"I agree with Nick." note The phrase uttered most often by the incumbent prime minister in the first 2010 UK PM debate was that he agreed with one of his opponents, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg. Said opponent's party gained 10% in the polls overnight and he has had lots of people agreeing with him every day since.
Sorry!: "Mr Long Legged Cleggy Weggy!"
The Sun's headline for the announcement of the Conservative/Liberal coalition was "Nick Agrees with Dave" note David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party.
Education, Education, Education.
It's an inexact quote from Vladimir Ulyanov, A.K.A Vladimir Lenin.
I've never voted Tory before, but...
In a very real sense, Tony Blair could become Prime Minister within 45 minutes, with the three priorities of education, education and education, and being tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime.
Je ne regret rien. note Going back a bit, this is Norman Lamont. Note for all government ministers, if you are asked to pick your biggest regret from a definitive list and you don't regret those things, do not say that you regret nothing, the press will pick up the worst thing you ever did and report that you just said you didn't regret that.
Muslamic ray-guns. note A vox pop taken at an English Defence League demo, in which the protester lamented the existence of what sounded like "Muslamic [sic] ray-guns". Several Stupid Statement Dance Mixes ensued, of which this is most popular. The original meaning remains unclear, but in context it appears to have been a malapropism for "rape gangs".
John Major: "Back to Basics", "Bastards" (referring to some of his colleagues).
His predecessor Margaret Thatcher: "The lady's not for turning", "No! No! No!", "We are a grandmother" (apparently adopting the royal personal pronoun, there) "Ten more years!".
This page is the only thing David Owen hasn't left yet.
Nicholas Ridley made the expression NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) into his own meme while Secretary of State for the Environment.
One cartoon during the 2008 campaign featured Sarah Palin being told, "Governor, you're no Dan Quayle."
Rudy Giuliani didn't 9/11 have to time to think about 9/11 memes when he was mayor 9/11. Cause that was 9/11 when 9/11 happened, you know?
It was even funnier when he went on Fox and said that no terrorist attacks had happened during the time George Bush was president, seemingly having forgotten about 9/11.
"[T]here's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb: a noun, a verb, and 9/11."—Joe Biden. Everyone else, too, but Biden first.
Rahm "Rahmbo" Emanuel (former Illinois congressman and now Obama's Chief of Staffcandidate for Mayor-elect of Chicago) has a Chuck-Norris-like website dedicated to facts about him. And they're completely true, too!
From the crowd behind MSNBC's Democratic convention desk, "BRING BACK CRYSTAL PEPSI!"
The image with that and a sign right next to it saying "I SHAVED MY BALLS FOR THIS!?"
Pete Hoekstra's comparison between the Iranian student revolution and the Republican shutdown of the House quickly became Snark Bait on Twitter (e.g., "I took one Tylenol and had a nap. Now I know what is was like for Heath Ledger.").
Former senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) is known for denying being gay ("I am not gay; I never have been gay.") after trying to deny a guilty plea to soliciting sex (by tapping his foot) in a Minneapolis airport men's bathroom, where his hand and foot were close to the stall divider because he had a "wide stance".
Former representative Bill Jefferson (D-Louisiana-2nd) is probably best known for having a wad of cash found in his freezer.
South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford (R) created a meme when he lied to his staff about going "hikin' on the ole Appalachian Trail" while he was actually in Argentina visiting his mistress.
The one word that dethroned George Allen: "macaca".Explanation Campaigns tend to have people go to the opposing camp's public events to record the other candidate's statements; Allen pointed one out, who happened to be Indian-American, and called him "macaca". Not only does it sound racist, it turns out it's actually an old derogatory North African French term for any brown person—and Allen's mother was a French Jew raised in Tunisia.
Technically, this is true. He wasn't a crook; he was just spying on people, making enemies lists, and firing people if they didn't do exactly what he wanted them to do, regardless of the legality of the order. But he wasn't stealing from anybody.
Related to the above, the Watergate Scandal was so famous that it has led to virtually any subsequent politics-related scandal having the suffix "-gate" appended to it.
