CBS’s After Midnight is a show that prides itself on being the late night program for the younger, TikTok-watching, meme loving audience. So, naturally, host Taylor Tomlinson went all in on Tuesday with praise for Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign’s decision to “embrace the memes.”
After ridiculing middle-aged media personalities trying to explain Gen Z slang, Tomlinson declared that “It's not a bad idea for the Harris campaign to embrace the memes. That's how we understand the world and memes. I think when we go into the voting booth, this is what we should see. Right? Not me exercising my civil rights! Slay! Meming and internet culture is great for so many reasons.”
As she was talking, pictures of Harris’s famous “We did it, Joe” video after their 2020 win and Donald Trump looking at the sun during an eclipse were displayed on screen.
Moving on to Charli xcx and Brat, Tomlinson continued:
TOMLINSON: One of the most viral songs, "Apple," from the Brat album has a deeper meaning.
NICKY REARDON [TIKTOKER]: To be talking about generational trauma in this way and a little TikTokdance like this. People are doing to you is so fascinating to me. Like what other artist is making you do a stupid TikTok dance to generational trauma? I can't name one. Like, that to me is her superpower as an artist.
After the clip, Tomlinson hailed the embrace of internet culture as a stroke of genius:
Yeah, exactly. Having fun makes difficult topics easier to broach. Memes get young people more politically engaged. I had no idea what elections were before TiktTok. How did 20-year-olds decide between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan without seeing them both do a little dance? Facts are facts! Kamala is brat. And nobody is calling Donald Trump brat. Except maybe every nanny he's ever had. I think this is a great moment for the Harris campaign, tons of politicians don't properly embrace internet culture, not naming any names, but now I think it’s time to Pokémon go start the show.
Unfortunately for Tomlinson, while the whole Brat thing may be considered a meme in the original, Richard Dawkins sense of the word, so can the fact that she is a strange person. In the more recent sense of the word, where a meme references a humorous image to make an argument or observation about something, Harris is still tied to the Biden record, and those memes are plentiful.
Especially pertinent as we shop for holiday groceries. pic.twitter.com/qZl8T0Al6P
— MRC NewsBusters (@newsbusters) November 21, 2023
Here is a transcript for the July 23 show:
CBS After Midnight
7/24/2024
12:41 AM ET
TAYLOR TOMLINSON: It's not a bad idea for the Harris campaign to embrace the memes. That's how we understand the world and memes. I think when we go into the voting booth, this is what we should see. Right? Not me exercising my civil rights! Slay! Meming and internet culture is great for so many reasons. One of the most viral songs, "Apple," from the Brat album has a deeper meaning.
NICKY REARDON [TIKTOKER]: To be talking about generational trauma in this way and a little TikTok dance like this. People are doing to you is so fascinating to me. Like what other artist is making you do a stupid TikTok dance to generational trauma? I can't name one. Like, that to me is her superpower as an artist.
TOMLINSON: Yeah, exactly. Having fun makes difficult topics easier to broach. Memes get young people more politically engaged. I had no idea what elections were before TiktTok. How did 20-year-olds decide between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan without seeing them both do a little dance? Facts are facts! Kamala is brat. And nobody is calling Donald Trump brat. Except maybe every nanny he's ever had. I think this is a great moment for the Harris campaign, tons of politicians don't properly embrace internet culture, not naming any names, but now I think it’s time to Pokémon go start the show.
