Richard Spencer, the white-nationalist leader who claims to have invented the word “alt-right,” was giving an interview on Friday during the inauguration. While he was explaining to his interviewer what exactly his Pepe the Frog lapel pin means, a man ran in from offscreen and punched Spencer in the face before running off into the crowd. (Spencer gets duffed around :33 into the video below.)
Now, it’s not for us to debate the ethics of hitting a man who said “Does the human civilization actually need the black race?” and published an essay called “Is Black Genocide Right?” We’ll leave that for more august institutions, and note that, as tech-blogging nerds, Select All is officially pacifist, mostly due to the fact that its staff would get beat up first in any violent political confrontation.
But man, did Twitter love that punch. Specifically, setting the video of the punch to various songs.
There’s the Boss himself, with his classic anthem “Born in the USA”:
There’s Celine Dion:
There’s some “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins:
There’s the recent Twitter-meme track, Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town”:
There’s the long-time Twitter-meme track, Smash Mouth’s “All Star”:
Some Miley Cyrus:
There’s new Kanye, with a beautiful build-up:
There’s Vine-favorite DJ Supreme:
There’s Aaron Carter’s famous (and true) track “How I Beat Shaq”:
And for a soaring soundtrack to a solid right hook, there’s “Let it Go,” from Disney’s Frozen:
There’s now a whole Twitter feed dedicated just to videos of Spencer catching an alt-right at @PunchedToMusic, if you want see more.
Speaking after the attack, Spencer — who once said in a college speech, “At the end of the day, America belongs to white men” — made a simple appeal to the public.
“I’m afraid this is going to become the meme to end all memes,” said Spencer in a Periscope video. Richard, as one of your heroes would have said, “Es tut mir leid,” but it may already be too late.
