Viral

You might've heard "Y.M.C.A." being played A LOT lately from both Dems and Republicans -- a testament that it's still got pull on both sides of the aisle ... according to the guy who wrote it.

Village People founder Victor Willis -- the cop in the group -- tells TMZ ... he just loves the fact his band's iconic earworm has seeped into the political arena this election cycle -- even if that means it was heavily kickstarted by Donald Trump at rallies.

In case you hadn't noticed, Trump was big into incorporating "Y.M.C.A." as a go-to tune during his final blitz across the country -- often dancing to it on stage, which actually got made into a 2-minute long compilation clip in sync with the song. So, yeah ... it's been revived.

Of course, on Saturday ... the song was sorta hijacked by Biden supporters in Philly who danced to it while trolling Trump supporters from across the street (who were actually playing it) ... this as Joe Biden was announced as the projected winner of the 2020 election.

On that front, Victor tells us that's A-OK too ... everyone's invited to sing it. So long as the track continues to get play -- not to mention climb back up on the charts, which it's also doing for the first time in literally decades -- he's good with anybody getting down to "Y.M.C.A.'

As we told you, Victor had already signaled it was cool for DT to use the track -- and he reiterated that here with us as well ... saying he had no plans to sue Trump or his campaign.

If anything, it sounds like Victor is grateful to Trump for resurrecting not just "Y.M.C.A" ... but also "Macho Man," another Village People classic. Alec Baldwin even sang a rendition of it on 'SNL' this weekend, so it's all Village People all the time, it seems, these days.

To Victor, that just speaks to the universality of his music -- and the message of overcoming obstacles that apply to just about any and everybody who's going through adversity.

This is one of the most joyful celebrations we've seen in the wake of the Biden/Harris victory ... and it went down at, of all places, a gas station.

A group of revelers danced their asses off as they sang to Kelly Clarkson's, "Since U Been Gone." When they sang certain verses, like "I can breathe for the first time," and "You had your chance and blew it," you could feel the energy and glee.

But, they weren't done. When night fell at the 76 Station in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles, the crowd broke into Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You." In other words, Christmas came early in the form of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

It's pretty incredible that Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump character is not really a caricature ... because he's really like that.

Trump flew off the Twitter handle again, lashing out at voting officials in big cities, saying, "We believe these people are thieves. The big city machines are corrupt. This was a stolen election."

Trump tweeted this before heading out for his second day of golfing in a row.

Trump goes on to quote a British pollster, whom he says also called it a stolen election, adding, "it's impossible to imagine that Biden outran Obama in some of these states." Of course, a pollster from Great Britain doesn't know the mechanics of vote processing in America.

As you know by now, Trump has offered no concrete evidence of fraud and has been booted out of court. True enough ... he could probably get this before the U.S. Supreme Court, but even with the addition of Amy Coney Barrett, it's highly unlikely the Court will overturn election results. Above all else, the SCOTUS cares about its legitimacy, and by siding with Trump on flimsy to no evidence, the justices know it would result in an uprising and almost certainly court-packing.

And, there's this ... Trump has a voter fraud hotline which has been inundated with prank calls from Biden supporters. The Biden folks would call in, laughing and gloating over Trump's loss ... this according to ABC News.

The stakes in this election were life and death, which is obvious from watching this elderly woman break down in tears as she watched the news project Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election.

The 86-year-old was watching TV intently from her kitchen when the news flashed on the screen that Biden was Prez elect. She begins to sob uncontrollably, but not just because she's happy Biden won or Trump lost. For her, it's about her health and ability to pay for food, rent and other necessities of life.

And, then she got on the horn and called someone to celebrate with, and she broke out into "Happy Days Are Here Again."

Short story ... she cried because her hope and security had been renewed.

Mailmen and women are getting a huge pat on the back for their part in helping deliver votes in this election -- and, in L.A., they're also getting sprayed down with champagne.

