# Basil Marceaux > Basil Marceaux is a 2010 viral video meme featuring Tennessee gubernatorial candidate Basil Marceaux, Sr. introducing himself as "Basil Marceaux Dot Com" before delivering an incoherent stump speech with absurd policy proposals. Basil Marceaux is an internet meme born from a 2010 local news broadcast in which Tennessee Republican gubernatorial candidate Basil Marceaux, Sr. delivered a rambling, barely coherent stump speech that went massively viral on YouTube. The clip, featuring his self-introduction as "Basil Marceaux Dot Com" and policy proposals like "if you kill someone you get murdered," turned the obscure perennial candidate into a brief internet celebrity who landed appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and three segments on The Colbert Report[5]. ## Origin Basil Marceaux, Sr. was born May 26, 1952 in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania and served as a Marine from 1971 to 1973 in Force Recon[5]. By 2010, he was a resident of Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee and already a veteran of multiple failed political campaigns, including three runs for Tennessee State Senate, one for U.S. Senate, and earlier gubernatorial bids[5]. His 2010 campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination produced the video that made him famous. A Chattanooga-area NBC affiliate ran candidate statements from all five major-party contenders, and Marceaux's segment aired alongside conventional politicians[2]. The video was uploaded to YouTube and first posted to knucklesunited.com on July 21st, 2010[4]. His campaign website on freesitenow.com promised voters: "VOTE FOR ME AND IF I WIN I WILL IMMUNE YOU FROM ALL STATE CRIMES FOR THE REST OF YOU LIFE!"[5] Marceaux later denied being drunk during the taping, explaining that his speech was slurred because he has only three teeth and that the news producers forced him to modify his statement mid-delivery[5]. - **Platform:** WSMV NBC4 Nashville (local news broadcast), YouTube / Reddit (viral spread) - **Creator:** Basil Marceaux, Sr. (subject/candidate), WSMV NBC4 Nashville (broadcast) - **Date:** 2010 ## Overview The Basil Marceaux meme centers on a short local news clip from Nashville's NBC4 station in which all five major-party gubernatorial candidates were given airtime to address voters in their own words[2]. While the other four candidates delivered standard political pitches, Marceaux stood out with his red-faced swaying, slurred speech, and a string of policy positions that sounded like they were assembled from a random word generator. He opened by introducing himself as "Basil Marceaux Dot Com," pitched a plan to "plant grass or vegetation cross the state on any vacant lot" to pay state expenses, and promised to "stop traffic stops"[2]. The clip's charm was the genuine uncertainty of whether Marceaux was performing, intoxicated, or simply operating on a wavelength nobody else could tune into. ## How It Spread The video hit Reddit's front page on July 27th with a thread titled "Hello, name is Basil Marceaux and I am runninf for Republican Governor of Tennessee"[4]. The misspelling in the title matched Marceaux's own energy perfectly. By July 30th, media outlets were picking up the story. Asylum's Tommy Christopher called him the "Most Awesomely Inarticulate Political Candidate Ever"[4]. Wonkette dove into Marceaux's web presence and declared "everything he says or writes is absolutely amazing"[2]. New York Magazine compared his origin story to Washington and Lincoln, writing with ironic grandeur about "Basil Marceaux, and the Internet"[2]. The clip aired on MSNBC, The Soup, and multiple radio shows including Bubba the Love Sponge and The Monsters in the Morning[5]. Stephen Colbert devoted three separate segments to Marceaux on The Colbert Report, urging Tennessee viewers to vote for "Basil Marceaux-dot-com" and joking that his website must be "Basil Marceaux-dot-com-dot-com"[5]. In early August 2010, Marceaux flew to Hollywood to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live![1]. His fame also attracted scrutiny. Wonkette noted with some disappointment that Marceaux had become self-aware about his internet celebrity, consciously calling himself "Basil Marceaux Dot Com," opening a Zazzle merchandise store, and launching a polished YouTube channel[1]. When Mediaite called him for an interview, his first words were "You're not gonna make an ass of me, now, are you?"