Thanks Obama

2009Catchphrase / image macro / reaction GIFsemi-active

Also known as: #ThanksObama · Thanks Obama!

Thanks Obama is a 2009 sarcastic meme pairing the catchphrase "Thanks, Obama" with infomercial fail GIFs to humorously blame President Obama for trivial problems.

"Thanks, Obama" is a sarcastic catchphrase turned internet meme that blames President Barack Obama for trivial personal problems and minor inconveniences. Originating as a genuine political expression around Obama's 2009 inauguration, it was co-opted by conservatives as criticism, then flipped by liberals into absurdist humor pairing the phrase with infomercial fail GIFs. The meme reached its logical endpoint in February 2015 when Obama himself used the phrase in a BuzzFeed video viewed over 55 million times3.

obama memesinfomercial memesscapegoat memesbuzzfeed memessubreddit origin memes

TL;DR

Thanks Obama a catchphrase and meme format from approximately 2009 where everyday frustrations are sarcastically blamed on President Obama.

Overview

"Thanks, Obama" follows a simple formula: something goes wrong, no matter how trivial or absurd, and the speaker sarcastically blames President Obama for it. The format works with text posts, image macros featuring a sullen-looking Obama with Impact font captions, and most iconically, GIFs of infomercial actors failing at basic tasks like pouring juice or using plastic wrap4. The humor comes from the gap between the mundane problem and the act of blaming the most powerful person in the world for it. A paper cut, a dropped sandwich, a cookie that won't fit in a glass of milk. All Obama's fault, obviously.

The phrase first showed up on Twitter in late 2008, before Obama even took office2. User @vlucas posted one of the earliest known uses in May 2009, making a straightforward conservative complaint about a proposed national sales tax3. But the phrase became a proper image macro meme on December 17, 2009, when the conservative blog "Authentic Connecticut Republican" published a demotivational poster featuring a young girl giving the middle finger to the camera with the caption "Thanks, Obama"4. The blog post accused Obama of spending people's "lunch money, allowance, inheritance, paychecks, and retirement savings"2. At this stage, the phrase was political ammunition, not comedy.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter (earliest usage), Blogspot (first image macro)
Creator
Don Caldwell
Date
2009
Year
2009

The phrase first showed up on Twitter in late 2008, before Obama even took office. User @vlucas posted one of the earliest known uses in May 2009, making a straightforward conservative complaint about a proposed national sales tax. But the phrase became a proper image macro meme on December 17, 2009, when the conservative blog "Authentic Connecticut Republican" published a demotivational poster featuring a young girl giving the middle finger to the camera with the caption "Thanks, Obama". The blog post accused Obama of spending people's "lunch money, allowance, inheritance, paychecks, and retirement savings". At this stage, the phrase was political ammunition, not comedy.

How It Spread

The meme stayed in conservative circles until March 10, 2011, when YouTuber SecretAgentBob (the channel FilmCow) uploaded a comedy sketch called "A Delightful Evening" where a woman threatens a man with a knife, and he responds with a deadpan "Thanks, Obama!". The video pulled in over 390,000 views and marked one of the first times the phrase was used to mock the people who said it unironically rather than to mock Obama himself.

By August 2011, the "Everything is Barack Obama's Fault" page launched on Quickmeme, featuring a glum-looking Obama with petty complaints captioned in Impact font. The format caught fire. On November 1, 2012, Redditor Martholomule posted an infomercial fail GIF of a man dropping a food tray to r/reactionGIFs with the caption "Thanks, Obama," and the infomercial-fail subgenre was born. That same December, Redditor filmisbone posted a GIF of a man knocking over a snack bowl to r/gifs, pulling over 7,000 upvotes. The r/ThanksObama subreddit launched on December 5, 2012, hitting 14,500 subscribers within two months. A dedicated Tumblr blog followed the next day, curating the best submissions.

In January 2013, real-world frustration briefly revived the phrase's political edge. When paychecks shrank due to the expiration of a payroll tax holiday, Twitter users vented with "#ThanksObama" tweets like "@1keonclark: This tax increase on my paycheck blows! Thanks Obama". The International Business Times covered the wave of outrage. But the earnest political usage was already drowning in the ironic version. People were blaming Obama for the Hindenburg explosion, Hurricane Katrina, and the heat death of the universe.