As a commentary on Fox News' general style of reporting, people will often work the phrase Glenn Beck raped and murdered a girl in 1990 into longer paragraphs, never actually making the libelous claim that Glenn Beck raped and murdered a girl in 1990, but rather refuting, probing, or questioning the idea that Glenn Beck raped and murdered a girl in 1990, while still working the phrase Glenn Beck raped and murdered a girl in 1990 into the paragraph as often as possible, using Bold Inflation to ensure the first phrase that catches the eye is "Glenn Beck raped and murdered a girl in 1990."
It was actually taken from a roast of Bob Saget where Gilbert Gottfried kept claiming that Bob Sagat raped and killed a girl in 1990.
He didn't say Bob Saget raped and killed a girl in 1990. He said Bob Saget RRRRRRRAAAAPED AND KILLED A GIRL IN 1990.
In a similar example, before it was confirmed, Slate columnist Mickey Kaus said John Edwards obviously had to comment on the rumors he was having an affair; otherwise, it would be absolutely suspect. The liberal blogosphere responded by saying that Kaus needed to confirm the rumor that he blows goats; otherwise, it would be absolutely suspect.
A well-publicized election for the seat of governor of Louisiana saw Edwin Edwards, a well-established figure with a growing reputation for being a fairly "standard" crooked politician, running against David Duke, a Neo-Nazi and former leader of the Ku Klux Klan. Before long, the election made nationwide attention, with such signs as "Vote for the crook — it's important!" and "Vote for the lizard, not the wizard!"
Fool me once, shame on... shame on you... you fool me, I can't get fooled again.
George HW Bush: "Read my lips." (Even in the Animaniacs presidents song: "And President Bush said 'Read my lips'...")
All fist jabs must from now on be called terrorist fist bumps.
Ted Terbolizard in California. We don't know what he's running for and we're not sure about his platform, but isn't that an awesome name?
Unfortunately, an Idaho guy named Pro-Life (formerly known as Marvin Richardson, but who legally changed his name just to be on the ballot) didn't seem to get much traction.
Someone made a write-in vote for "Lizard People" in Minnesota in 2008. At least, that's what the judges ruled.
"Should we let that person die?" [crowd screaming yes]
Theodore Roosevelt would've come up earlier in the page but he was too busy beating a grizzly bear to death with his bare hands. Perhaps the source of everyChuck Norris meme out there
Thomas Marshall: Death had to take him sleeping. For if Roosevelt had been awake, there would have been a fight.
And just to provide proof of his toughness... well, just look at the CMOA section of his TV Tropes page.
The Republicans drove the car into the ditch. And after we pushed it out, they said "alright, give me the keys back" and we said "no, you just drove it into the ditch!"
Dennis Kucinich's UFO sightings went pretty memetic during the primaries.
Hell, everything about him was a cartoon character at some point. Typical of a Congressman from California. Oh wait, he's from Ohio?
Let's talk about how memes affect Joe the Plumber.
On yer bike!
Which was actually first coined by British hyperconservative Norman Tebbit, as a response to unemployment: "Get on yer bike and find work."
Ralph Nader receives 3% of popular vote
It's the economy, stupid.
For five-and-a-half years, John McCain couldn't enjoy memes because he was a POW in Vietnam. FIVE AND A HALF YEAR, ALAN.
Speaking of McCain, it seems every joke ever made about him is in regards to his age, usually something along the lines of him battling dinosaurs as a youth. Jay Leno's run on The Tonight Show virtually always used age as a punchline to anything McCain related. It's reached the point where McCain has started to make these kinds of jokes about himself in less serious appearances. And he doesn't even look that old.
As The Daily Show put it, "the only thing older than jokes about John McCain's age... is John McCain."
John Kerry was for this meme before he was against it.
You may not be aware, but John Kerry served in Vietnam.
He also wishes to know who among us does not love NASCAR.
He forgot Poland!
HE BOTCHED IT!
MR. KERRY!
Believe it or not, there was an entire set of memorabilia being sold around the internet that had to do with Bush not forgetting Poland.
And he won three Purple Hearts!
"The internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes." Thank former senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) for this gem.
Did Ted Stevens ever come up with a meme? NO!! No he did not!
If only he had gotten that "an Internet" that his staff tried to send him...
Sarah Palin hunts moose and wolves from her helicopter.
