Joe Biden's Blank Stare
Part of a series on June 2024 Presidential Debate. [View Related Entries]
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About
Joe Biden's Blank Stare refers to an absent facial expression the United States President Joe Biden made during the Presidential Debate hosted by CNN in June 2024 between him and his opponent former President Donald Trump. Following the debate, a still image and clip of Biden making the confused-looking stare were both used as caption formats and reaction images in memes.
Origin
On June 27th, 2024, during the 2024 CNN Presidential Debate between Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the latter accused the former of mismanaging the United States' troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. As Donald Trump was saying, "It was the most embarrassing day in the history of our country's life," Biden was seen staring blankly into the distance with his mouth slightly ajar for several seconds (video[1] shown below; 8:26 mark).
On June 27th, X[2] / Twitter user @DschlopesIsBack posted the clip to the platform, with the upload later being used by other users for caption memes.
Spread
The image and the clip of Joe Biden staring during the debate both saw use as caption memes over the following days. On June 27th, 2024, X[3] user @fiImgal posted the earliest notable meme based on the format, captioning the clip, "when you get so high you start getting scared." The post (shown below) received over 15,000 reposts and 122,000 likes in one day.
when you get so high you start getting scared pic.twitter.com/ommhOy36pK
— bethany (@fiImgal) June 28, 2024
Later that day, X[4] user @abcdentminded combined the clip with the lyrics of the song "The Dead Flag Blues" by Godspeed You! Black Emperor, with the edit (shown below) garnering over 1,000 reposts and 5,200 likes in one day.
— abcdent (@abcdentminded) June 28, 2024
The caption format achieved particular popularity among sports fans. For example, on June 27th, 2024, the X account @CBKReport posted a basketball meme that received over 230 reposts and 3,400 likes in one day (shown below, left). Also that day, the X account @SavageSports_ used the image in a meme, receiving over 1,700 likes and 120 reposts in the same timeframe (shown below, right).
The meme format of Biden staring blankly into the distance was also used in numerous memes on Reddit in late June 2024 (examples seen below, left and right).[5][6]
Various Examples
me at a concert realizing the artist is actually real pic.twitter.com/1ePoaOYvXx
— paris rae 🍉 (@parisrae13) June 28, 2024
Template
Search Interest
External References
[1] YouTube – CNN Presidential Debate: President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump
[2] X – @DschlopesIsBack
[4] X – @abcdentminded
[5] Reddit – r/dankmemes
[6] Reddit – r/dankmemes
