Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign has made headlines for raising record sums of money in a short span, but Puck News' Peter Hamby has taken note of another aspect of her campaign: Namely, the way it has organically inspired internet memes.
Influencers on the social media app TikTok who have regularly given President Joe Biden brutal reviews throughout his presidency have taken a much more positive tone toward Harris after she entered the race for the presidency last week.
"The outpouring of enthusiasm for Harris has led to a remarkable vibe shift on TikTok, where Old Man Biden was getting absolutely clobbered for most of the campaign," writes Hamby. "Over the past seven days, 80 percent of the top-performing TikTok content about Harris has been positive, compared to only 19 percent positive for top-performing content mentioning Trump."
The positive vibes for Harris have also been accompanied by negative vibes for Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), whom Trump picked as his vice presidential nominee and who immediately became the target of memes that baselessly accused him of having sex with couches.
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"The memes started percolating last week, depicting Vance thirsting after couches, recliners, modular sofas, throw pills, cushions, abandoned roadside furniture, all in pursuit of 'sectional healing,'" writes Hamby. "The trend got the kind of attention meme-makers only dream about."
While this may seem silly and trivial, Hamby notes that fan-generated propaganda has long been a major boon for Trump and his MAGA movement and has left Democrats at a disadvantage on social media.
"Distributed, homemade social media content has been one of the MAGAverse’s superpowers for almost a decade," adds Hamby. "'The left can’t meme,' became a source of pride and a rallying cry for Trump supporters online as Democrats like Hillary Clinton awkwardly told audiences to 'Pokemon Go to the Polls.' Suddenly, it’s the Democrats having fun on social media."
