Democrat John Fetterman defeated celebrity Dr Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania Senate race on Tuesday, bringing to a close a campaign that was fought partially online using memes and pop culture references.
During his victory speech, Mr Fetterman may have slipped one more reference in for good measure.
“We launched this campaign almost two years ago and we had our slogan. It’s on every one of those signs right now. Every county, every vote. Every county, every vote. And that’s exactly what happened,” Mr Fetterman said in his victory speech. “And that’s exactly what happened. We jammed them up. We held the line.”
The phrase "jammed them up" could just be a colloquial turn of phrase, but it could also have been a somewhat esoteric reference to the long-running comedy "It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia," as pointed out by Rolling Stone editor Marlow Stern.
In the third season of the show, two of the characters — Glenn Howerton’s Dennis Reynolds and Danny DeVito’s Frank Reynolds — buy an old police car from a junkyard and dress as police officers to solicit free hot dogs from the city’s vendors. During their stint as fake officers, the power goes to Dennis’ head and he begins harassing members of the public, threatening to "jam them up" if they don’t respect his authority. He later makes the same threats against his friends while dressed as a police officer.
Was Mr Fetterman’s phrase an actual reference to the show, or just a coincidence? It’s not really important.
However, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Mr Fetterman did reference the show, as he had already done so once before. In a short video he made after becoming the state’s lieutenant governor, Governor Tom Wolf offers to buy his second-in-command a tie. The joke, of course, is that Mr Fetterman is well known for wearing long, button-down shirts without ties, hoodies, shorts — normal clothing that people generally don’t associate with politicians.
After a short cold-open teasing the plot of the video, a screen with the words "Governor Wolf buys John Fetterman a tie" appears in white over black, along with the "It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia" theme song, referencing the way each episode of the show opens.
Mr Fetterman also referenced “The Simpsons” during the campaign, comparing his opponent Dr Oz to the show’s Dr Nick — a snake-oil salesman doctor who offers questionable remedies at high prices — in a campaign ad.
While Mr Fetterman’s pop culture repertoire is ultimately unimportant when compared to his policy positions, it did help to highlight one of main criticisms he levied at his opponent during the campaign — that Dr Oz was out of touch with normal people, and the lieutenant governor wasn’t.
Mr Fetterman pointed to the doctor’s numerous, expensive properties as evidence of his disconnect from his would-be constituents, and while he was making references to extremely popular shows that many of his constituents likely watch, Dr Oz was posting a campaign ad complaining about relatively normal grocery prices while shopping for his wife’s crudité.
