Former Treasurer Wayne Swan Makes The Most Adorably Terrible Facebook Memes You’ve Ever Seen

Former Treasurer and National Dad Wayne Swan has been back in the public eye recently, appearing on the first, all-politician Q&A on Monday to yell at Barnaby Joyce and generally look like an actor playing “divorced small claims lawyer #3” in a community stage production.

Since his retirement to the Opposition backbenches after Kevin Rudd went from Prime Minister Again to Not Prime Minister Again, Swan has had a fair bit of time on his hands, most of which he’s been using to constantly sledge his replacement Joe Hockey. Swan claimed Hockey was misusing data to claim the country is facing unsustainable debt levels when the 2014 Budget was released back in June, and has accused Hockey of waging “intergenerational warfare” against young people.

The only person waging class war is Hockey with his lifters and leaners and intergenerational warfare against the young #delusional

— Wayne Swan (@SwannyQLD) June 11, 2014

But how to reach the #youth so adversely affected by the budget’s proposed cuts? They must be warned! In that spirit Swan has bravely taken to the Information Superhighway, spreading the word about Hockey’s dastardly plans in the only way the Teens will understand: by posting Dank Memes on Facebook.

This is a good introductory Wayne Swan Meme for those who’ve never seen one. All the elements of a regular meme are here — a funny picture, Impact font, snark — but there is something deeply, fundamentally off about it, like someone wearing a fedora to their own wedding. This was made by someone who does not quite know what they are doing; someone with good intentions, but who has stepped onto unfamiliar ground and quickly gotten lost.

Let’s observe another one:

This one has a clear thread running between the “digging” joke and the “budget hole” concept, which is a solid start, but  I’m fairly sure Joe Hockey’s head has been crudely Photoshopped onto that guy, which kind of undermines the punchline. Still, at this rate Swan will be cranking out #memes so #dank even the kids won’t be able to tell the difference, yes?

This raises so many questions. How long did a former Australian Treasurer spend trawling through photos of a political opponent looking for one where he’s making that exact hand gesture? Did he even go to bed that night, or did he fall asleep on the couch with the meme only half-finished? At what point did he decide on the phrase “teensy whoopsie”? None can say.

Missteps aside, Swan really found his ouevre in his “Cooking the Books” collection, on display at the Art Gallery of NSW from April.

It’s a theme Swan was to continue in some of his later works, notably “Illumination,” which dispensed with the cryptic messages and wordplay of his earlier pieces and was unapologetically upfront in its intentions.

In this final piece the artist comes full circle, moving us to question the very concept of a “meme” altogether.

Possibly the best part of all this is that Wayne’s daughter Erinn is now the Deputy Digital Director of the Labor Party, presumably to make sure her dad is never let near Facebook ever again.

Shine on, Wayne. May your memes inspire Australia’s Dads to new heights of digital creativity.