The Funny Side of Politics
Solen Feyissa, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Trending political memes of the 2024 presidential election are stirring up a storm.
The presidential election of 2024 witnessed the rise of political memes on social media and many discussions emerged from this hilarious content.
Amidst the candidates’ campaign events, TikTok came into play. Social media has increasingly become a major part of political campaigns in the last few years, considering how these platforms have become so important in the daily lives of so many. However, this year’s election had a unique aspect: the popularity of the candidates’ memes.
Memes stemming from random moments of the candidates were being widely circulated on the internet, contributing to their digital presence and closing the gap to younger voters.
"All of these [political] memes are about driving a message, changing the conversation and getting ahead of the other side," executive vice president and head of paid digital at SKDK Maxwell Nunes explained to Axios.
One of the most notable examples was Kamala Harris’s coconut meme, which originated from a 2023 White House ceremony.
“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 recalled her mother’s words. “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
Internet users quickly turned the famous quote into various images and songs, adding to the success of the coconut tree memes.
“I can’t believe life is real,” TikTok user @sarahdadyy expressed in the comment section under a post about the song version of the coconut meme, which reached 6 million views on TikTok.
The coconut tree memes, combined with “Kamala is brat” and countless others have been pushing Kamala Harris and the new population of voters together.
Harris’s opponent did not fall short of the competition. Despite being unpopular among younger voters, Donald Trump still shared the spotlight as his every move attracted a fair amount of attention.
“He [Joe Biden] challenged me to a golf match,” Trump noted during the presidential debate back in June. “He can’t even hit a ball 50 yards.”
Many people sarcastically showed their displeasure under the comment section of NBC’s official TikTok post.
“The fact they were fighting over who was better at golf in a presidential debate says enough,” TikTok user @nadeeeeyaaaa said.
Another key figure in the presidential election, Biden also had a few memes to his name. His past presidential term was not an easy one. Slips of the tongue and clumsy actions did nothing to relieve the worry about his age. Adding on to that, the end of his term was very controversial revolving around the Israel-Palestine war. Calls for his withdrawal from the run for the office were made, and Biden officially withdrew on July 21. But Biden managed to leave a comical final image during the June debate with Trump.
While these TikTok posts brought a light-hearted breath into the political stage, many have pointed out that the underlying cause of the senseless fun was desperation.
“[It’s] sad that there is no alternative to Biden or Trump,” a TikTok user commented on a video mimicking the debate.