The Internet Loves Ice Cream Bernie

On Friday, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders paid a visit to a Ben & Jerry's factory, and gave a speech from behind one of the more creative corporate-branded podiums you'll ever see. Basically, it looked like the 75-year-old progressive star was speaking with his lower half stuck into a pint of ice cream, extolling the virtues of respecting workers and paying them a living wage from within one of the ice cream company's iconic pints. And make no mistake, Sanders' Ben & Jerry's photo fueled jokes and memes throughout social media, of a decidedly delicious variety.

Sanders told the workers that he'll be introducing a bill in the U.S. Senate to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, one of his longtime policy prescriptions, and a cornerstone of his platform to lift up the working class. It would be virtually impossible to pass, however, with Republicans possessing majorities in both houses of Congress, and would be similarly unlikely for Trump to sign into law even if it somehow did.

But regardless, making this kind of case to workers in his state, and taking it up in the Senate will help keep the issue injected into the national conversation. And after all, who knows how the 2018 midterms will turn out? That's more than a year into the future, and it's all rather unforeseeable at this point. How Sanders' photo-op went over, on the other hand, is a matter of the present.

1. Anything More Vermont

2. We All Scream

3. When Someone Says

4. From The Bottom Up

5. Do You Want The Chunky Monkey

6. Trapped In A Giant Pint

7. Feel The Bern

8. Powerful Special Interests

9. Would Have Won

10. What Will The Future Be Like

11. Upgrade

12. Can Be Left Out In The Cold

13. How Small Bernie Was

Of course, it's worth remembering that Ben & Jerry's actually produced a very limited run Sanders-themed ice cream flavor during his Democratic primary campaign ― "Bernie's Yearning," featuring a chocolate disc on top (representing the top one percent) and mint ice cream down below, representing "the rest of us."

Sanders even tried some Bernie's Yearning during an appearance on ABC's The View, calling it "excellent." He also denied that he was only saying that because it was named after him, describing the chocolate-and-mint specialty flavor as "really good stuff." He didn't deliver his speech from behind a Bernie's Yearning pint, however ― another photo from the event revealed the podium was styled as the "Euphoric Stuff" flavor.