Find yourself groaning at America's election coverage? Check out some of the more popular memes about the candidates that will put a red, white and blue smile on your frowny face.
Yes, voting is important, and choosing a leader is at the core of making democracy work. But even the most obsessive political wonk can get a little tired of hearing about the 2016 US presidential race and the latest dumb thing candidates on either side of the political aisle have done or said. All the news reports on TV make it feel like we're watching a Nascar race that's been going on for 11 months.
If you're in this worn-out demo, you're in luck. The Internet empathizes with you and spit out a whole host of memes during the Iowa caucuses on Monday that saw victories on the Republican side for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and the Democratic side for, uh, well...no one seems to be sure yet as of 1 a.m. Central. Are we sure the caucuses didn't take place in Florida?
The biggest winner in the Iowa caucuses meme war goes to someone dubbed "Sticker Kid." While Hillary Clinton gave a (for lack of a better word right now) "victory" speech in Iowa and the TV cameras caught an unidentified college student who reminds me of Adam from "Workaholics" photobombing the former first lady by sticking campaign stickers on his face and acting like a third-rate Jim Carrey impersonator. Gawker gave the guy his meme name on its Twitter account, and his rubbery face spread across the Internet in ways that Clinton's campaign staffers surely don't want.
Gawker is officially calling Iowa for Sticker Kid pic.twitter.com/HMjiljGAqA
— Gawker (@Gawker) February 2, 2016
Meanwhile, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders may be in an extremely close second right now but he must be feeling pretty good about how far he's come against a candidate every pundit thought had already sewn up the nomination months ago. Twitter user @davidleehdz shows us how he thinks Sanders might be celebrating in Iowa right now.
damn, what an amazing speech! @BernieSanders walked off that stage like #IowaCaucus pic.twitter.com/C0vv4tmmbd
— dave (@davidleehdz) February 2, 2016
A lot of political commentators are crediting Sanders' extremely close placing in the polls on Monday due to his ability to garner the youth vote. Comedian Jeff Wysaski has been running a series of Sanders vs. Clinton surveys on his Tumblr page Obvious Plant that showcase the youth gap between the candidates. You can read the whole series on Wysaski's Tumblr but here's my personal favorite.
Now brace yourselves because I'm going to talk about Donald Trump. The longtime Republican front runner has gotten more TV air time than a test pattern. He's bound to get even more after tonight. The Trump meme storm started even before news outlets started announcing the results from the voting precincts. Funny or Die kicked things off on its Twitter page with a video that depicted what "Groundhog Day's" Phil Conners, played by Bill Murray, might do if he kept waking up to the announcement of a Trump victory.
What it would be like if Phil Connors woke up on Groundhog Day in a world where Trump won the #IowaCaucus.https://t.co/ZvVVqiah43
— Funny Or Die (@funnyordie) February 1, 2016
Twitter user @Jim_Sheridan also imagined what Trump might look like as the former "Apprentice" host prepared to start pressing the flesh and reach out to people's hearts in Iowa.
#Trump kicks off the #IowaCaucus by ripping out Ted Cruz's heart to appease "The Old Gods" pic.twitter.com/UeytT1bwRM
— Jim Sheridan (@Jim_Sheridan) February 2, 2016
However, a lot of people (most of all, Trump himself) were surprised to learn that Trump actually came in second to Cruz. The folks at "Late Night with Seth Meyers" posted a video of his reaction to the results on their Twitter page. Frankly, his hair has never looked better.
Donald Trump's actual reaction when he found out Ted Cruz won the #IowaCaucus. pic.twitter.com/Hq6bITl2YC
— Late Night (@LateNightSeth) February 2, 2016