After the 2016 election, we saw an upsurge in memes about Obama and Biden being best friends. While this wasn’t a new concept, the amount of new memes that played with this idea was significant.

After the 2016 election, we saw an upsurge in memes about Obama and Biden being best friends. While this wasn’t a new concept, the amount of new memes that played with this idea was significant.
Today’s post is about a GIF in which Hillary Clinton looks around at balloons dropping from the ceiling, and dramatically mouths “WOW” during the 2016 Democratic National Convention. It’s a quick clip that went viral in no time.
Today, we’re going to look at a cartoon featuring former President George W. Bush. I chose this cartoon for a number of reasons. First of all, I audibly laughed out loud. As you may have realized by now, a cartoon that makes me laugh is more likely to make its way on my blog. Second of all, there’s a lot of great subtle references that I’d like to tease out. And finally, there are a lot of not-subtle references in there. Layers, people, layers!
Back when I was in highschool, my Latin teacher used to say that words have lives of their own. She would tell us this after our daily etymology lesson, where we would learn two English words that had Latin roots. Often we found that the Latin roots had little to do with the English words that they’d become.
The 2016 presidential election was a political caricature goldmine. With a large cast of candidates and the heated debates, the election sometimes felt more like a reality show than a political race. And like all good reality shows, inside jokes grow and spread, becoming a part of the public consciousness.
Today I want to talk about one of the inspirations for this blog: Richard Nixon. Nixon had a variety of cartoonists drawing him in a variety of different ways, but the one I want to focus on today is Herblock’s “sewer cartoon.”
The 2016 was a goldmine of political memes — in part because of the growing technology, but also in part because of the wide array of candidates. The 2016 race began with twenty-two Republican candidates. Twenty-two candidates. In one party. With twenty-two candidates in one party, there’s sure to be a bit of mayhem and meme-ing. Ted Cruz is the perfect example.