Americans are passing the time waiting for an election result with increasingly creative memes mocking the slow count in Nevada.
Twitter and Instagram have gone into overdrive with memes mocking the slow counting of ballots as the election hangs in the balance of votes yet to be tallied in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Nevada is bearing the brunt of the jokes as going in to Friday morning it still had roughly 25 per cent of ballots left to tally.
The state, which is expected to swing toward Joe Biden and where Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit claiming voter fraud, delayed announcing its result from noon Thursday.
Nevada carries just 6 electoral college votes but ballot counters in the Silver State – many of whom are local volunteers – have found the spotlight of the nation on them as those votes could spell victory for Biden.
With the nation waking up to yet another day of uncertainty as several critical swing states are still in play, Americans are turning to social media for some much-needed light relief
Biden currently leads with 264 of the 270 electoral college votes needed to claim the White House, meaning Nevada’s 6 would take him to a win.
He is currently leading by around 12,000 votes – around 1 percent – in the state, where people have voted Democrat for the last 16 years.
However, Biden’s tally of 264 includes Arizona which Fox News and the Associated Press called for him early on Wednesday while votes were still being counted.
The state holds 11 crucial college votes but, since it was called, Trump has narrowed Biden’s comfortable lead in the state leaving the outcome now up in the air.
Nevada, Arizona and Georgia had expected to finish their counts Thursday but then changed expectations and will not finalize results until today at the soonest.
Pennsylvania had said prior to election day that all counting wouldn’t be completed until Friday once all mail-in ballots come in.
It’s unclear when North Carolina will announce, but it is expected to go to Trump as it did in 2016.
If Biden holds Arizona, he would only need to win one of either Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina or Pennsylvania to claim victory.
But if he loses the state, Trump goes from 214 electoral college votes to 225. Trump would then only need 42 additional electoral college votes from Georgia (16), North Carolina (15) and Pennsylvania (20) – all states in which he is leading – to claim victory, assuming he also wins Alaska’s three electoral college votes which he is all but guaranteed to.
This means all eyes are on Nevada’s critical 6 points and the volunteers in the counting centers processing the state’s votes – and impatient social media users are poking fun at the length of time being taken to get results.
One person shared an image of the character Flash Slothmore – the sloth from Disney film Zootopia – smiling with the phrase: ‘This is the mf counting ballots in Nevada.’
The iconic moment in Titanic where Rose says ‘it’s been 84 years…’ since she sailed on the doomed vessel was also a fitting example of how voters feel with the counting rumbling on.
‘When Nevada finally finishes counting,’ someone wrote alongside the snip from the blockbuster film.
The state was also likened to the comical character Mr Bean by one user who shared a picture and wrote: ‘We all have that one friend who is late for everything.’
Another person shared footage of Judge Judy tapping her watch impatiently – a not so subtle aim at the state’s counting process – while another posted a clip of reality star Tanisha Thomas banging a pan in TV series Bad Girls Club.
‘Me working the Nevada poll workers up to finish counting,’ they wrote.
Others poked fun at Trump’s efforts to derail the election as he has filed multiple lawsuits to stop counting in several states and pro-Trump supporters descended on a counting center in Maricopa County, Arizona, Wednesday to demand all votes are counted, while descending on a separate counting center in Detroit, Michigan to demand the opposite – that all counting stop.
One person posted a hilarious photo-shopped image of Trump sporting a wig, make-up and drop earrings as a disguise to get inside a polling station, alongside the caption: ‘I want to speak to the poll manager.’
Another compared the president to a Dracula Muppet character laughing ‘ah-ha-ha’.
Someone else shared a meme of Tom Cruise laughing writing: ‘Nevada laughing at the memes instead of counting the ballots.’
While another showed an exhausted-looking Spongebob Squarepants alongsie the comment: ‘Nevada after counting 113 ballots in one day.’
In another meme, Joe Biden and former president Barack Obama were imagined poking fun at Trump.
All eyes are on Nevada and the volunteers in the counting centers and impatient social media users are poking fun at the length of time being taken to process votes
‘Biden: You’d think he’d get why it takes so long to manually count ballots.
‘Obama: Why Joe. Biden: Small hands,’ read the meme alongside a snap of the pair, with Obama’s head in his hands.
Another social media user shared a meme of the iconic moment where Sandra Oh cried ‘Somebody sedate me’ in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy.
A new meaning was given to the phrase: ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!’ with another person citing this as the tagline for ‘people in charge of counting votes in Nevada’.
‘America: “U still up?”‘ wrote one person.
‘Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania: “new country, who dis?”
Another person likened the suspense to being on tabloid talk show Maury known for its dramatic on-air moments where guests take DNA tests to prove or disprove paternity or lie-detector tests to expose cheatning.
‘Feels like the whole country is on Maury waiting to find out who’s the father,’ they wrote.
Several memes centered on the spoof character Ja’mie from Australian comedy series Summer Heights High, portrayed by actor Chris Lilley.
‘I am so random. I can’t believe I just did that,’ the character says alongside the caption: ‘Nevada vote counters deciding to take the day off mid-election.’
The light relief comes as Trump demanded the nation stop counting votes in the presidential election as his campaign launched a lawsuit in Nevada Thursday which could hand Joe Biden the presidency should he win its six electoral votes.
Trump has already filed lawsuits in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia as Biden approaches the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
In Wisconsin, a state called for Biden, the campaign has requested a recount.