Levi Johnston: he is a f** kin' redneck who likes to snowboard and ride dirt bikes. But he lives to play hockey. He likes to go camping and hang out with the boys, do some fishing, shoot some sh* t and just f** kin' chillin' I guess. Ya f* ck with him he'll kick ass.
Well, Todd built on the fence to keep the neighbors from looking in. We built the fence ourselves. I think that's what we should do with the border.
Bill Clinton smoked, but he didn't inhale. He also didnot have sexual relations with that woman ... Miss Lewinsky. (Replace the ellipsis with a comma, and it changes the statement to sound like he's addressing Monica. Hilarity Ensues.)
That depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is.
From the Tennessee Gubernatorial election, we get: "Hi, I'm Basil Marceaux Dot Com. VOTE FOR ME AND IF I WIN I WILL IMMUNE YOU FROM ALL STATE CRIMES FOR THE REST OF YOU LIFE! (Except violating a citizen rights this would be a special punishment)
Sun comes up, sun goes down. Never a miscommunication. You can't explain that.
Tide goes out, tide comes in. Never a miscommunication. You can't explain that.
Put even number of socks in dryer, pull out odd number. You can't explain that.
Put garbage on curb in morning, come home and find it gone. You can't explain that.
Oh yeah? Well, who put the sun there? Who put the moon there? You can't. You can't explain it.
Recently, a picture was taken of congressman David Wu, while he was dressed like this◊.
Jews for Buchanan! note Pat Buchanan has historically praised Adolf Hitler. He got a disproportionate amount of the Jewish vote in Palm Beach County because they thought they were voting for Lieberman.
The racist spam "The Long March" in general. Helps that it hit every inbox in America at once.
Nice to have a Long Dong Silver fan on the bench. note Anita Hill alleged that Clarence Thomas said to her that his penis was comparable to Long Dong Silver's.
Not intended to be a factual statement. note Jon Kyl claimed 90% of Planned Parenthood procedures were abortion when it was actually 3%. When called out on it, his office released that statement. Stephen Colbert made it a trending twitter topic.
Potato or potatoe?Explanation At a spelling bee in Trenton, New Jersey, Quayle "corrected" a student's spelling of "potato" as "potatoe." He claimed that that's what the cue card said.
"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future."
"You take the UNCF model that what a waste it is to lose one's mind or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."note From an address to the United Negro College Fund, whose slogan is "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."
I hope you don't mind where I put this cigar, kiddo....
Jon Kyl's comment was not intended to be a factual statement.
"I'm in control." note Alexander Haig was "in control" after Reagan was shot and they couldn't phone Bush, but as Secretary of State, he wouldn't have become president. The Speaker of the House would, then the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and then Haig.
Football makes you an expert on homosexuality, what with all those tight ends. note David Tyree's views on gay marriage.
Anthony's weiner note Lewd photos of Anthony Weiner.
Corporations are people! note In addition to legally being true for some odd reason, this was what Mitt Romney said at the Iowa State Fair. Iowa finally got to be a meme!
Today, Rick Perry shot a coyote to death on his morning jog.
Rick Perry also executed 234 inmates. And he gets applause for it.
Miserable failure. note A "Google bomb" was used in the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, causing Google searches for the phrase "miserable failure" to return George W. Bush's official Presidential biography as the first result.
Herman Cain says it's your own damn fault for being poor. note Herman Cain is the new political Fountain of Memes.
Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan is so simple, anybody can understand it.
We're dealing with apple and oranges. Just very apple-like oranges and very orange-like apples.
We'll build an electrical fence on the border. (Just kidding (Unless you're into that kind of thing, in which case, totally)).
Who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan? Herman Cain doesn't know either.
I believe it comes from the Poekeemon movie. note No, really, he actually quoted the second Pokémon film when closing his campaign.
Jon Stewart's coverage has also added the phrase "Shellder Of Knowledge" to the world's vocabulary.
Privilege-Denying Dude. Popular on feminist and social justice blogs to satirize clueless white guys.
Much like the Tea Party movement, the shenanigans of, and responses to, the Occupy movement have spawned a lot of these.
"It's just food product, essentially." note Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly's dismissal of the excessive force employed by police against Occupy protestors at UC Davis, the quote specifically concerning pepper spray and how apparently people were being overdramatic about protestors being sprayed in the face by it because it happens to come from peppers. It quickly evolved into a snowclone meme, substituting in something relatively heinous (eg rape) and a similarly dismissive explanation (eg "it's just sex, essentially").
