# Please Clap

On February 2, 2016, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush finished a line in a New Hampshire stump speech, waited for applause that never came, and asked the crowd, "Please clap"[3]. Mashable flagged it as the potential iconic moment of his 2016 campaign[1], and the two-word plea spawned image macros that outlived his failed run.

## Origin
On February 2, 2016, Bush spoke to a New Hampshire crowd ahead of the state's primary[1]. He wrapped a passage about the kind of commander in chief he would be on military and foreign policy, waited for the applause he expected, then said, "Please clap"[3]. The C-SPAN clip circulated on YouTube the same day and started getting shared on Twitter within hours[4].

Bush was not the meme's creator so much as its unwilling subject. The moment came from a live campaign event; the meme formats around it were built afterward by anonymous Twitter and Reddit users editing screenshots from the clip[3].

- **Platform:** C-SPAN campaign coverage (YouTube spread)
- **Creator:** Jeb Bush (subject of the clip); meme creator Unknown
- **Date:** 2016

## Overview
Please Clap works as both a two-word catchphrase and an image macro pulled from the same short C-SPAN clip of Jeb Bush pausing for applause that never came[3]. In caption form, it gets attached to any post about desperate applause fishing, whether from politicians, brands, or awkward public speakers. As an image macro, it pairs a screenshot of Bush's pained face with variations that swap the plea for whatever the speaker is quietly begging for[1].

The tone shifted over time. In early 2016 the posts were straight mockery of Bush's flagging candidacy[2]. After Donald Trump's 2016 election win, the same footage came back as part of ironic Jeb Bush fan content, where users treated the plea as sincere and sympathetic rather than cringeworthy[3]. That flip kept the clip in rotation as a reaction any time a public figure hit a similar dead moment.

## How to Use
Please Clap is typically used two ways. As a caption, users drop the two words under any video or screenshot of someone visibly hoping for approval, from a politician's flat rally line to a brand tweet with no engagement. As an image macro, the common convention is a still of Bush's tight-lipped face captioned with a variation on the plea, often swapping "clap" for another response the poster is fishing for.

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Please Clap?
Please Clap is a catchphrase and image macro drawn from a February 2, 2016 clip of Jeb Bush asking a New Hampshire audience to applaud[3].

### Where did Please Clap come from?
From a Bush campaign stop in New Hampshire on February 2, 2016, where he finished a foreign-policy line, got no reaction, and said, "Please clap"[1].

### What does Please Clap mean?
It became shorthand for a speaker desperately fishing for approval, which MSNBC described as heartbreaking because Bush thought he was giving powerful rhetoric[2].

### How do you use Please Clap?
Users typically caption awkward-silence videos with the two words or share image macros of Bush's face over variations of the plea[3].

### Is Please Clap still popular?
It came back during the Trump administration as ironic Jeb Bush content[3] and was pulled out again in January 2020 when Pete Buttigieg had a similar rally moment[5].

## References
1. [https://mashable.com/2016/02/04/jeb-bush-awkward-moments/](<https://mashable.com/2016/02/04/jeb-bush-awkward-moments/>)
2. [https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/jeb-bush-urges-audience-please-clap](<https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/jeb-bush-urges-audience-please-clap>)
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/please-clap](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/please-clap>)
4. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdCYMvaUcrA](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdCYMvaUcrA>)
5. [https://x.com/i/status/1219723626158514177](<https://x.com/i/status/1219723626158514177>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/please-clap
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