Sleepy Joe (nickname)

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Biden in 2017 LBJ Foundation DIG14140-68 (23635442448).jpg
Biden in 2017

Sleepy Joe is a nickname describing Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States, coined and used by those who opposed his presidency, which became an Internet meme. The nickname was originally coined in 2019 by Biden's predecessor and successor, Donald Trump. [1] [2] It appeared after the publication of a number of media memes, where Biden allegedly falls asleep during a television interview. [3] The nickname hints at Biden's possible physical and mental inability to perform the duties of president. [4]

Contents

History

On April 25, 2019, United States president Donald Trump tweeted, "Welcome to the race, Sleepy Joe." Biden responded by calling Trump a "clown". [5] During the 2020 presidential election, including the final campaign debates, Trump generally mocked his opponent Biden repeatedly, calling him "Sleepy Joe". [6]

During the 2020 presidential election, [7] including the final election debate, [8] [9] Trump repeatedly trolled his opponent Joe Biden, calling him "Sleepy Joe".[ citation needed ] Thus, in one of his pre-election speeches in Wisconsin on November 2, 2020, Trump referred to his rival Joe Biden as "Sleepy Joe", "Sleepy Biden", demonstrating his failure as a political leader. [10]

In June 2020, reports surfaced that Trump had recently asked advisors whether he should stick with his current nickname for Biden, "Sleepy Joe", or try to come up with another nickname, such as "Swampy Joe" or "Creepy Joe". It has been noted that Trump is not convinced that "Sleepy Joe" is particularly "dangerous", and some of his advisers agreed and urged him to stop using the nickname. In one tweet, Trump stated another nickname for Biden: "Corrupt Joe". [11]

Trump has criticized Biden, saying he "has been in politics for 40 years and done nothing", describing him as "politically weak" and claiming Trump has done more in 3.5 years for black people than Biden did in 43 years. Reinforcing his war against "radical-left democrats", Trump seized on popular calls to "protect the police" and falsely attributed them to "Sleepy Joe". He also claimed that Biden "doesn't know where he is or what he's doing", "he's asleep", [12] and that Biden held a rally that "hardly anyone showed up for". [13]

According to Google Trends, the nickname "Sleepy Joe" was quite popular in 2020-2021. [14]

Analysis

The nickname "Sleepy Joe" is a pejorative anthroponym. [15] It is used by Trump to create a "political boundary of antagonism against Biden". [16] The adjective "sleepy" also demonstrates the same process of modifying the noun "Joe Biden" in a political, rather than semantic or pragmatic, way. The phrase "Sleepy Joe Biden" does not refer to Joe Biden still being sleepy due to lack of sleep; rather, it is a core structure of antagonism that creates the meaning "Joe Biden is unworthy of being President of the United States". [16] This form of constructing political and antagonistic meaning is common to various core structures of antagonism in Trump's political discourse. In his antagonistic discourse, Trump demonstrates a process of cognitive control. [17]

In The Lancet magazine, academics and doctors drew attention to the fact that the nicknames "Sleepy Joe" and "crazy" demonstrate how mental health problems can be misinterpreted and used as a tool; this is especially true in the Americas, where stigmatization of such diseases exists. [18]

Trump likely used this nickname because, at the time, Biden was very old (he was 77 years old during the debates) [19] or because Trump considered Biden to be slow and mentally impaired, incompetent, [20] or prone to uncontrollably falling asleep during events. [21] The nickname may imply the nominee's slowness and mental lethargy, his inability to think and react quickly. [15]

"Sleepy Joe" might also allude to a song of the same name, where the hero is gently chastised for his laziness [21] . It can be classified as a personal attack. Trump may be attempting to weaken Joe Biden's character by depriving him of the ability to speak normally due to a speech impediment. This is more of an emotional appeal than an appeal to character, because Trump's goal may be to create humor. [22]

Ico Maly, a lecturer at Tilburg University, notes that the image of "Sleepy Joe" created by Trump portrays Biden as a full-scale, dangerous enemy of the American people and that "Sleepy Joe" is now considered an extremely dangerous person precisely because of his perceived weakness. [23]