I am a troper. I joined this website because I didn't know what it was. Every post I make is deleted or will get me edit-banned, even if I'm right. I am not among the tropers who are well-known. I am the 99%. note The Occupy movement, itself memetic in a sense, has generally caused snowclone employment of the style of rhetoric of some of its members as demonstrated here in the context of hypothetical problems with TV Tropes. Similarly, affiliation with either side of the divide of the 99% (the poor, working, and middle classes) and the 1% (the wealthy) sees similar use.
OCCUPY TV TROPES note Generally sarcastic responses to very minor perceived wrongs, jokingly calling for an Occupy movement to start up around the trouble spot. For the record, this description isn't intended to disparage the purpose or significance of the actual Occupy movement in any way and reflects solely on the memetic use.
The many Forced Memes of the movement's screeching cliches/platitudes.
Pizza is a vegetable.note It was recently passed into law that, for the purpose of meeting school cafeteria nutrition requirements, pizza qualifies as a vegetable because of the tomato sauce. Needless to say, this was mercilessly mocked.
Harry Reid on Obama: He's a light-skinned black man with no black dialect.
Harry Truman: Dewey wins election! note He didn't. It was a close election and he was predicted by the paper, but Truman won re-election and held up the paper that said Dewey won.
"Give 'em hell Harry!" By Harry Truman supporters, before he won most of the media thought he'd lose, but Truman went campaigning all 50 states and was cheered on by that slogan.
George W. Bush did have some Badass dodging skills when he went up against that shoe. Perhaps he's a ninja?
Rick Santorum's two racial fuck-ups. "I don't want to make black people's life better" (as well as his ridiculous excuse, that he just said "blah people"), and - talking about Obama - "anti-government nig-...uh..."
Mitt Romney's kind of like an Etch-a-Sketch. You can shake it up and he starts all over again.note After Romney won the Illinois primary and began heading into the general election, his senior adviser, Eric Fehrnstrom, said that Romney could simply change his positions on the issues (from the conservative views that helped win the GOP nomination to a more moderate approach that would work better in the general election), because Romney as a reputation for constantly changing his positions on the issues to appeal to whatever demographic he's running in to get elected. Needless to say, this did not go over well with conservatives, many of whom already thought Romney was too moderate.
"Binders full of women."note An unfortunate phrasing by Mitt Romney in the second debate with Obama, responding to questions of whether he would support pay equity for women by saying that his campaign had "binders" filled with qualified women to work in his administration. Often used to depict Romney as out of touch with women on issues important to them, especially given that perception of a "gender gap" between male and female voters was one of the big themes in the election. Variations include jokes about serial killers with binders filled with the pictures of pretty victims, and Bill Clinton asking Romney where he can find these binders.
Todd Akin's comments about rape have become VERY well-known.
Invisible Obama Explanation Unlikely guest at the 2012 Republican National Committee who got into an argument with Clint Eastwood. Resembles an empty chair. Has a Twitter account.
COAL FIRE OBAMA Explanaton A minor meme in mining states such as Ohio and West Virginia, where people against Obama have signs in their yard stating "STOP the WAR on COAL. FIRE OBAMA." It's not uncommon to see 5 or so signs on one road.
Get Republicans Elected Every November Explanation A derisive backronym used by disgruntled Democrats who feel that Green Party nominee Ralph Nader sucked away enough Democratic votes in 2000 to cost Al Gore Florida, and therefore, the election.
Karl Rove's breakdown. Explanation After Fox News called the state of Ohio for Barack Obama, Karl Rove confronted them on air, insisting that the strongly-Republican counties, yet to be counted, would deliver the state to Romney. It got a lot of traction on the internet and spawned a bunch of snowclones along the lines of "Karl Rove says Candidate X might win!" (after Candidate X has clearly lost).
Australian Politics
Gough Whitlam (Australian Prime Minister, 1972-1975): "Well may we say God Save the Queen... because nothing will save the Governor General."
Malcolm Fraser (Australian Prime Minister, 1975-1983) not wearing pants, in reference to an incident in Memphis, 1986.
