In what might be the truest sign of our times, the next president of the United States could be decided by the surging popularity of a viral sound on TikTok.
In case you’ve missed it, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has been enjoying a wave of approval following Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race, both in political circles and in pop culture..
Alongside endorsements from high-profile Democrats like Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi, Harris has received backing from the celebrity world, with the likes of Barbra Streisand, Beyonce, and Charli XCX each showing their support for the former legal eagle.
Naturally, this Kamala-mania has spilled over onto social media, where Harris has become the subject of countless memes and viral sounds, thanks in small part to musicians like Kesha.
The lore behind Harris’ current virality is surprisingly rich, so strap in and hold on to your coconuts (that’ll make sense later), because we’re unpacking the viral Kesha/Kamala Harris TikTok edit?
The Kamala Harris TikTok edit, explained.
Most of the Kamala Harris memes and edits currently circulating on TikTok use a soundbite of Harris’ that dates back to May, 2023. At that time, Harris was giving remarks at a swearing-in ceremony at the White House, during which she uttered the words that will now live in the TikTok Hall of Fame.
“You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”, Harris said to the crowd before letting out her famous giggle, “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
While the reason behind the popularity of this particular quote remains unknown — it might boil down to the changing tone of Harris’ voice, her infectious laugh, or the seeming nonsensicality of the quote itself — it nonetheless took off on TikTok, and it wasn’t long before it had morphed into all kinds of memes and sound edits.
Given TikTok’s penchant for musicality, Harris’ soundbite quickly found itself remixed into various popular songs. Users interspersed snippets of the quote into lyrics of songs by the likes of Charli XCX, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, and perhaps most popularly, Kesha. One of the latter artist’s biggest hits, “Blow”, begins with a laugh, so it stands to reason that it was edited to include Harris’ giggle before introducing Kesha’s own lyrics from the 2010 song.
So infectious was the edit that it caught the attention of Kesha herself, who used the sound in two TikTok videos that have since amassed close to a million likes collectively.
A musician perhaps even more integral to Harris’ current online popularity, however, is Charli XCX, whose comments have led to a rebrand of Harris’ campaign and serve as an offshoot of the “coconut tree” trend. On July 22, XCX shared a post declaring that “Kamala IS brat”, in reference to the musician’s recent studio album, brat.
That record itself has proven extremely viral, with the lime green album cover overrunning social media and becoming something akin to last year’s Barbie-driven pink explosion. In response to XCX’s tweet, the Harris campaign’s official X account promptly followed the singer on X, and went on to change its cover photo to the same lime green that featured on the brat cover.
Then, in reference to the “coconut tree”, the Harris campaign updated its X bio to read: “Providing context”, a callback to Harris’ soundbite about “existing in the context.” To become the subject of a viral TikTok edit is one thing, but the Harris campaign appears to be seizing the fanfare and leaning directly into her popularity among celebrities and netizens.
Of course, people are already warning Harris not to overdo the “coconut tree” meme, to save it from becoming tiresome or cringe-inducing. Save for the few edits to her campaign’s social media pages, Harris has yet to publicly comment on the meme, and users think she should either pretend it doesn’t exist, or make only sparing references to it going forward.
So, what began as a nonsensical clip of a politician tossing some word salad has since become the subject of a viral TikTok edit, and more broadly, evidence of Gen Z’s influence in directing the political discourse online. For now, this writer is content going about his day, safe in the knowledge that he exists in the context of all of which he lives and what came before him.