Why The Election Results Have This Star Wars Clip Going Viral

It's been a slog, hasn't it? The runup to, and days of waiting for a result of, the 2020 presidential election. A recent New Yorker cartoon showed a calendar with all of the days after November 3 marked as Tuesdays. Reports of stress eating, and not just because the pandemic keeps you close to the leftover Halloween candy.

Politics is often an ugly business, but few elections in recent memory were quite as contentious as this one. Nevertheless, on Saturday, November 7, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris received the requisite electoral college votes (thank you, Pennsylvania), and Mr. Biden will become the 46th president of the United States, succeeding Donald Trump. Mr. Biden, who said he was "honored and humbled," reported CNN, added, "With the campaign over, it's time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation. ... We are the United States of America. And there's nothing we can't do, if we do it together."

Mr. Trump did not immediately concede, tweeting en route to a golf game November 7, "I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!" It was a sharp contrast to the historically gracious concession speech given by the late Republican Senator John McCain upon losing the presidential election to Barack Obama in 2008. That clip (available on YouTube) has been passed around social media in the last few days, a reminder to the nation and the world that losing an election does not mean losing personal integrity, or honor, or simple good manners.

Since the announcement of Mr. Biden's victory, another YouTube clip has been making the rounds, celebrating another victory — the visual extravagance of the end of Star Wars Chapter VI: Return of the Jedi, including the delightfully goofy but undeniably ecstatic rejoicing that takes place among the principal characters upon the defeat of the evil Empire. Underscoring the scene is the (also delightfully goofy, but also ecstatic) "Yub Nub" song, with dancing Ewoks and the spectral appearance of Jedi who have gone before. It's become a kind of social media shorthand — innumerable tweets with simply the words "Yub nub!"

Fireworks lighting up the sky? Don't be surprised.