Savannah Slow Down

Submission 524

Part of a series on Omarosa Manigault Newman. [View Related Entries]

About

Savannah Slow Down refers to a viral video and audio clip of reality television show star and former political aide Omarosa Manigault Newman telling journalist Savannah Guthrie to "slow down" during a 2018 interview on the TODAY Show in which Savannah asks Omarosa several questions in a row about her allegations against former President Donald Trump. The interview was uploaded to YouTube in August 2018 and the audio of Omarosa saying, "Savannah slow down," went viral on TikTok as a lip-dub sound in September 2024 following a reupload of the clip. The memes often use Guthrie's repeated questions to represent someone talking to the uploader and Omarosa's audio to tell the person to "slow down" or "ease up."

Origin

On August 13th, 2018, the TODAY YouTube^[1] channel uploaded an interview between Savannah Guthrie and Omarosa Manigault Newman, garnering over 2,6 million views in six years.

Omarosa was a contestant on The Apprentice in 2004 and worked as President Donald Trump's Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison throughout 2017, before resigning in December of that year. On August 10th, 2018, Omarosa released a book titled Unhinged in which she made numerous allegations about Trump, including that he was racist and that she had a tape of Trump using the N-word.

Around the 3:14 mark of the TODAY interview, Savannah asks Omarosa how long she knew Trump was a liar, then, before she can answer, asks why she worked for him. Omarosa smiles and says, "Savannah, slow down. I'm gonna answer your question, don't worry. I'm here, I've got all the time you need. You don't have to ask 10 questions in one second, it's okay."

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2024 TikTok Resurgence

On July 27th, 2024, TikToker^[2] @legionmoments reposted the clip of Guthrie saying, "Savannah, slow down," garnering over 6.6 million views in just over a month. The original sound started to gain popularity in August 2024 and went viral in early September as the subject of lip dubs.

One of the earliest examples of the meme was posted by TikToker^[3] @christine_asamani on August 18th, 2024, garnering over 1.1 million views in a month.

On September 5th, TikToker^[4] @cassiesbooktok posted a video using the sound in a meme about the uploader refusing to show their friend a photo of the guy they think is hot, garnering over 1.3 million views in four days.

Also on September 5th, 2024, TikToker^[5] @taymccomish posted a video using the audio over a joke about telling their friend to "slow down" after asking them to tell a joke, garnering over 1.1 million views in the same span of time.