Seeing the origin stories in this thread I'd actually argue that "let's go Brandon" is not really a cheap joke. (I guess, really, that it's at least not as cheap as "tiny hands".) The "tiny hands" joke exists for the sole purpose of making fun of a particular politician and the "let's go Brandon" joke at least speaks to a certain bias in presenting information. It seems a lot like a reporter "misheard" "Fuck Joe Biden" as "let's go Brandon" because the reporter didn't want to report that people were chanting "Fuck Joe Biden".
At a time when "rightists" commonly complain about media bias, this exact sort of bias happens. Then people use it as a dog-whistle for calling out media bias; it's not surprising. As with all polarizing issues, it's best for every individual to consider their own bias. I have found that I frequently don't give a person's opinion a fair shake because I've already concluded that I disagree. Generally, I only do that when I'm not interested in learning.
Anyway, they may both be cheap jokes but this seems a bit like a false equivalence or otherwise misunderstands the argument being made.
Actually the "Let's Go Brandon" phrase has an interesting origin of a reporter trying to say the crowd was cheering for a Nascar driver named Brandon while they were clearly chanting "Fuck Joe Biden". So it became a euphemism for the actual phrase they were cheering and a callback towards that event that shows the media's biased coverage.
So yes, I think that phrase is a bit deeper than saying someone has tiny hands? over and over for a decade.
Sure I know the back story of the Brandon joke, I just don't see how that's any different from the tiny hands back story. Both started out from one otherwise unimportant interaction that happened to become popular and taken out of context.
I don't disagree that the tiny hands joke is old at this point, but really what is the difference when they both have some origin story and become a political meme aimed at a particular politician?
At a time when "rightists" commonly complain about media bias, this exact sort of bias happens. Then people use it as a dog-whistle for calling out media bias; it's not surprising. As with all polarizing issues, it's best for every individual to consider their own bias. I have found that I frequently don't give a person's opinion a fair shake because I've already concluded that I disagree. Generally, I only do that when I'm not interested in learning.
Anyway, they may both be cheap jokes but this seems a bit like a false equivalence or otherwise misunderstands the argument being made.