When Indian Twitterati left no meme unturned

Indian Twitterati left no memes unturned in expressing their joy, relief, as well as cynicism over the news of Joe Biden getting elected as the 46th president of the United States of America after a long-drawn chapter of ballot-counting that lasted a few days.

From wordplay to GIFs and photoshopped visual clips, India Twitter used every possible pop culture reference to craft a witty response to the news over the weekend.

While some of these tweets were in celebration of Biden’s victory against the incumbent President Donald Trump, others rejoiced over Kamala Harris of Indian-Jamaican descent becoming the first woman and a person of colour to get elected to take on the role of the vice president of the United States.


Harsh Mariwala, chairman of Marico, took to Twitter to post a video of Harris in conversation with her niece Meena’s daughter, encouraging her to aspire to be the president of US once she grows up, only to find that the child aims to become both an astronaut as well as a political leader. “May this day inspire millions more to pursue their dreams!” wrote Mariwala while sharing the video with his over 887,000 followers on the micro-blogging platform.


Singer and social media celebrity Baba Sehgal re-upped his song “Kela khao” to commemorate Biden’s win. Coincidentally, Sehgal’s parody song, that aims to bring some much-needed cheer amidst the ongoing pandemic, riffs on the anti-fascist anthem “Bella Ciao” which grew in popularity courtesy of Spanish web series Money Heist earlier this year.


Speaking of parodies, Indian comedian Saloni Gaur tweeted a video of herself enacting the role of a well-meaning but imposing Indian neighbourhood “aunty” reacting to Harris’s win. Fetching over 9,000 likes so far, the video shows this imaginary “pados wali aunty” wishing Biden and Harris well and subtly asking the latter for favours after establishing their “rishtedaari” (extended family relations). “A job in the White House for the elder son and a direct railway line between her city and Washington DC, maybe?” Gaur’s aunty doesn’t ask for much.


The same could not be said of the trolls on the internet who relentlessly asked many Indian tweeters tweeting about the US elections if they were as clued into the Bihar elections and knew about India’s vice president as well.

Trump supporters from India also tweeted memes quoting famous Bollywood catchphrases like “Picture abhi baaki hai” to highlight that the fight isn’t over yet as Trump has decided to wage a legal war claiming electoral fraud but without providing any evidence substantiating said claim.

Tech twitter commented on IIT-IIM graduates heaving a sigh of relief at the likely relaxation of immigration laws while pet Twitter rejoiced at the imminent return of dogs in the White House with Biden’s pet German shepherds Champ and Major. The building has been pet-free for the last four years under the presidency of Trump, which, according to several media reports, made him the first US president in at least a 100 years not to have a dog.

India Twitter also showed that even while it had a lot to say on the matter of US elections, it has its priorities straight.

Shortly after many American news channels began to call the election in favour of Biden, several Indian tweeters demanded that the micro-blogging platform reverts to its old retweeting guidelines now that the US elections are over. These were recently tweaked by the tech company to make the act of retweeting more complicated in order to prevent the spread of misinformation in the lead-up to the election.

And after 36 hours of seeing ‘Joe’ Jeeta Wahi Sikandar and other such gems on the platform, fatigue began to set in for some. An ad veteran Ramki (@ramkid) asked if India Twitter will return to some of these important battles? Like “Flat vada pav vs round vada pav, sambar separately vs on the dish, Popping full rosogolla vs biting, pre-buttered toast vs post.”


Of his 10,000-plus followers, @Jai_Sharma aptly responded: “Now that the US elections are over (or is it?), I hope "the wisdom of the crowds" turn their combined intellectual might to solving some of these notoriously difficult dilemmas.”