Barack Obama celebrated his 55th birthday on Thursday, and his BFF, Joe Biden, sent out a celebratory tweet that launched a thousand awwws.
Happy 55th, Barack! A brother to me, a best friend forever. pic.twitter.com/uNsxouTKOO
— VP Biden (Archived) (@VP44) August 4, 2016
Oh man. It’s. Just. The. Best. It gave us all the feels.
you’re such a good friend ❤️ pic.twitter.com/OqJUNbDCjD
— Alexis Benveniste (@apbenven) August 4, 2016
And we mean all of them.
https://twitter.com/dxcoulon/status/761254173010649088
So where did this beautiful display of masculine affection come from?
A simple Google search is all you need to reveal that the bracelets originate from a June 2016 BuzzFeed video, in which Obama demonstrated five simple tasks that are harder than registering to vote.
But anyone who’s been to summer camp knows friendship bracelets always carry a deep and special meaning. Let’s take a closer look at the magic within.
— #1 samir (@samir) August 4, 2016
The “Joe” bracelet features a slice of pie and a happy face. The pie is an obvious reference to Biden’s famous trip to Costco, where he was “looking for pies.”
https://twitter.com/somebiddy/status/758699965128507394
And the happy face? On the surface it seems like a random charm, but if you do your homework, it’s clearly a wink to Obama’s 2012 victory speech, a key moment in the duo’s friendship: Obama called Biden “America’s happy warrior,” a reference to the famous Wordsworth poem.
The “Barack” bracelet features two charms: a blue flower and a blue star.
Let’s start with the star. It’s no secret that Obama is a political superstar, and he frequently wears blue ties. But we think the charm carries deeper significance. Could it be the star is a coded reference to the commander-in-chief’s love for all things Star Wars? Possibly, even, a reference to this gloriously happy moment he shared with Michelle earlier this year?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_CvIU_6gDw
Yes. It must be.
And the blue flower is a clear reference to Obama’s home state of Hawaii. A July New York Times feature revealed that Obama once dreamed of “moving to Hawaii to open a T-shirt shack that sold only one size (medium) and one color (white). [The] dream was that [he] would no longer have to make decisions.”
Now that Obama’s term is coming to a close, might the dream become a reality?
If so, Barry, we’ve got a suggestion. We know you want to live a simple life, but please include a rack of friendship bracelets. We have a feeling customers will scoop them up like fresh pieces of pie.
