On Sunday, July 21, President Joe Biden announced that he was dropping out of the presidential race. He then endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, as the new Democratic candidate.
Immediately, social media was flooded with coconut emojis, as well as viral videos—many playfully remixed with pop songs—of Harris uttering a catchy yet out-of-context line: “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.”
Why? It’s a good question—and one that many who aren’t chronically online are likely wondering. Below, the origin of the coconut-tree meme and why it’s become a rallying cry for Kamala Harris supporters.
When did she say, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”—and what does it mean?
On May 10, 2023, Vice President Kamala Harris gave remarks during a swearing-in ceremony for commissioners of the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics. In it, she discussed how to better support Hispanic students—and why that also meant supporting their parents, grandparents, and members of their community. Human beings, Harris explained, don’t exist in a silo; a host of factors help to make us who we are.
Then came her now-famous line: “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?’” Harris laughed heartily. “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
When did it become a meme?
Like so much on the internet, its origins are murky. However, clips from that particular speech began appearing on X as early as this past winter. (One tweet in particular got more than one million views.) But it really gained traction in late June. On June 27, President Biden disastrously underperformed in a debate against former president Trump on CNN. It sparked discussions among Democratic leaders, donors, and well, the entire public about whether Biden should remain in the race.
And if he did drop out, who would replace him? Harris emerged as the front-runner. Her supporters, known as the KHive, began recirculating the clip. Soon, it was getting remixed and memed—particularly on TikTok, where a number of videos went viral.
To chronically online Vogue writer José Criales-Unzueta, it’s no wonder that social media has embraced the phrase; after all, users have been affectionately memeing Harris since 2020. (See: “We did it, Joe.”) “This kind of quote is an internet perfect storm—it’s funny, equal parts serious and unserious, and the perfect thing to meme because it can be extracted from its context and still work,” he says. “I think it gained traction because it’s the kind of motherly advice meets therapy-speak the internet is obsessed with. Yes, you do exist in the context of what came before you, and no, you did not just fall out of a coconut tree. It’s the kind of thing we hear from our mothers and grandmothers over and over and over until we eventually embrace it and internalise it.”
And why are people saying “Kamala Harris’s Brat Summer”?
TikTok users have been melding “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree” with songs from Charli XCX’s hit summer album Brat. (Her song “Apple,” which was going viral on TikTok anyway, fits particularly nicely given the fruit theme.) Then, Charli XCX herself decided to get involved: “kamala IS brat,” she tweeted on July 21.
kamala IS brat
— Charli (@charli_xcx) July 22, 2024
Why am I seeing coconut emojis everywhere?
Over the last few days, users on X and TikTok have begun deploying the coconut emoji as a shorthand to show their support for a Harris ticket. While some have added it to their handles, Colorado governor Jared Polis threw his weight behind Harris by simply tweeting a coconut emoji, a palm tree, and an American flag.
This story was originally published on Vogue.com.