Researcher Tyler Johnson conducted a survey of 674 participants within 48 hours of the 2020 Republican National Convention, hoping that awareness of Trump's strategies would be very high. Participants were randomly assigned to either a control or an experimental group. The control group first answered questions about Biden, while the experimental group was first exposed to materials concerning Trump's attempt to give Biden a nickname. All participants were asked to recall nicknames Trump had given to previous political opponents. The results showed that only 37% of participants accurately remembered any nicknames Trump had given Biden throughout his campaign. Participants who reported being interested in politics or having voted in primaries were more likely to remember the nickname. The effectiveness of the "Sleepy Joe" nickname was assessed by asking participants to what extent they agreed with it as a description of Biden. The most common response was "not at all well," and participants who responded "very well" or "extremely well" were those who identified as Republicans and approved of Trump's job as president. 53% of participants considered the "Sleepy Joe" nickname negative, which is just over half, suggesting the nickname may not have been perceived as negatively as Trump intended. Thus, Tyler Johnson concluded that Donald Trump's "Sleepy Joe" nickname for Biden was only effective among Trump's supporters. [24]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Sarah Halifa-Legrand (September 8, 2022). "Le réveil de «Sleepy Joe» Biden: «Il avait en fait une longueur d'avance»". L’Obs (in French). Archived from the original on October 3, 2022. Retrieved October 3, 2022. Dans la torpeur de l'été, «Sleepy Joe» («Joe l'endormi»), comme Donald Trump surnomme avec mépris son successeur, s'est soudain réveillé
  2. ↑ James Pindell (July 2, 2020). "Trump's 'Sleepy Joe' nickname for Biden isn't working. Even Trump knows it". The Boston Globe . Archived from the original on June 3, 2023. 2
  3. ↑ Добрынина Е. Н., Кирничук А. В. (2021). "Интернет-мем как средство манипуляции общественным сознанием в политическом дискурсе". Deutsche Internationale Zeitschrift für zeitgenössische Wissenschaft. No. 20. p. 51. ISSN   2701-8369. Archived from the original on October 3, 2022.
  4. ↑ Жигулин Д. П., Бондарева Л. М. (2022). "Особенности использования языковых средств агональности в американском политическом дискурсе (на материале текстов предвыборных речей Д. Трампа и Дж. Байдена за 2020 год)". Вестник Балтийского федерального университета им. И. Канта. Серия: Филология, педагогика, психология. No. 1. p. 10. ISSN   2500-039X. Archived from the original on October 3, 2022.
  5. ↑ Haltiwanger, John (May 10, 2022). "Joe Biden has a new nickname for Trump after the president called him 'Sleepy Joe'". The Insider . Retrieved October 3, 2022.
  6. ↑ Johnson, Tyler (2021). "Sleepy Joe? Recalling and Considering Donald Trump's Strategic Use of Nicknames". Journal of Political Marketing. 20 (3–4): 302–316. doi:10.1080/15377857.2021.1939572.
  7. ↑ Kenan Draughorne (July 13, 2022). "Snoop Dogg takes a potshot at Biden with his new 'Sleepy Joe OG' cannabis strain". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on October 3, 2022. Retrieved October 3, 2022.
  8. ↑ Mary McNamara (October 23, 2020). "Column: Sleepy Joe? In final debate, Biden navigated a minefield of Trump disruptions". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on October 3, 2022.
  9. ↑ "From 'Sleepy Joe' to 'Crooked Joe': Trump tries to redraw his portrait of Biden". NBC News. September 4, 2023. Retrieved November 22, 2025.
  10. ↑ Кадочникова А. А. (April 2021). "Средства выразительности как компонент речевого компонента Дональда Трампа". Современные тренды развития регионов: управление, право, экономика, социум (статья в сборнике трудов конференции). Челябинск. pp. 21–22.
  11. ↑ Parker, Ashley; Costa, Robert; Dawsey, Josh (June 28, 2020). "Some Trump allies push for campaign shake-up to revive president's imperiled reelection bid". The Washington Post .
  12. ↑ Cervi, Laura; García, Fernando; Marín-Lladó, Carles (August 4, 2021). "Populism, Twitter, and COVID-19: Narrative, Fantasies, and Desires". Social Sciences. 10 (8): 294. doi: 10.3390/socsci10080294 .
  13. ↑ Derki, Noureddine (March–April 2022). "A Critical Analysis of Persuasive Strategies Used in Political Discourse: A Case Study of Donald Trump and Joe Biden". International Journal of English Language, Education and Literature Studies. 1 (1): 44–54. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7776321.
  14. ↑ Авдеева Е. В. (February 2022). "Интернет-мемы как новый способ политической коммуникации" (PDF). Минск. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 3, 2022.
  15. 1 2 Печко Ніна (February 2021). "Інтерпретація імпліцитної семантики антропонімів політичного дискурсу". Міжнародні Відносини, Суспільні Комунікації Та Регіональні Студії (in Ukrainian). 1 (9): 156. doi:10.29038/2524-2679-2021-01-148-160. Archived from the original on October 3, 2022.
  16. 1 2 Anggraini, Sawirman, Marnita 2020, p. 67.
  17. ↑ Anggraini, Sawirman, Marnita 2020, pp. 67–68.
  18. ↑ Smith, Alexander J.; Artese, Agustín; Oquendo, Maria A.; Bhugra, Dinesh; Moura, Helena Ferreira; Liebrenz, Michael (February 1, 2025). ""Sleepy Joe", "el loco", and evolving debates about mental health and democratic leadership in the Americas". The Lancet Regional Health – Americas. 42 100992. doi:10.1016/j.lana.2025.100992. ISSN   2667-193X. PMC   11780149 . PMID   39886480.
  19. ↑ Bond, Speller, Cockrell, Webb, Sievers 2022, p. 2.
  20. ↑ Терновая Л. О. (2021). "Прозвища государственных и общественных деятелей: индикаторы политического климата" (PDF) (Власть истории и История власти ed.). p. 601. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 3, 2022.
  21. 1 2 Осипова О. С. (October 2020). "Языковые средства создания комического образа Дональда Трампа в СМИТ (на материале американских юмористических интернет-изданий)" (статья в сборнике трудов конференции) (Язык, культура, коммуникация: изучение и обучение ed.). Орёл. p. 301.
  22. ↑ Scott Lucas (2021). "The Brexit Paralysis of a Paralysed UK Government" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 3, 2022.
  23. ↑ Maly 2020.
  24. ↑ Johnson 2021.

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