Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff is more of a White House supporting cast member, present in the scene but rarely in the spotlight.
Emhoff, who is married to Vice President Kamala Harris, is finally getting his moment in the sun, specifically the white-hot lights of Twitter, where he’s inspired something of a meme frenzy.
Whereas often memes are invoked by gaffes or tone-deaf takes, Emhoff (or, more likely, someone on his staff) got the meme treatment for posing a milquetoast question about the COVID-19 vaccine.
“What motivated you to get vaccinated?” the tweet simply read. A feeding and meming frenzy soon began.
Many seemed to feel that the answer is so obvious—they don’t want to get COVID-19—that it’s absurd to even ask, like asking someone why they hit the brakes instead of driving over a cliff.
“Not wanting to die was a huge factor for me!” tweeted Chrissy Teigen, who’s recently returned to the platform after a brief, self-imposed hiatus.
Some people took the question more seriously, as it was intended. They shared stories of health issues, wanting to see loved ones, fears of passing along the virus, and moving tales of personal loss.
The internet being the internet, plenty of people took Emhoff’s innocuous tweet as an opening to make jokes.
“Free 5G coverage,” quipped Dave Jorgensen of the Washington Post.
“I just want to get back to licking door knobs, man,” tweeted @PacificSocial1.
An extremely honest subset admitted that they just want to get laid.
“Sex. sex in foreign places. group sex. random sex. sex in club bathrooms,” replied one, “yeah, I pretty much just wanted to fuck again.”
Others were brutally honest. “I can’t spend another day at home with my children,” tweeted MSNBC analyst Matthew Miller. A few shared more vindictive reasons for getting the shot(s).
The COVID-19 vaccine is free and available to people aged 16 and up.
