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This comedian laughing at her old list of 2020 goals is all of us

What a 2020 mood.
Schall found her 2020 goals that she wrote before (gestures vaguely) ... just, all of this ... and couldn't stop laughing.
Schall found her 2020 goals that she wrote before (gestures vaguely) ... just, all of this ... and couldn't stop laughing.@robynschallcomic / Tik Tok
/ Source: TODAY

Eleven months ago (or years, depending on your sense of time), when we all made our 2020 resolutions, we had no idea what the world had in store for us.

We were totally going to save money and focus on self-care. We definitely were not planning on losing Kobe Bryant, then murder hornets being a thing and then, of course, a global pandemic.

Comedian Robyn Schall was as unprepared as the rest of us in December 2019, willfully writing down her goals for the upcoming year.

When she found them again last week, she couldn’t stop laughing.

"Excuse my looks, I'm just, you know, in the middle of hitting rock bottom," she joked, pouring herself a glass of wine. “I found my goal list that I made in December. My goals for 2020."

“OK, tell me if this is not hilarious," she laughed.

“Alright. Goal one: Make more money," she said. "I, you know, have been unemployed since March."

“Travel more. Lose weight. Be more social," she said, laughing.

"I wrote 'cry less'! I've cried every single day of this whole pandemic!" she cackled.

Then things got even darker.

"It's not funny," she said through tears of laughter, "but I wrote, 'Spend more time with my grandma,' and she died."

Immediately, the video took off — reaching millions and racking up hundreds of thousands of likes and shares.

Schall told TODAY the whole experience has been “so wild.”

“I’ve been a comedian for like 10 years,” she laughed. “I made a living doing stand up but I just never got that break. And then I posted this video.”

She chuckled at the irony of having spent “so much time on my art” and then this video striking such a chord, but she’s so happy to share her laughter with others.

“I think people just want something to relate to,” she said. “People felt connected in a year that we felt so disconnected.”

Though she only references one of them in the video, Schall actually lost both her grandmothers this year. Her grandmother, Marilyn, had been sick for years but died at 90 from cancer and COVID-19.

Her Grandma Sue, as Schall and her fans called her, died at 94 from heart failure. Grandma Sue and Schall had been very close, with Grandma Sue regularly appearing in Schall's comedy sketches and videos.

Don’t worry, Schall told TODAY, Grandma Sue would have thought the video that propelled her granddaughter to fame overnight was hilarious.

“She just had a really good sense of humor,” she said with a chuckle. “She would’ve thought the video went viral because everyone loves her!”

Schall has been doing comedy for years and never expected her Tik Tok to blow up like it has.
Schall has been doing comedy for years and never expected her Tik Tok to blow up like it has.Courtesy of Robyn Schall

Schall added that she had grown up with a bone disease that meant she had to wear braces on her legs. She said she often found herself in front of the TV watching comedy to make herself feel better and the experience showed her what she wanted to be when she was older.

“I knew growing up all I wanted to do was laugh and make people feel better,” she said. “And for the first time, I’m making so many people laugh…if it brings them a little peace, a little happiness, that’s everything I want.”

Schall is optimistic about the future — after finding viral fame, “these doors that were always closed to me are finally open,” she said. But really, she is just so happy reading the positive comments on her page.

"From what I’ve seen this week personally, people are actually really good,” she said. “You look at social media and get upset with everyone fighting … I got to see it through a different lens this week.”

She added that 2020 is “still the worst year ever… but this week is really good.”