I was originally going to say “best” or “funniest” or something like that but I don’t feel any of these really deserve that title. They are technically memes. And rather than suffer alone as a witness to them, I’ve decided to share the ‘highlights’, relative to AusPol, that the Greens, Liberal, and Labor parties have put out this election. I completely avoided One Nation because frankly nobody wants or needs to see that. Also I’m honestly scared of whatever One Nation TikTok is like.

So brace yourself for the cringe and let’s begin.

Round #1: TikTok (sorry... Farrago website hates embedding content)
If you’ve ever wanted to see a TikTok officially authorised by an office in Canberra, these are for you. Because yes, as official government messages they all have that weird emotionless voiceover at the end.

Best Actual Use of Policy: the Greens and their willingness to try and combine their key political concerns with TikTok. A strangely serious attempt.

Best Use of TikTok: Labor and their shockingly decent understanding of medium. Sure it’s not the best one I’ve ever seen but weirdly okay for the Labor Party.

Best Use of a Mocap Suit: Liberal and whatever is happening here. My personal favorite part is the fact they seem to think people use the em dash in texts.

Honorable Mention: The Legend of Albo. I mean, at least someone in the party knows the plot of Avatar?

Round #2: the ~Classic~ Meme

Here the potential leaders of the country try to communicate with The Youth™ through the ancient language of memes.

Best “Consistent” Messaging: Liberal and their laser focus on why we should all be worrying about tHe EcOnOmY. Because when something isn’t funny to begin with, the best way to get a laugh is to repeat it ad nauseam. 

Best Positive Meme: the Greens and this nice little message. It’s nice to get a break of political mudslinging and bring some positivity into the election.

Best Use of a Template: Labor as they drag us back into the mudslinging. But at least they actually seem to know what a meme is.

Honorable Mention: Encouraging people to enroll to vote. Which, if you haven’t already, you should really do now.

Round #3: I don’t even know what this is…

Look, I don’t entirely understand what’s going on here. I imagine these are for someone but I can’t imagine who. There are no winners here.

Worst Use of Lord of the Rings: Labor and this monstrosity. But if I had to see, so do you.

Worst Use of Photoshop: Liberal as they continue with photoshop attempts that will haunt my nightmares.

Worst Use of May the 4th: the Greens and this Star Wars reference. The message is important but letting Yoda explain preferential voting makes the entire system somehow even more confusing.

Dishonorable Mention: Labor and the sheer number of weird… puns, jokes, I dunno there’s just a lot.

And there you have it. None of it great, but highly likely to continue as we creep our way to the end of this election season.