Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky went viral on the social media platform X on Wednesday when she jumped aboard a new Taylor Swift trend and referenced her relationship with former President Bill Clinton in the process.
Lewinsky embraced a social media trend in which people post a line from Swift’s newly released single “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me” from the surprise album “The Tortured Poets Department.”
Since the song was released last week, social media users have posted images along with the lyric, “You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me.”
The line tends to accompany images of innocence, featuring everything from retro fads to pop culture references or, for some people, images of their modest beginnings.
You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me pic.twitter.com/S3vvQ7cAIq
— Dan (@p_pastryhangman) April 25, 2024
You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me.
(You really had to be there) pic.twitter.com/HvtzzgRxWA
— Sonic Cage Dome (@soniccagedome) April 25, 2024
No but literally……you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me pic.twitter.com/Eu9W2Ix61b
— Mimi Montgomery (@mimi_montgom) April 23, 2024
Lewinsky had a different take on the meme.
The woman whose Oval Office intimacies with Clinton resulted in his impeachment quoted the lyrics to the Swift song and posted an image of the White House.
you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me. pic.twitter.com/hkhdRlBCkj
— Monica Lewinsky (she/her) (@MonicaLewinsky) April 25, 2024
She did not add any additional context or comment — and she apparently did not need to, as the joke landed.
Lewinsky’s post had racked up more than 143,000 “likes” in less than 24 hours.
She was declared by many to have been the winner of the internet for the day:
Greatest tweet ever. https://t.co/baJGx774Ky
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) April 25, 2024
Timely, self-aware, unexpected.
This is how you jump on a trend. https://t.co/A8WvEpCmQt— Guillaume Huin (@HuinGuillaume) April 25, 2024
I believe this belongs to you 👑
— Glub Glub (@luvglubglub) April 25, 2024
Tweet of the year.
— Alexius (@Alexius_sc2) April 25, 2024
you win this trend.
— Crisis of Conscience (@crisisofconsc) April 25, 2024
You win. 🏆
— ✨ (@SandieCrowley) April 25, 2024
As a young intern, Lewinsky worked in the White House from 1995 to 1997 and will forever be remembered for her sexual exploits with the Democratic president — exploits he denied under oath but later was forced to acknowledge.
Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives in 1998 on counts of perjury and obstruction of justice but was not convicted in the Senate.