Everyone Made ’80s Musician Jokes About A Photo Of Matt Gaetz, From Huey Lewis To Rick Astley

If Matt Gaetz has a vibe — apart from “bro who looks like he’s being investigated by the feds for possible ties to a sex trafficking ring” — it’s this: He looks like a straight up “’80s guy.” The slick hair. The vaguely sleazy smirk. The Dick Tracy villain suits. He’s a throwback to the Gordon Gekko era, when his role model, former president Donald J. Trump, made his name. (Or he’s Butt-Head.) So when the turncoat Republicans at the Lincoln Project did a “caption this” of a photo from the impromptu sidewalk rally he and Marjorie Taylor Greene held this weekend, it was only fitting that everyone made ‘80s band jokes.

Gaetz spent the weekend trying to salvage his and Greene’s “America First” rally, a partisan affair led by two of the House’s most infamous Republicans, one a conspiracy theorist who can’t stop trivializing the Holocaust, the other possibly jail-bound. Their to-do was cancelled by three separate California venues. They had to settle with standing on a sidewalk, screaming at a relatively modest crowd of sycophants and haters.

To make matters worse, the two were roasted on social media, where their failed rally was a source of merriment and dogpiling. When the Lincoln Project singled out a photo of Gaetz, clad in sunglasses and yelling into a mic with a jacket over a black tee-shirt, asking people, “Who is this? Wrong answers only,” everyone had the same general ‘80s idea.

A lot of people zeroed in on Huey Lewis and the News, one of the era’s most singularly ‘80s chart-toppers.

There were some slight variations, including fictitious Huey Lewis champion and possible serial killer Patrick Bateman.

Others thought Gaetz looked very Donny Osmond.

Or Rick Astley.

Gaetz had none of the Gothy style of Human League frontman Philip Oakley, but that didn’t stop people from finding a connection.

Or maybe he was more like Biff, the main antagonist of the Back to the Future series.

Some combined two ‘80s references into one.

It wasn’t the only Gaetz content to go viral over the weekend. At some point he and Greene took to the beach, where a man, either a prankster or a really big fan who couldn’t control his excitement, made him super uncomfortable by telling him he doesn’t think he’s a “pedophile.”

Anyway, your weekend probably went better than his.