TikTok memes are transforming the way politics are conducted and understood

TikTok memes and viral trends are transforming the way citizens express their political opinions and build collective identities. This is shown by a study from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the University of Pennsylvania—recently published in the leading journal in the field, Political Communication—which analyses the “Kamala is Brat” phenomenon, which emerged during the 2024 US presidential campaign.

The study by researchers Laura Cervi, from the UAB Faculty of Communication Studies, and Sarah J. Jackson, from the University of Pennsylvania, examines how TikTok users employed memes, music, humour, and pop culture references to portray U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and express their identification with the candidate.

According to the research, users do not merely reproduce campaign messages but reinterpret them using the platform's own languages. Furthermore, it shows how the participatory practices surrounding memes contribute to the symbolic construction of electoral candidates within the contemporary digital media landscape.

Over 2,000 videos analysed

The researchers viewed over 2,500 public videos on TikTok published between 21 July and 5 November 2024, containing the hashtags #kamalaisbrat, #brat, #kamalaharris and #kamala.

The content appeared in diverse formats but shared a common characteristic: politics was integrated into the conventions of TikTok and digital culture. The identified memes included videos playing with the "Brat" song and aesthetic, adaptations of the "I’m so Kamala" formula, the well-known "coconut tree" reference, dance videos, and pop-culture-inspired audiovisual montages. One of the analysed videos reached 1.6 million views. The phenomenon demonstrates how a pop culture reference can rapidly become a resource for constructing political meaning.

"Memes operate as tools to represent political identity, critique and dissent", explains Laura Cervi, lecturer at the UAB and co-author of the study. This participatory dimension is central to the research, which argues that memes allow users to express identification and belonging without needing to explicitly articulate a political stance.

From pop culture to political communication

The "Kamala is Brat" phenomenon began after singer Charli XCX associated the vice-president with the aesthetic of her album Brat. The reference quickly spread on TikTok, where users combined images of Harris with the songs, colours and visual codes associated with that cultural universe. Subsequently, some of these elements were incorporated into the campaign's communications.

A particularly significant example is the "coconut tree"—a phrase previously uttered by Kamala Harris that was picked up by users, turned into a meme, and reinterpreted for humorous and political purposes. The same symbol (the coconut tree) could take on different meanings—ranging from humour to cultural identity—depending on the context in which it was reused.

"On TikTok, political meaning is generated through style, aesthetic identification, and user participation across multimedia formats", notes lecturer and researcher Laura Cervi.

Politics expressed through humour

In the analysed videos, Harris is portrayed through attributes such as relatability, fun or connection to popular culture. At the same time, some memes use comparison and satire to construct meanings about other political figures. The researchers highlight that this communication depends less on sharing a political programme than on participating in the same symbolic and emotional universe.

Memes can therefore act as forms of affective political participation, enabling the sharing of emotions, the creation of communities, and the attribution of new meanings to political figures. In this sense, political content does not necessarily appear separate from entertainment but is instead integrated into users' everyday cultural practices.

For the authors, the "Kamala is Brat" case demonstrates that understanding contemporary political communication requires looking at the spaces where citizens produce and share digital culture. On TikTok, memes, trends, and popular aesthetics can become mechanisms for interpreting candidates and participating in political conversation.

Original article: Laura Cervi and Sarah J. Jackson, Kamala is Brat: TikTok and the Affective Politics of Memes, Political Communication, published on 12 August 2026.