Mister Rogers? Superman? Kermit? Memes are an ode to Andy Beshear in coronavirus fight.
Kentuckians are showing some love to Gov. Andy Beshear by flooding social media with memes comparing him to the likes of Superman, Mister Rogers and Kermit the Frog.
Many of the memes lightheartedly point to Beshear and his afternoon news conferences as a comforting force in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
The phenomenon even has a Facebook group, “andy beshear memes for social distancing teens,” which was started Friday and by Saturday evening had more than 15,000 members.
New memes were being submitted by the minute on Saturday afternoon, said Jeremy McFarland, of Louisville, who started the group.
He said he began collecting the memes as they popped up in his newsfeed several days ago because they reminded him of how reassured he felt after each of Beshear’s daily briefings about COVID-19.
“It’s comforting to know that the person in charge is really taking it seriously,” he said. “...I was like, ‘I love this. I really want to see more of them.’”
He said he started the Facebook group thinking it would be fun for maybe 30 people to share memes and make new ones, and he’s been overwhelmed by the response.
McFarland said he particularly likes the memes that encourage social distancing and those that reference other members of the governor’s team, such as American Sign Language interpreter Virginia Moore.
His fellow group administrator, James Line, said the goal of the group is to “lift up their work in a fun and lighthearted way.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2020 at 7:57 AM.