The meme's biggest moment came on February 12, 2015, when BuzzFeed released a video of Obama promoting Healthcare.gov. In the clip, Obama tries to dunk a cookie in a glass of milk, realizes it won't fit, and mutters "Thanks, Obama". The video racked up over 55 million views. The r/ThanksObama subreddit effectively shut itself down afterward, with moderators declaring that Obama had "won" the meme and there was nowhere left to go.

But the phrase refused to stay dead. After Donald Trump's first State of the Union address, Twitter users posted "#ThanksObama" un-ironically, pointing out that many accomplishments Trump claimed credit for were actually Obama-era achievements. In 2022, the official President Biden Twitter account used the phrase in response to an Obama tweet about the Inflation Reduction Act.

Platforms

TwitterReddit4chanTumblrFacebook

Timeline

2009

Phrase emerges early in Obama's presidency

2010-01-01

Thanks Obama started spreading across social media platforms

2011-01-01

Thanks Obama reached mainstream popularity and media coverage

2012

Peak popularity and widespread usage

2014-01-01

Thanks Obama entered the broader pop culture conversation

2016

Decline begins with end of Obama's presidency

2020-present

Minimal usage except nostalgia references

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The classic format pairs any minor inconvenience or catastrophic event with the phrase "Thanks, Obama." Common approaches:

1

Text post: Describe something going wrong in your life, no matter how unrelated to politics. End with "Thanks, Obama."

2

Image macro: Take a photo of Obama looking tired or frustrated. Add Impact font text describing a petty grievance on top, "Thanks Obama" on the bottom.

3

Infomercial GIF: Find a GIF of someone comically failing at a simple task (spilling food, struggling with plastic wrap, dropping things). Caption it "Thanks, Obama."

4

Escalation format: Blame Obama for something increasingly absurd. Dropped your phone? Thanks, Obama. Dinosaurs went extinct? Thanks, Obama.

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

"Thanks, Obama" was one of the first major political memes to undergo a complete meaning reversal, flipping from sincere conservative criticism to liberal absurdist comedy and back again. Nona Willis Aronowitz wrote in a 2015 essay for Matter that the phrase "is so multilayered that it has endless potential for manipulation and co-opting, for ambiguity and plausible deniability". She argued the meme reflected America's polarized two-party system, where each side's supporters are "so convinced of the other's idiocy, that overstatement usually goes unchallenged".

The phenomenon of blaming a sitting president for everything isn't new. Americans blamed Herbert Hoover so fiercely for the Great Depression that TIME called him "President Reject" in 1932, and popular ditties mocked him the same way Twitter users mocked Obama. But Obama was the first social media president, which gave the meme a reach and durability that previous presidential scapegoating never had.

On January 19, 2017, Obama's last full day in office, Stephen Colbert revived his old Colbert Report conservative character to deliver a "Thanks, Obama" segment, sarcastically thanking Obama for helping Republicans find a unified opposition message, before breaking character and pleading with Obama not to leave.

The meme also spawned the spinoff hashtag #ThanksMichelleObama, where people complained about school lunch quality, blaming the former First Lady's healthy eating initiatives. A 2020 parody of John Cleese's "What have the Romans ever done for us?" speech from Monty Python, applied to Obama's presidency, was posted to Imgur and pulled in over 11.8 million views.

Fun Facts

The r/ThanksObama subreddit locked itself after the BuzzFeed video, declaring that Obama himself had delivered the ultimate "Thanks, Obama" and no one could top it.

Urban Dictionary entries for the phrase range from blaming Obama for aliens invading Earth to the heat death of the universe.

The phrase predates Obama's actual presidency. Twitter users were already posting #ThanksObama in late 2008, weeks before his inauguration.

A Tennessee woman arrested for counterfeiting money in 2015 claimed she'd heard Obama had made it legal, turning "Thanks, Obama" into an actual legal defense (it didn't work).

The BuzzFeed cookie-dipping video hit 55 million views, making Obama's own "Thanks, Obama" the most-watched version of his own meme.

Derivatives & Variations

Thanks Trump

A similar format applied to Obama's successor, though less popular

(2009)

Generic Thanks [Person]

The broader format of sarcastically blaming anyone for minor inconveniences

(2009)

Frequently Asked Questions

Thanks Obama

2009Catchphrase / image macro / reaction GIFsemi-active

Also known as: #ThanksObama · Thanks Obama!