Bob Hawke (Australian Prime Minister, 1983-1991): "No Australian child will be living in poverty by the year 1990!"
"Any boss that sacks somebody for not turning up to work today is a bum!"
Paul Keating (Australian Prime Minister, 1991-1996): "This is the recession we had to have."
Keating is also remembered for his comment when Andrew Peacock became leader of the opposition for the second time: "A souffle doesn't rise twice."
Keating! The Musical (oh yes) is basically a long list of these set to music, with a little bit of filler.
"We will decide who comes to this country, and the circumstances in which they come!"
Kevin Rudd (Australian Prime Minister, 2007-2010): 'Fair shake of the sauce bottle mate.'
'In due season.'
'HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA' from Kevin Rudd, PM.
I think you're all forgetting about his 'detailed programmatic specificities'.
'Working families'. Before he became PM, one could play a drinking game whenever he appeared on the news based around how often he uttered that phrase.
And now, one can play the same drinking game with Tony Abbott and the phrase "Great big tax".
Kevin '07.
"...long-term prosperity without (pointing behind him with his thumb) throwing the fair go out the back door."
Julia Gillard (Australian Prime Minister, 2010-present):
"Moving Forward", "Moving Australia Forward" and all associated slogans. To the point the Twitter hashtag is "#mofo"
The "REAL Julia Gillard" (generally parodied with queries as to who or what the "old Julia" was)
To elaborate: Sarkozy once posted a photo of him taking a hammer to the Berlin Wall on Facebook claiming he was there on the day the wall fell. However, some French journalists noticed there was no way he could have been there on that day and eventually found out that the photo was taken a full week later. Then some internauts started◊ posting◊ more◊ photosof◊ Sarkozy's "illustrious past"...
After Italy's prime minister Silvio Berlusconi (already in his seventies) attended a 18 years old model's birthday party, some suspicious photos from the party itself leaked on the Web where some of the guests look Photoshop-inserted in them. A blog called "Brinda con Papi" (cheers with Daddy, after the nickname the model used with Berlusconi) had quite some fun inserting other special guests.
We then found out about his orgies, or whatever the hell else a "bunga bunga party" may be.
A recent and great Example: in the 2011 local elections in Italy, there were two main contenders for the role of mayor in Milan (the second most important city in the country): incumbent centre-right mayor Letizia Moratti (heavily sponsored by Berlusconi) and centre-left candidate Giuliano Pisapia. In a public TV confrontation, Moratti accused Pisapia of being a car thief, a communist and on friendly terms with left-wing extremists, hoping to scare people into not voting for him. This backfired SPECTACULARLY by giving birth to the "Pisapia facts" Internet meme: people on Twitter, Facebook and various websites started churning out incredibly exaggerated accusations against Pisapia, with the implicit assumption that they could have been told by Moratti. At the end of the campaign, people were laughing so much that nobody was able to consider Moratti seriously anymore, so she lost the elections against Pisapia.
And then someone asked Moratti on her Twitter page about what her administration was going to do against an illicit mosque in the "Sucate" neighborhood; someone on her staff answered that they were going to keep on eye on it... but there is no place called "Sucate" in Milan. This was such an epic fail for the incumbent mayor that "Sucate" became another instant meme.
Made more hilarious by the fact that Sucate means "Suck it" in many northern Italian dialects... including the one spoken in Milan itself.
Former Czech prime minister Jiří Paroubek, a singularly unattractive, froglike man, ditched his first wife for a beautiful young woman. In one of her first interviews with the press, she answered the obvious question "How is it possible that such an attractive young woman is interested in a man who isn't exactly a symbol of masculine beauty?" by saying that the main thing she finds sexy about a man is his brain. Thenceforth Paroubek became "Sexy Brain".
Irish PM Bertie Ahern's (in)famous misstatements: "smokes and daggers", "upset the apple tart".
Brian Lenihan (the older) would like to state, on mature recollection, that he has never used memes.
"There is not much choice. Because we fucked it up. Not a little, but a lot." - a famous sentence from former Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's Cluster F-Bomb of an Engineered Public Confession, often set to the tune of his electoral campaign's theme song.
Also, anything, and I mean ANYTHING said by his predecessor Peter Medgyessi - who's memetic status is often compared to that of a certain US president.
