AOC Fartgate

About

AOC Fartgate refers to memes and discussions surrounding a viral video in which American politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez comments on the United States' responsibilities in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in which a sound resembling flatulence is heard. The video spawned brapposting reactions and memes on X / Twitter in mid-October 2023.

Origin

On October 12th, 2023, American politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted^[1] a video in which she commented on the United States' responsibility in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At the 0:39-second mark of the video, a sound resembling flatulence can be heard. The video (shown below) received over 7.6 million views, 6,300 reposts and 26,300 likes on X / Twitter in one day.

The United States’ responsibility is to human rights. That means supporting the safety of the Israeli people and preventing the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/7CsuN6uO3w

— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) October 12, 2023

Later on October 12th, 2023, X^[2] user @PapiTrumpo quoted the video with the Popeyes Kid reaction, writing, "DID
@AOC JUST FART???😭🤣🤣🤣." The post received over 410 reposts and 1,600 likes in one day. Later that day, X^[3] user @CityBureaucrat quoted the video, writing, "What was that sound at 38 seconds." The post (shown below) garnered over 310 reposts and 5,100 likes in one day.

What was that sound at 38 seconds https://t.co/ACfAL5iCZW

— Second City Bureaucrat (@CityBureaucrat) October 12, 2023

Spread

Starting on October 12th, 2023, the video became a subject of brapposting reaction memes and jokes on X / Twitter, with some users using the hashtag "#AOCFartgate" alongside the trend. On that day, X user @drefanzor^[4] posted a fake thermal imaging edit of the video, which received over 4,400 reposts and 17,000 likes on X in one day (shown below).

At the 39 second mark it sounded like AOC farted;
we put the video under thermal infrared to confirm that she did, in fact, pollute the environment. #DilleyMemeTeam https://t.co/MKBg4Ck4CG pic.twitter.com/IDA8JwGKFa

— drefanzor memes (@drefanzor) October 13, 2023

More memes and references to the video got traction on X over the following day. For example, on October 12th, user @hayasaka_aryan posted^[5] an Oppenheimer reaction that gained over 50 reposts and 2,600 likes on the platform in one day. On October 13th, user @mask_bastard shared^[6] a Dust Storm Dog meme about the video that gained 17 reposts and over 1,000 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References