Thanks to the inauguration of now-President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the internet is flooded with so much content: We have Bernie Sanders in his favorite coat sitting like no one is watching, we have what Twitter thinks finally former president Donald Trump wrote in his Oval Office letter to Biden, and now we have...Al Gore in space.
While speaking with NBC News about what this Inauguration Day means to him, Al Gore – looking like he’s been to the year 3000 – stood in front of a space-inspired backdrop that looked as though he were beaming down to Earth from some far off planet. “Our republic lives,” Gore began. “The center has held. Democracy will return in full spirit. It means to me that when Joe Biden walks into the Oval Office not long from now, science will walk in with him, a reverence for truth will walk in with him, commitment to seeking bipartisan solutions to our country’s problems will walk in with him, empathy will walk in with him, and I am overcome with the hopefulness that this ceremony brings to us.”
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Beautiful words of optimism aside, Twitter couldn’t get over what very clearly appeared to be Al Gore in space. And like any good moment you can’t stop thinking about, it became a meme instantly. The best explanation most could come up with for why Gore was speaking to us from the moon is that he finally got fed up with people ignoring climate change that he opted for a different climate entirely. Here are just a few choice hypotheses:
Al Gore went from trying to save the planet to just getting the fuck up out of here pic.twitter.com/rVLoiChAN4
— Matt Hunziker (@matthunzi) January 20, 2021
Al Gore looks like the fictional president they put on video monitors or magazine covers in the background of movies that take place in some near dystopian future, calling him "President Jacobson" or whatever. pic.twitter.com/IuslNxzrSS
— Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra) January 20, 2021
Al Gore so pissed off about climate change he moved to the moon pic.twitter.com/eGhEWPhxsS
— haley (@haleynbee) January 20, 2021
Al Gore coming to us live from the Moon is exactly what this inauguration needed pic.twitter.com/VrgM671osN
— Sunshine Ellie (@AerialEllie) January 20, 2021
Al Gore is unable to attend the inauguration as he is still trapped in the Moon prison he was banished to by the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore pic.twitter.com/DTCMza1xFt
— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) January 20, 2021
All memes aside, since serving as vice president during Bill Clinton’s presidency, Gore has continued to focus on environmental initiatives and endorsing Democratic presidential candidates. Most recently, Gore along with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, announced an initiative at Vanderbilt University focused on unification and bridging the divide between the Democratic and Republican parties. During his NBC News interview, he also mentioned that if he were still in the Senate, he would vote in favor of convicting Trump of his second impeachment charges.
It’s been a long four years. And we must admit, it feels nice to live in a world where the memes are about Al Gore looking like a near-future, dystopian world leader in space, rather than wishing we could escape to the moon ourselves wondering if Trump is going to start World War III.