Robert Kennedy Jr’s presidential candidacy has made it extremely clear—if it weren’t already—that he has really gone off of the deep end. Prior to this campaign, he was probably most well-known as an extreme anti-vaxxer. He had been running as a Democrat, which was annoying to begin with. I guess he realized that he had no chance to beat President Joe Biden in a Democratic primary, so he recently announced that he was switching to run as an Independent. Personally, I think Independent presidential campaigns are mostly a waste of time but I do wonder if this will garner him more or less attention.
Either way, something interesting took place as RFK Jr took the stage at an event in Philadelphia announcing his vanity project. For those who do not know, his wife is actress Cheryl Hines, most famous for her role in the megahit TV show Curb Your Enthusiasm. (This will be relevant in a minute!)
Hines introduced her husband in a pretty bland way for a professional performer before he took the mic and botched the whole thing. Kennedy stepped up and, lacking any natural political skills, immediately started fumbling around looking for his speech. He could be seen pointing toward the teleprompter, then left the stage and because he was mic’d, we could hear him complaining about not being able to see it. He commented that it was “upside down” numerous times, presumably referencing the teleprompter. He did eventually come back out, speech in hand. Whew! But all in all, this was a disastrous start to his Independent candidacy.
Because it’s social media, people have started to make a lot of jokes. And why not!? The world is chaotic in so many ways that I welcome some light-heartedness in our politics and we need to be allowed to mock those who actively want to make our lives worse, as Kennedy does.
Technical difficulties aren’t new to campaigns. We all remember Ron DeSantis’ horrible Twitter campaign announcement. But RFK Jr’s total inability to roll with a single punch made this debacle the perfect fit for the Curb treatment, in which social media users set clips to the theme song from Curb Your Enthusiasm in order to highlight an awkward situation. The meme is made even more appropriate, of course, given who RFK Jr’s wife is.
Some set the clip to the Veep end credits, which is also extremely apt.
At the end of the day, RFK Jr’s candidacy is a joke so any jokes at its expense are just entirely fitting.
(featured image: Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images)
