Regardless of your political allegiance, no one would have guessed that Sesame Street’s bright, towering Big Bird would become the meme of the first Presidential debate. It’s at these debates, where millions tune in, that one-liners become the chorus of auto-tuned songs, facial reactions turn to infinite loops (thanks to GIFs) and debate moderators end up the butt of all jokes. Social networks and live streams from the likes of YouTube, Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter have turbo-charged the whole process of posts going viral. Last week’s debate generated more than 10 million tweets, marking it the most tweeted about event in U.S. political history.

Gifwich: Tumblr’s Election 2012 headquarters with full coverage in GIFs.

TheFW: A scope into what’s popular on the Internet, including all the hashtags and memes that come from each debate.

Know Your Meme: A guide to recent and historic memes, providing useful context for all the Internet’s jokes. (note: strong language)

And don’t forget to check our special Election 2012 section with full coverage of each debate and how the candidates fare against each other on the issues.