In German politics, JoschkaFischer, then a junior MP,note He would later become leader of the Greens, vice-Chancellor, and Foreign Minister. infamously told the vice president of the Bundestag "Mit Verlaub, Herr Präsident, Sie sind ein Arschloch" (Translation: With respect, Mr. President, you are an asshole).
Related to Ian Paisley's "I denounce you as the Antichrist!" rant is the equally memetic reply by very-Catholic German MEP Otto von Habsburg: a punch to the face.
Charles the Bewitched, king of Spain during the XVI Ith century, as a result of an extremely inbred family tree was short, ugly, physically and mentally disabled, and sterile. He's become a fountain of memes, from the "Charles II: why cousins shouldn't get married" to rather nonsensical things like his face photoshopped everywhere.
Asian Politics
Former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos won the elections partly thanks to his memetic speech, "This Nation Can Be Great Again."
Another former president: the sheer popularity of "Erap jokes" forever cemented Joseph Estrada as a memetic moron in the Filipino consciousness.
It has to be noted that most, if not all the so called "Erap jokes" were created by himself!
And a possible future President: SENATOR MANNY PACQUIAO WILL BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF CORRUPTION.
"The Japanese Agriculture Ministry is not responsible for Gundam." - From a statement issued when the Japanese Agriculture Ministry caught two of its employees editing That Other Wiki's Gundam page on government time.
Muammar Gaddafi's insistent "My people love me!" despite all evidence to the contrary has acquired this status.
The Gainax Ending aspect of his propaganda has achieved memetic status in general.
His accusation that the revolution was brought about by foreign powers distributing "hallucinogenic pills" (probably meaning LSD) became memetic in the Arab world.
And let's not forget the government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim, the Spiritual Successor to Iraq's "Comical Ali".
Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Sharif from Egypt has attained memetic status. He is better known as "the guy behind Omar Suleiman".
Egypt has several memes about its old presidents. The most famous, however, is that Hosni Mubarak is an idiot/donkey (same thing in Egyptian Arabic) obsessed with ruling Egypt forever. One joke from the '90s goes:
So Mubarak hears that the Scots have just cloned a sheep. He immediately asks his doctors to clone him—that way, he reasons, he can rule forever! But when the job is done, the clone looks nothing like him—it's a donkey. Enraged, he fires his doctors and gets the best biologists in Egypt to try again. The second time around—another donkey. He then decides to go to the source, and hires the original Scottish team to do the job. To his delight, they produce a perfect clone of him. "How did you do it?" he asks. "Actually, we're kind of confused," the Scottish biologist replied. "This isn't your clone. We got this guy by trying to clone a donkey."
Another old joke (this one dating from the early 2000s, long before he appointed Omar Suleiman during the Eighteen Days):
Abdel Nasser appointed Sadat vice-president because Sadat was stupider than him. Sadat appointed Mubarak vice-president because Mubarak was stupider than him. Mubarak never appointed a vice-president, because he couldn't find anyone in the country stupider than him.
Some Egyptian memes from the time around the revolution:
"Israeli sharks": In late 2010, there were some shark attacks in the Red Sea. The Mubarak government blamed this on Israel, with Israel trying to undermine Egyptian tourism. Most Egyptians realized this was crazy and an example of how low the government had fallen.
"Australians distributing KFC": During the early days of the 18-day revolution the regime tried desperately to spread rumors that the protest movement was the doing of outside forces. At various times they claimed that they had caught an Australian spy (yes) directing things (the claim was ludicrous), and at another point they said that foreign agents were compensating protestors with KFC (which is a fairly expensive luxury in Egypt). Naturally, the two ridiculous concepts blended.
In this Egyptian cartoon (it's in Arabic), labeled "Long live the Libyan Revolution", the guy talking translates as "He says hallucinogenic pills... What, do they not have KFC in Libya?"note Funny, that: they don't.
Ask any Chilean person if "El Mercurio miente". Go on, I'll wait for you trying to decode the possible replies.
The phrase is translated as "El Mercurio lies", alluding to a right-wing newspaper targeted for upper class people, which has been questioned for its obvious and rabid right-wing slant ever since The Sixties, when left-wing university students wrote the phrase on a HUGE flag during a student strike after the newspaper downright lied about their motives.
