Harambe
“Gone in 2016, immortal ever since.”
This article is about the internet meme. For the original Solana memecoin, see Harambe on Solana ($HARAMBE).
Harambe was a 17-year-old western lowland gorilla shot and killed by staff at the Cincinnati Zoo on May 28, 2016, after a three-year-old boy fell into his enclosure. The killing sparked international controversy and, within weeks, an enormous wave of internet memes, most infamously the ironic mock-mourning slogan 'dicks out for Harambe', that turned the gorilla into one of the defining memes of 2016.
Origin
Harambe was born May 27, 1999 and lived at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden in Ohio. On May 28, 2016, a three-year-old boy climbed/fell into the Gorilla World enclosure, where Harambe grabbed and dragged him through the moat water. Fearing for the child's life, a zoo response team shot and killed Harambe with a rifle; the boy's injuries were non-life-threatening. Bystander video of the incident spread rapidly, fueling international news coverage.
Spread
Online mourning quickly curdled into absurdist, ironic humor. The R-rated rallying cry 'dicks out for Harambe' went viral in mid-2016, popularized by comedian Brandon Wardell on the video app Vine, and became shorthand for exaggerated, insincere internet grief. Spinoff jokes proliferated, including 'Bush did Harambe' and write-in 'votes' for Harambe in the 2016 U.S. presidential race.
Legacy
Harambe became one of the most recognizable memes of the 2010s and a touchstone for ironic, post-sincere internet humor. Tributes continued for years: musicians including Young Thug and Excision released tracks titled 'Harambe,' Elon Musk posted a rap tribute on SoundCloud in 2019, and a roughly 7-foot bronze Harambe statue was installed in New York City in 2021. The name was later reused for cryptocurrency tokens during meme-coin waves.
The Chain Trail
The OG token for this meme is Harambe on Solana ($HARAMBE) on Solana, launched 2024-01.
Key facts
- Harambe was a western lowland gorilla, born May 27, 1999 and killed May 28, 2016 (age 17).
- He lived at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden in Ohio.
- A three-year-old boy entered his enclosure; zoo staff shot Harambe to protect the child, who survived.
- The incident drew international coverage and controversy over the use of lethal force.
- The viral phrase 'dicks out for Harambe' was popularized by comedian Brandon Wardell on Vine.
- Harambe became a write-in 'candidate' joke in the 2016 U.S. election.
- Tributes included songs, an Elon Musk SoundCloud rap (2019), and a NYC bronze statue (2021).
- The Harambe name was later attached to memecoins in subsequent crypto cycles.
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The tokens that claim Harambe
Every token we can tie to this meme, and which contract appeared first. The original is marked OG; the rest arrived to ride the name.
| # | Coin | Price | 24h | Market Cap | Liquidity | Launched |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Harambe on Solana $HARAMBE | $0.000328 | +1.44% | $327.14K | $166.48K | Jan 1, 2024 |
Combined live market cap for Harambe: $327.14K across 1 coin. Market data is live from DexScreener; figures are not investment advice.
The on-chain receipts for $HARAMBE (the OG contract), pulled straight from the chain.
On-chain report
via helius · updated 23h agoHeld by the top 10 wallets.
- 1. 5Q54…e4j125.42%
- 2. Fe7S…FA8s2.68%
- 3. FGMn…hwTm2.11%
- 4. 6Qq2…DU5H2.06%
- 5. G6p8…yarK1.81%
- 6. 3cru…9XUD1.76%
- 7. Ed1g…UgBJ1.74%
- 8. YnMw…K9GV1.43%
- 9. CeYT…YHBr1.13%
- 10. Ao2C…KdE11.02%
- Top 10 wallets hold 41.2% of supply — moderately concentrated.
- Deployment predates the scanned history — earliest date is a lower bound.
Facts pulled directly from the chain via Solscan-grade data. Not financial advice.
The deep investigation. Deployer and wallet maps, contract migrations, bundles, supply concentration, and every project that falsely claimed to be first, with archived sources and a full chronological record.
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