Rick Perry's 'Strong' and the 5 funniest US campaign videos
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.On Monday Texas Governor Rick Perry announced that he is retiring at the end of his term. Perry’s is most famous internationally for his hopeless run to be the Republican Presidential candidate in 2011-2012.
During the Republican primaries he released his infamously ridiculous campaign video ‘Strong’ which was so unpopular that it got over 790, 000 dislikes on YouTube. It also launched a number of parody videos.
In tribute to ridiculous US campaign videos, here are the five funniest we could find (both intentionally and unintentionally):
1) “I am not a witch”: It emerged that in her youth, Delaware Senator candidate Christine O’Donnell she had “dabbled into witchcraft”. Her video response, in which she declared “I am not a witch” was met with a great deal of bemusement and parody videos. The original is, after all, very funny.
2) Big Bird: After Mitt Romney suggested closing down the public broadcasting organisation that produces Sesame Street, Barack Obama’s team fired back with an amusing video that cheekily suggested that Romney was more interested in targeting Big Bird than Wall Street.
3) “Major Oily Tom”: In one of the weirdest election adverts ever released, Rob Hahn, running for Governor in Minnesota, used a music video showing a CGI version of his opponent Tom Horner, to make his point. What his point was is not entirely clear.
4) Hubert Humphrey campaign video, 1968: This must be one of the creepiest campaign videos ever released. Like some sort of terrifying horror movie all you can hear is a man laughing for the duration of the video. On the screen is a TV with the name of Richard Nixon’s Vice Presidential candidate.
5) “Ike. Bob. Ike. Bob”: This is the first TV campaign video ever. And it shows. It’s just really weird. Watch it.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments