 "Image of Shashi Tharoor smashing coconut on Onam sparks meme fest; MP shares his favourites")
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has always been immensely popular on social media. The politician is once again in the news, after pictures of him celebrating Onam started a series of memes. The MP had earlier tweeted pictures of him at the Elevanchery Bhagavathy Kshetram near his ancestral home. The images showed Tharoor clad in a yellow kurta and white mundu, holding a coconut to smash it. The post soon went viral. It did not take long for social media users to photoshop Tharoor’s picture into memes.
And then offered a “Niramala” at the Elevanchery Bhagavathy Kshetram a few minutes from my ancestral home (where I also smashed a ritual coconut & prayed to the Naga gods worshipped by all Nairs). #Onam blessings to all especially those suffering in these troubled times. pic.twitter.com/2rJuKVPEHl
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 21, 2021
The memes showed Tharoor in a variety of settings, ready to smash the coconut in his hand. The memes include the politician in a WWE match and on a cricket pitch. The Thiruvananthapuram MP joined in on the fun, even sharing some of the funniest memes he had encountered. Taking to social media over the viral images, the Congress MP said that “many of these memes going around using the picture of me ritually smashing a coconut. I don’t know who dreams them up". Admitting that the memes were often very funny, he also added some of his personal favourites to the post.
There are many of these memes going around using the pic of me ritually smashing a coconut. I don’t know who dreams them up by they are often very funny. This one is one of my favourites: pic.twitter.com/yGk0LWz1TR
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 25, 2021
Tharoor’s post about his favourite memes also went viral, receiving over 86,000 likes on Facebook. The post has been shared over 5,000 times to date.
Many praised Tharoor’s sense of humour and willingness to take a joke on himself. Users commented that Tharoor’s ability to joke about himself was a rarity in politicians. This is not the first time Tharoor has skyrocketed to social media fame in recent years. With over 8.1 million followers on Twitter and 1.4 million followers on Facebook, the MP often trends on the internet. Recently, he had poked fun at his own vocabulary, sharing the image of a Whatsapp post about a recipe for bhelpuri that was written in flowery, complicated language. The bottom of the picture said that the recipe was by Tharoor himself.
As received on @WhatsApp. Good for weekend consumption!😂 pic.twitter.com/2z5pYspZei
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 24, 2021
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