Memes — they come for us all. Users are comparing a clip of Donald Trump and NY Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron to popular sitcoms like "The Office" and "Full House."
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Footage from Donald Trump's civil fraud trial that shows the judge taking off his glasses and smiling is being likened to a sitcom episode, and it's gone viral.
Trump is being sued by New York Attorney General Letitia James for civil fraud. The lawsuit was filed by James' office last September against Trump, the Trump Organization, and three of Trump's children, Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Jr., seeking $250 million in penalties over accusations the former president falsely inflated his net worth. (Ivanka has since been dismissed from the case in a statute-of-limitations ruling.)
On September 26, New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron revoked Trump's New York business licenses after making a pre-trial finding that the former president committed fraud. The trial, which began on October 2, aims to determine whether the defendants acted intentionally and will establish what penalties Trump and his organization will face.
While all that's important, for some, interest in the case centered on a clip of Judge Engoron mugging for the camera.
The footage taken inside the courtroom zooms in on Trump and then pans to Engoron, seated behind the courtroom bench. Engoron appears to notice he is being filmed, and takes off his glasses while smiling at the camera.
A number of social media users compared the shaky footage to a sitcom — seemingly because of the "single-camera" style of filming and the judge's unexpected demeanor — and set the clip to music.
On October 3, the official TikTok account for Yahoo News uploaded the clip and set the footage to "The Office's" theme song.
"This isn't an episode of "The Office," it's U.S. history," read the caption under the post, which has received over 649,000 views.
Other TikTok users have used the footage in similar ways. One user, @anthonyfkern, overlaid the theme tune to the 1980s sitcom "Cheers," and received 6.8 million views.
Another user who goes by @robisraelart set the clip to the "Full House" theme song, including captions that introduced Trump and Engoron in the style of the TV show's opening credits.
"Him taking off his glasses and smiling makes it perfect," one commenter wrote under the clip, receiving 11,000 likes.
User @50ul5tyc3 went in a different direction and turned the footage into a Mentos commercial, overlaying the famous "The Freshmaker" jingle onto the clip, along with added effects of stars and snowflakes over the moment where Engoron smiles.
Many users appeared to find the moment highly amusing, commenting that the judge is the "main character" and seems like a "cool dude."
Trump's New York trial could last until December 22, per Insider's prior reporting.
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