Meme History: Kamala Harris Coconut Tree Memes
In May of 2023, Kamala Harris gave a speech in which she shared this anecdote:
“My mother used to—she would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’ You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
Online, this soundbite exists in the context of all which came before it.
The speech was meant to inspire new leaders in the educational space and remind them that educational success doesn’t only depend on students, but also on the success of students’ families, grandparents, teachers, and communities. Good students and successful people don’t just fall out of coconut trees or come out of nowhere. They’re a product of their environment, and what comes before them sets them up for either success or failure.
But to the online community, that sentiment didn’t matter. The writers of pithy quips viewed themselves—to borrow another Harris idiom—as unburdened by what the speech had been, and simply imagined what could be.
Like seemingly any political moment in recent years, it has drawn criticism from one side of the aisle, become a rallying point for the other, and made into an abstraction by a generation of internet inhabitants whose lust for weird, dali-esque humor knows no bounds.
Either you make a bad-faith argument that Kamala is losing her marbles because the coconut story makes no sense, rally behind the coconut—using it like a badge of honor and support, or sigma your way into the conversation by posting a non sequitur.
Very quickly—the day of the speech—the clip in question was reposted to YouTube and X by official Republican party social media accounts, mostly piling onto the already tired refrain that her laugh is weird. But it also attracted the attention of independent right-wingers, some of which accused her of being drunk or in a “strange state.”
In a pretty a-political use case, the “fell out of a coconut tree” meme quickly became a way for people to make bizarre, aimless jokes out of just about anything.
They’re funny mostly because they’re so strange and illogical. Often turned into image macros referencing previous memes or pop culture moments, the soundbite has also been repeatedly set to pop music. Remixes feature songs by Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, and more. But most notable of all of these, was the CharliXCX version.
Riding on the momentum of earlier “brat” memes, X user @ryanlong03 posted their own Kamala Harris video, set to a remix of Charli’s “Von Dutch.”
Charli herself seems to be in support of this, going by her subsequent tweet which said “Kamala IS brat,” posted the day President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.
Kamala “brat” memes are now a subgenre all unto themselves, where “brat,” in short, references the title of the sixth CharliXCX record, and it basically means that something is cool, a little messy, fun, and is pretty much living their best life.
On July 22nd, the day after Joe Biden announced he’d be dropping out of the race, Redditor dalvikcache took credit for buying the domain coconut.vote—a brat / web 1.0—themed Kamala Harris landing page with quick links to register to vote, donate to the Harris campaign, buy official merch, or simply flood the screen with coconut emojis.
And the K-Hive—that is, Kamala Harris and all her fans—are getting behind this.
Following the CharliXCX tweet, the Harris campaign’s official X account changed their banner image to brat green, and listed “providing context” as its bio—an obvious reference to the coconut speech.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) posted an image of himself climbing a coconut tree in support of Harris’ 2024 presidential bid. Gov. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) did something similar, using emojis instead, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) was seen holding a coconut on his way out of the Capitol building, and Emily's List, a Democratic PAC aimed at supporting democratic women political candidates, added coconut and palm tree emojis to their account name.
As the old saying goes, “there are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.”
The fourth week of July 2024 inarguably counts as the latter. Seemingly overnight, the internet in America went from lamenting the choice between the two oldest presidential candidates ever, to #BratPresidency.
The internet has reimagined what a presidential campaign can be.
The memes are unburdened by what has been.
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