Harambe

On May 28, 2016, a three-year-old boy climbed into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo. Harambe, a 17-year-old Western lowland gorilla, approached the child. Zoo officials made the devastating decision to shoot Harambe to protect the boy. The internet would never be the same.

What began as genuine outrage and mourning evolved into something stranger, darker, and more beautiful. "Dicks out for Harambe" became a rallying cry—absurdist, irreverent, and impossible to explain to your parents. Harambe received write-in votes in the 2016 presidential election. Vigils were held. Songs were written.

Harambe transcended memedom to become a symbol of collective internet grief, a shared joke that meant everything and nothing simultaneously. He was our gorilla. We failed him.

The meme burned white-hot through the summer and fall of 2016, but by year's end, invoking Harambe marked you as behind the times. The internet had moved on, as it always does. But for one brief, glorious moment, we were all united in our absurd mourning for a gorilla most of us had never heard of before his death.

Dicks forever out. Rest in peace, sweet prince.