Kamala Harris is now enjoying social popularity among her supporters. However, memes can also turn against the candidate.
The vice president of the United States, who has remained relatively invisible to the general public Terrible Harris has begun to emerge as meme material circulating on the internet shortly after the sitting president Joe Biden stepped aside from the presidential race on Sunday and publicly endorsed Harris.
The result is a peculiar mixture of a trend already on the surface and already forgotten talk in the style of internet phenomena.
Terrible is a brat
On Monday, the hottest name on the internet right now, the singer Charli XCX included Harris in the brat summer trend he started by writing on his X account succinctly “horrible IS brat”.
This is a reference to the singer’s most recent album, Brat, which became very popular on the internet, and which has inspired a whole brat summer phenomenon that radiates a raucous, partying and carefree attitude.
Charli XCX herself has described brat means a person with “a pack of cigarettes, a cigarette lighter and a white string top without a bra”.
“The kind of girl who is a bit messy and likes to party and maybe says stupid things sometimes.”
Brat phenomenon has been held as a counterattack to the previous clean girl trend among young women, which aimed at a really well-groomed being and a clean lifestyle.
Chaotic coconut speech
About the Internet’s tyrants has been excavated also Harris’s speech from May last year, where he talks about the fact that in addition to the well-being of young people, the needs of their parents and grandparents should also be focused on.
In his speech, Harris jokingly told how his mother used to lecture her children and say “I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. Do you think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”
“You exist in the context you live in and that came before you,” he continued more seriously.
I will speak has been speculated became a hit for its surprising seriousness and subtle confusion, shared by Harris’s supporters and detractors alike.
Campaigners make the most of it
Both the coconut meme and the brat were quickly embraced by Harris’ campaign team.
Shortly after Charli XCX’s X writing to Harris’ campaign team official X account the wallpaper had been changed to a lime green box, in the middle of which it says “kamala hq” in the font familiar from the Brat album cover, i.e. Kamala’s head office.
The profile text of the account, on the other hand, is now “Providing context” or “offering context” apparently as a reference to the coconut speech.
Clinton ended up being a joke
However, the pursuit of internet popularity can be a dangerous game.
Amid Harris’ meme popularity, many are rememberedhow the former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton ended up being popular with young people by going from being a jokester to being the target of a joke.
Clinton, for example, called for “Pokémon Go to the polls”, i.e. to go to the polls, while also referring to the Pokémon Go game, which was new at the time and popular with young people.
However, the joke did not sink in with the electorate, it was rather considered embarrassing.
At least Harris hasn’t experienced a setback from his social media attention yet. CNN’s latest in measurement Young people who supported Trump in the spring had moved behind Harris.
In the video below, you can see what Kamala Harris’ first campaign event was like: