Obama 'Uhh, Let Me Be Clear'

About

Obama 'Uhh, Let Me Be Clear' refers to parodies of a catchphrase of former President Barack Obama, who often says "Let me be clear" before making an important point in his political speeches. Though long parodied as one of Obama's verbal tics, the phrase started seeing use as a snowclone in July of 2022, with people inventing scenarios that would cause Obama to say a word that rhymes with "clear."

Origin

In political speeches, former President Barack Obama often uses the phrase "Let me be clear" before delivering a point he wants to drive home. This was noted in a segment by the Associated Press aired on October 13th, 2009 (shown below).

Online, the phrase has long been used to parody Obama's speech patterns. One early use of the phrase as a pun was posted by Twitter user @trevso_electric^[1] on October 2nd, 2014, gaining 23 retweets and 74 likes (shown below).

Spread

Parodies that replaced "clear" with another, rhyming word appear to have begun growing popular in the Chapo Trap House fandom and its now-defunct subreddit in 2019. One popular variation found Obama saying "Let me be queer."^[2] On November 20th, 2020, Twitter user @andersleehere^[3] tweeted the joke, gaining over 1,300 retweets and 30,000 likes (shown below).

Similar, "rhyming" variations of the parodies saw a spike in July of 2022. On July 21st, Twitter user @garfpooop^[4] tweeted, "(oboma as beer) uhh let me be beer," gaining over 600 retweets and 11,000 likes (shown below, left). Over the following 24 hours, many Twitter users posted variations that set up the rhyming punchline by creating an implausible hypothetical scenario for Obama. For example, on July 22nd, user @rishipuff^[5] was one of several tweeters to set up the punchline "Let me be Lear" (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References