Who Needs Policies When We Have AU? Inside The World Of Parody Political Fan Art

It is an understatement to say that this election cycle has been a fraught one. Simultaneously overshadowed and intensified by a global pandemic, it made sense that an anything-goes attitude has ended up applying to the memes that accompanied it.

This is a mindset that has been seen in the campaigns of candidates at all stages; it has been involved in everything from Trump’s dedicated team of professional media trolls to Mike Bloomberg paying bigtime memers to produce content for him.

However, what couldn’t be predicted were the off-brand memes, with the upstanding citizens of America and beyond providing the commentary self-interested campaign material never could. A lot of this has riffed on specific events and promotions (e.g. Mike Pence’s fly, Bernie once again asking for your financial support, etc.), but other content has taken an even more imaginative leap. Enter: fan art of current and former presidential candidates as American University LGBTQ+ college students, examples of which have gained huge traction on Twitter over the course of this month.

This was a format that took no prisoners, as Donald Trump became an asthmatic 19-year-old e-boy who is “OBSESSED w/ anime.” Bernie Sanders “stan(s) Marx <3” and “wears a crop top even in 40-degree weather.” Joe Biden is a “softboi with social anxiety” and the boyfriend of "Don," as well as a recent Islam convert (“Inshallah”). Even Hillary Clinton gets a look in, and guess what? She’s DeviantArt famous. Basically, if you have even a passing knowledge of fandom culture, Tumblr-influenced identity politics and how mainstream politics might gel with the two, these drawings are tailor-made to activate your fight-or-flight response.

The series produced a wide range of predictably horrified reactions, but it was not an original idea. It has an infamous precursor, which dates back to 2017. It can be blamed on the short-lived, but nonetheless infamous Tumblr ask-crammaster-ham, which was dedicated to the Hamilton fandom.

To the uninitiated, "Miku Binder Thomas Jefferson" might look like a word salad, but it is a phrase capable of sending shivers down even the most dedicated AU lover’s spine. Creator Umbrony reimagined the character as, amongst other things, a former drug addict, a furry and a trans man who, true to his nickname, wears a binder with a Hatsune Miku pattern on it. Moreover — bearing in mind that in real life, the man was a prolific slaveowner — he wears a shirt bearing the words “Met God. She’s Black.” Ever since the character sheet has done the rounds on various social media as an example of premium quality cringe, especially within the more politically engaged fandom communities.

While its inspiration may have been deadly serious, the AU presidential candidates are a confirmed spoof. The mastermind behind them is Kordon, an Ireland-based artist who is just as baffled as the rest of us about his creation. “I can't really explain what went through my head,” he said.

Kordon is part of a community that jokes a lot about politics and this encouraged his work. According to him, he gained the idea from an earlier, darker spinoff. “One of my [Twitter] mutuals made a Miku binder parody with the Unabomber a few months before I did, so I can't say I came up with the concept.”

As with any type of internet phenomenon that gets blown out of context, he has faced extensive backlash for his creations. This has come from many different groups, including the LGBT+ community (which he is a part of) and from K-pop stans, many of whom took offense at Trump’s Loona shoutout.

“The quote retweets were very toxic. People were sending me death threats, and others were like 'white people are so dumb,' even though I’m not even white,” he said.

Unfortunately, aggression remains the default hivemind reaction to combining the dumb with the political — but that doesn’t stop it from happening regularly in the name of the perfect in-joke. Even if you don’t engage much with politics, it is hard not to feel the tension that has surrounded it over the past couple of years. It makes sense that we might want to diffuse the existential dread of what’s to come with something that has been manufactured to be as ridiculous as possible.

Fandom is the perfect shorthand for this, the unique impact it has on people influenced greatly by the platforms it has flourished on. While Tumblr may have encouraged a generation to explore underrepresented social justice issues alongside its users’ creativity, the misguided combination of the two has generated many powerful moments of delusion over the years — a tradition that has been continued on parts of Twitter. Content such as these AU presidential candidates capture the imaginations (and haunt the nightmares) of so many because it reminds us of the raw feeling of searching out right and wrong in what we consume and applies it to the most provocative issues it can.

Presenting us with false sincerity, confusion and finger-pointing, the AU presidential candidates have managed to achieve almost as much as many of the 2020 presidential debates have. Uniting of politicians with cursed online subculture gives a new meaning to the idea of a cult of personality. And while it might not make a difference at the polling booth, it does help confirm what many already suspect: for all we might need it, politics is deeply, deeply cringe.

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