After making an announcement that he was initiating a government investigation into allegations of corruption directed at him, his wife, and his finance minister, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto was heard to say when turned away from the microphone, “Ya se que no aplauden,” which translates to “I already knew they don’t clap.”

This utterance immediately made the president a joke on social media, with tweets and memes sprouting up to mock the president.

“Do you still want us to applaud you for doing your job?" one indignant tweeter wrote.

As reported in The Guardian, others tweets used the opportunity to deride Virgilio Andrade, Peña Nieto’s handpicked choice to oversee the investigation into his alleged financial corruption.

Peña Nieto drew comparisons to Katy Perry’s Super Bowl halftime show as well as Lady Gaga, and it was pointed out that the president might have been shocked by the audience's reaction because he is used to giving his speeches before a pre-selected audience of supporters.

The on-line reaction to the president's remark is similar to what happened when Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said, “Ya me canse,” or “I’ve had enough,” during a November press conference on the government’s investigation into the fate of 43 student teachers who disappeared after they were attacked by police in September. The statement of exhaustion became a slogan used by protesters to voice their frustration with the corruption in the Mexican government.

Combing Murillo Karam’s phrase with Peña Nieto’s remark, one meme showed the attorney general lying on a couch with a TV remote on his belly with the words “I would applaud, but I’ve had enough.”

The allegations against Peña Nieto started in November when it was revealed that the president had a luxury home built by a construction company called Grupo Higa, which has under Peña Nieto benefited greatly from government contracts.

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