Let’s be honest: Most headlines in 2021 were not very nice.

But just when you felt overwhelmed by the bombardment of news — about the pandemic and the Capitol insurrection and climate change — there’d be a hilarious headline about a mistranslation involving Adam Driver, or a zebra getaway in Maryland, or an eel that punnily ate a “squid from a clamp.”

Here are the headlines that made us laugh and kept us sane in 2021. 

• Cate Blanchett wins permission for meditation room at her ‘haunted’ £4.9m Sussex mansion despite discovery of bat colony [Daily Mail]

• Joe the pigeon may be spared death amid speculation he’s not from the U.S. [9 News]

• 15 people catch COVID-19 after reportedly attending cat’s birthday party [New York Post]

• Scientists have taught spinach to send emails. It doesn’t involve a computer. [News 18]

• Ignore the rumor about Adam Driver supposedly assaulting a woman with a folding chair, it was a mistranslation [Jezebel]

• Young Florida women dressed as grannies to get coronavirus vaccine — and it may have worked [ClickOrlando.com]

• Texas Department of Public Safety mistakenly sends Amber Alert for Chucky doll — 3 times [Associated Press]

• Wanted man quits lockdown at home for ‘peace and quiet’ in prison [The Guardian]

• Teen reunited with pet rooster lost at Alabama Cracker Barrel after Civil War reenactment [AL.com]

• Surly seal spotted on Charlottetown sidewalk apprehended by police [CBC]

• Apple study affirms that women do in fact have cramps during their periods [Gizmodo]