The Week on TwitterTopical

The Week on Twitter | Clinton & Sanders, the General Election, and Matt LeBlanc

By Jade Hayden

This week, Twitter said goodbye to Terry Wogan, watched as Hillary Clinton narrowly took Iowa, and laughed as Donald Trump didn’t. We also celebrated Groundhog Day, were confused/delighted by Top Gear’s newest presenter, and got ourselves all ready for the general election.

Sir #TerryWogan dies, aged 77

On Sunday, it was reported that Limerick born Terry Wogan had passed away. The broadcasting legend died peacefully surrounded by family after a short battle with cancer. Fans, friends, and colleagues alike took to social media to express their condolences and share their memories after the news broke.

Everyone celebrates #GroundhogDay. Again.

This week, it was Groundhog Day. Which meant that Twitter was dominated by groundhogs, appreciation for Bill Murray, and general things happening over and over – like Bush’s running for president, and America being problematic.

Groundhog Day became a thing in the 1800s in the US, when the townsfolk would gather around the groundhog’s burrow to see if he would emerge. If it is cloudy when the groundhog makes its appearance, spring will come early. But if it is sunny, the groundhog will (probably) head back beneath the ground, and everybody will have to wait a few more weeks for spring. Probably.

Groundhog Day became an even bigger thing in 1993 when it turned into a film with Bill Murray in it. This year, the musical adaptation of Groundhog Day is supposed to take the world by storm. It’s all very exciting. Here are some tweets about the day.

#Clinton wins Iowa. #Trump doesn’t.

During the week, the US presidential candidates had their first nomination contest of 2016. An extremely narrow victory for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton left many wondering whether the Bernie Sanders’ grassroots campaign does actually have the potential to go all the way.

Although several media sources reported that the race between the two was too close to call, the Democratic party eventually announced that Clinton had won with 49.9% against Sanders’ 49.6%. Despite the defeat, thousands of young voters around the country continued to #FeeltheBern, celebrating the fact that their candidate had essentially tied in Iowa.

https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/694363663017349120%20

But not everyone’s victories were so narrowly scraped. The Iowa caucuses also saw Donald Trump lose to Ted Cruz. Badly. A mere 24.3% of the vote left Trump in second place, just about defeating Marco Rubio by about one percent.

Following the results, Trump took to Twitter to announce that Cruz had not won Iowa, but stolen it. In a string of temper-tantrum-y tweets, the billionaire declared that the polls were wrong and that a new vote should take place and that the whole situation was “Bad!”

It was a whole thing.

Enda announces date for #GeneralElection2016 #GE16

On Wednesday, Enda took to Twitter (yes, Twitter) to tell us all the official polling date of this year’s general election. It’s February 26th. It’s all very exciting.

Following Kenny’s announcement and the dissolving of the Dáil, candidates started campaigning online, posters starting going up everywhere, and everyone took a second to ready themselves for the weeks ahead.

#MattLeBlanc confirmed as new host of #TopGear

In a strange twist of events, Joey from Friends has been revealed as the new host of BBC’s Top Gear. It was weird, and everyone tweeted about how weird it was for a bit, before deciding that Matt LeBlanc was actually pretty cool, maybe, and he might make Top Gear actually watchable, probably?

LeBlanc will host the show alongside Chris Evans (no, not that one), and they’ll talk lots about cars and driving and will probably race each other at some point. It might be good.

https://twitter.com/renegxde86/status/695248744745406465

Featured image source.

Jade Hayden 144 posts 0 comments

Jade Hayden has an MA in journalism, a degree in English, and a house rabbit who sleeps in her bed sometimes. You'll often find her wearing glasses, fixing her fringe, and complaining about the amount of time she spends on public transport. Jade is also the editor of HeadStuff's topical section, and she'd love if you sent your submissions over to [email protected].

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