#BernieSits: Memes of the Vermont senator go viral

BOSTON, Mass. — Out of the pomp and circumstance of a historic presidential inauguration, memes of Senator Bernie Sanders have gone viral.

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The image of the Vermont senator sitting in the audience of the outdoor ceremony has gone viral.

The memes feature Sanders on a boat, in The Office, on the Iron Throne, sitting next to Forrest Gump and getting styled by Trudy and the other Steel Magnolias.

Locally, there are even memes of him sitting in front of the statehouse, on the MBTA, and as a space saver in South Boston.

New York University graduate student Nick Sawhney took it one step further and created a website where you can put Bernie anywhere you choose.

Sawhney posted it to Twitter and soon it was flooded with users.

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“I thought three of my friends would be like, yeah, that’s pretty cool and then that’s it. And it was just crazy. People were just saying like thank you for this silly little project and it was really incredible, “says Sawhney.

He says the last 24 hours have been spent keeping the site running. Every time you put in a request, Google charges him.

Learning on the fly, he started a crowdsourcing account to help fund it and he says the response has been overwhelming...especially for someone who isn’t even in technology.

“Actually the stuff I did before this site was I studied policing in New York with data. I studied the ways that cops were biased in the enforcement of fare evasion policies in our subway system.“

Sawhney says things like Sander’s personality are part of why the memes have resonated with so many.

“He had that good ‘ole Bernie Sanders charm where he was wearing the mittens from a supporter and he was sitting there like the inauguration wasn’t the only thing he had to do that day. That’s what I saw in a tweet that said. I thought that was funny. He just continues to be the iconic individual that I know him to be.”

Sawhney says he doesn’t want people to think his website is making fun of the gravity of the change in administration. He says he was hopeful Wednesday, but now there is a lot of work to be done.

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Cox Media Group