As election day lurches closer, political parties, unions and voters are taking the digital campaign into absurdist new directions, sharing memes on social media that are pointed, partisan and often downright unhinged

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Writing in Overland about memes and their role in this election campaign, Osman Faruqi said they fulfilled one of two functions.

The first was bite-size, shareable message to be dispersed by and among the party faithful that reaffirms their views. The second was something more off-the-wall and sometimes satirical, highlighting the ridiculousness of politics while at the same time pushing a view itself.

Pete Kretin (@Mitehouse) @Kimbo_Ramplin @coaic #NX He wasn't born in Australia. Always wanting to phone home. GO HOME and stay there mate! pic.twitter.com/RsXSFs8i6z

Faruqi may be the only person to have thought about it that hard. Mostly, memes just liven up the timeline, prompting a retweet at best, a facepalm at worst and – most of the time – a favourite or humourless “lol”.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union carved out a name for itself early on in this interminable election campaign with its sometimes unhinged posts to Twitter.

The AMWU (@theamwu) 17 days until the election!



Reminder: there's only one party that made this guy Deputy PM. #auspol #agile #inspo pic.twitter.com/uO8p4mDJe9

The AMWU (@theamwu) 16 days until the election!



Reminder: there's only one party that doesn't care about the Australian steel industry. pic.twitter.com/wQLvAnvvjc

The AMWU (@theamwu) 19 days until the election!



Reminder: there's only one party that doesn't want Safe Schools. #auspol pic.twitter.com/nnN17BGkFG

The organisation’s communications director, George Simon, told Triple J’s Hack that its Twitter account was maintained by “a group of young people experimenting with creative content”.

Digital election: dank memes bring light relief, but parties put trust in targeting Read more

“We’ve been given creative licence and we’ve taken dank and we’ve doubled down,” said Simon.

Simon’s bosses were baby boomers, he told Triple J, and as such did not have a clue what was going on. “They appreciate the fact we’re getting all this popularity but ... they just don’t get it,” he said. “We see dank memes, whereas they see a frog on a unicycle.”

The AMWU had taken some risks, he concluded – “but clearly it’s paying off”.

The AMWU (@theamwu) waddup pic.twitter.com/SB1BkzhQEL

And, of course, where there are pioneers, there will always be imitators.

AWU (@AWUnion) And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling Unions! #auspol #ausunions #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/Za3vnSsZEw

On Facebook, where all memes go to die, the ALP Spicy Meme Stash circulates pro-Labor memes while Innovative and Agile Memes covers the Liberal party’s bases. Earlier in June the ALP Spicy Meme Stash declared war on the Innovative and Agile Memes, reportedly over a stolen meme.

(The Liberals’ page was accused of ripping off the Labor page’s punchline, 10 Pranks That Went Way Too Far – which first appeared under a screenshot of a headline about Tony Abbott’s being made prime minister. It’s a matter of principle, you’ve got to assume.)

Egregiously, embarrassingly bad examples of both forms of meme abound at #auspol, the name given to the community of Australian politics aficionados on Twitter – the worst often those created or endorsed by the politicians themselves. (Scott Morrison has even started presenting them at press conferences.)

A Liberal party graphic comparing Labor’s 10-year economic plan to the album booklet for Taylor Swift’s 1989 for some reason was derided by Faruqi as “history’s worst meme”.

What does it mean?

But bad memes are far from unique to any one party, as much as each likes to call attention to the other side’s bad content. One Twitter user has taken it upon himself to document the worst of the genre from both sides.

@WoefulAuspol – which bills itself as collating the most “terrible” memes “by brokens from the Right and Left” – has been tracking the worst memes of #Auspol since January 2015.

Woeful Auspol Memes (@WoefulAuspol) Do not meme gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and meme at close of day;

Meme, meme against the dying of the light.

The account’s creator, who asked to be identified only as Adrian of Canberra, told Guardian Australia that he set it up in January 2015, when he noticed sledging over bad content from both sides of the political spectrum.



“I just went about collecting really bad memes to try and prove that both sides can be as terrible as each other. I tried to keep it 50/50. But I’ve just posted what I could find or what people have submitted.

Woeful Auspol Memes (@WoefulAuspol) Ayyyyy pic.twitter.com/J2cEDL8l2v

“I try to only post earnestly bad memes, and stay away from the ironically bad fun memes.”

Guardian Australia asked Adrian to share his observations – as well as the defining examples of the genre.

‘My favourites are the ones about who is making deals with who’

Woeful Auspol Memes (@WoefulAuspol) This is what happens when you let those Socialist Alliance members faunicate all over Bourke St. pic.twitter.com/XTprR2wT9y

Woeful Auspol Memes (@WoefulAuspol) The matrix of all these party leader marriages is *wild* pic.twitter.com/iCVzITArmJ

‘Politicians are even authorising bad memes now’

Woeful Auspol Memes (@WoefulAuspol) I think this is the first ever Authorised woeful meme.

Nice one Steveo pic.twitter.com/OUOSCKD2Zi

‘Official accounts do not understand Simpsons references’

Woeful Auspol Memes (@WoefulAuspol) .@YoungLaborOz Yo, wodup fellow youf. Dat not how dat meme work. pic.twitter.com/rkzgiNkn9c

‘Then there’s just the downright unhinged’