Meet the 15-year-old presidential candidate

The Internet: It’s a wonderful, and terrible place, that affords us access to a seemingly-endless stream of information, cat videos, and all the memes we could ever want. And this week, the Internet has gone IRL, as a precocious teenager from Iowa turned a very popular meme into a very popular Independent candidate for the presidency.

And according to 15-year-old Brady Olson, the whole thing took no time at all.

“My name is not Deez Nuts,” he told The Guardian via email. “I am a 15-year-old who filled out a form, had the campaign catch on fire, and am now putting up the best third-party numbers since Ross Perot. I’ve told my family and some of my friends from school. They think it’s pretty hilarious.”

For a bit of background, Deez Nuts has its roots in a track from Dr. Dre’s 1992 album, The Chronic, where “Regulate” rapper Warren G makes a deez nuts joke to a woman over the phone. But it wasn’t until earlier this year, that the joke turned into a meme, following the creation of an Instagram video by user WelvenDaGreat where he tells a friend he received “deez nuts” in the mail. Since then, the video has garnered nearly 100,000 likes and more than 80,000 comments.

And the Independent candidate Deez Nuts is equally popular, gaining 9 percent of the vote to Donald Trump’s 40 percent and Hillary Clinton’s 38 percent in a poll recently conducted by polling firm PPP in North Carolina. Mr. Nuts also managed to gain 8 percent of the vote in Minnesota and 7 percent in Iowa.

But even the folks at PPP, who are known for conducting silly polls from time-to-time, understand that Deez Nuts’ popularity may be proof that some people aren’t exactly satisfied with the mainstream candidates.

“You could call [the third party candidate] anything,” PPP analyst Jim Williams told The Guardian, “and they would get their 7% or 8%.”

Meanwhile, Brady Olson is using his 15 minutes to share his real, Libertarian-leaning views on politics, going so far as to create an official Deez Nuts web platform.

“I support the work that John Kerry and the State Department did with the Iran nuclear deal, considering it took nearly two years to reach this point,” Olson/Deez Nuts writes. “Everyone wants a better deal, but that’s the whole point of negotiating. Look at your wants, then their wants, and meet in the middle. Now is the time [for] being respected instead of feared by other nations. I also feel that we need to stop being a world watchdog and limit our positions in international conflicts.”

(Image via iStockPhoto.)