The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election just wrapped up, but there's a secret third candidate that has been flying under the radar this whole time. Some people are calling him "Godfrey G. Golden," others, "Joe Glubbin" or even just "Green Joe Biden."

The man looks like President Joe Biden if he took a sudden liking to neon green — and also had minor facial reconstruction surgery.

Despite the (very fake) Gleeks candidate's last-minute entry into the election, it seems as though people are really rallying around a somehow worse version of Biden in light of Trump's victory on election day.

Named after the musical television show Glee, exaggerated praise for the Gleeks candidate online has been paired with political statistics tracking his would-be electoral sweep. Here's where the bizarre meme got its legs.

Where Did 'Gleeks' Candidate Godfrey G. Golden Come From?

You might remember Joe Biden's disastrous last presidential debate this June — his lackluster performance played a key role in getting him to drop out and getting the Democratic party to push another politician to the fore. But the debate also inspired the birth of the "Gleeks" party, with Redditor /u/Shawakamigo posting the earliest known meme about Joe Glubbin to the subreddit /r/thomastheplankengine on June 28th, 2024.

The Redditor wrote, "Had a dream after the debate that there was a third party called the 'gleeks.'" The post showed former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden standing side-by-side with a third candidate onscreen. This guy looked like a deflated Biden and was shown donning a bright green tie and grey suit.

How Did Memes About The Gleeks Party Spread?

Redditor /u/Shawakamigo's meme was reposted across Reddit before it made its way over to Twitter / X. In June 2024, both @334_sandi and @geomaniac_ reposted the image to X, joking about how the third candidate was like the third Mario Brother. The tweets gathered over 70,000 and 100,000, respectively, in the following four months.

In early September, X user @DRAXOMOSPHERE resurfaced the meme, captioning the original image with the question, "What ever happened to this guy?" The post gathered nearly 100,000 likes in two months.

How Did The Gleek Party Candidate Get His Name?

On October 1st, TikToker @cantwiperight became one of the first to give the Gleeks candidate a name that stuck. They wrote, "Definitely voting for joe glubbin this election! #JoeGlubbin2024" and gathered over 300,000 plays in a month.

@cantwiperight Definitely voting for Joe Glubbin this election! #JoeGlubbin #cantwiperight #peak #election #2024 #tiktok #nature #photography #heysweetness ♬ original sound – cant wipe right

Closer to Election Day in the U.S., X user @Trey_Explainer tweeted on November 5th, 2024, "We’ll have to see what happens today…," captioning a fake Wikipedia article about the Presidential Election that showed the primary candidates as Donald Trump and Godfrey G. Golden, gaining over 11,000 likes in less than 24 hours.

The fake Wikipedia article was originally posted by Redditor^[9] Ouedouardo to the /r/AlternateHistoryMemes subreddit on July 22nd, where it received over 550 upvotes in four months.

What Are Some More Memes About Gleeks Candidate Godfrey G. Golden?

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For the full history of Gleeks Candidate Godfrey G. Golden, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.