Sprouting up over the summer, the Harambe meme tells the story of the gorilla that just won’t die.

On May 28th, 2016, the death of Harambe, the western lowland gorilla, shook the nation. After a nine-year-old boy fell into the Cincinnati Zoo’s gorilla enclosure, the now national icon that was Harambe the Gorilla fell, slain in what many claim was, cold blood.

Harambe was shot by a zookeeper after he posed a danger to the child that fell into his enclosure. If he was tranquilized, he would have fallen on top of the boy and crushed him while he drowned in the moat. Therefore, the difficult decision to shoot the creature was made. Once the news of the ape’s death flooded the media, memes did not take long to sprout up.

The “Harambe Meme” was a cultural phenomenon inspired by the death of the gorilla that many students at Biddeford High School related to, students such as senior Matt Perkins, one of the writers of a song inspired by the slain ape.

“One day I was driving down the road, about to fall asleep, when suddenly, a thought just sprung into my mind,” said Perkins. “Everyone talks about [the Harambe meme], but nobody has written a song about it.”

Fellow writer, senior Josh Kalinowski explains that Perkins’ song was a parody of the song “School’s Out” by Alice Cooper featuring the popular Harambe meme.

“In my mind, on the way to Brendan’s house, I wrote the chorus to the song highlighting the  [Harambe] meme,” said Perkins. “With the help of Brendan and Josh, we finished it, and basically, it’s the best song ever.”

However, despite wanting to create a song based on the meme, one of the performers of the song, junior Brendan McBrine, doesn’t agree with the cause of the meme itself.

“I personally do not think that the killing of Harambe was justified,” said McBrine. “But at the same time, it is a meme, it is specifically created for humor and therefore isn’t a reflection of the event, but instead just a funny image to look at.”

To McBrine, the purpose of the song itself was to gain popularity, especially after how big of a hit the meme itself had become.

“The joke portion of the Harambe meme really is what made us want to write the song,” said McBrine. “The situation itself really had nothing to do with it. We wanted something catchy, funny, and would hopefully go viral.”

Perkins agrees, knowing that the popularity of the Harambe meme is fleeting and wanting his five minutes of fame.

“Memes come and go as they please,” said Perkins. “Nobody will remember Harambe at the time where the next giant meme rolls around. I don’t remember what the last one was and that doesn’t really matter. There will always be one big meme, and this happens to be the one.”

However, despite Perkins believing that Harambe is just the current “big meme,” Kalinowski believes that the meme has an actual purpose.

Kalinowski continues, stating that the meme became a meme because of the relevance it has when concerning an actual event.

“All current events seem to be turned into memes at one point or another,” said Kalinowski. “I wouldn’t say that Harambe is any different. I think that people actually cared enough to turn an animal into a meme to spread more awareness about the death of an animal at the hands of ignorant people.”

McBrine, on the other hand, believes that there is no hidden meaning behind the meme, only giving people something to laugh about.

“The meme has gotten out of hand, as evidenced by our song,” said McBrine. “There really isn’t any hidden meaning to the meme, it’s just a joke that kind of blew up. Really, the only thing I’d say that it actually did was turn Harambe into a hero.”

McBrine believes that Harambe was just made because of the species that Harambe is.

“To me, the meme became a thing because Harambe was such a massive animal,” said McBrine. “For people to call him a ‘king’ or a ‘savior,’ it just feels natural because he is a gorilla. Along with that, he was killed, arguably, unjustly.”

Kalinowski also explains that the idea of Harambe has inspired a sense of unity as well as causing the other side to be the wrong side.

“From what I can gather, the person that killed Harambe is the enemy in a sense,” said Kalinowski. “If you say that someone ‘killed Harambe’ it’s basically saying that they are the lowest of the low and it’s you against them.”

Overall, the Harambe meme was just another popular meme that got its time in the limelight and will soon be disappearing according to McBrine.
“It just goes to show how much time we spend with access to the internet,” said McBrine. “Everyone has the time to run a meme page on Facebook or to post pictures to Instagram. It basically just gives us the time to make fun or have fun with anything, and Harambe is really no different.”