2024-07-23 09:50:02
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.
Why did it become a meme?
“You think you fell out of a coconut tree?” is a bit of an earworm, yes, but the phrase likely caught on for other reasons too. First, there’s its funny juxtaposition with the rather more philosophical “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you,” which could be an aphorism from the Enlightenment. Then, there’s the way the line underscores Harris’s skills as a rhetorician—which, after Biden’s lackluster debate performance, began to seem especially noteworthy.
