The coconut tree meme comes from a speech made by Vice President Kamala Harris in 2023 that included a saying from her mother. This part of the speech saw a surge in attention following the disappointing performance by President Joe Biden in the first 2024 presidential debate against opponent Donald Trump.
The analogy often dropped by Harris' mom has helped to shift the reputation of the Vice President as she becomes the front-runner to potentially replace Biden as the Democratic candidate.
What did Kamala Harris say?
In a speech by Harris to the Commissioners for the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics, she attempted to explain why community is important by sharing a story from her childhood.
"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?'" said Harris.
"You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you."
What is the coconut tree meme?
This unusual euphemism warning against narrow thinking seemed to reinforce the public's opinion that Harris is a little bit weird, but in the context of our other choices for the next U.S. president, it's coming off as refreshing.
As the "K-Hive," or a loose collection of Kamala Harris fans and supporters, sees a resurgence in relevance among talks of retiring Biden, jokes referencing the coconut tree speech are proliferating on Twitter. People are captioning old memes and reaction images from popular media with the quote or parts of it as well as making text jokes that twist or misquote the original.
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Related memes:
- How a Kamala Harris meme turned into a fight over corncobs
- ‘Time for an upgrade’ meme shows Kamala Harris’ team is too online
- ‘It’s actually so over:’ The face that became the Joe Biden debate meme
- ‘No such thing as a coincidence’: Kamala Harris’ coconut tree trend gets deep about life
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