About

No Malarkey is a campaign slogan coined by 2020 US Presidential candidate Joe Biden during his Iowa bus tour. The phrase has been mocked in media and used ironically online for its use of an obscure and old-fashioned colloquialism.

Origin

Malarkey is a term described by Merriam-Webster as "insincere or foolish talk".^[1]

On December 1st, 2019 The Biden campaign launched its 8 day "No Malarkey Bus tour", traveling across the state ahead of the primary.^[2]

We’re officially on the road for our eight-day #NoMalarkey Tour across Iowa! pic.twitter.com/cGSblBnHoZ

— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) December 2, 2019

Precursor

Prior to the "No Malarkey" bus tour, Biden had been known to use the term "malarkey" at various political events and in speeches (example below).

Spread

The phrase was soon mocked by pundits and news outlets, though some praised it for its earnestness.^[3][4]

The meme would eventually see spread as an ironic meme and is often used in a similar fashion to the word "cringe" (example below, left). For example, on January 10th, 2020, an anonymous Redditor ^[5] shared a "Malarkey Meter" image (shown below, left). The post received more than 680 points (shown below, right).

On February 12th, 2020, Twitter ^[6] user @ElSangito tweeted, "imagine joe biden supporters swarming all your political tweets replying with 'bro u just posted malarkey.'" The tweet received 3,600 likes and 420 retweets in less than two months (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References