If you’ve been on the internet for even a minute this week, you’ll have seen a grumpy and chilly looking Bernie Sanders turned into a meme.

While waiting for the swearing-in of Joe Biden as President on Wednesday, January 20th, Bernie was captured cross-legged and stone-faced, sporting a winter combination of coat and mittens that disregarded any pomp and ceremony. It was wonderfully unpretentious and wonderfully Bernie.

Biden had barely been officially sworn-in before the memes of Bernie started overwhelming social media. Without trying, he’s become the biggest meme of 2021 so far (the best part of it all is that Bernie himself won’t even know about his newfound meme status or doesn’t actually care if he does).

Something about his passive-aggressive waiting struck a chord with the music industry especially, an industry that has effectively been waiting patiently for something to happen since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Variety, one of the earliest successful memes came from Dan Case, tour manager for Toronto’s excellent punks PUP. He cleverly placed Bernie as a character anyone who’s ever been to a gig will recognise immediately: the impatient merchandise stall worker, wanting to sell just a few band t-shirts and vinyls, watching fans shuffle past with sideways glances holding warm beers in plastic cups.

“Being a merch person for a support band can be a tough, thankless gig,” Case told Variety. “You have to stay at the table all night with the hopes that someone finally pays attention to what you’re selling. I’m sure Bernie can relate to this.”

Tough, thankless gigs are Bernie’s modus operandi. The success of the meme also speaks to just how much people are missing live music, even the lesser parts of the experience.

Bernie hasn’t just found himself trying to flog merchandise. He’s found his way onto classic album covers by the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Drake.

Perhaps nothing sums up the enormity of the Bernie meme than this: there’s already an entire Instagram account devoted to it, theberniealbums.

Peruse the 60+ memes of Bernie in various iconic album covers and see where he truly belongs. We’re partial to him rudely splitting up Meg and Jack on the White Stripes’ Elephant cover, or chilling with all the girls and Lana Del Rey on the Chemtrails Over The Country Club cover.

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