Gawker
Barack Obama is like Kermit the Frog: Someone else may be your personal favorite, but he's the one that gets the most attention, so he's the one who ends up in all the parodies. Obama can be mashed up with any meme, because anyone can assign him any qualities: like Kermit, his everyman status makes him ripe for satire. To demonstrate, in no particular order but numbered anyway, here are the top twelve memes that have carried Obama to the nomination.
1. The Progress Poster: By the artist who brought you "OBEY" comes "PROGRESS."
Part of: The eternal meme that is Obey Giant, a graffiti joke turned art that started with stickers of Andre the Giant appearing in Charleston in 1986.
Stance: Pro.
See Also: The Pope version. And the Mavis Beacon version.
2. Barack Obama is Your New Bicycle: A series of one-liners about how much Obama likes you, the reader.
Part of: The "single serving site" meme.
Stance: Whimsically Pro.
See Also: Hillary Is Mom Jeans
3. Barack, Bert and Ernie: Ernie convinces Bert to vote for Obama.
Part of: Sesame Street fanfic.
Stance: Pro.
See Also: The Count explains race relations (a promising title poorly executed).
4. Barack OBollywood: A floating Barack head dances to Punjabi music.
Part of: Internet's obsession with modern Indian culture, stretching back to the classic music video "Tunak Tunak."
Stance: WTF
See Also: Some ad implying that Obama smokes dope a lot.
5. The Empire Strikes Barack: Obama as the hero of Star Wars.
Part of: The most lucrative franchise to ever spawn a million memes, jokes and mashups.
Stance: Pro.
See Also: Baracky: Obama as Rocky.
6. Obamacrombie: T-shirts mocking the guys dressed in Abercrombie and Fitch sitting behind Obama in a televised speech.
Part of: Every joke is worth putting on your chest.
Stance: Meh.
See Also: "Who killed Obama?" sweatshirt.
7. White People Like Obama: A chapter, maybe, of an upcoming blog book.
Part of: The book version of "Stuff White People Like."
Stance: Heh.
See Also: "Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle" also got a book deal.
8. Vote Different: Hillary as Big Brother.
Part of: Everything indie is like Apple.
Stance: Pro.
See Also: Hillary's a PC, Obama's a Mac — really.
9. Obama Girl: Oh, you know. Some girl went nuts for Obama and made the new "Dick in a Box."
Stance: Pro and sexy enough for YouTube.
Part of: Barely Political, a web show about being pro-Obama and sexy enough for YouTube.
See Also: McCain Girls: Raining McCain.
10. Under Barack Obama: A MADtv parody of "Umbrella."
Part of: A year of "Umbrella" parodies.
Stance: Pro-interracial-banging.
Actually Don't See Also: Obama and Hillary caught kissing.
11. Yes We Can: will.i.am's spoken-word song based on an Obama speech.
Part of: Songs for Obama; will.i.am's followup was "We Are The Ones."
Stance: Pro and embarrassingly earnest.
Part of: Celebrities love Obama.
See Also: John McCain: john.he.is
12. Muppets for President: What do you expect?
Part of: The Muppets, second only to Star Wars in mashup eminence.
Stance: Silly
See Also: Nothing else. Ever. Except maybe Dramatic Chipmunk and Pretty much everywhere, it's gonna be hot.
