The United States learned a new name following President Joe Biden’s 2024 State of the Union address, and we really wish we could forget it.
Relative unknown despite being a Senator Katie Britt (R-AL) delivered the GOP’s response to Biden’s SOTU, and her unflinchingly plastic delivery took her from fringe politician to center stage. Britt, currently serving as Alabama’s junior senator, briefly enjoyed a new position as GOP mouthpiece before her terrifying delivery, paired with the blatant lies she spewed throughout, ended her new position before it truly began.
The GOP won’t be tapping Britt for any more speaking appearances after watching the 42-year-old senator breathlessly grin her way through a 17-minute speech. Britt’s performance gave the dual impression of a frustrated Karen and desperate hostage, and the web wasted no time in capitalizing on her instant meme potential.
The best Katie Britt memes
Memes were starting to arise even as Katie Britt was delivering a wooden, desperate speech from her weirdly staged kitchen table. Surrounded by the same beige that carries through every word of her address, Britt certainly caught the attention of the nation — just not in the way she intended.
Instead of working people up into a nice right-wing frenzy, Britt managed to do little more than inspire people to give The Handmaid’s Tale a rewatch. Her smiling intensity pairs perfectly with that “Gilead green,” and people wasted no time in labeling her as the GOP’s own Serena Joy.
Those Handmaid’s Tale vibes were echoed by a number of viewers, including one who labeled Britt as “what happens when you throw Stepford Wives, Handmaid’s Tale wives, and box wine into a blender and hit the ‘hold my beer’ button.”
People immediately started dreaming up the inevitable Saturday Night Live response, tapping the legendary comedy show for the truly elementary task of dragging the GOP’s new wine mom.
SNL did just that, and with very little time to prepare, when it aired its show just two days after Britt gave her speech. That was more than enough time for the show to produce a flawlessly comedic recreation of the genuinely terrifying speech — and with Scar Jo at the helm, no less.
The resulting rebuttal was hailed as an instant slam dunk by the sketch comedy series, and people haven’t stopped talking about it since.
That’s not to say that Britt’s own performance was comedy gold in its own right — it even earned praise for the 42-year-old congress woman. Praise for her range — which stretches between manic mob wife and scorned lover — but praise none the less.
The appearance was so impactful it even inspired poetry from some of Britt’s more lyrical detractors.
The meme effort quickly spread from Twitter — where people often go to discuss political moments — to TikTok, where even something as simple as a filter transformed Britt’s appearance from terrifying hostage video to comedy gold.
It takes almost nothing to turn Britt’s big speech from excessively earnest political response to horror movie in the making, and TikTok wasted no time in proving it.
Comparisons to a range of television and film characters, from True Blood‘s Sarah Newlin to Kristen Wiig’s flawless mockery of those regurgitated pageant responses were quick to follow.
Then there are people’s own recreations of the video, which range between utterly scathing to side-splitting, as people fixate on her uncanny delivery and dead eyes and produce hilarity in the process.
The memes just keep piling up, even as calls for Britt to resign take off online in response to revelations about the dishonesty sprinkled throughout her speech. All those lies, her sappy performance, and the generally uncanny nature of her utterances won’t be enough to land her on Trump’s VP shortlist, but now at least we know who Yvonne Strahovski’s Serena was based on.