Ricardo Lagos's index finger has been a source of jokes for at least 20 years, after he used it during an interview to address Augusto Pinochet.
"Just make sure it won't get into terrorist hands!" has begun to be used sarcastically in every possible context on some Hungarian forums. Seeing that they are really hostile towards US politics concerning other countries, I'd say that count.
Saddam Hussein was the "Mother of all" Memes.
Speaking of Hussein, let's not forget the Iraqi Information Minister (a.k.a. "Baghdad Bob" or "Comical Ali").
Also "Just watch me," pirouetting behind the Queen on national TV, sliding down the bannisters at Buckingham Palace, and Flipping the Bird to a bunch of Western Canadians lobbing francophobic insults at him. And much else.
Dr. Vegetable. note Thabo Mbeki's Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, claimed that AIDS was a vitamin deficiency which could be cured by eating your vegetables. This was under lobbying from Dr. Matthias Rath.
"Jews did 9/11." note They didn't, but don't let that stop the Pakistani press from saying that 6000 Jews working at the World Trade Center were late for work on 9/11.
Jews expelled Bolivar? note Apparently the Simon Wiesenthal Center thinks so. Hugo Chávez referred to his upper-class enemies as "Christ-killers" and "the ones who expelled Bolivar". Ironically, the regime that expelled Bolivar restarted the Spanish Inquisition.
Antisemite!note A stock near-Godwin's Law idea that one can just call one's opponent an antisemite to win an argument. At this point, 99% of accusations of antisemitism are done in cases where the subject didn't even relate to Jews, Israel, or Judaism.
These days, whenever uprisings against a Middle Eastern regime begin, you can bet the government will start claiming their side of the story hasn't been heard and blaming the whole thing on terrorists and 'armed gangs'.
Bibi bombing / Bibi Gump- in a certain photo◊ of the return of Israeli solider Gilad Shalit from Hamas captivity, he is seen hugging his father, with Binyamin Netanyahu, Israeli PM, standing in the background seemingly unrelated. This led to a meme of photoshopping Netanyahu into various◊ historical◊ or◊ famous◊ images◊, a-la Forrest Gump. The amazing thing is, it took one day for this meme to show up!
Librería Peña Nieto note A reporter got the mexican presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto (from PRI)derailed from his typical political discourse during Guadalajara's International Book Fair when the reporter asked him which were his favourite books, for which he mixed and made up the names of a few books from a few prominent Mexican authors. In a few short hours, Peña Nieto became the butt of all kinds of literature-related jokes (including making up new "books" by mixing and matching title names from popular Latin American literary works). Further hilarity ensued when his wife, his daughter, and his daughter's boyfriend tweeted inflammatory messages against Mexico's general populace; Mexican twitters tore the three apart.
Peña Nieto is the Justin Bieber of Mexican Politics. note French newspaper "Le Pétit Journal" gave him this epithet when it described him as a charming man, married to a former TV actress, wealthy, good-looking in TV, but also very dumb, after how Justin and Enrique had managed to bungle at general knowledge questions when they get off the script.
