Internet memelords are going cuckoo for coconut-themed memes and other online gags depicting Kamala Harris in “brat” lime green, as her presidential campaign is ironically benefiting from repurposed memes that were originally used to depict her unflatteringly.

When President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid and VP Kamala Harris quickly took the reins, many years-old derogatory anti-Harris memes suddenly found new viral life.

There was the GOP War Room Youtube clip where Harris said “You think you fell out of a coconut tree?”, originally meant to reinforce a dingbat quality and sound a dog-whistle against people of color. Conservatives mocked Harris's propensity to laugh in conversation, and there was also the 2020 election-era “Kamala is a cop” meme meant to drive the hard-left against her because she was an SF District Attorney and California Attorney General.  

Yet this new viral life for the anti-Harris memes has been boomeranged to fuel online support for her among the Gen Z and Gen TikTok constituency. The New York Times reports on how repurposed anti-Harris memes are suddenly driving support for Harris on social media, and the campaign has noticed and is taking advantage.

@flextillerson kamala harris edit to 360 by charli xcx. brat presidency #kamalaharris #kamala #biden #harris2024 #charli #charlixcx #brat #360 ♬ original sound - aly

If these memes are new to you, the TikTok supercut above serves as a nice primer. Harris’s campaign is embracing these to reach younger voters.

"I think social media is definitely the primary source of most information, including political information for Gen Z,” San Jose State University political science professor Melinda Jackson told KGO. “I think the smart thing for the Harris campaign to do is get some young Gen Z folks to be working the social media channels."

OK, for the old people like me out there, what’s up with this lime-green color scheme?

Pop star Charli XCX, beloved enough that she caused a near-trampling situation at the 2022 Portola Festival, just released her new album brat, which is already her highest-charting work. The cover of the album is just a field of lime green with the word “brat,” and many, many fans have declared this "brat summer" and have been using brat as a positive adjective. But Charli XCX tweeted “kamala IS brat” on the day Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris, likely a not-insignificant development for the youth vote. And the Harris campaign social channels have picked up on use of lime-green color schemes.  

The “coconut tree” remark has taken on new life, now a weapon of support for Harris in the emoji era. It has become common online lingo for previously tepid Biden supporters to describe themselves as “coconut pilled,” a Matrix franchise reference to the "red pill" that had been coopted by the right, and now re-coopted by the left.

And the left has also re-co-opted the “Kamala is a cop” meme, which may work conveniently with suburban and swing voters, considering her opponent Trump has been convicted of 34 felonies.

This all represents a shift where, for now at least, social media memelords are doing creative work that was traditionally political work done by elected officials’ rapid-response teams. But now that it's Kamala Harris’s time in the limelight, her social media teams seems to be really using their coconut.

Related: Never Forget: Donald Trump (and Ivanka) Donated to Kamala Harris's Attorney General Campaign [SFist]

Image: flextillerson via TikTok