Team Joe

Submission 14,278

Part of a series on Joe Biden. [View Related Entries]

About

Team Joe refers to a template designed by Joe Biden’s campaign that allows users to add custom avatars to a graphic featuring the text “I’m on team Joe!” as a way to support his 2020 presidential campaign run. After the blank template was uploaded to the campaign’s website, users around the web began photoshopping in humorous images and captions using the format as an exploitable, typically mocking Biden or poking fun at the concept.

Origin

In March 2020, Joe Biden’s campaign added the avatar creator to their official site^[1] (seen below), allowing users to create custom versions using the template to show their support for his presidential bid. The tool allows people to add custom images and text to the template alongside the message, “I’m on team Joe!” with information on how to support the campaign.

Spread

Examples of the template being used as a meme in a humorous fashion surfaced sometime around April 2020, when users on various sites and platforms began created their own versions. On April 14th, 2020, Twitter^[2] user Wagface can be seen posting one such example as a reply. This variant (shown below) depicts Jim Jones as a supporter and received over 1,000 likes and 104 retweets.

The trend then appeared on Reddit when Redditor^[3] JonkersTwix posted a version to the r/TrueAnon sub on April 14th, 2020. This example (seen below) shows Jeffery Epstein as a supporter, receiving 155 upvotes.

An anonymous 4chan^[4] user photoshopped a version on April 15th, 2020, depicting “ISIS Guy” supporting Biden (shown below) and uploaded the image to the /pol/ board with the text, “Joe Biden's new idea.” In the thread, several other users subsequently began adding their own versions below.

On April 16th, 2020, Conservative Twitter^[5] account ALX tweeted a variant with CCP Chairman Xi Jinping (seen below). Twitter then suspended his account after posting the meme, prompting several of his followers to make additional versions using the template.

Twitter^[6] user BecketAdams tweeted another example on April 16th, 2020, with the caption, “lmaooo why would the Biden campaign give us this tool?” The avatar used here shows Chatterer from the Hellraiser films as a supporter (shown below), receiving over 2,600 likes and 639 retweets.

Another Twitter^[7] user, ProlixRedux, tweeted a variant mocking Biden’s “Hairy Legs” quote on April 16th, 2020, and received 430 likes and 162 retweets (seen below).

Redditor^[8] CoochieIllusion posted Doge as an avatar to the r/okbuddycapitalist sub on April 16th, 2020, receiving 639 upvotes and 22 comments (shown below)

Trump's campaign joined in on the trend by creating their own meme on April 16th, 2020. This tweet^[9] also features CCP Chairman Xi Jinping (seen below) and was liked over 7,000 times and retweeted another 3,200 times.