Michelle Obama

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About

Michelle Obama is a lawyer and writer who is married to Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States. She is the first African American first lady and known for her advocacy work in health, education, and poverty. Online, she has often been a presence in viral media and also the subject of great interest in terms of her family life and fashion choices.

Online History

Michelle Obama first became known during Barack Obama's first Presidential campaign in 2008. She actively campaigned for her husband, making speeches nationwide. She also courted controversy during that time, after being falsely accused of calling white people "whitey" in a speech during the campaign.^[1]

In addition, she and the soon-to-be president had a viral moment upon Barack's winning of the Democratic nomination; the Obama couple was photographed sharing a fist bump; which became an iconic photo. Fox News anchor E. D. Hill later created controversy by calling the gesture a "terrorist fist jab."^[2]

Since entering the White House as the First Lady of the United States in January 2009, Obama has appeared in and created many viral videos, often to promote her initiative "Let's Move," which promotes active lifestyles for children. In addition, on several occasions, she has joined viral dance trends, like the Dougie and the Single Ladies Dance, which she performed with Jimmy Fallon.

Online Presence

Michelle Obama maintains a comprehensive and popular online presence. Her official Facebook page has over 14 million likes^[3], and she has 5.3 followers on Twitter^[4] and another 2.9 followers on Instagram.^[5] While Obama doesn't maintain an official YouTube channel, there are more than 5,900,000 search results for her on YouTube, hundreds of which have more than 1 million views.^[6]

Michelle Obama's #BringBackOurGirls Sign

Michelle Obama's #BringBackOurGirls Sign is a photograph of the First Lady of the United States holding up a sign in support of the hashtag campaign for the safe return of nearly 300 Nigerian school girls who were abducted by a jihadist terrorist group in April 2014. Since its upload via Obama's official Twitter account in May 2014, the photograph has been turned into a popular exploitable template for online parodies.

#ThanksMichelleObama

#ThanksMichelleObama is a satirical Twitter hashtag started by American high school student Hunter Whitney to highlight unappetizing photographs of public school meals in compliance with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s revamped guidelines for school lunches.

#FLOTUSBars

#FLOTUSBars is a mutation of the #PopeBars Twitter meme, where users posted sequences of rap lyrics along with a photograph of Obama, intimating that the First Lady was reciting said lyrics. The still most often used came from a Funny Or Die video created that day for the Let's Move Initiative.

Michelle for 2020

Following Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 United States Presidential Election, many Americans called on Michelle Obama to run for president in 2020.

The internet spread of the idea attracted media coverage from The Daily Dot,^[7] The Fader,^[8] Telegraph,^[9] and more. The calls are in contradiction to Barack Obama's claim in January 2016 that there was "no way" Michelle would run for office.^[10]