Check out this celebratory scene we captured Saturday in WeHo, where Biden supporters had flooded the streets and tracked down a USPS truck, which seemed more than down to get in on the happy vibes ... as folks literally bowed down to the guy behind the wheel.

Unclear if the dude was stuck at a light, or if people were blocking his path -- but either way, he was in no rush to go anywhere as Angelenos literally popped a bottle of champagne and started hosing down the exterior of his vehicle. It's insane to see ... in a good way!

We also talked to the mailman driver, and he seemed about as happy as anyone outside. You can tell as much by the way he started honking his horn upon departure.

Speaking of champagne ... there was some other guy out there handing out bottles for free ... which the West Hollywood crowd did not turn down. Yeah, they're feelin' themselves.

BTW, the praising of postal workers wasn't just confined to the West Coast -- across the country in Brooklyn, something very similar was happening out there as well ... where a mail truck was getting rained upon with cheers, as the driver reciprocated with jubilant honking.

The USPS has been through a lot in the months leading up to this election ... and yet, despite that adversity, the good men and women in the short shorts soldiered on and delivered those mail-in ballots, which clearly helped put Biden over the hill here.

It's so good to know ... even chill Canada is losing it.

Check out this video of a McDonald's in Toronto, where a very impatient customer got out of her car in the drive-thru and walked to the window, which enraged the dude behind her.

She called the guy a "fat bitch," middle fingers come to attention and there's plenty of anger and cursing. She threatens to spit on the guy and then blanches that he keeps calling her Karen. She says she's not a Karen, but ...

The dog owner who was caught on camera slapping around his dog has just been charged ... TMZ has learned.

The Santa Monica City Attorney's Office charged Jeffrey Previte, CEO of an environmental consulting firm in L.A., with 1 count of animal neglect ... a misdemeanor. If convicted, he faces up to 6 months in county jail and a maximum fine of $500.

As we reported ... Previte snapped on the dog, Bici, back in August in the hallway of his Santa Monica apartment building. The video was pretty damn disturbing ... showing Previte dragging, choking and slapping his poor dog after it started peeing.

A Facebook group with more than 300,000 members claiming the election's being stolen from President Trump just got removed ... over growing fears it's stirring violence.

The "Stop the Steal" group began picking up serious steam among Trump supporters over the past 24 hours, and was attempting to organize protests this Saturday around the country, claiming ... "PRESIDENT TRUMP NEEDS US NOW MORE THAN EVER."

Facebook's not having it though, and has shut the group down citing "worrying calls for violence from some members of the group." FB also says the group was "organized around the delegitimization of the election process."

The social media giant says ... "In line with the exceptional measures that we are taking during this period of heightened tension, we have removed the Group 'Stop the Steal,' which was creating real-world events."

As you likely know by now ... Trump and his campaign officials have been very active in opposing the ballot-counting process in several battleground states and vowed multiple lawsuits over it.

There has been some chaos at ballot counting centers in Detroit and Phoenix where some of Trump's most avid supporters have shown up to protest, some of them with firearms.

Love him or hate him, politically ... Lil Pump is having a blast right now, and hung out with some exotic animals to top it off -- which might add to his hate column.

The Trump-loving rapper was fresh off the Trump campaign trail Wednesday when he decided to make a pit stop at the Myrtle Beach Safari run by 'Tiger King' star Doc Antle.

Antle tells TMZ ... Pump and some friends left D.C. and headed to South Carolina after the rapper got in touch with Doc through Tiger Kingdom executive producer Steven Dorn.

Doc says Pump spent the afternoon chilling with tigers and tiger cubs, riding Bubbles the elephant and visiting with Angada the chimpanzee, and as you can see ... he was loving it.

We're told Lil Pump and his pals then had dinner at the park, and all of the fun was filmed for the new docuseries, "Tiger Kingdom: More Than a King."

