Memes have become invaluable tools for connecting people, ideas, and even political figures, most recently in the 2024 presidential election. The “coconut tree” meme about Kamala Harris captured the internet’s discourse surrounding her, turning a humorous moment into a viral sensation that made her campaign more relatable to younger audiences. This seemingly trivial meme highlights how popular culture can bridge the gap between political figures and young voters. By examining this meme through the lenses of representation, participatory culture, and camp, we can better understand its impact on Harris’s public image and memes’ surprising potential for political engagement.
Stuart Hall’s theory of representation provides a useful framework for understanding how the coconut tree meme reshaped Harris’s image. As Hall argues, “meaning is not inherent in things, but is constructed through systems of representation” (Hall, 1997, p. 22). Traditional portrayals of politicians often emphasize formality and authority, creating a distance between them and everyday people. Social media disrupts this dynamic, empowering users to craft alternative representations that challenge typical narratives. The coconut tree meme exemplifies this shift. By placing Harris in a lighthearted, exaggerated context, the meme reconstructed her identity, making her seem more approachable and ordionary. This reinterpretation resonated with younger audiences, who are often skeptical of traditional political posturing. Social media users—not campaign strategists or traditional media—took control over Harris’s narrative, reframing her as a playful and more relatable figure. This bottom-up approach allowed ordinary people to feel connected with Harris, showcasing their power to reimagine public figures in a way that felt organic and inclusive.
This shift similarly aligns with Henry Jenkins’ concept of “readers as players,” where audiences actively engage with media as participants rather than passive consumers. Content creators acted as “players” in this cultural narrative, remixing Harris’s public image into something uniquely suited to their humor and worldview (Jenkins, 2006, p. 37). By treating political representations as a space for experimentation, social media users infused their own interpretations, reinforcing their sense of ownership over the narrative and fostering deeper connections with Harris. This playful interaction exemplifies how modern audiences navigate and reshape public personas in digital spaces.
Limor Shifman’s analysis of memes as participatory digital phenomena offers further insight into the coconut tree meme’s success. Shifman defines memes as “units of cultural transmission that gain popularity through creative adaptations and widespread dissemination” (Shifman, 2014, p. 41). The coconut tree meme quickly became somewhat of an inside joke among young social media users, evolving into a form of digital folklore. It was not just the initial joke but the users’ creative adaptations that turned it into a viral phenomenon. Participatory culture, characterized by low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, played a pivotal role in Harris’s connection to young voters. Memes thrive when users feel a sense of contribution, and the coconut tree meme became a space where young people collaborated to reshape Harris’s image in ways that fit their humor. The meme served as both a cultural artifact and a campaign asset, bridging the gap between Harris and young voters by encouraging interaction in a medium they understood and enjoyed. As Shifman notes, “the strength of memes lies in their ability to democratize the production of cultural artifacts” (Shifman, 2014, p. 47). The coconut tree meme exemplifies this power, allowing ordinary people to contribute to a collective portrayal of Harris that felt authentic and relatable.
The coconut tree meme also demonstrates Susan Sontag’s concept of camp, which illuminates its cultural dynamics. In Notes on Camp, Sontag describes camp as thriving on irony, exaggeration, and humor (Sontag, 1964, p. 56). The meme’s absurdity and over-the-top premise perfectly align with this definition, making Harris a lighthearted figure for young audiences. Camp operates on a delicate balance between sincerity and irony, and Sontag differentiates between “naive camp,” where humor is unintentional, and “deliberate camp,” which is self-aware and calculated (Sontag, 1964, p. 59). Initially, the meme thrived as naïve camp—a grassroots joke that felt spontaneous. However, when Harris’s campaign co-opted the meme, it shifted toward deliberate camp, introducing a more calculated humor, as her campaign tried to capitalize on the new attention from younger voters
While this move risked alienating some who valued the meme’s organic origins, it also demonstrated the campaign’s willingness to engage with youth culture. A recent Time article highlighted how the meme fostered genuine political engagement among young voters, suggesting that this strategic repurposing made Harris appear more relatable (Time Staff, 2024). By embracing the humor, the campaign created a cultural moment where irony intersected with activism, encouraging young people to see Harris as someone who understood their world. This deliberate engagement added another layer of meaning to the meme, transforming it from a purely humorous artifact into a tool for political branding.
Ultimately, the Kamala Harris coconut tree meme illustrates how representation, participatory culture, and camp intersect to influence public perceptions in the digital era of campaigning. Through Hall’s insights on representation, the meme reconstructed Harris’s image, making her more approachable. Shifman’s participatory culture emphasized the collective creativity that amplified her appeal, while Sontag’s analysis of camp highlighted both the humor and the challenges of navigating irony in political contexts. While the campaign’s deliberate embrace of the meme risked diminishing its campy charm, its impact as a tool for engagement cannot be denied. Memes like the coconut tree meme remind us that in today’s intersection of politics and popular culture, there are powerful opportunities to connect with younger generations. By blending humor, irony, and creativity, digital discourse like the Kamala coconut meme have become central to modern political engagement. Far from being trivial, they reflect the evolving relationship between representation and participation in shaping the public image of political figures.
References
Hall, S. (1997). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. Sage Publications.
Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. NYU Press.
Shifman, L. (2014). Memes in digital culture. MIT Press.
Sontag, S. (1964). Notes on camp. In S. Sontag, Against interpretation and other essays (pp. 275–292). Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Time Staff. (2024, November 8). How Kamala Harris is using memes to connect with young voters. Time. Retrieved from https://time.com/7017076/kamala-harris-memes-social-media-young-voters/
Your op-ed was carefully constructed to highlight the impact that social media played in shaping Kamala Harris’s image and message. Specifically, your introduction and explanation of how the “coconut tree” meme engaged young voters by encouraging interaction in a medium they follow were insightful and well-articulated. Your blog demonstrates how representation and participatory culture work to shape public narratives, giving greater meaning to the meme in the political arena and enabling greater analysis of similar trends in pop culture.
ReplyDeleteTheodor Adorno might consider the coconut tree meme a symbol of “culture industry” commodification, turning it into a product that could be bought and sold. While this meme energized a new audience, Adorno would argue that it also might have jeopardized political engagement by turning it into superficial entertainment, overshadowing substantive discourse. In contrast, John Storey’s framework positions popular culture as a “site of identity exploration and subversion.” The coconut tree meme, through its use of camp, makes Harris both relatable and symbolically powerful. This aligns with Storey’s concept of "subversive pleasure," where cultural artifacts challenge traditional norms and offer moments of resistance, reframing Harris in a way that resonates deeply with young voters.
Your opinion piece was perceptive and thoroughly researched. It helped me better grasp how social media affects political identity.
By Nicholas Guachione