Submission   8,716

Part of a series on Donald Trump's Wall. [View Related Entries]


Mexican Border Shutdown Avocado Shortage

Part of a series on Donald Trump's Wall. [View Related Entries]

Updated Jan 29, 2025 at 09:15PM EST by LiterallyAustin.

Added Apr 04, 2019 at 12:28PM EDT by Matt.

PROTIP: Press 'i' to view the image gallery, 'v' to view the video gallery, or 'r' to view a random entry.

This submission is currently being researched & evaluated!

You can help confirm this entry by contributing facts, media, and other evidence of notability and mutation.

About

Mexican Border Shutdown Avocado Shortage refers to a series of jokes regarding United States President Donald Trump's proposed shutdown of the U.S.-Mexico border, which would affect shipments of avocados from Mexico.

Origin

On March 30th, 2019, President Trump tweeted, [1] "Mexico must use its very strong immigration laws to stop the many thousands of people trying to get into the USA. Our detention areas are maxed out & we will take no more illegals. Next step is to close the Border! This will also help us with stopping the Drug flow from Mexico!" The tweet received more than 32,000 retweets and 138,000 likes in one week (shown below).

On April 1st, 2019, The New York Times[2] published a report on how the border shutdown would affect avocado prices. They wrote, "While President Trump sees shutting the border with Mexico as punishment for its failure to stop the flow of undocumented immigrants, economists warn that the move would effectively paralyze the United States economy given the huge volume of bluejeans, cars, flat-screen TVs, avocados and other goods that cross the border every day."



Spread

That day, the late-night comedy show The Late Show With Stephen Colbert aired a parody trailer for the film The Road Warrior. When posted to YouTube, the video received more than 200,000 views in one week (shown below).



Other late-night comedy shows aired segments on the subject. Late Night with Seth Meyers also joked about the crisis (shown below).


The following day, Redditors on the /r/The_Donald subreddit. Redditor[3] Brandofj posted an Always Sunny Plate Toss about the shortage. The post received more than 4,600 points (98% upvoted) and 300 comments in two days (shown below, left). Redditor[4] npcdeeznuts posted a Luke Crywalker meme about the shortage, whcih received more than 5,000 points (98% upvoed) and 200 comments (shown below, center).

On April 3rd, Redditor[5] carpedonktum posted a You Have Died of Dysentery meme. The post received more than 11,000 points (94% upvoted) and 290 comments (shown below, right).

Several media outlets covered the shortage and reaction, including The Daily Dot, [6] The Washington Post[7] and more.



Various Examples




Search Interest

External References


Comments ( 48 )

Sorry, but you must activate your account to post a comment.

Please check your email for your activation code.

    See more