Def The Best Part Of Rick Perry's First Campaign

For the average American, Ricky Perry is likely known for a few things: his cowboy boots, his Brokeback Mountain jacket, his total brain fart during the Republican debates, and his much-parodied and even more disliked "Strong" YouTube video. Nope, none of these things will help his prospects as a candidate for the Republican nomination as Rick Perry kicks off his second presidential campaign. But they contribute tremendously toward making fun of the former Texas governor. In fact, the meme based on Perry's "Strong" video was probably the best thing to come out of his highly flawed first campaign.

On December 6, 2011, Perry's YouTube channel posted a video titled "Strong," in which Perry delivered a very religious-centric message to appeal to conservative Christian voters. He says:

I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian, but you don't need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.

Not only did it fail to galvanize the religious right wing to champion him (Perry dropped out of the race before the South Carolina primary), but the video became one of the most disliked YouTube videos of all time with 811,913 dislikes as of Thursday. However, one good thing did come out of the video: a hilarious meme. Based on the negative reaction to Perry's opinion on the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy, the blogosphere created a Tumblr page called "Rick Perry's Unpopular Opinions." As the name suggests, it features GIFs of Perry in the "Strong" video accompanied by various opinions widely regarded to be unpopular.

There were also non-GIF versions with equally hilarious, equally unpopular opinions.

Whether or not Perry will do better this time around, one thing is for certain: at least one good meme will come out of his second campaign. It'll be tough to top the "Strong" parodies — almost as tough as it will be for Perry to redeem himself after his first run — but I'm confident that we can make this happen. It all depends on Perry doing something ridiculous, so come on, give the American people what they want.

Images: Giphy, Know Your Meme, Kelly Garbato/Flickr