![]() On May 28, an unsupervised 4-year-old child determinedly climbed into the zoo’s gorilla enclosure and fell into the moat. On May 27, Harambe celebrated his 17th birthday in the Cincinnati Zoo. In case you missed it, here’s what happened to Harambe Cincinnati Zoo But like every great meme, this dead gorilla combines several traits of internet culture - including the best and the worst of us. It’s easy to boggle at the popularity and persistence of the Harambe meme. In 2014, we were all pouring ice buckets on ourselves last year, we were arguing over a dress this year, we’re (irreverently) mourning Harambe. Harambe has been declared the "meme of the summer," and it’s hard to disagree with that assessment. He’s been spotted on T-shirts and at the Republican National Convention, and at QuakeCon, a popular gaming convention, this shrine for Harambe quickly filled up with irreverent tributes to our dead ape cousin. Online petitions have abounded 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 - the Cincinnati Zoo was Harambe’s home until his untimely demise - to "Harambe City." A Texas-based presidential poll indicated Harambe getting 2 percent of the popular vote (with last year’s meme, Deez Nuts, one point ahead). On Reddit, forums memorializing him, like r/Harambe and r/dicksoutforharambe, have gained thousands of readers since Harambe’s death. The "Harambe" meme takes myriad forms, including popular sub-memes like over-the-top parody memorials and the popular viral slogan "dicks out for Harambe." It has also been decried for its racist undercurrent, despite the fact that black communities played a part in creating the meme and popularizing its initial spread on social media. ![]() In his afterlife, he has become a superhero, a mega-meme, the internet’s gorilla. Since he was tragically killed on May 28, Harambe the gorilla has transcended his lowly origins as some random zoo gorilla.
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