Meme Report 7/24
I'm Your Favorite Reference Baby
This week's Meme Report is going to be a bit different because a big thing happened and it's kind of all anyone can talk about. I want to dissect each meme separately but they all fall under the same umbrella event. In case you haven’t heard, Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy and endorsed Kamala Harris as his Successor.
The Letter
Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy via a letter he posted on Twitter. The notes app apology has ruined our brains and now everyone has posted a take on the letter. Famous letters throughout the past 20 years have been edited onto the original image. Some must toil in the mines of meme-making. It’s like throwing a party. Someone has to bring the ice. Someone has to edit the note from Jersey Shore onto Joe Biden’s letter.
Its Joever
The better meme angle is the tragedy. Despite whatever narrative the Lamestream media might try to craft, “Joever” has been in common parlance since before it was politically relevant. Almost as long as he's been president we’ve been saying “It’s Joever”. It is in reference to Joe Biden but it has not been as cleanly related to his politics as some would like. It’s just something we say. We had this phrase, of course, it would mark Joe for some kind of tragic ending. No one with the phrase “it’s Joever” attached to their presidency would get to quietly finish their second term. It was always going to be tense and unprecedented. Joe’s presidency Jended the way it Jegan. All the Democrats fell in line to give him the nomination in 2020 and they all fell in line to kick him out in 2024. His Joment has come and gone. As it was foretold from the beginning. It’s Joever.
The Coconut Tree
Before it happened it felt impossible. The Democrats are never going to make it easier on themselves. They’re going to stick to their principles but only to make things worse. The conversation around Biden was sad and scary and most importantly unenthusiastic. The conversation around Kamala was exciting and energetic. It felt like a Win-Win rather than a compromise. Young Pessimistic people after months and months and months of memes, changed our opinions on Kamala Harris. The message changed from cop-mala to being coconut tree-pilled. The path forward seemed clear. Young people would be willing to vote for Kamala if the Democrats were willing to do something unexpected for once. No one was willing to drum up false fervor for Joe, but they would if the Democrats showed they were not caged in by “that's the way it’s always been”. That’s half of the excitement behind Kamala. The fact that the Democrats actually did something the people wanted. Now that we’ve done it once, who says we can’t do it again? They’ve given us an inch. Let’s take our mile.
Kamala edits
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The thing about these is that we’ve all said edits are cool because they’re nonsensical things that young people make. They require a skill set most young people have and most older people are confounded by. Their earnestness is cute. I will never say an edit is cringe because I never want someone who makes edits to entertain that thought. It is an art form free of embarrassment and irony. Until I open iMovie myself to make the first ironic edit, I say let them live. It's not the same as people who were never cool making tote bags. The people making edits are trying to be clever in a way as old as film itself. The second they exist to drive votes and profits rather than simply evoke emotion is when they become cringe.
Kamala is BRAT
This was inevitable. I, with my finger on the pulse of culture, have talked about two things consistently this summer, Kamala Harris and Brat. Obviously, someone was going to say this. Better for Charli to seize her moment than for some staffer try too hard to make brat happen. We forget that part of the appeal of Twitter is that it’s so close to the surface of real culture. We can talk about something so much that it gets on the news relatively easily. Mostly because journalists spend all their time there. This is not the first Jake Tapper is hearing of Brat. We’ll talk about this more in this week’s mean girl moment but I think we need a quick emergency meeting on Vibes and also the general concept of having fun.
Nancy Pelosi
Perhaps the most thrilling part of it for me. There were a couple moments when I thought this was solidly Going To Happen. The Pod Save America guys turning on Biden showed the cracks. George Clooney as a stand-in for Obama writing a public letter was when I was most hopeful. When I heard Nancy Pelosi was on the case I knew it would happen. One of the main problems the Democrats have is that Nancy Pelosi always gets her way. There have been several Major Players in this whole debacle and my favorite character is the stern Mother Superior in the shadows forcing everyone to fall in line.
Wolf Sprizters
We always need a B-plot. On a day of big news and life-changing events, Wolf Blitzer woke up thinking it was just another Sunday. He posted a fun selfie with a drink named after him. Isn’t that fun? He must have giggled to himself as he posted it. Wolf Spritzer with a little chuckle. An hour later he’s in make-up, getting ready to go on air. He was chatting with his wife, maybe some friends about Aaron Sorkin’s Op-Ed (This Week’s Katy Perry). Maybe he was going to go home and sit in his hammock. Can’t we all just picture a perfect Sunday summer afternoon for Wolf? Too Bad! History is happening! My favorite part is that the drink sounds absolutely disgusting. An aperol spritz with Mezcal? Yuck! I’ll choke it down at my election watch party this year but I’m not excited about it.
Guy on The Airplane
This meme is from a different world. When the competition had different stakes. His smug satisfaction, his begging for attention. It doesn’t matter now. The game has changed. We always would have made fun of him but now we have hindsight on our side.