Confused by all the Kamala Harris memes? Here’s the context
By Lisa Respers France, CNN
(CNN) — If memes are the language of the internet, this next election is absolutely being taken to the streets of social media.
From coconut trees to “brat” summer laughs, many users have been having fun with Vice President Kamala Harris as she has become the presumptive Democratic nominee.
“She’s gone from cringe to cool in 24 hours as a whole generation has taken all the content and remixed it in all these incredible TikTok videos,” CNN Senior Political Commentor Van Jones said earlier this week. “This is not a campaign, this a movement.”
Here are three memes that will help you better understand how Harris has sparked so much conversation online.
Chef Kamala
A 2019 video of Harris sharing her recipe for how to dry-brine a Thanksgiving turkey has brought new meaning to the popular phrase “let her cook,” which translates to let a person do the thing they are good at.
Harris appears so focused on her cooking in the video, she can be heard telling someone off camera, “One minute” before she casually launches into her preparation of ”kosher salt, black pepper, maybe chop up a little thyme.”
Her hand gestures as she describes how to “lather that baby up” made it all the more engaging for some viewers.
Recipe for a mash-up
Harris should probably send Charli XCX a muffin basket if she has not already.
The very popular British pop singer signaled to social media that she was riding with Harris when she declared her “brat,” which is both the title of Charli XCX’s sixth studio album and now a Gen Z summer soundtrack.
But even before the singer’s post, people were linking her to Harris. As receipts, please see this popular TikTok that mixed Charli’s single “360” with footage of Harris.
Way to rizz up a presidential candidate! If you don’t understand what that means, a helpful translation is provided here for anyone in a household without a tween.
Coconut trees
If there is ever a greatest hits of Harris memes, this one will be listed as one of the most influential.
In May 2023, during a swearing-in ceremony of commissioners at an initiative focused on expanding educational opportunities for the Hispanic community, Harris gave a speech that went a little nuts – coconuts that is.
Harris spoke about “a difference between equality and equity” and personalized it with a family story.
“None of us just live in a silo. Everything is in context,” she said. “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? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.’”
Since then, coconuts and coconut tree imagery have been used online in support of Harris, but also used as a racial slur by some detractors to mean someone who is “brown” on the outside and “white” on the inside.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat representing California, appeared to be in the former camp as he recently spotted on the steps of the capitol in Washington, DC, holding a coconut with a straw in it. He reportedly told reporters he was “staying hydrated.”
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