They're Asking Joe

About

They're Asking Joe is an image macro series featuring a screenshot from a video of Vice President Kamala Harris on the phone with President Joe Biden following their victory in the 2020 United States Presidential Election. Memers caption the image with various criticisms of the Biden administration, crafting mock conversations between Harris and Biden about demands from U.S. citizens.

Origin

On November 7th, 2020, Vice President Harris published a video of her conversation with President Biden after their ticket won the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The post received more than 48 million views, 3.3 million likes and 755,000 retweets in less than four months (shown below).

We did it, @JoeBiden. pic.twitter.com/oCgeylsjB4

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 7, 2020

On January 20th, 2021, Twitter^[1] user @Ravh301 posted a screenshot from the video with the caption, "They're asking for their money, Joe." In the tweet, @Ravh301 is likely referring to economic stimulus checks promised in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The tweet received more than 686,000 likes 119,000 retweets in less than two weeks (shown below).

Precursor

We Did It, Joe

We Did It, Joe is a memorable quote uttered by the United States Vice President Kamala Harris to U.S. President Joe Biden in a viral video of the two on the phone following their reported victory in the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. Audio from the video inspired a series of lip-sync dubs and parodies on TikTok and Twitter in November 2020.

Spread

Following the post, people began sharing the image with variations of the caption. Many of these examples focused on things other than the Biden administration, using the format to make jokes about pop-culture. On January 20th, 2021, for example, Twitter^[2] user @rachellaider tweeted the image with the caption, "They’re asking us to free Britney Spears, Joe." The tweet received more than 4,800 likes and 850 retweets in less than two weeks (shown below, left).

However, others focused on government policy and criticisms of the administration. On January 21st, Twitter^[3] user @kikosdream tweeted, "They’re remembering i’m a cop joe," referring to Harris' past as a prosecutor. The tweet received more than 10,000 likes and 1,700 retweets in less than one week (shown below, center). Twitter^[4] user @bigblackjacobin tweeted, "They’re asking when we’re gonna reclassify gig workers as employees, Joe," referring to Harris' brother-in-law's position as the chief legal officer for Uber, which successfully campaigned to label drivers contractors rather than employees in 2020.^[5][6] The post received more than 14,000 likes and 1,200 retweets in less than one week (shown below, right).

On January 25th, 2021, the website StayHipp^[7] published a report on the meme.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

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External References