Gotta say, the pairing of the rapper and the zoo owner's an interesting one ... as both fellas aren't necessarily on the nation's most-popular list. Pump's been getting major flak for endorsing Trump -- but he doesn't really care -- and Antle was recently indicted for wildlife trafficking and animal cruelty.

Doc denied the allegations and said he's looking forward to being able to "clear my good name."

A group of Donald Trump supporters are up in arms about the mail-in ballot counting process in Detroit ... and they're trying like hell to disrupt it.

A frenzy's been whipped up by several Republican vote challengers at the TCF Convention Center, where workers are trying to tally thousands of absentee votes for Detroiters while having to deal with the madness.

Cops are keeping many of the aggressive challengers at bay due to the counting area being at capacity, but that's not stopping them from banging on the windows and chanting, "STOP THE COUNT! STOP THE COUNT!"

The pro-Trump challengers are apparently claiming they are being kept out, but Democratic challengers are as well. Under the state's election rules ... each group is allowed to have 134 challenges.

As you may know ... the President and his campaign have been making baseless claims about voter fraud in multiple states that carry significant importance to the winner of the election, and clearly, it's sparked outrage among his supporters in Detroit.

Folks in New Jersey have green on the mind -- they are eager to brush up on their marijuana skills after voting to legalize it, and their Google searches show it.

The term "how to roll a joint" saw a nearly 3,000% jump in the ultimate search engine during a solid 4 hours Tuesday evening as the Garden State overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure to make it legal to grow, smoke and sell herb starting in 2021.

Of course, like California, you'll have to be 21 to do all that ... and there's still some red tape they gotta go through -- like setting up the rules of this trade -- before anyone can partake. Still, a whole new batch of tokers are obviously itching to bust out rolling papers.

Also trending in Jersey ... the term "when will weed be legal in New Jersey." So, yeah, they're ready to burn.

Several other states are saying puff puff pass with Jersey, too -- Arizona, Montana and South Dakota also voted to approve pot measures.

Colorado, Washington, Cali, Oregon and Illinois have been leading the nation in cashing in on marijuana users ... having gone fully legal with it years ago.

Madison Cawthorn is only 25 years old, but that didn't stop him from being elected to represent North Carolina's 11th Congressional District ... making him the youngest member of the House in modern U.S. history.

Cawthorn -- a staunch Republican who's anti-abortion, pro-gun and shares President Trump's views on immigrants -- defeated Democrat Moe Davis for the seat ... according to CNN's projection.

His first message to his constituents after his historic victory was a sharp jab across the aisle -- "Cry more, lib." It's the kinda football spiking that would make Trump proud.

Before Cawthorn, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's win in New York in 2018 made her the youngest female elected member in modern history at 29 years, 2 months and 22 days.

However, the new NC Rep. isn't the youngest Congressman of all time ... that title belongs to William Charles Cole Claiborne of Tennessee, elected in 1797 at age 22 despite not meeting the constitutional age requirement.

Rules. NBD in the 18th century.

BTW, if Cawthorn looks familiar, it might be because you remember him from a maskless meeting with Trump back in July shortly after the Prez said it was "patriotic" to wear a mask amid the pandemic.

The Texas woman who was super prepared to wait in a long line to cast her ballot early is helping her fellow voters on Election Day ... by providing sustenance.

As we reported ... Belinda Varnado's patriotism and determination were on full display last month in a TikTok where she showed off her early voting survival kit ... including a comfy chair and plenty of snacks.

Belinda told us her video was meant to be a guide for seniors like her on being prepared for long lines at the polls ... and stressed the importance of voting this year along with her daughter, Chevelle Brooks.

The women are practicing what they preach because they made their way to the Toyota Center in Houston on Tuesday -- a major polling site in the city -- to hand out drinks and snacks and help people braving the long lines.

As you can see ... Belinda's her usual charismatic self, bringing that "jush," and both she and Chevelle are prepared to stay there to encourage voting until the polls close.

Kanye West just hit the polls and cast his vote for the candidate he truly trusts ... himself.

