POLITICS
12/07/2016 3:00 PM AEST | Updated 15/07/2016 12:56 PM AEST

The 26 Craziest, Funniest, Wildest Moments Of Election 2016

It was a long, looong nine weeks.

It's been a wild ride.
Fairfax Media
It's been a wild ride.

When Malcolm Turnbull visited the Governor-General on May 8 and locked in a July 2 election, we all thought it was flirting with danger.

"An eight-week campaign? A full three weeks longer than usual? The country will descend into madness."

Well, eight weeks turned into nine, with a full eight days passing between when the polls closed and the announcement from Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull that the Coalition would indeed form Government.

Take a breath to congratulate yourselves for making it. Here were some of the wildest, craziest, funniest moments from this wild, crazy, funny campaign.

When Bill Shorten got the biggest smooch in Adelaide (full story):

When Peter Dutton claimed illiterate refugees would be dole bludgers and also steal Australian jobs (full story)

When dank memes first entered the mainstream political lexicon (full story):

When Bill Shorten AND Malcolm Turnbull both patted rats (full story):

When Bob Katter published an ad where he shot two men dead, just days after the Orlando shooting (full story):

When a Family First candidate linked the Orlando shooting to gay marriage (full story):

When the Liberals published THAT ad about a tradie, who everyone claimed was fake, and then it was found out that he wasn't fake after all (full story):

When GetUp! gave Malcolm Turnbull's posters a little makeover (full story):

When a former Australian Idol host James Mathison unexpectedly decided to run against Tony Abbott in Warringah (full story):

When heaps of our political leaders tried very hard to avoid calling themselves 'feminists' (full story)

Basically everything that Barnaby Joyce did through the entire eight weeks (here and here):

But especially when he kept making Johnny Depp jokes (full story):

When Bill Shorten plastered his face, giant-size, across the side of a bus:

And when Bill Shorten started fist-bumping and high-fiving all the kids (full story):

When Tony Windsor high-fived a dog:

When Clive Palmer told us that being a politician was "worse than Alcatraz" (full story):

When the Daily Telegraph splashed their support for Labor favourite Anthony Albanese:

When Senator John Madigan crafted a Ned Kelly suit of armour, as a fundraiser for his re-election campaign (full story):

Supplied
Madigan shows off his handiwork

When Sam Dastyari made the cutest video ever about tax avoidance:

When we figured out why Malcolm Turnbull always looks ready to punch someone (full story):

Fairfax Media
Malcolm Turnbull puts 'em up

When Glenn Lazarus set off a storm by claiming Manus Island refugees were treated "like kings" (full story)

When Liberal candidate Chris Jermyn crashed a Shorten event, then ran from the media and couldn't answer basic questions (full story)

When David Leyonhjelm made the weirdest election ad, featuring his two dogs and some cake (full story):

When Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson proposed snipers to kill dogs preying on penguins (full story)

When straight white man Scott Morrison said he knew about the struggles that LGBTI people face, because he had faced "bigotry" too (full story)

And finally, when this bloke in budgie smugglers became the national icon of election day (full story):

MORE: Adam Bandt Adelaide Anthony Albanese Antony Green Australia Australian Electoral Commission Australian Idol Barnaby Joyce Bill Shorten Bob Katter Chris Jermyn Clive Palmer GetUp Glenn Lazarus Governor-General James Mathison Jane Norman John Madigan Johnny Depp Liberal Party Malcolm Turnbull Manus Island Ned Kelly Peter Dutton Peter Madden Politics quirk Scott Morrison Sky News Australia society Splinter Sydney Fish Market The Daily Telegraph Tony Abbott Tony Windsor Tory Warringah Council