This is one of these stories whose subject matter begins as something actually important but arguably sort of boring, and increasingly gets less important but more entertaining as it goes on. A plot thread born out of a congressional check on the executive branch of the United States government became a vehicle for snarky cartoon-laden internet funnies.
On Thursday, May 16, 2024, the House Oversight Committee met to vote on whether or not to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over transcripts of Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur.
But about 35 minutes in, it began to devolve into a back-and-forth between Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) over each other’s physical appearance.
This went on for a long time, but the two main highlights happened when Greene suggested to Crockett, “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading,” and later when Crockett asked the chairman “If someone on this committee then starts talking about someone’s bleach blonde bad built butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?”
If you listen to the clip, you wouldn’t be alone in thinking there’s some rhythm to it. And people don’t like Marjorie Taylor Greene.
She’s a divisive figure with a 20% favorability rating in a +22 Republican district in a country where her party hasn’t won the popular vote in a generation. So all that said, it’s no wonder the internet took this quip as an opportunity to dunk on her.
Within days, TikTokers began creating remixes of the phrase set to hip-hop beats, because it’s just that catchy. And at least three of them earned six figures in plays within a week of Crockett’s original comment.
Clips of the exchange also circulated all over Reddit on /r/clevercomebacks, /r/PublicFreakout, /r/WhitePeopleTwitter, and more.
On X, aka Twitter, users began posting actual visual memes of it, referencing cartoons, movies, video games, and other internet ephemera. And even using the phrase as a nickname for Marjorie Taylor Greene herself.
It’s fun because it is pretty catchy. This is one of these memes that’s pretty hard to divorce from its political origins, but not for lack of trying.
Memers have used it to caption moments from White Chicks, Powerpuff Girls, Bob’s Burgers, and many more. As well as to take direct, petty snipes at Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Unsurprisingly Crockett is behind all of this tweeting that “the internet is undefeated!”
And the Sunday following the exchange, she filed to trademark her viral slapback, which is probably a smart move because there’s now merch for sale in the form of T-shirts, hats, coffee mugs, and more.
In an appearance on The View, she claimed that proceeds from her trademark will go toward Democratic congressional campaigns in an effort to take back the House of Representatives in November of 2024.
So maybe “Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Body” isn’t the most high-brow thing ever uttered in the halls of Congress, but it’s one of the most memorable of the year.
Michelle Obama was famously quoted saying “when they go low, we go high” at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. And then they lost that presidential election. It seems like in 2024, they’re trying a different tactic.
It’s the election year of “brat,” “weird,” JD Vance’s couch, and basically every moment that could go viral, Democrats are trying to take advantage of.
We’ll see if it works.
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