Michael Cohen's "How Many Times"

Submission 11,652

Part of a series on Michael Cohen. [View Related Entries]

About

Michael Cohen's "How Many Times" refers to former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's responses to questions asked at his testimony before before the United States House Intelligence Committee in late February 2019. His responses have been used out of context as a reaction parody.

Origin

On February, 27th, 2019, Rep. Jackie Speier asked Michael Cohen, "How many times did Mr. Trump ask you to threaten an individual or entity on his behalf?" during his testimony before the House oversight committee. After Cohen responded with, "Quite a few times" Speier tried to obtain a specific number. They then participated in the exchange, “50 times?” “More.” “100 times?” “More.” “200 times?” “More." “500 times?” “Probably, over the 10 years" which is seen in the clip used.

During a live stream of the testimony, National Politics reporter at the New York Times Astead W. Herndon^[1] created the first iteration of the Twitter reaction parody refering to Lady Gaga's and Bradley Cooper's "Shallow" performance (shown below). The tweet received 19,000 likes and 4,300 retweets in a day.

Spread

That same day, Mohammed Kloub^[2] responded to Herdon's tweet with his own variation: "How many times did you use an em dash in this story?" The tweet accumulated 74 retweets and 396 likes in a day (shown below, left). Many Twitter users used the Cohen questioning clip in reference to sports teams and players. Twitter user Gayle Saunders^[3] tweeted "How many times have you rewatched the #Eagles win the SuperBowl?" The tweet garnered 795 retweets and 2,300 likes in a day (shown below, right).

That day, some celebrities and corporations jumped on the trend. The Daily Show^[4] tweeted "How many times did you watch Black Panther before you realized Trevor Noah was the voice of the computer?" This tweet gained 1,150 retweets and 9,400 likes in a day (shown below, left). The Twilight Saga^[5] twitter account also used the clip to answer the question "How many times have you watched Twilight?" Twilight's tweet reached 572 retweets and 1,400 likes in a day (shown below, right).