--- description: Aerial shots of the Republican governor enjoying an empty beach during a government shutdown sparked a flood of memes. title: The Internet Had Lots of Fun With Chris Christie's Beach Day image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca7416dfcb28f385/6988d44f656a3f588bbd0af5/chris-christie-sun-bathing-new-jersey-beach.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The Internet Had a Lot of Fun With Chris Christie's Beach Outing by [Mahita Gajanan](/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Jul 3, 2017 4:09 PM CUT  New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, right, uses the beach with his family and friends at the governor's summer house at Island Beach State Park in New Jersey on July 2, 2017. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, right, uses the beach with his family and friends at the governor's summer house at Island Beach State Park in New Jersey on July 2, 2017.Andrew Mills—NJ Advance Media/AP by [Mahita Gajanan](/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Jul 3, 2017 4:09 PM CUT New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is facing backlash online after photos emerged of him [catching some sun](http://time.com/4843762/chris-christie-beach/?xid=homepage "undefined") on a beach he closed to most visitors amid a state government shutdown. Aerial shots of the Republican governor enjoying the [empty beach](http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/07/christie%5Fpictured%5Fat%5Fisland%5Fbeach%5Fstate%5Fpark%5Fdurin.html "undefined") also sparked a flood of memes depicting Christie on a beach chair in various scenes: > [](https://twitter.com/darth/status/881727197123272704) > [](https://twitter.com/IvanTheK/status/881877055826255872) California Rep. Jack Kimble stuck the governor in a galaxy far, far away: > [](https://twitter.com/RepJackKimble/status/881882092161949696) Here’s Christie in the middle of a classic movie scene: > [](https://twitter.com/NellSco/status/881718964149243904) Christie [defended the controversial trip](http://time.com/4843720/chris-christie-beach-new-jersey-shutdown/?xid=homepage "undefined") in an interview with Good Day Philadelphia. “I’m sorry, they’re not the governor,” he said of the people who did not have access to the beach. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4843805/chris-christie-beach-memes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4843805/chris-christie-beach-memes/"},"headline":"The Internet Had a Lot of Fun With Chris Christie's Beach Outing","datePublished":"2017-07-03T16:09:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:45:05.890Z","description":"The beach was closed amid a government shutdown","url":"https://time.com/4843805/chris-christie-beach-memes/","keywords":["Newsfeed","New Jersey","viral","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca7416dfcb28f385/6988d44f656a3f588bbd0af5/chris-christie-sun-bathing-new-jersey-beach.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca7416dfcb28f385/6988d44f656a3f588bbd0af5/chris-christie-sun-bathing-new-jersey-beach.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"chris-christie-sun-bathing-new-jersey-beach","caption":"New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, right, uses the beach with his family and friends at the governor's summer house at Island Beach State Park in New Jersey on July 2, 2017.","creditText":"Andrew Mills—NJ Advance Media/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4843805/chris-christie-beach-memes/","name":"The Internet Had a Lot of Fun With Chris Christie's Beach Outing"}}]}] ```