Besides that infamous Royal Shut Up, controversial late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez was a living and breathing meme magnet:
"...el soberano mesmo..."note a famous malapropism he said in the early days: he intended to say "El soberano mismo" (a fancy way to say "all the citizens", literally translates as "The very sovereign/the same sovereign"). Every imitator feels oligated to substitute the word "mismo" for "mesmo" to nail his accent
The vertical henhouses note In an ill fated atempt to reuse urban space, Chavez once proposed that residential buildings should get 'conucos y gallineros verticales', vegetable garden and (vertical) henhouses, to be self-sufficient. Let's just say that Gallinero vertical now is shorthand for 'another failed Bolivarian initiative'
"Aló Presidente"/Las cadenas note Chavez loved talking, and despite having his own Sunday show, he tend to link all the open signal radio and TV networks to make announcements or just make inane talk (the linking is named "Cadenas" (lit. "chains") in the local parlance). The "Aló Presidente" thing received a reply in the form of a protest gaita and a pseudo rival tv show named "Aló Ciudadano"; the "cadenas" thing are used in oppoitor slogans, often by quoting the lyrics "Abajo cadenas (down with the chains)" from the National Anthem, and they also received the protest Gaita treatment
Rojo Rojito note translating as "red, little red/reddie" The Bolivarian Revolution just loves the color red, using it on just everyting. After Chavez saying that his revolution was "roja, rojita", the phrase caught, both as a proud statement ("I'm with Mi Comandante because I'm rojo rojito") and a dismissive ephited ("be careful, that one there is a rojo rojito")
Mission Patriotic Troping note Every social project promoted by the gobernment is named "Misión [fill blank]", with a name appropriate to the beneficiary (being either a related historic character or event, or a narmy phrase). This has become a snowclone, ripe for parody in every flank
Esteban de Jesús note One of the promises Chavez did on his first days in powers was that he would change his name if after his first year in powers there was still kids abandoned on the street. When he obviously didn't either, political gossip columnist and radio host Marianella Salazar decided spontanously to call him Esteban de Jesús, a name baseds in a lame pun (Esteban de Jesús = Esteban de Dios = Esteban Dido = Este Bandido = This Thug), on the logic that if he didn't keep his promise, she wasn't obliged to keep calling him by his legal name. Since then, a good lot of people, mostly humorists, had jumpen in the bandwagon, to the point that when people says "Esteban" whitout specification, you know who they are really refering to.
"¡Déjenlo trabajar!" note An early excuse given for both revolutionary officials and Chavez fans for the perceived slow pace of the revolution was that "the opposition/the critics aren't letting Chavez do his work", an excuse being less and less credible with the time, what with the revolutionaries taking over everything and Chavez doing little actual presidential work. When around mid-late 2010 a big billboard emerged in a very centric place in Caracas with "¡Déjenlo trabajar! (Let him do his work!)" written on it, the thing became both an Ascended Meme and a mockery magnet.
¡Mi Comandante! note Pro-Chavez people refer to his as "Mi comandante" because of him being "Comandante en Jefe" (Commander in chief) of the Army Forces among his presidential titles, despite his real militar ranking being much lower (to put it in perspective, in Venezuela all presidents, army mermbers or no, are named Commander in chief of the Armies). People against the pro-government faction uses the phrase mockingly
Mico Mandante note Humorists like to pun with the above title, in the lack of recpect spirit of the My Name Is Not Durwood trope. This in particular translates as "Governing monkey". Another popular puns are "Mi Comediante" (My Comedian) and "Mi Coma Andante" (My Walking Coma), albeit the latter has used more when talking about Fidel Castro
Chacumbele note The favorite nickname given to Chavez by prominent Opposition member Teodoro Petkoff. It comes from an old Cuba song about a man who was Driven to Suicide because of love betrayal, whose chorus empathized the fact: "Chacumbele, él mismito se mató". Referring on how both Chavez's close collaborators and the man himself undermine their own cause by acting in ways opposite to his official discourse
The long string of epithets given to oppositors: Escualidos, Apátridas, Majunches, etc. Said in Large Ham mode for maximum effect.
From Jamaica's political arena: "I can't recall." note During the 2011 commission of inquiry into the signing of controversial memoranda of understanding with American law firm Manatt, Phelps and Phillips over the extradition of notorious drug don Christopher "Dudus" Coke, then-security minister Dwight Nelson was repeatedly grilled over his knowledge of events connected to the signing of the MO Us, which resulted from the security forces' incursion into Kingston that led to the deaths of 73 people in the effort to arrest Coke; for the majority of questions posed to Nelson, his response was "I can't recall." The phrase itself gained memetic status through reggae artiste Tony Rebel's song, aptly titled "I Can't Recall," and is now frequently utilized among Jamaicans to indicate they genuinely cannot remember some important detail.
Social Justice Sally. note A parody of hypocritical and ill-informed social justice 'activists' on Tumblr (and, by extension, elsewhere) who appear to use social justice causes primarily as an excuse to bully others, seek attention and act self-righteous rather than actually seek social justice, and who tend to come off as just as bigoted and blinkered against their chosen targets as those they supposedly oppose. The name 'Sally' plays on the term 'social justice ally', who is by definition someone who genuinely supports the cause and those struggling within it in a more reasonable and sensible fashion; the meme itself is not limited to feminism, as the name might suggest, but covers any kind of social justice cause.
