I Am Once Again Asking for Your Financial Support Meme

What does the I Am Once Again Asking meme mean?

I Am Once Again Asking for Your Financial Support is the internet's go-to template for a request that has been made many times before. A photo of Bernie Sanders gesturing mid-appeal, captioned "I am once again asking for…", turns any repeat plea — for money, upvotes, attention, or a friend to play a game — into a mock-formal fundraising drive. The joke is the weary ritual of asking again, as if the request were a solemn civic duty.

Origin

• December 30, 2019: Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign posts a fundraising video on his Twitter account as the FEC year-end deadline approaches. He opens with the now-famous line, "I am once again asking for your financial support."
• January 15, 2020: the first known captioned meme appears on Reddit, freezing the still of Sanders gesturing in his winter coat.
• February 2020: the format explodes across Twitter, Reddit and Instagram, becoming one of the defining political memes of the election cycle.
• Today: the template is used far beyond politics — brands, fandoms and game communities all "once again ask" for whatever they want.

Examples

• A streamer posts the image captioned "I am once again asking you to like the video" — the boilerplate plea of every creator.
• Fandoms use it for repeat demands: "I am once again asking for the studio to release the director's cut."
• Variants keep the phrasing but change the object to something absurd ("your homework answers"), which is where most of the fun is.

Translation

• Literal reading: a politician asking supporters for campaign money.
• Actual meaning: any nagging repeat request, dressed up as a solemn appeal — self-aware, slightly pathetic, funny.
• Cross-language note: the caption is usually kept in English even in non-English communities, because the cadence of the line is the joke; translated versions localize the object of the request but rarely the opening phrase.

FAQ

What does the I Am Once Again Asking meme mean?

It frames any repeated request as Bernie Sanders' stubborn fundraising plea: the poster is "once again asking" for money, upvotes, attention or help. The humor is the weary, ceremonial repetition — the same request, made yet again, as if it were a civic duty.

Where does the I Am Once Again Asking meme come from?

From a December 30, 2019 fundraising video Bernie Sanders posted to Twitter ahead of the FEC year-end deadline. The still of him gesturing in a winter coat spread as a meme from mid-January 2020 and went fully mainstream the following month.

What is the original Bernie Sanders quote?

"I am once again asking for your financial support" — the opening line of the 2019 video. The template keeps the first half verbatim and swaps in whatever the poster wants next.