As soon as Joe Biden slipped whilst going up the Air Force One stairs last week, you knew it was going to be a major story.

The US president was boarding the plane on his way to visit Atlanta, Georgia, to meet with Asian American community leaders after the mass shooting last week.

According to White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden was fine after the incident, although his ego would have taken a dent.

Let’s see that footage:

Slow down, Joe – you’re 78, and when you slip once, you don’t need to speed up in order to make up some lost macho points or something.

Naturally, the triple slip spawned thousands of memes, but this is my favourite:

Joe Biden falls into a meme. pic.twitter.com/VwhArJQTda

— drefanzor (@drefanzor) March 19, 2021

As for my least favourite, that would be the son still desperately pining for his father’s affection:

It wasn’t the wind folks. pic.twitter.com/jYc01dBZCe

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 19, 2021

Considering how much time Trump spent on the course during his presidency, you’d think he would be better off the tee.

Biden’s gaffe is far from the first time a president has slipped up on the aircraft stairs, with Air Force One introduced back in 1962.

Forbes has gone through the trouble of detailing three other gaffes, starting with President Ford sliding down the stairs back in June 1975:

The most ruthlessly scorned incident was a rainy-day wipeout by President Gerald Ford in 1975. While visiting Vienna, Austria for talks with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Ford’s bum knee gave way and he tumbled down the last few Air Force One stairs.

He was unhurt and quipped, “I am sorry I tumbled in.”

It was just a minor tumble, really:

Then there was Barack Obama in March 2015, who managed to avoid a tumble with some quick reactions:

In 2015, President Barack Obama made a slight miscalculation on the top steps of the Air Force One stairway that could have been disastrous had he tumbled forward.

Instead, Obama quickly righted himself by grabbing the rails, then hustled down the rest of the steps without a bother.

He really did make it look easy:

We should also mention former vice president Mike Pence, who did tumble, but was straight back to his feet:

Mike Pence. Block or charge?🤣 pic.twitter.com/30d2Ek00gZ

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) June 23, 2020

To finish, a man who truly believes that nobody has ever done anything better than he has.

This time, we’ll give him his dues, and say his toilet paper shoe incident is the greatest Air Force One stairs gaffe of all time:

After attending a rally in Minneapolis ahead of the 2018 midterms, President Donald Trump had his own embarrassing and much-discussed AF1 moment.

Upon exiting the presidential limo at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Trump scaled the stairs of the aircraft with what appeared to be toilet paper stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

There is some contention here, with somebody travelling on the plane saying it wasn’t toilet paper, but rather “a small, squarish, moist, wet piece of paper”.

That sure sounds like a piece of toilet paper to me, but you can be your own judge:

[source:forbes]