Michelle Obama's eyeroll towards John Boehner becomes viral sensation
theGRIO REPORT - First lady Michelle Obama appeared to be irritated by Speaker of the House John Boehner at the Inauguration Day luncheon yesterday.
First lady Michelle Obama appeared to be irritated by Speaker of the House John Boehner at the Inauguration Day luncheon yesterday.
Tumblr blogger known as Mattyrab pointed out a moment during the luncheon when the first lady rolled her eyes after John Boehner made a comment to President Barack Obama at the table. Ms. Obama can be seen rolling her eyes and looking away from the Republican congressman.
Larry Wenig, a lip reading expert, recently appeared on CBS’ Inside Edition and claimed the Boehner comment which drew the first lady’s ire was a joke about whether the president had enjoyed a cigarette that day.
Mattyrab called the exchange a “historical moment in shade throwing.”
The footage has since spread rapidly on social networking sites with viewers questioning on what prompted the first lady’s eyerolling reaction.
‘Shade throwing,’ as the blogger refers to in his post is defined as “to take a superior attitude; to criticize demean, or insult” according to Grant Barrett from A Way with Words.
The president later stood up to speak at the luncheon and joked about the relationship between his wife and Boehner.
“Michelle and the Speaker of the House came to a meeting of the minds that I may be delaying the proceedings too much,” Obama said. “And so I’m just going to be extraordinarily brief and say thank you.”
The infamous “eyeroll” since has become internet meme overnight, with Mattyrab’s video shared over 7,000 times on Tumblr and the YouTube video titled, “Watch Michelle Obama Throw World Historical Shade at John Boehner,” viewed over 2 million times as of yesterday.
The YouTube video has even received more views than the New York Times‘ YouTube post of President Barack Obama’s Inauguration speech (398,000 views).
“None of this holds a candle to our gurl Michelle Obama – and apparently, her supreme ability to throw subtle-yet-fierce B***FACE when warranted! [sic]” quipped celebrity blogger, Perez Hilton. “Now please sit down, get comfortable, and re-live all of the glory of FLOTUS clearly not taking too kindly to Speaker of the House’s John Boehner during the post-inauguration luncheon!”
Various blog posts have emerged accompanied with the GIF or video that commends the first lady for successfully dissing the Speaker of the House.
“There will also no doubt be many more opportunities for the now-infamous Michelle Obama eye roll to be directed at Speaker John Boehner and maybe even at her own hubby now and then; if not in reality, then through the glorious use of memes,” Jennifer Waite, from the Examiner, explains.
Both Obama and Boehner have been caught in a legislative gridlock for the past few months over a variety of issues including the upcoming fight over the debt ceiling.
Watch the video of  the encounter between Boehner and Michelle Obama above.
Follow Brittany Tom on Twitter @brittanyrtom