The rapper made his vote count Tuesday in Park County, Wyoming, where he wrote-in himself and running-mate, Michelle Tidball, for President and Vice President. Remember, they're running independent, under the Birthday Party ... according to candidate Ye.

Kanye shot video of himself submitting his ballot with the caption, "KEEP BELIEVING KANYE 2020. Thank you Jesus Christ." He tweeted a similar video that also said, "The first vote of my life. We are here to serve. We pray for every servant leader in the world."

Sounds odd, but Kanye -- who is currently running for POTUS -- revealed a couple years ago he'd never voted. Writing yourself in for the top spot on the ballot is one hell of a way to exercise your Constitutional right!

Ye's political journey didn't come without bumps in the road ... from getting tons of shade from celebs and being called a narcissist ... to losing a battle to get on the Wisconsin ballot. He was also widely accused of being in cahoots with the GOP to run a spoiler campaign.

Not long ago ... Kanye appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast and revealed he was open to running for California Gov. if it helped him get his political feet wet. That being said, he insisted the presidency is his ultimate goal, even if it meant having to try again in 2024. He also didn't rule out running as a Democrat.

BTW ... Kim just moments ago also revealed she hit the polls, though she didn't reveal whether or not she voted for Kanye.

A couple of kayakers are lucky to be alive after a humpback whale damn near swallowed them whole ... and it was all caught on video.

Julie McSorley and Liz Cottriel were kayaking and whale watching Monday off California's Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo when, out of nowhere, the massive mammal came up to the surface to gobble up a big pool of fish.

Check out the video ... you can see other kayakers and paddle boarders near the whale ... with another kayaker filming the incident from a distance. At first, it appeared like the whale swallowed the women, but their kayak only capsized and they were thrown underwater.

Cottriel told FOX26 News, "I'm thinking to myself, 'I'm gonna push.' Like, I'm gonna push a whale out of the way! It was the weirdest thought. I'm thinking, 'I'm dead. I'm dead.' I thought it was gonna land on me. Next thing I know, I'm underwater."

Several paddle boarders reportedly came to their rescue before they hopped back on their kayak and rode back to shore. Cottriel said when they got back to the car "I was shaking my shirt and a bunch of fish came out of my shirt." None of the women suffered injuries ... but McSorely reportedly lost her car keys.

President Trump is garnering public support from some black celebrities and hip-hop artists, but Claudia Jordan and Too Short want everyone to know they're not part of that group ... despite a very misleading press release.

Here's the deal -- a press release went out Monday about Trump inviting a "prominent group of African-American actors and entertainers" to the White House in December to discuss issues facing the Black community and the President's proposed Platinum Plan.

According to the announcement, the December meeting would be attended by the stars of an upcoming documentary called "Trump vs. Hollywood" -- including rappers Eric B., Money-B, actor Isaiah Washington and the film's director, Daphne Barak. The documentary seems to be very pro-Trump.

That's where Claudia and Too Short come in, as their names are listed as being part of "Trump vs. Hollywood" alongside names of some well-known Trump supporters ... like Kid Rock, Dean Cain and Scott Baio.

It definitely reads like all of the celebs are endorsing the Prez, but as both the 'Real Housewives of Atlanta' star and the rapper point out ... that's not the case.

They both say they were asked to do an interview by Barak and agreed to it, but in no way does that mean they support Trump. Claudia says the film director presented it as talking to people on both sides of the political aisle.

Too Short adds that he's about to go vote -- NOT for Trump -- and says in the past few weeks he's also been asked to fly to D.C. to meet with Trump or hop on a phone call with someone on his team.

He says he rejected both offers and, without naming names, throws some serious shade at fellow rappers who have taken the Trump meeting for what he believes is just a photo op.

Too Short's claim echoes what Rich The Kid recently said too -- that Trump tried to send him a private jet to fly him to his Michigan rally to buy his support.