Thanks Obama is a 2009 sarcastic meme pairing the catchphrase "Thanks, Obama" with infomercial fail GIFs to humorously blame President Obama for trivial problems.

"Thanks, Obama" is a sarcastic catchphrase turned internet meme that blames President Barack Obama for trivial personal problems and minor inconveniences. Originating as a genuine political expression around Obama's 2009 inauguration, it was co-opted by conservatives as criticism, then flipped by liberals into absurdist humor pairing the phrase with infomercial fail GIFs. The meme reached its logical endpoint in February 2015 when Obama himself used the phrase in a BuzzFeed video viewed over 55 million times.

obama memes infomercial memes scapegoat memes buzzfeed memes subreddit origin memes

TL;DR

Thanks Obama a catchphrase and meme format from approximately 2009 where everyday frustrations are sarcastically blamed on President Obama.

Overview

"Thanks, Obama" follows a simple formula: something goes wrong, no matter how trivial or absurd, and the speaker sarcastically blames President Obama for it. The format works with text posts, image macros featuring a sullen-looking Obama with Impact font captions, and most iconically, GIFs of infomercial actors failing at basic tasks like pouring juice or using plastic wrap. The humor comes from the gap between the mundane problem and the act of blaming the most powerful person in the world for it. A paper cut, a dropped sandwich, a cookie that won't fit in a glass of milk. All Obama's fault, obviously.

The phrase first showed up on Twitter in late 2008, before Obama even took office. User @vlucas posted one of the earliest known uses in May 2009, making a straightforward conservative complaint about a proposed national sales tax. But the phrase became a proper image macro meme on December 17, 2009, when the conservative blog "Authentic Connecticut Republican" published a demotivational poster featuring a young girl giving the middle finger to the camera with the caption "Thanks, Obama". The blog post accused Obama of spending people's "lunch money, allowance, inheritance, paychecks, and retirement savings". At this stage, the phrase was political ammunition, not comedy.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter (earliest usage), Blogspot (first image macro)
Creator
Don Caldwell
Date
2009
Year
2009

The phrase first showed up on Twitter in late 2008, before Obama even took office. User @vlucas posted one of the earliest known uses in May 2009, making a straightforward conservative complaint about a proposed national sales tax. But the phrase became a proper image macro meme on December 17, 2009, when the conservative blog "Authentic Connecticut Republican" published a demotivational poster featuring a young girl giving the middle finger to the camera with the caption "Thanks, Obama". The blog post accused Obama of spending people's "lunch money, allowance, inheritance, paychecks, and retirement savings". At this stage, the phrase was political ammunition, not comedy.

How It Spread

The meme stayed in conservative circles until March 10, 2011, when YouTuber SecretAgentBob (the channel FilmCow) uploaded a comedy sketch called "A Delightful Evening" where a woman threatens a man with a knife, and he responds with a deadpan "Thanks, Obama!". The video pulled in over 390,000 views and marked one of the first times the phrase was used to mock the people who said it unironically rather than to mock Obama himself.

By August 2011, the "Everything is Barack Obama's Fault" page launched on Quickmeme, featuring a glum-looking Obama with petty complaints captioned in Impact font. The format caught fire. On November 1, 2012, Redditor Martholomule posted an infomercial fail GIF of a man dropping a food tray to r/reactionGIFs with the caption "Thanks, Obama," and the infomercial-fail subgenre was born. That same December, Redditor filmisbone posted a GIF of a man knocking over a snack bowl to r/gifs, pulling over 7,000 upvotes. The r/ThanksObama subreddit launched on December 5, 2012, hitting 14,500 subscribers within two months. A dedicated Tumblr blog followed the next day, curating the best submissions.

In January 2013, real-world frustration briefly revived the phrase's political edge. When paychecks shrank due to the expiration of a payroll tax holiday, Twitter users vented with "#ThanksObama" tweets like "@1keonclark: This tax increase on my paycheck blows! Thanks Obama". The International Business Times covered the wave of outrage. But the earnest political usage was already drowning in the ironic version. People were blaming Obama for the Hindenburg explosion, Hurricane Katrina, and the heat death of the universe.

