There is a good chance that future history textbooks recalling the 2024 presidential election will feature campaign signs, text from speeches and candidate memes. Yes, memes.
It’s too early to say who will win this cycle’s White House derby, but the internet remains undefeated in bringing levity to an already historic campaign season. As news spread that President Joe Biden was withdrawing from the presidential race, so did viral clips, art and social posts focused on Vice President Kamala Harris.
There’s even an exhaustive video reel (see below) of all the clips and moments that led to this point of peak virality.
In the past few days, our feeds, friends, family and strangers are dropping words like “brat,” “coconut tree,” and “Venn diagrams.” Suddenly, Harris is going from second in command to seemingly everywhere — Zoom calls and X to Tik Tok. Former President Donald Trump, of course is no stranger to leveraging the web and social media, but Harris’ content isn’t new, some of it is years old. Now that Harris is the presumptive Democratic nominee, her digital imprint is being repurposed in a way that makes her seem like a cool, kooky auntie.
So, what have you missed? Here’s what we know about the memes, moments and jokes that are making Harris the next potential Commander in Meme.
‘Kamala Is brat’
This one starts with pop star Charli XCX and her new album, “brat.” The latter is the British singer’s audio clarion call to throw society’s expectations of women to the wind, which was followed by an Instagram post declaring that this summer, and every post-solstice after, is “brat summer.”
Two weeks later, and hours after Biden’s own withdrawal post on X posted, Charli XCX dropped this message:
The @KamalaHQ X account, a rapid response page for the Harris campaign with over 1 million followers, updated its banner to mimic the album art for “brat,” which features a green backdrop with arial, lowercase font in black that reads, “kamala hq.”
‘Femininomenon’
Speaking of channeling pop stars, we can’t leave out the fact that Harris’ campaign has now fully embraced singer Chappell Roan’s 2022 track, “Femininomenon.” A meme alternating photos of Harris and Trump has been posted to TikTok on the campaign’s official account.
The NSFW track features lyrics such as, “Crying at the nail salon/I’m so sick of online love,” is a ballad of heartbreak for the Gen Z dating world.
Coconut tree
This one stems from a speech Harris delivered in 2023. Speaking at the White House for a ceremony for the Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics, the vice president channeled sage wisdom she once received from her mother.
“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?”
The quote ends with prose Obi Wan Kenobi could appreciate.
“You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
That led us to videos such as this one, which has more than 50 million views and plays over Charli XCX’s single, “Von Dutch.”
“Wheels on the Bus”
Who doesn’t like channeling an old bop from our childhood, and having a good cackle after? Well this clip of Harris doing just that in 2022 is back in rotation.
The #KHive
This community of Harris super fans formed in 2020 when Harris ran with Biden. According to the site Know Your Meme, its roots go back to 2017 when MSNBC correspondent Joy-Ann Reid used the term, likening Harris’ following to Beyoncé’s Beyhive.
At one point, Harris had to school her old boss what the #KHive is:
Venn diagrams
What can she say? She loves them. Well, Harris said so over the years, which opponents tried to use against her.
Harris and her team even turned her love for Venn diagrams into a campaign post, explaining what distinguishes the vice president from Biden, but also their connection.
‘A secret language’
The many memes of Harris and how that connects with young people online is a big deal, according to RK Jackson, Atlanta native and senior editorial lead for the Black-owned social media platform Spill. In fact, Jackson has a Harris folder on his phone that’s filled with every hilarious meme about her, like the aforementioned “Wheels on the Bus” video.
“I think meme language is such a transcendental, kind of universal thing that it immediately evokes a certain type of behavior, reaction and response,” Jackson said. “It’s a secret language.”
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