Holden Bloodfeast

About

Holden Bloodfeast is a character drawn by webcomic artist beanytuesday satirizing elderly, warmongering congressmen. Though first drawn in 2018, the character saw increased usage in October 2023 amidst the Hamas-Israel Conflict as several American politicians voiced their support for the Israeli military in the conflict.

Origin

On June 16th, 2018, webcomic artist beanytuesday^[1] shared several doodles satirizing American politicians and political candidates. One of the doodles was of "Holden Bloodfeast," a "118-year-old" Republican from Iowa who desperately wants the U.S. to nuke Iran so he can "see burning flesh one last time" before he dies. He is also characterized as a "respectable bipartisan." beanytuesday's original tweet gained over 3,700 retweets and 10,000 likes in five years ("Holden Bloodfeast" shown below).

Spread

The character saw some spread over the following few years. For example, on July 21st, 2021, iFunny^[2] user HumansAreBadass made a China-themed exploitable variation of the comic, gaining over 970 likes in two years (shown below, left). On April 23rd, 2022, Twitter user @shitbiscuit^[3] compared the Republican Senator Facemorph to Holden Bloodfeast, gaining over 220 retweets and 2,800 likes in 18 months.

The character was widely referenced amidst the 2023 Hamas-Israel conflict, as social media users compared politicians supporting military escalation by Israel to Holden Bloodfeast. For example, on October 8th, 2023, Twitter user @WojteksGrandson^[4] reposted the comic with the caption "Time to shine," gaining over 430 retweets and 5,100 likes in one week (shown below, left).

On October 9th, Senator Lindsey Graham advocated for bombing Iran, saying, "If there is an escalation in this conflict, if hostages start getting killed, if Hezbollah in the north attacks Israel in strength, we should tell the Ayatollah we will destroy your oil refineries and your oil infrastructure."^[5] This led to a surge of comparisons of Graham to Holden Bloodfeast. For example, on October 10th, user @PunishedSchwab^[6] posted the character in response to the quote, gaining over 50 likes in three days (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References