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A wave of support came Kamala Harris‘ way when she became the frontrunner as the Democratic nominee for the 2024 U.S. election this November, following Joe Biden’s announcement that he will no longer be seeking re-election.
Alongside this, you’ll also have seen references coconuts or coconut trees. If you’re confused about the link between coconuts and this possible future president, look no further – here is the context of the meme where Kamala discusses coconuts.
When, where, and why did Kamala Harris say the coconut tree line?
The now-famous “coconut tree” quote occurred during a speech by the Vice President in May of 2023, when Harris spoke at the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics.
In the speech, Harris had advice for young members of the audience, regarding their families and history, and paying it back into the communities in which they were raised to become successful adults.
Echoing some words of wisdom from her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, Kamala said:
“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? [laughter] You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.’”
Why did the incident become a meme?
Kamala’s giggly demeanor when quoting her mother’s coconut tree line, before becoming more serious in tone when talking about her philosophy on nature versus nurture, makes for a pretty amusing watch (or listen). The two halves of the speech segment sound a little disjointed, which adds to the bizarre nature of the clip.
The sound became popular on TikTok, with many users lip-syncing to the audio to describe situations where the tone radically shifts. As the delivery borders on nonsensical, especially in the jump from the coconut tree analogy to the remarks about context, the audio was pretty flexible in being used for all kinds of situations for content creators.
Kamala has been criticized for laughing a lot during public events – especially in moments where nothing is funny and can be viewed as inappropriate. Political opponents such as Donald Trump have nicknamed her “Laughing Kamala”, and the meme can be used as a tool for criticizing Kamala by those who find her bubbly demeanor grating.
The spread of the meme
The video of Kamala’s coconut tree speech has been popular since it was first broadcast, with many comparing the Vice President’s upbeat, airy delivery to that of a person under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
As Joe Biden’s age and increasing frailty appeared to catch up with him in the final weeks of his re-election campaigning, Kamala’s carefree style in the coconut meme gained further traction as a welcome contrast for democrats who thought that the Biden vs Trump rematch would end in a Trump comeback. Kamala’s energy in comparison appeared much more youthful and less forced than Biden’s, and the video itself was a form of marketing for a Kamala presidency.
When Biden dropped out and endorsed Kamala, the coconut tree memes took on another, strong form – a sort of PR effort for undecided voters, in an attempt to win them over from potentially choosing Trump as their candidate of choice.
Many video edits featuring Kamala have sprung up recently, often using the music from Charli XCX’s recent hit hyperpop album Brat. In many ways, Kamala is the epitome of the ongoing “Brat Summer” – a carefree alternative to the far-right politics dominating much of the world, instead embracing partying, hedonism, and the “brat” mentality of not caring what haters may think of your behavior.
Kamala herself has embraced this comparison, changing the header on the Kamala HQ Twitter/X page to mimic the style of now-iconic Brat album artwork. In many ways, the coconut tree clip best embodies the Brat attitude, a much more youthful and ideally less divisive take on politics and leadership than the Trump-Biden rivalry that Americans (and the rest of the world) have become accustomed to since 2020 – or arguably, since at least 2016.
As Trump is now the oldest-ever candidate in U.S. Presidential Election history, these Kamala coconut memes going super viral could very well help the much more youthful 59-year-old giggle her way into the presidency, as well as the history books, as the first female and first Asian-American Commander-in-Chief.