Kamala Harris coconut meme explained as the internet declares ‘coconut tree summer’ is here
What is the Kamala Harris coconut meme? (Getty Images/ Canva)
Incumbent President of the United States Joe Biden has pulled out of his re-election campaign and endorsed his current vice president to be the Democratic Party’s nominee – but what is the Kamala Harris coconut tree meme that’s currently everywhere on the internet?
We know, that’s probably not a turn of phrase one expects when reading about the current Vice President of the United States, or indeed the Democrat who now looks set to go up against Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
And yet, here we are. Kamala Harris has already been endorsed by one Charli XCX as officially “brat”, and her Kamala HQ X account has undergone a brat-green makeover, so she’s clearly looking to Gen Z for votes – but even that has nothing on the coconut meme.
So what is it?
What is the Kamala Harris coconut tree meme and where did it come from?
It all started with a speech made by Harris in May 2023, while at a swearing-in ceremony for a White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics.
During the speech, the Vice President attempted to make the point that young people can sometimes feel that they “exist in a silo”, meaning that nothing beyond their immediate circumstance affects them. In doing so, she quoted her own mother, saying: “I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people, you think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”
Harris then burst out laughing, before returning to her speech with the gravitas of a thousand Drew Barrymores.
“You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
The unlikely soundbite has swept TikTok since – but fast forward to now, and thousands of new coconut-inspired memes have been prompted by Biden’s dropping out of the race, and not just by Gen Z.
US officials, such as a US Senator from Hawaii named Brian Schatz posted a picture climbing a real coconut tree with a pledge of allegiance to Harris.
Chi Ossé, a Democratic member of the New York City Council, has also posted a video edit of various clips of Harris on Wednesday, set to RuPaul‘s “Call Me Mother”, captioned: “Coconut tree summer.”
Another X user termed Harris’s election campaign as ‘Operation Coconut Tree’ : “Kamala… Execute Operation Coconut Tree… We need you.” Several further fans have even referred to their support for Harris as being ‘coconut-pilled‘ in a reference to the Matrix.
A gay bar in Washington DC called Bunker also got in on the action, with a Kamala-coconut-themed promo for a club night hitting the internet just hours after Biden’s announcement.
Long story short, the Kamala Harris coconut meme is a very happy accident for the hopeful Democratic Nominee: it’s a meme that existed way before the most recent developments in US politics, and has now been coopted by her election campaign.
There’s also been entire subsections of the Kamala Harris coconut meme, in which the speech made by Harris gets edited into various pop bangers.
We’ve had Britney Spears‘ “Blackout“, Lana Del Rey‘s “Ride” and even “Blow” by Kesha – which Kesha herself later reposted.
To become the Democratic Party’s nominee, Harris must formally secure the nomination from the around 4,700 delegates at the Democratic National Convention, 19-22 August, in Chicago.
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