Things have taken an unexpected, morbid (albeit slightly humorous) turn of events since the Cincinnati Zoo's decision to put down Harambe the gorilla after a toddler fell into the exhibit in May. When the media first sunk its teeth into the story, the public seemed most concerned with the well-being of the child, the irresponsibility of his parents, and the injustice of killing an endangered animal. Now the incident has snowballed into something much bigger than a news story, something much more viral: a meme.
As disturbing as it may seem, the death of Harambe has taken the Internet by storm as a source of comedic relief. According to one site, the first known usage of the primate in a meme was by Weird Twitter on May 31; three days after the fatal event.
Since then, it's been nearly impossible to miss out on the meme action, whether you're online, walking around a college campus, or looking up poll results in Texas, where he's polling at 2%. He's even tied with the Green Party's presidential nominee Jill Stein.
Has the Internet taken things too far? In response to obscene amounts of crude Harambe-related spam, the Cincinnati Zoo recently shut down its Twitter account on August 22. Although many have taken a serious call to action trying to secure justice for the death of an endangered animal, it is obvious that most are just out to advance the humor people have made of the situation.
Is it all a bunch of harmless humor that'll pass in a few months? Or is it a tasteless way to make light of a horrible occasion on which a young boy was in danger and the tough decision to kill an animal was made? What do you think?