Seth Meyers reserved Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as his guest Well into the night before Wednesday’s inauguration, but when he turned around on Thursday night, there was only one thing I wanted to ask him about.
“Were they aware that this photo immediately became the meme of the day?” asked the host, lifting the original photo of Sanders sitting alone with his legs and gloves crossed before the ceremony began.
“Not at all,” the senator replied. “I was just sitting there trying to stay warm, trying to pay attention to what was going on.”
Without being discouraged, Meyers proceeded to show Sanders some of his favorite examples of the phenomenon that took over social media on Wednesday and is somehow still strong. “Does your staff show you?” he wondered, holding on to one of the Social Democrats like the new Samantha Sex and the city.
Letting out a quick laugh, Sanders said, “Yes, I’ve seen them,” before pivoting to tell the story of the Vermont school teacher who made the now iconic gloves and was “a little overwhelmed” by the attention he has been receiving. He also laughed politely when the host shared his “favorite,” one of them sitting next to Forrest Gump, and said, “I think you’d get up and leave this bench.”
But Meyers was not finished. “I promise to get to an in-depth discussion here, I don’t want to waste all my time talking about memes,” he said, before holding another photo of Sanders with a manila envelope that instantly went viral when a comic tweeted “Bernie dressed as the inauguration is on her to-do list today, but it’s not her whole day.”
When asked what was in the envelope, Sanders joked, “I’d love to tell Seth, but it’s very secretive.”
For more information, listen and subscribe The last laugh podcast.