The #McConnelling meme trend originated in 2014 after Senator Mitch McConnell released a campaign ad featuring him smiling wordlessly in various settings. Jon Stewart and The Daily Show popularized the hashtag by encouraging viewers to set the footage to different music, creating absurdly awkward results. The meme saw a significant resurgence in 2023 following several high-profile incidents where the Senator appeared to freeze during press conferences. Today, it is used to represent moments of awkward silence, glitching in social situations, or the sheer absurdity of political optics.