2024 election memes have been as much a part of this insufferably long campaign season as polls, gun violence, and existential despair. From the Dark Brandon jokes to lies about Haitian migrants eating pets, almost every newsworthy event around the three notable candidates has been accompanied by memes during this age of internet humor.
On this day, when the exhausting slog will (hopefully) finally end within hours, we celebrate the most iconic election memes that got us through this mind-wrenching period in U.S. history.
1. Dark Brandon
Long before President Joe Biden bowed out of the race, Democrats appropriated the right-wing “Let’s go Brandon” meme to allow him to embrace the persona of Dark Brandon. With red glowing eyes and a sinister smile, Dark Brandon let Biden show his tough guy side while still maintaining the dignity and grace that the president should have.
This was one of the very few political memes that the Biden campaign fully engaged in, even using the Dark Brandon image for their website’s 404 error page. This continued even after questions about the origins of its imagery.
2. Confused Biden / It’s So Joever
The June presidential debate between Biden and Trump put the final nail in the coffin for the president’s second term after he stumbled through his talking points, often losing his train of thought and making expressions people compared to the blank-faced Wojak. His poor performance led folks on both sides to declare that it was “so Joever” for him, and they were right.
3. Kamala is Brat, Coconut trees, and the context of all in which you live and what came before you
No presidential candidate has ever had her campaign quotes so meme’d as Vice President Kamala Harris. The Democrat quickly gained a reputation for dropping unusual, flowery lines that might make you stop and think—or, if you’re internet-poisoned like the rest of us, make you stop and meme.
One of the best of these explains why one of Harris’ unofficial campaign symbols is the coconut tree and comes from something her mother used to say to her:
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
Another Harris meme that baffled the older generations came from English singer Charli XCX, who declared in July that “Kamala IS Brat,” referring to the concept after which her summer album was named. What is brat? If you don’t get it by now, you never will.
Honorable mention to another favored Harris phrase that harks back to her 2020 campaign: “What can be, unburdened by what has been.”
4. JD Vance Couch memes
Trump’s running mate is nearly as weird as the former president, which made it easier to believe a joke tweet saying that J.D. Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy contains a confession that he used to be intimate with couches.
Almost as amusing were the gags around Vance’s claim that supporters of Democrats are largely made up of miserable “childless cat ladies.”
5. Trump’s ear bandage / Trump assassination memes
Remember the time someone nearly assassinated Trump? Remember the second time it happened? It feels like those incidents should have had a bigger impact on the American public, but it turns out that we’re so used to gun violence now that we just made memes about it.
These got even better when Trump showed up with his little ear bandage and his supporters started wearing them, too.
6. The Secret Service Sloped Roof meme
While the attempted assassination of Trump didn’t shock the public as much as any of us expected, what did catch some attention were the odd excuses by the Secret Service around how they let that guy get so close to killing a presidential candidate.
The idea that the sloped roof was too dangerous to be guarded by their agents led to memes from angry Trump supporters as well as amused liberals, especially the “Good Slope, Bad Slop” gag.
7. They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats, they’re doing transgender operations on illegal aliens
Republican candidate Donald Trump is plenty quotable himself, though the things he says tend to be a different, much worse kind of weird. In September, during his debate with Harris, Trump gave whatever legitimacy he could offer to the false and racist rumors that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio were stealing local pets to eat.
Liberals leaped to make memes out of this absurd claim, with many of them starring Alf about Trump’s insistence on calling immigrants “aliens,” much like the Nazis did.
Trump lied again about migrants during the same debate, claiming that they come to the U.S. to get free gender-affirming surgeries in immigrant detention centers. As for healthcare for the rest of us, Trump mentioned “concepts of a plan.”
8. Worried Tim Walz
While his performance was not as bad as Biden’s in June, Harris’s running mate Tim Walz also struggled during his debate with Vance. He didn’t have the Ivy League debate training that his opponent did and ended up making expressions that made him look afraid.
Vance, meanwhile, showed that he has much more charisma when interacting with a camera than with actual human beings. His pointed looks into the lens became a new meme image comparable to Jim’s famous 4th-wall-breaking stare from The Office.
9. Elon Musk Jumping
Elon Musk became more involved in the 2024 presidential campaign after he formally endorsed Trump in July. In addition to using Twitter as a right-wing propaganda machine and possibly illegally paying people millions to sign political petitions, he spoke at a Trump rally in October.
Before he could utter a word, however, he made sure to show off how awkward and goofy he was by inexplicably jumping into the air, exposing his belly, and making goofy faces.
10. Trump McDonald’s memes
Donald Trump appeared at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s on Oct. 20, as a publicity stunt, donning an apron and working the fries station at the restaurant. The campaign stop was meant as a dig at Harris, who has said she briefly worked at the fast-food chain in the 1980s, a claim Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on.
“I’ve now worked for 15 minutes more than Kamala,” he said.
More 2024 election memes:
- 40 of the funniest Voting Day memes
- The liberals are libbed up, libbing out, and posting memes after a big weekend
- P’nut The Squirrel memes follow his untimely death
- The 45 best 2024 election memes…so far
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