KINGSTON- It took nearly a week, but as of today every Hudson Valley business with a social media presence has posted a cutout of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders from inauguration day either inside our immediately outside their brick and mortar location.
At 1:23 p.m. afternoon, Broadway’s Nano’s Barbershop posted an image showing the former presidential candidate, masked and wearing a prominent pair of mittens and drab olive jacket, waiting for a haircut. Owner Nano Trappani Jr. said he was inspired to craft the meme, his first, or more accurately, ask his nephew, 21-year-old SUNY Ulster student Chris Trappani to do so, after seeing his fellow businessowners posting their own versions on Instagram to great acclaim.
“I was hoping to go viral!” he said.
One would think a barbershop might be the first to make use of the meme. Many businesses that do not regularly feature disheveled grumpy old men waiting in chairs jumped on the meme sooner, depicting the seated Sanders dropped seemingly at random within a photo taken at their establishment, with no further joke apparent or meaning intended. But the idea to make use of the meme himself took several days to occur to Trappani Jr., who admits he is “new to all this” and on several occasions pronounced meme “me-me.”
As of press time, the image had received 11 likes and three comments, the most ever for a post on the Nano’s Barbershop Instagram account, which had been dormant since September 30, 2020.