Conservative podcaster David J. Harris, Jr. accidentally created the “guy in plane wearing a convicted felon shirt” meme, after filming himself on a plane wearing a pro-Trump T-shirt. Harris, Jr. has made a name for himself by wearing merchandise supporting the 2024 campaign of former President Donald Trump and going out in public to film reactions.
In this particular attempt, he didn’t get as much attention for his shirt portraying a ballot between President Joe Biden and “convicted felon,” and the podcaster’s own reaction to this became an exploitable meme.
David J. Harris Jr. doesn’t get the reactions he hoped for
This video meme shows Harris sitting in his seat on a flight as other passengers board. He’s filming himself with his shirt in full view, which displays the name “Joe Biden” first next to an empty ballot bubble and “convicted felon” next with the bubble filled in, thus indicating that Harris intends to vote for Trump regardless or perhaps because of his 34 felony convictions.
Harris watches the faces of the other passengers as they go by, indicating he is expecting reactions to his shirt. While a couple of people do react positively to the content, there are long periods in which he’s just sitting there periodically smiling or greeting people who happen to accidentally make eye contact.
The implication is that most people weren’t interested in giving Harris the attention he was seeking, and based on the memes popping up on Twitter and TikTok, many seem to feel that this made him look a bit sad. Twitter users are posting clips from the video with captions such as “When you’re on aux and no is asking what song is this” and other “me when” jokes.
Who is the guy in the plane wearing a ‘Joe Biden/ convicted felon’ shirt?
Harris describes himself as “an entrepreneur, author, and podcast host” and supports many right-wing politicians and pundits, mostly by wearing a lot of pro-Trump merch. He has appeared on conservative networks such as Fox News, OANN, and Newsmax.
His main gimmick appears to be wearing inflammatory hats and shirts mostly promoting the Trump campaign or attacking his rivals in public places to farm reactions for content and portray himself as very brave for doing so. He also happens to sell a lot of this merchandise himself on his website, frequently promoting these items to his fans.
On May 30, 2024, Donald Trump was convicted of all 34 submitted felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. These convictions increased support for Trump among his established fan base as they embraced the idea that the trial was a form of persecution against their charismatic leader.
It looks as though Harris posted and deleted the plane video with the convicted felon shirt multiple times on his Twitter account, but the first post that is still up dates back to June 7, 2024. The video shows one of his original tweets bragging that he boarded first because he was in First Class and therefore everyone had to walk past him—a point he repeated in his new tweet.
A similar video posted to his Instagram account on June 9 shows a tweet that says he was flying out of Seattle, a city known to have a high liberal population, which helps explain why he assumed he would get negative reactions to the shirt.
David J. Harris Jr. plane video transforms into a meme
The meme use of the video didn’t kick off until late July after Vice President Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. This may have only made the meme funnier as it spread across Twitter.
User @isolatereggie made a joke about being on the aux on July 22, gaining over 4.7 million views and over 117,000 likes within three days.
@davidjharrisjr People always ask me… and this is why friends! Tik tok doesnt like it when it when I tell you where to find my stuff, so… 🤣 #airplane #time ♬ original sound – David Harris Jr
Harris himself may have helped turn his video into a meme by reposting the footage several times into July across his various social media accounts, including one from his TikTok account posted on July 8 with a voice-over talking about how bold and brave he is for wearing pro-Trump stuff.
More examples
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