Kamala Harris is the current Vice President of the United States. She is also campaigning to become the President of the country next year. Her campaign has proven to be a success on TikTok. One of her statements has become a huge meme. This is what you need to know about it.
Kamala Harris and coconuts?
If you’re on TikTok a lot, you’ve probably seen a video where Kamala Harris talks about falling out of a coconut tree. This may sound a bit crazy, but it’s actually quite logical. She says, “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.” This simply means that a person is never completely isolated. We all exist in the context of our environment and the people who came before us. This quote comes from a speech Harris gave in May 2023. So it’s an old quote, but it’s only recently that the internet has started to run with it.
The birth of a meme
Nowadays, you can hardly ignore this quote from Kamala on TikTok. Everywhere, users of the platform see videos that joke about Kamala’s quote or even extensive edits that remix the quote with popular songs. For example, there are versions of the quote combined with Shake It Off by Taylor Swift or the tune of Coconut Mall by Mario Kart, very fitting if you ask us.
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Memes in politics
Political memes are of course not a new phenomenon. In the Netherlands we also regularly see statements from politicians being transformed into memes. For example, we are all familiar with the trend on TikTok where people portrayed Jesse Klaver and Rob Jetten as a couple. Political memes make the world of politics a little less serious. Ultimately, this could mean that more people who previously avoided it will become involved in politics. Watching debates about new laws may be boring, but laughing at this somewhat crazy quote from Kamala certainly is not. Whether this will have an effect on the outcome of the presidential elections remains to be seen. These will take place in November of this year. But until then, we will at least laugh at Kamala and her infectious laugh.
