Female-centric moments dominated the US’ State of the Union, and we’re here for it. There was of course that highly significant fashion moment, where women in the US congress collectively wore suffragette white. Another was Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose unamused expression during Trump’s speech caught the public’s eye.
But the award for most-scene stealing moment goes to our heroine, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Proving herself a true icon—the first female Speaker of the House in the world, and the badass woman who elegantly takes down Trump time and again—is now also among 2019’s official roster of memes.
She has been crowned by many as the “queen of shade” after a photo of her applauding US President Donald Trump in a seemingly sarcastic manner went viral. Her move has been duly baptized by the Internet as the “f*ck you clap.”
However, sorry to say, but Nancy herself cleared once and for all that in that particular moment, the shade is NOT real. “It wasn’t sarcastic,” she told reporters. “Look at what I was applauding” Referencing to how Trump said in his speech that “revenge politics” should have no place there, Nancy explained: “I wanted him to know that it was very welcomed.” True enough, if you watch the whole clip, Harpers Bazaar noted that “she appears to clap genuinely for the president as she and Pence give him a standing ovation; she even smiles for him when he turns around and looks at her.”
But regardless, the moment was meme gold. And that’s something people, and especially the Twittersphere, just can’t pass up. The damage is done, and here are just some of the most genius and hilarious ways Nancy’s “f*ck you clap” was used by netizens.
Next level shade
A comparison
Where is the lie
Art by Marian Hukom
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