#132: Brat Summer
A vibe shift to playful insanity
Hello,
this is another quick newsletter before i head off to do nothing aka holidays. I did not intend to write about Charli xcx even though i have been stanning her since Boys played on the radio in the summer of 2017 with this sample from the Nintendo video game Super Mario Bros. But now Charli is endorsing Kamala. Nobody talks about the assassination attempt any longer and the last 2,5 days have been all about the possibility that we are not completely doomed. Many are feeling re-energized and coconut-pilled just now (Kalhan Rosenblatt). But that might not last. You are reading Understanding TikTok. Today we talk about:
🌴 Kamala Harris, the Coconut tree, Femininomenon and else
Bizarre and unpredictable times
On July 21, 2024 Joe Biden the president of the United States of America withdrew his re-election candidacy and endorsed Vice president Kamala Harris as his successor. Instantaneously video edits of Harris like these spread on TikTok and elsewhere in a pop craveification of breaking news (Taylor Lorenz).
Everything that has happened in the 48 hours afterwards indicates that we are witnessing a serious new stage of memefied political communication based on popculture references and remixes, platform dynamics and storytelling specifics like stan edits, mixed and accelerated in “playful insanity” (Kelsey Weekman). All this asks for a team of political campaigners understanding and carefully navigating all the madness for as long as the unexpected turbulence is lasting and of course even longer.
It feels “all entirely organic, forged from the fires of a truly bizarre and unpredictable time, and the feeling that a little chaos might be exactly what American politics needs.” (Rebecca Jennings)
TikTok Edits and Meme Database
If you want to learn more about The power of TikTok Edits Jules Terpak’s talk is the best starting point to understand videos like these. If you want to unwrap layers of meaning and get yourself into memes “the lingua franca of the internet (Idil Galip)” you can start with the Know Your Meme Database and articles like “Kamala IS Brat”. Brat references the current Charli xcx album, not sure where to start here. Maybe just listen to it. It is very good. And sure, learn everything about the Coconut tree or Femininomenon and else.
Is all of that enough to win the presidential election?
Well. Who knows?! There are still more than 100 days to go and we very recently already went through a series of extremely unpredictable events: poor debate performance, an assassination attempt, and a historic dropout.
Alex Cohen over at Techcrunch points to an interesting aspect of the endorsement and the hype. “It’s ambiguity as a political expression,” he said. “It’s impossible to discern genuine versus ironic support, and so the ambiguity itself becomes this form of expression, and in this case, I think it’s dealing with some of that pent up frustration and doomed feelings around Biden… The line between sincerity and trolling, critique and complicity and all that stuff is, on purpose, blurred.” Not sure how and if that will untangle.
Will the hype last?
Hypes as all normally do not last. Look at your Adidas Sambas, the man in finance or Taylor Swift (lol, will she endorse too?). While Charli’s team has done an amazing job so far (a lesson in hype literacy) to keep people intrigued by ever new bits and pieces to promote the album and generally celebrate mainstream success at last it is now up to Kamala HQ, certain parts of the internet and history/fate/coincidence/whatever to come up with noteworthy twists and turns.
You want more proof of evidence? Here is a quick timeline.
Brat summer might be over now (12:11 AM · Jul 24, 2024)
This TikTok has 2.4M views and 450k likes (7:45 PM · Jul 23, 2024)
This has a million likes on TikTok (4:48 PM · Jul 23, 2024)
Ok enough now we've peaked (3:57 PM · Jul 23, 2024)
Oh my god (2:55 AM · Jul 23, 2024)
He doesn’t know what it takes to be (1:03 AM · Jul 23, 2024)
Kamala Edits of the day (11:46 PM · Jul 22, 2024)
I've never seen anything like this (a thread) (4:03 PM · Jul 22, 2024)
Kamala Harris TikTok Edits (10:39 PM · Jul 21, 2024)
why did I stay up till 3am making a von dutch brat coconut tree edit (4:36 PM · Jul 3, 2024)
Have a great summer. Speak soon. Happy if you point me to your favourite Kamala meme. Ciao 🥥
Update July 31:
Jules Terpak as usual does a great job of breaking it down. Recommended 32 minutes.