Trending Today: Hillary Clinton's Campaign Email Goes 'Viral'

#ImNotKiddingMaddi and the "Bernie versus Hillary" Internet meme

This is What's Trending Today...

The hashtag #ImNotKiddingMaddi is everywhere on social media this week. The hashtag comes from an email sent by former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She is one of two candidates seeking the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

This week, Clinton lost to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary election in New Hampshire. After the loss, the Clinton campaign team sent an email to her supporters. The subject of the email was “I’m not kidding,” followed by the supporter’s name.

“I’m not kidding” is another way of saying “I am being serious.”

The email was asking her supporters to give any small amount of money to Clinton’s political campaign.

One of her supporters, named Maddi, found humor in the message.In the email, her campaign team wrote, “I’m not kidding, Maddi, I’m asking you to give $1 right now.”

Maddi published images of the email on social media. From there, people began making jokes about it on the Internet. Some compared Clinton’s email to the one dollar menu at McDonald’s restaurants.

Although most people just joked about the hashtag, some on social media wrote that the e-mail and hashtag could end up hurting Hillary Clinton.

A now-famous Internet meme that compares the two Democratic presidential candidates also joined the #ImNotKiddingMaddi conversation. The “Bernie versus Hillary” meme gives mostly humorous opinions from both candidates about campaign issues.

This week’s issue? “Maddi’s Dollar.”

Under Sanders’ photograph are the words, “Maddi works very hard for her money and she’s entitled to donate to a candidate who will work for her.”

Under Clinton’s photo, it just said: “I’m not kidding, Maddi.”

And that’s What’s Trending Today.

I'm Ashley Thompson.

Words in This Story

kidding - v. to speak to (someone) in a way that is not serious : to say things that are not true to (someone) in a joking way

humor - n. a funny or amusing quality​

meme - n. a humorous image, video, or text that is copied (often with small changes) and spread rapidly by Internet users​