About

Hmm Today I Will Vote for a Third Party refers to an exploitable meme format based on a Rage Comic in which a voter in a two-party system casts his vote for a third-party candidate, with his vote allowing the candidate which was least desirable for the voter to win. A subformat of the Hmm Today I Will meme, the format has been used to ridicule third-party voters since 2018 and saw spikes in virality during election periods in the United States.

Origin

The Hmm Today I Will Vote for a Third Party format is based on the Hmm Today I Will meme, which was first used online in the early 2010s and regained ironic popularity in 2017.

On November 14th, 2018, Redditor J-Dad posted a four-panel meme based on the format in which a man in a Don't Tread On Me shirt casts his vote for a third party candidate, presumably libertarian, in an election taking place in a two-party system country, presumably the United States. As a result, the Republican candidate loses by just one vote, with the Democrat pushing an anti-gun policy and winning the election.

The post (shown below) garnered over 140 upvotes in the /r/Libertarian^[1] subreddit in six months. Authorship of the meme is unconfirmed.

Spread

On September 19th, 2019, Redditor BB-Poltergeist posted the earliest found edit of the image, a Minecraft meme about the 2019 Biome Vote, that received 10 upvotes in the /r/PewdiepieSubmissions^[2] subreddit in six months (shown below).

During the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, in which Democratic candidate Joe Biden beat Republican candidate Donald Trump by a margin of five percent, the original meme saw viral spread online.

For example, on November 5th, 2020, Redditor Covfefe045 posted the image in the /r/Conservative^[3] subreddit, where it received over 3,800 upvotes prior to the post being locked. On November 6th, Redditor cosmicmangobear posted an edit that imagined a Libertarian candidate winning the election. The edit (shown below) garnered over 11,000 upvotes in the /r/PoliticalCompassMemes^[4] in four years.

On May 30th, 2023, X user @SocDoneLeft posted a version of the meme in which a leftist replaced the libertarian, and the Republican won the election instead of the Democratic candidate. The post (shown below) garnered over 1,600 upvotes and 26,000 likes in two years and was widely circulated alongside the original version.

In late October and early November 2024, the meme format saw a spike in usage due to the upcoming 2024 United States Presidential Election.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References