About

Beto Standing on Tables refers to Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke's habit of delivering speeches on tables and countertops in local food establishments in the opening days of his campaign. The regularity of such photos over the first week of his campaign led to jokes and satirical articles about O'Rourke jumping on tables.

Origin

On the first day of his campaign, O'Rourke entered a coffeeshop in Keokuk, Iowa. After introducing himself to attendees, he then climbed on top of a table and began speaking to the crowd.^[1]

Spread

O'Rourke continued to talk to crowds while standing atop tables and countertops in the following days of his campaign, including stops at Central Park Coffee in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa and Mount Vernon, Iowa^[2] (shown below).

As photos of O'Rourke on tables continued to circulate on the campaign trail, he inspired multiple satirical articles about the habit. Eater^[2] and Elle^[3] both published pieces about O'Rourke on countertops, subtly mocking the trend, with Elle writing, "It's a move that seems intended to improve sight lines and perhaps subliminally connote leadership. Instead, it's giving me 'Cool English Teacher Who Watches Dead Poets Society Every Weekend.'" Twitter user @david_j_roth theorized that while O'Rourke's table photos may be silly, they could be a ploy to assert his youth and energy as opposed to Donald Trump (shown below). User @jamesvasile said the trend for him was having the effect of making O'Rourke look like a privileged white dude (shown below, right).

Others began making jokes about the trend. For example, @elmendorfzack joked "beto o'rourke will not stop until he has stood on every table in the US" (shown below, left). User @jameswheaties joked that the custodial staff of the establishments Beto visited would be displeased with him standing on all the tables (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References