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If you hopped on to X today and saw what you thought was a teaser for the eleven hundredth installment of Sharknado, I regret to be the bearer of bad news.
Unfortunately, the shark-themed clip currently doing the rounds on social media is not a preview for the cult classic film series, but is (perhaps more bizarrely), a reference to the presidential race. Shared on X by user Alex Cole (@acnewsitics), the clip first emerged on TikTok by creator Ubans Myths Legends.
In it, an animated rendering of presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris can be seen riding a shark on a shoreline, raging full steam ahead at her opponent, Donald Trump. Naturally, the clip is soundtracked by the famous theme song from Jaws, which makes Harris’ Cheshire cat grin while charging at Trump all the more hilarious.
While the clip is funny in its own right, it gets extra points for the context it’s informed by. In June, Trump was mocked online after going on a rant about electric boat batteries and sharks during one of his rallies. Clips of the rant promptly went viral, leading to this most recent rendering of Harris riding a shark that appears to be powered by, you guessed it, a Duracell battery.
Since hitting our timelines yesterday (June 22), the clip has amassed 21,000 likes on X, and has been viewed some 330,000 times on TikTok. However, some have taken issue with the clip’s portrayal of Trump, who is not only running relatively gracefully but appears much slimmer than his real-life counterpart.
“This is not accurate,” one user wrote on X, “they need to add at least another 200 pounds to Trump.” So popular is the video that it has since spawned its apparel in support of the Harris campaign, with a still of the clip featuring on a range of t-shirts, hoods, and sweatshirts. The website for the shark-riding Harris line says the meme is “an expression of [Harris’] unwavering spirit.”
Of course, it’s not the first time social media users have weighed in on the presidential candidates, with Trump becoming the subject of hilarious memes following his criminal conviction earlier this year. His Republican peers, meanwhile, have also been rendered by netizens as everything from has-been musicians to dolled-up drag queens.
For her part, Harris is enjoying a wave of attention on the back of her viral “coconut tree” soundbite, which even caught the attention of musicians like Katy Perry and Kesha.
Word is still out on whether Harris will add “shark-riding” to her impressive list of accomplishments, but we do know one thing’s for sure: that animated shark would need a second helping if it ever caught up to that much slimmer version of Trump.