About

"Throw Your Hands Up" is a memorable quote uttered by former Governor John Hickenlooper to Senator Bernie Sanders during the 2020 Democratic Party Presidential Debates in Detroit. Sanders responded to the comment by throwing his hands up, which Hickenlooper then mimicked.

Origin

On July 26th, 2019, CNN aired the Second Democratic Debate. During the debate, former Governor John Hickenlooper mocked Sanders' arm gesticulations and criticized his policies, calling them too extreme. Bernie mocked Hickenlooper by raising his arms up in response to the comment (shown below).

Spread

Some online joked about the arm gestures, comparing them to the wave. CNN's Andrew Kaczynski tweeted a GIF of the moment with the caption "they definitely did the wave." The post received more than 3,200 likes and 740 retweets in 24 hours (shown below).

they definitely did the wave pic.twitter.com/S8O86nfd3d

— andrew kaczynski🤔 (@KFILE) July 31, 2019

Throughout the evening, others on Twitter remixed the moment. The verified account for the comedy television series The Daily Show posted a remix. The post received more than 7,400 likes and 1,500 retweets in 24 hours (shown below).

THROW YOUR HANDS UP pic.twitter.com/dddb4BxOLd

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) July 31, 2019

Twitter^[1] published a Moments page on the reaction to the response. Several media outlets reported on the meme, including Newsweek,^[2] HuffPost^[3] and more.

Various Examples

I anticipate some good memes of that Hickenlooper/Sanders “throw your hands up” exchange#DemDebates pic.twitter.com/VehE5vkTS8

— Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Ph.D. (@nataliapetrzela) July 31, 2019

Hickenlooper: you can throw your hands up all you want.

Bernie: I will #demdebate pic.twitter.com/AS4FcgDxmp

— Moumita 🌹Ahmed (@disruptionary) July 31, 2019

Hickenlooper: Throw your hands up.
Bernie: pic.twitter.com/K7pCVbnkZw

— Daily Kos (@dailykos) July 31, 2019

Search Interest

External References