There’s been a lot of (virtual) ink spilled over former FBI director James Comey and his now-deleted Instagram post. In it, he claimed to have come across an arrangement of seashells on the beach spelling out “86 47.” His caption read, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.
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“86” refers to getting rid of something, while “47” refers to President Donald Trump. Har-dee-har-har. What a knee slapper.
Donald Trump Jr. suggested that Comey was calling for his dad’s murder:
Just James Comey causally calling for my dad to be murdered.
This is who the Dem-Media worships. Demented!!!! pic.twitter.com/4LUK6crHAT
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 15, 2025
By the way, Comey backtracked on his message and took it down.
Here at PJ Media, we’ve talked about it as well. Victoria Taft pointed out the suggestion of violence that the message implied, and she also wrote about how Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard mused whether to pursue criminal charges against Comey.
Matt Margolis suggested that conservatives may be overreacting to Comey’s antics — after all, “86” just means to get rid of, which could happen by non-violent means, too — while Charlie Martin noted that Comey has a book coming out and could be stirring the waters just to get people talking about him. All press is good press; isn’t that what they say?
What nobody has mentioned until now is that Comey’s biggest offense is against humor. He’s the latest example proving that the left can’t meme.
Related: The Left Can’t Meme, but the Biden Campaign Still Wants to Try
When Joe Biden’s reelection campaign tried to hire somebody to create memes — y’know, because “Dark Brandon” didn’t stick — I pointed out that “Memes don’t come down from on high; they’re organic. The people who claim to be the defenders of democracy miss the point that memes are the most democratic form of modern comedy.”
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Remember the Department of Transportation’s 2021 meme that was nothing more than unfunny Democrat propaganda? Not only was it a bad meme, but some suggested that it could have also violated the Hatch Act.
😊🙌🙌👩✈️👨🏭👩🔧👷♀️👷 pic.twitter.com/vBVanOBCuK
— U.S. Department of Transportation (@USDOT) November 26, 2021
At the time, I wrote:
If you don’t get it, it’s okay. There’s nothing to get other than the leftist talking point.
I’m not sure what we’re supposed to call the diametric opposite of comedy gold, but this is it. This meme is an affront to comedy. It’s neither cute nor funny, and it’s certainly not clever. There’s no original thought to it whatsoever, and the only thing revelatory about it is how slavishly devoted the left always is to The Narrative™.
In other words, this in no way resembles comedy.
Whoever developed this meme and posted it on the Department of Transportation’s Twitter account should have his or her password privileges revoked. I almost picture Pete Buttigieg himself sitting in front of his copy of Photoshop smiling smugly and saying to himself, “All my friends are gonna love this!”
In 2022, Stacey Abrams posted a meme on Instagram that was supposed to take advantage of the “Little Mr./Little Miss” meme trend.
It didn’t work for two reasons: first because she used a photo of herself and not one of the classic children’s book characters and second because she was already behind in the polls by then and on her way to a second drubbing at the hands of Gov. Brian Kemp (R-Ga.)
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It aged as well as Hillary Clinton’s classic stupid tweet in 2016:
Happy birthday to this future president. pic.twitter.com/JT3HiBjYdj
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 26, 2016
“Abrams’ Instagram meme is presumptuous and poorly done,” I wrote at the time. “And, worst of all, it’s not funny. Thanks to Stacey Abrams, we have even more proof that the left can’t meme, no matter how hard it tries.”
Leftists might as well give up on meme-making. They don’t understand humor, and they wind up getting the wrong kind of attention when they try.
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