Popular Culture

The senator as internet culture — the memes and moments that made Sanders recognizable far beyond politics.

The mittens meme (January 2021)

At the January 20, 2021, presidential inauguration, a photograph of Sanders — seated alone, arms crossed, bundled in a winter coat and wearing thick knitted mittens — became one of the most shared images of the year. The mittens had been made for him by Vermont teacher Jen Ellis from repurposed sweater wool and recycled-bottle fleece. The image was endlessly remixed: Sanders was edited into famous paintings, movie scenes, and landmarks. His campaign later sold merchandise using the image, with proceeds directed to Vermont charities, according to his office. The full story is on The Mittens Meme page.

“I am once again asking”

In late 2019, Sanders recorded a campaign fundraising video opening with the line “I am once again asking for your financial support.” The blunt, self-aware framing became a meme template applied to countless unrelated requests across the internet.

The bird on the podium (March 2016)

During a March 25, 2016, rally in Portland, Oregon, a small bird landed on Sanders’s podium mid-speech and stayed for nearly a minute while the crowd cheered. Widely reported at the time, the moment earned Sanders the nickname “Birdie Sanders” in press coverage.

Saturday Night Live

Sanders has been impersonated on Saturday Night Live, most notably by comedian Larry David, whose resemblance-based impression became a recurring sketch during the 2016 and 2020 election cycles. Sanders himself appeared on the show, including a 2016 cameo alongside David’s impression of him.

“Feel the Bern”

The slogan “Feel the Bern” — a play on his name — became the rallying cry of his 2016 campaign, appearing on merchandise, signs, and social media, and entering general political vocabulary as shorthand for his movement.

Why it matters

Cultural visibility is part of Sanders’s public record, not a distraction from it: the memes introduced him to audiences who had never watched a Senate hearing, and his campaign deliberately used internet culture as an organizing tool. This page treats those moments as documented events, not as endorsements of any of them.

Source notes

The events above were documented in contemporaneous news reporting from 2016 through 2021. The inauguration photograph at the center of the mittens meme is a copyrighted news photograph (by AFP photographer Brendan Smialowski) and is not reproduced on this site. See the sources page for citations.

Factual baseline: September 2026.