Those mittens still look as innocent as ever, and any attempt to force a deeper meaning out of them only gives unpleasant GCSE literature flashbacks. One month later, we unfortunately don’t seem any wiser. An article in the Intercept set out to analyse their hidden message: did they symbolise reserved judgement? A subtle warning? The conscience of liberals? Street cred? A “movement flex”? “It’s too soon to tell,” the author concluded at the time. People tried to decipher what the meme meant, and since all the other inauguration outfits were jam-packed with symbolism, the attention naturally fell on his mittens.

Something about the Bernie meme, and not just his cosy wool-and-fleece mittens, warmed our cold hearts, but as with almost anything that goes viral, the meme spread quicker than we could comprehend why.

The photo, which showed Bernie bundled up outside the faculty’s main building, received over 1,000 likes in just a couple of days and was reshared on many of our Instagram stories: “I love this uni,” a student commented (and that’s a sentence we’ve used sparingly this year!). But the image also travelled far on a meta-level the meme itself breached our conventional meme realms, escaping from meme pages into real estate listings, charity fundraisers, flat-pack furniture ads, and as some may recall – even UCL’s social media pages.Ī handful of faculties shared their own versions in the days following the inauguration, all catalysed by a post on the Instagram account of the UCL Institute of Education (IOE). An online “Put Bernie anywhere” generator, literally, allowed us to place Bernie anywhere, from the Moon to Mike Pence’s forehead and, according to the website’s creator, at least 9,849,938 places in-between before the site became too expensive to run. As the image swept across the internet, Bernie ended up in all kinds of unexpected places. Wearing a pair of big woollen mittens, one of the few coats he seems to own, a blue surgical mask, sporting two tufts of white hair and a remarkably unbothered demeanour, Bernie’s unpretentious look received worldwide attention for its contrast to the extravaganza of the occasion. A month later, it may no longer dominate our feeds, but that indelible image of the Vermont senator from the US presidential inauguration remains imprinted onto our retinas. Meanwhile, the background is just the first result found with no panning or precise granularity available. That said, latitude and longitude do work if you want to browse Google Maps first before entering a location.Most memes are already forgotten by the time of their one-month anniversary, but the Bernie Sanders meme was never like most memes. The scale, however, looks mostly accurate. For example, choosing the Googleplex sees him placed on a rail. You have no control over the exact placement of the Bernie Sitting image since it’s fixed, and some instances see him unnaturally positioned off the ground. This Bernie meme generator leverages the Google Maps Platform available to third-party developers. The iconic image of the Vermont Senator and former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in a chair, complete with winter jacket and mittens, will then be overlaid in Street View, or other pictures uploaded to Google Maps by users. You can right-click or hold down on the image to save and share. A fun meme generator, powered by Google Maps Street View, lets you have Bernie Sit down anywhere in the world.Ĭreated by Nick Sawhney, simply invites users to “enter an address or location, and Bernie will appear there.” It’s a basic webpage that loads best on the desktop web. The Inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris was always going to be a momentous occasion, but it saw the unexpected creation of a truly delightful meme involving Senator Bernie Sanders sitting down.

Bernie meme generator inauguration