The meme's biggest moment came on February 12, 2015, when BuzzFeed released a video of Obama promoting Healthcare.gov. In the clip, Obama tries to dunk a cookie in a glass of milk, realizes it won't fit, and mutters "Thanks, Obama". The video racked up over 55 million views. The r/ThanksObama subreddit effectively shut itself down afterward, with moderators declaring that Obama had "won" the meme and there was nowhere left to go.

But the phrase refused to stay dead. After Donald Trump's first State of the Union address, Twitter users posted "#ThanksObama" un-ironically, pointing out that many accomplishments Trump claimed credit for were actually Obama-era achievements. In 2022, the official President Biden Twitter account used the phrase in response to an Obama tweet about the Inflation Reduction Act.

Platforms

TwitterReddit4chanTumblrFacebook

Timeline

2009

Phrase emerges early in Obama's presidency

2010-01-01

Thanks Obama started spreading across social media platforms

2011-01-01

Thanks Obama reached mainstream popularity and media coverage

2012

Peak popularity and widespread usage

2014-01-01

Thanks Obama entered the broader pop culture conversation

2016

Decline begins with end of Obama's presidency

2020-present

Minimal usage except nostalgia references

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The classic format pairs any minor inconvenience or catastrophic event with the phrase "Thanks, Obama." Common approaches:

1

Text post: Describe something going wrong in your life, no matter how unrelated to politics. End with "Thanks, Obama."

2

Image macro: Take a photo of Obama looking tired or frustrated. Add Impact font text describing a petty grievance on top, "Thanks Obama" on the bottom.

3

Infomercial GIF: Find a GIF of someone comically failing at a simple task (spilling food, struggling with plastic wrap, dropping things). Caption it "Thanks, Obama."

4

Escalation format: Blame Obama for something increasingly absurd. Dropped your phone? Thanks, Obama. Dinosaurs went extinct? Thanks, Obama.

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

"Thanks, Obama" was one of the first major political memes to undergo a complete meaning reversal, flipping from sincere conservative criticism to liberal absurdist comedy and back again. Nona Willis Aronowitz wrote in a 2015 essay for Matter that the phrase "is so multilayered that it has endless potential for manipulation and co-opting, for ambiguity and plausible deniability". She argued the meme reflected America's polarized two-party system, where each side's supporters are "so convinced of the other's idiocy, that overstatement usually goes unchallenged".

The phenomenon of blaming a sitting president for everything isn't new. Americans blamed Herbert Hoover so fiercely for the Great Depression that TIME called him "President Reject" in 1932, and popular ditties mocked him the same way Twitter users mocked Obama. But Obama was the first social media president, which gave the meme a reach and durability that previous presidential scapegoating never had.

On January 19, 2017, Obama's last full day in office, Stephen Colbert revived his old Colbert Report conservative character to deliver a "Thanks, Obama" segment, sarcastically thanking Obama for helping Republicans find a unified opposition message, before breaking character and pleading with Obama not to leave.

The meme also spawned the spinoff hashtag #ThanksMichelleObama, where people complained about school lunch quality, blaming the former First Lady's healthy eating initiatives. A 2020 parody of John Cleese's "What have the Romans ever done for us?" speech from Monty Python, applied to Obama's presidency, was posted to Imgur and pulled in over 11.8 million views.

Fun Facts

The r/ThanksObama subreddit locked itself after the BuzzFeed video, declaring that Obama himself had delivered the ultimate "Thanks, Obama" and no one could top it.

Urban Dictionary entries for the phrase range from blaming Obama for aliens invading Earth to the heat death of the universe.

The phrase predates Obama's actual presidency. Twitter users were already posting #ThanksObama in late 2008, weeks before his inauguration.

A Tennessee woman arrested for counterfeiting money in 2015 claimed she'd heard Obama had made it legal, turning "Thanks, Obama" into an actual legal defense (it didn't work).

The BuzzFeed cookie-dipping video hit 55 million views, making Obama's own "Thanks, Obama" the most-watched version of his own meme.

Derivatives & Variations

Thanks Trump

A similar format applied to Obama's successor, though less popular

(2009)

Generic Thanks [Person]

The broader format of sarcastically blaming anyone for minor inconveniences

(2009)

Frequently Asked Questions