste. Mocking aside, a major plot point of that film, as well as its sequels and spin-offs, is that in order to actually win the Jumanji game, you need to get all the way to the end, and then shout “Jumanji!” Doing so causes all of the disastrous things that the game releases into the world to return, undoing all the damage they’ve done in the process. Well, there’s been plenty of that in 2020, so Twitter’s decided to see if the shout works in multiple situations.
As of writing, “Jumanji” is trending on Twitter under holidays with nearly 20,000 tweets. All of these tweets feature promises of the same general nature: when the clock strikes midnight and 2021 is officially upon us, they’ll throw open their windows and shout “Jumanji” to the heavens on the off chance that everything horrible that happened in 2020 just goes away.
https://twitter.com/daniel_9340/status/1344639824188334080
Little reminder, guys, don't forget to shout #jumanji at midnight to finish the game 2020.😉😁 pic.twitter.com/i2sfsmeJ4j
— Sandrine Chevalier (@SanChevalier) December 31, 2020
Okay everyone, let's finish this game tonight…#Jumanji #NewYearsEve pic.twitter.com/jqFF4LxY4C
— Orlando International Airport (@MCO) December 31, 2020
Silliness aside, the trend has inspired a spot of nostalgia in Twitter users who fondly remember both Robin Williams in the 1995 original, and Dwayne Johnson’s performance in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle in 2017.
Love Jumanji…the original still the best pic.twitter.com/szqn9fITzr
— The Fantasy Fam (@TheFantasyFam) December 31, 2020
In countries that have already had their year roll over, many have tried calling “Jumanji” already to no avail, but if you’re serious about it, maybe you have to shout it for every time zone. Who knows, maybe someone will nail the timing and we’ll all get lucky.