The inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris was iconic for many reasons. While Joe Biden became the 46th President of the United States, Kamala Harris shattered the glass ceiling and became the first woman to hold the post of the Vice-President.
However, one person that distinctly stood out in the entire event and became an unlikely star was Bernie Sanders. The 79-year-old Senator from the state of Vermont caught the eye of netizens across the world as he was pictured huddled in a chair, arms folded, sporting an average-guy winter coat with patterned mittens.
Soon enough, the pictures of Bernie in his blue mask and puffy jacket went viral and Bernie’s pretty mittens became a viral fashion!
Jen Ellis, an elementary school teacher from Vermont, is the woman behind the beautiful creation. And her phone and e-mail was inundated with people ordering the mittens.
Would you believe that she has received over 13,000 requests for mittens since the inauguration? So much so that she put up a tweet telling her audience that she had no more mittens on sale.
Thanks for all the interest in Bernie’s mittens! It truly has been an amazing and historic day! I’m so flattered that Bernie wore them to the inauguration. Sadly, I have no more mittens for sale. There are a lot of great crafters on ETSY who make them. -Jen Ellis,
— Jen Ellis (@vtawesomeness) January 21, 2021
So, the story of the mittens goes that Ellis knitted them for Bernie a few years ago when he was on his campaign trail. The senator so loved the smittens – part mittens, part sweater – that he began wearing them to high-profile events. Made from repurposed wool sweaters and lined with fleece made from recycled plastic bottles, the mittens went viral after Bernie wore them to the inauguration.
Clearly overwhelmed by this demand, Ellis told the Jewish Insider that “there’s no possible way I could make 6,000 pairs of mittens, and every time I go into my email, another several hundred people have emailed me.”
“I hate to disappoint people, but the mittens, they’re one of a kind and they’re unique and, sometimes in this world, you just can’t get everything you want,” she told the news site.
Meanwhile, Sanders’ picture has inspired thousands of light-hearted memes across the internet world. All across social media this week, Sanders has been photoshopped onto the Game of Thrones throne, transported into historical photographs and paintings, placed on a bench next to Tom Hanks in ‘Forrest Gump’, gone into space, shrunken down to fit onto former First Lady Melania Trump’s dress, and seen outside your doorstep via a new app that uses Google Maps.
Some of my favorite Bernie Sanders sightings today: pic.twitter.com/Pxta5BO7Uu
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) January 21, 2021
Bernie Sanders in space! These inauguration mitten memes are out of this world https://t.co/ULSOErVStC pic.twitter.com/uokhEoLMDO
— SPACE.com (@SPACEdotcom) January 23, 2021
The Bernie Sanders memes are epic. I can’t stop laughing. There are tons. pic.twitter.com/CKEOVCjLEf
— Kambree (@KamVTV) January 23, 2021
Joining in the #BernieSanders meme train. pic.twitter.com/vN4fNsLmHD
— Lady Kayura (@ladykayura1315) January 23, 2021
4 famous paintings any art lover should know. 🎨 #BernieSanders pic.twitter.com/peOywNrbhk
— Aida (@AidaFahimi) January 21, 2021
The world can really do with more laughs during this time.
What do you think about these memes? Aren’t the hilarious?
