Political views aside, the 2016 elections have been, are, and will continue to be mind-boggling in a number of ways.
Just to name a few:
1.) This election is the "oldest matchup between [major] party nominees in history," as reported by the Washington Post. If Trump wins, he'll be the oldest person ever to take office, and if Hillary wins, she'll be the second oldest.
2.) One of the major party candidate's most cited policy positions is one that would ban all 1.6 billion members of an entire religion from entering into the United States.
3.) Both major party candidates refuse to release something that the American public has demanded: Trump's tax returns, and Clinton's Wall Street Speeches.
4.) Both major party candidates have been accused of major crimes: Trump, of rape, of fraud, and many more (about 3,500 lawsuits have been directed towards the nominee), and Clinton, of misuse of classified information and perjury, among other things.
Amidst all of the tension that is the 2016 elections, however, comes something that everyone can laugh at every now and then: internet memes. While the entire country has been quivering at what direction the country may or may not be heading, some have found comic relief in internet memes that are certain to lighten the mood a little bit.
Thinking back to the primaries, one may recall a few instances where the internet jumped into onto the internet to generate some laughter that jumped across party lines.
One of the most made-fun of candidates, surprisingly enough, was not either of the leading candidates in the polls, but of Ted Cruz, who grew to become mocked repeatedly for scores of reasons.
One popularly cited meme made of Cruz was the overwhelming urge that many bloggers felt to punch him in the face. While trivial, the meme grew so popular that even Psychology Today posted an article on New Year's Day as to why one might feel repulsed by his appearance.
Even German Internet surfers got involved, giving Cruz the nickname "Backpfeifengesicht", translated loosely to "a face that's begging to be slapped."
As if this Internet mockery of Ted Cruz weren't enough, a conspiracy theory arose that labeled him as, "The Zodiac Killer," the nickname of a cold-blooded murderer that was active in the 60's and 70's. This was because there was a slight resemblance between Cruz and the sketches of what the Zodiac killer may have looked like, but also because many claimed Cruz to be a creepy individual in general.
Later in the primary season, another conspiracy theory, claiming a random guest on "Maury" to be related by blood to Cruz, added to the so-called mysterious nature of the right-wing presidential hopeful.
Even without Ted Cruz in the picture, the primaries were incredibly interesting if you were using the internet.
The internet seemingly chuckled in unison when Brady Olsen, a 15 year-old from Iowa, filed with the FEC under the alias "Deez Nuts," and began polling fairly well: in some cases, polling better than Carly Fiorina or Mike Huckabee. At one point, Deez Nuts was trending more on Google Trends than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Another odd presidential candidate was Vermin Supreme, who, for years, has run from several different political offices on several different levels, also ran for president in 2016. People around the world watched intently as Supreme announced some of his key policy proposals: to include universally free ponies for citizens of the United States as well as research into time travel, among other things, all the while wearing a boot on his head. Citizens of the internet community boldly declared their support for the candidate by decorating their blogs and social media sites with Supreme related media.
While the primaries were captivating, the primary debates generated plenty of internet memes in their own right.
For example, preceding one Republican debate, presidential hopeful Marco Rubio utilized some tongue-in-cheek rhetoric about the size of Donald Trump's hands.
"And you know what they say about guys with small hands," Rubio asserted, indisputably implying the all-too-common proverb of an imaginary ratio between one's hands and genitalia,
"You can't trust 'em."
Trump replied, defending his "masculinity:"
"I guarantee you, there's no problem."
This inspired thousands of internet memes that made fun of Trump, and his "tiny hands."
Fairly recently, host of the Daily Show, Trevor Noah, simultaneously mocking Trump's twitter habits, xenophobic outlook, and, of course, small hands, said:
"every time you tweet with those fat little tiny fingers of yours, you should be saying 'thank you' to [immigrants and the offspring of immigrants] for giving you that same phone."
In these same debates, brain surgeon and presidential hopeful Ben Carson developed a reputation for being, according to the internet community, always being asleep, which was egged on by his very mellow tone as well as his increasingly prominent silence in the debates as Trump, Rubio, and Cruz fought endlessly.
While the Republican debates were certainly much more entertaining to most, the Democratic debates generated their fair share of memes.
For example, Bernie Sanders's very prominent and widespread hand movements caught on to many internet-goers. While many simply made jokes by commenting or even parodying them, one viral GIF shows Bernie Sanders in one of the presidential debates, playing the bongo drums.
Another incident in which Bernie showed up in meme culture (among many) was when he combated the pressing email scandal that moderators were questioning Hillary by declaring that America is "sick and tired of hearing about [Hillary's] damn emails."
Fast-forward to both party's national conventions, and meme culture was still present, lightening the mood. In the Republican National Convention, memes flooded the internet when it was indicated that Melania Trump may have plagiarized a speech that belonged to Michelle Obama.
In the Democratic National Convention, the internet had a field day on footage of Bill and Hillary Clinton walking across the stage as balloons fell from above them: and they both seemed to be extremely pleased by the balloons themselves.
The 2016 elections have been filled with tense situations, stress, and to some, it is one-of-a-kind, in terms of the implications it could have on the country. Despite all of this chaos, however, stands one last bastion of peace and order: internet meme culture. Candidates and their policies rise and fall, but as they say, the internet is forever.
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