Harambe the gorilla is dead, but he lives on forever in the internet

harambe memes

The slain gorilla has become the meme of 2016, and here’s how it’s got out of hand.

 

Lest We Forget. #RipHarambe

A photo posted by Eddie G. Pinson (@eddiegpinson) on

On May 28, 2016, a three-year-old boy climbed into a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden in Ohio, U.S. The fallen boy was grabbed and dragged by Harambe, a 17-year-old Western lowland gorilla. Fearing for the boy's life, a zoo worker shot and killed Harambe. The incident was recorded on video and received broad international coverage and commentary, including controversy over the choice to kill Harambe.

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In the three months since he was tragically killed, Harambe the gorilla has transcended his lowly origins as some random zoo gorilla. In his afterlife, he has become a superhero, a mega-meme, the internet’s gorilla.

Harambe has been declared the "Meme of the Year”, and it’s hard to disagree with that assessment. In 2014, we were all pouring ice buckets on ourselves; last year, we were arguing over a dress; this year, we’re (irreverently) mourning the death of Harambe. The gorilla could have died and been done with in like a week but none of the people in the internet know how to be normal.


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Currently there are online petitions to erect a White House statue of Harambe, make him a Pokémon, put his face on the $50 bill, and change the name of Cincinnati to "Harambe City." He’s been spotted on T-shirts, mugs, song parodies, and all over the internet.

The media has observed the Harambe phenomenon largely with bafflement. "The Internet won’t let Harambe rest in peace," opined the Washington Post in July. The New York magazine dismissed the entire phenomenon as "fairly standard internet non-sequitur nonsense humor.", but just like what pharmaceutical entrepreneur Martin Shkreli said above, there is more to the Harambe meme than nonsense.

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