[1]. The site worried he was "jumping the shark"[1]. ## How to Use The Basil Marceaux meme is typically referenced rather than templated. People commonly quote his most memorable lines ("if you kill someone you get murdered," "Basil Marceaux Dot Com") or link the original video when discussing absurd political candidates, local news gold, or the question of whether someone is genuinely eccentric or performing eccentricity for attention. The video often gets shared during election seasons as a reminder that democracy produces all kinds of candidates. ## Cultural Impact Marceaux's viral moment sat at an interesting intersection of internet humor and political commentary. The three Colbert Report segments gave him more national airtime than most legitimate third-party candidates ever receive[5]. His Jimmy Kimmel appearance put him in the same celebrity circuit as professional entertainers[1]. The media coverage also raised uncomfortable questions. New York Magazine explicitly compared the internet's treatment of Marceaux to the premise of Dinner for Schmucks, a film about rich people mocking eccentric outsiders for entertainment[2]. Marceaux's criminal history, including multiple insanity verdicts and forced psychiatric hospitalizations, complicated the joke considerably[5]. Whether audiences were watching a savvy self-promoter or an unwell man being exploited for clicks was never fully settled. His post-loss claim that he deliberately manipulated the internet into covering him became its own meta-conversation about authenticity online[3]. The Atlantic and Washington Post both devoted serious analysis to whether Marceaux had played everyone, treating the question as genuinely unresolvable[3]. ## Fun Facts - Marceaux explained his slurred speech by saying he only has three teeth and that producers forced him to edit his statement on the fly[5]. - His campaign website promised to make voters immune from all state crimes for life[5]. - He had been the defendant in 19 criminal cases in Hamilton County, mostly traffic violations, which makes his "stop traffic stops" platform oddly personal[5]. - A poll showed he would lose to Barack Obama by 25 points in a hypothetical presidential race[5]. - He filed as a candidate again in 2022, twelve years after his viral moment[5]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Basil Marceaux? Basil Marceaux is an internet meme based on a viral 2010 local news clip of Tennessee Republican gubernatorial candidate Basil Marceaux, Sr. delivering an incoherent stump speech where he introduced himself as "Basil Marceaux Dot Com" and proposed policies like stopping all traffic stops[4]. ### Where did the Basil Marceaux meme come from? The meme originated from a Nashville NBC4 news segment that gave all five major-party gubernatorial candidates time to speak. Marceaux's clip was uploaded to YouTube and first posted to knucklesunited.com on July 21, 2010, before hitting Reddit's front page on July 27th[4]. ### What does Basil Marceaux mean? In meme context, "Basil Marceaux" represents the intersection of absurdist local politics and internet virality. His candidacy became shorthand for genuine eccentricity in politics, with the added layer of uncertainty about whether he was performing or sincere[3]. ### How do you use the Basil Marceaux meme? People typically share the original video clip or quote his memorable lines like "if you kill someone you get murdered" when discussing bizarre political candidates or absurd local news moments[5]. ### Is Basil Marceaux still popular? The meme's peak was summer 2010. While the video still circulates during election seasons, it's largely a historical curiosity from the early viral video era[2]. ### Did Basil Marceaux win any election? No. He finished fifth in the 2010 Republican gubernatorial primary with 3,505 votes (0.5%) and ninth in the 3rd congressional district primary with 655 votes[4]. He ran for governor again in 2022 as an independent[5]. ### Was Basil Marceaux drunk in the video? Marceaux denied being intoxicated, explaining that his slurred speech was due to having only three teeth and that producers made him modify his statement during filming[5]. ### Did Basil Marceaux trick the internet? After losing the primary, Marceaux told the Washington Post he deliberately "set the Internet up so they would talk bad about me because it's the only way to get hits." Whether this was true or face-saving spin was never definitively resolved[3]. ### What TV shows featured Basil Marceaux? He appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and was the subject of three segments on The Colbert Report. The clip also aired on MSNBC and The Soup[5]. ### What were Basil Marceaux's actual policy positions? His platform included stopping traffic stops, recalling gun permits, banning police from charging suspects for anything except moving violations, emphasizing phonics in schools, and requiring high schoolers to read minutes from the U.S. House of Representatives[5]. ## References 1. [The Basil Marceaux Has Become SELF-AWARE, Is No Longer That Fun]() 2. [Meet Basil Marceaux, a Political Candidate for Our Time]() 3. [Basil Marceaux: I Tricked the Internet - The Atlantic]() 4. [Basil Marceaux - Know Your Meme]() 5. [Basil Marceaux]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/basil-marceaux Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library