BERNIE SANDERS PROVIDES A FRESH PERSPECTIVE TO CYCLING MEMES

While there were plenty of takeaways at the newly elected President Joe Biden’s oath taking ceremony, the U.S. Senator of Vermont, Bernie Sanders became a hit amongst the meme makers.

Bernie Sanders turned up in a causal winter outfit wearing mittens and a warm jacket, and watched the proceedings unfold at the Capitol hill in Washington D.C.

Bundled up, the 79-year old politician sat crossed-legged and socially-distanced on a folding chair. Described as ‘Grumpy chic’ by the American media, Bernie Sanders winter fashion attire caught the eye of the internet world and soon his image went viral.

Photo credit: Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images

Within few hours after Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th U.S. President, a twitter user had already released a transparent PNG image that opened up the Pandora’s box for the meme factory.

The standard meme later was evolved into versions of all sorts – Bernie was seen at museums, on magazine covers, at tourist spots, with music bands, in TV soaps and as per the whims and fancies of the digital creators.

As the viral memes went global, Nick Sawhney, a graduating student from New York City and a twitter user created a website that allows Bernie to go anywhere using google maps street view.

By the the end of the day, Bernie kept trending on social media, featuring in funny images.

The cycling community too came up with their versions – the most striking image for me was ‘Dinking – Bernie with a lady’ by Brandon Lust known as ‘American Fietser’.

His was probably the first tweet that appeared on my timeline, and eventually I photo shopped Bernie making him sit next to me at Marine Drive, one of the popular destination for cyclists in Mumbai.