2015 State of the Union Address

Overview

2015 State of the Union Address was the annual presidential speech delivered by the United States President Barack Obama to a joint session of the 114th U.S. Congress at the House of Representatives chamber on January 20th, 2015.

Background

On January 20th, 2015, President Obama delivered his last annual State of the Union Address as the incumbent leader of the United States, which was broadcast on television and livestreamed online. During the speech, Obama discussed a wide range of governmental agendas and initiatives to tackle issues and concerns at home and overseas, such as the revitalization of the American economy, containment of extremist terrorist groups like the Islamic State (IS) and easier access to higher education programs, as well as a new tax policy on the Wall Street.

Notable Developments

Improvised Quip

Obama momentarily deviated from the speech script after receiving applause from Republicans for saying he had “no more campaigns to run,” adding “I know, because I won both of them” (shown below).

Proud Joe Biden

During the address, a screen capture of Joe Biden wearing a smug facial expression began circulating on Twitter (shown below).

That day, Viner Dorsey Shaw uploaded a clip of Biden making the proud-looking face, which received upwards of 290,000 plays within 24 hours (shown below). That evening BuzzFeed^[2] published a compilation of “Proud Joe Biden” tweets.

Ernest Moniz’ Hair

At one point during the speech, the Funny Or Die Twitter feed posted a screen captured image of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz with the caption “Please show this guy again. #SOTU” (shown below, left). In less than 24 hours, the post garnered more than 3,100 favorites and 2,700 retweets. Other Twitter subsequently tweeted photos of Moniz, with many joking about his unique hairstyle (shown below, right).^[4]

Bread Bag Story

Following the address, Republican Senator Joni Ernst delivered the GOP rebuttal, during which she described wearing bread bags on her feet while walking to school as a child:

“You see, growing up, I had only one good pair of shoes. So on rainy school days, my mom would slip plastic bread bags over them to keep them dry. But I was never embarrassed. Because the school bus would be filled with rows and rows of young Iowans with bread bags slipped over their feet.”

On Twitter, many users joked about the bizarre story (shown below).^[5]^[6]

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, several news sites reported on the Internet’s response to the address, including The Daily What,^[3] Time,^[7]USA Today^[8] and Vibe.^[9]