Debate Number One had Big Bird. Round Two produced Binders Full of Women. Now, Debate 3.0 brings the latest political meme (and the best idea for a band name in years): “Horses and Bayonets.” The buzzwords are the byproduct of a particularly epic Obama zinger. “You mention the Navy, for example, and the fact that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets,” Obama said, chiding Romney’s dated military views. “We have these things called aircraft carriers and planes land on them. We have ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.” Unsurprisingly, the burn has spawned its share of hilarious meme photos. We’ve lassoed some of the best.
Dos Equis entered the viral market with its hit commercial, in which a fictional “Most Interesting Man in the World” described with bizarre catchphrases like “his charm is so contagious vaccines have been for created it” endorses drinking the beer. Riffs on the ad have popped up on Saturday Night Live and Tumblr, and now it has infiltrated the “horses and bayonets” meme, too. “I don’t always fight wars. But when I do, I use horses and bayonets.”
Mr. Ed, the talking palomino horse that starred in the classic 1960s sitcom, may have always seemed passive to his legions of fans. But in this photo, he seems primed to rally around Romney. “Wilbur, fetch me my bayonet,” he says to his owner. “I’m feeling feisty.”
Has Steven Spielberg created the military of Mitt Romney’s dreams? As depicted in this photo, the Army from Spielberg’s 2011 epic tearjerker, War Horse, is chock-full of bayonets and horses. Of course, the film also took place during World War I …
During his closing statements at Monday’s debate, Mitt Romney said, “America’s going to come back.” He was not specific, however, on how far back the county is going to go. This mock campaign photo suggests perhaps back to the “horses and bayonets” of the Civil War era. Romney and Ryan: “Leading the charge.”
During his blistering takedown of Romney’s military places, Obama followed up his “horses and bayonets” comment with the line, “It’s not a game of Battleship where we’re counting ship. It’s ‘What are our priorities.’” It may not be a game of Battleship, but as this photo suggests, Mitten’s Military could make for a fun game of action-figure make-believe.
Romney said in the debate that he wants to increase defense spending by $2 trillion. What will he use that money for? Horses and bayonets, naturally. “Now I just need $2 trillion for bayonets and I can take on Iran.”
On a classic episode of The Office, prankster Jim dresses as oddball Dwight and mocks the strange things he’s always obsessing over: “Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.” What would Jim mock from the three presidential debates? The three bizarre memes they respectively birthed: “Big Bird. Binders. Bayonets.”
When the president wasn’t zinging Romney with lines about “horses and bayonets,” he was taking the former Massachusetts governor to task for his earlier insistence that he wouldn’t bail out the auto industry. This photo combines both burns into one devastating meme: “Let Detroit go bankrupt.”
