Kocoum Reaction GIFs

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About

Kocoum Reaction GIFs refers to a series of reaction images based on a scene featuring the titular supporting character from the 1995 Disney animated film Pocahontas wherein Kocoum is shown running and screaming in dismay upon seeing his bride-to-be Pocahontas and John Smith kissing in a forest. Similar to other well-known reaction GIF memes, these images are often featured in My Reaction When style posts, especially on the image-sharing community Imgur.

Origin

Disney's 33rd animated feature film Pocahontas was released June 23rd, 1995. In one of the climactic scenes, Pocahontas, the main character and the princess of the Powhatan tribe, kisses John Smith, the 16th-century English explorer captured by her people, in a forest. Upon seeing the two kiss, Kocoum, the tribe's second-in-command warrior that Pocahontas was supposed to be marrying, hurls himself into John Smith while letting out a battle scream in a jealous rage.^[1] Reddit user ajaxknight remade the scene in a high quality GIF on February 1st, 2014.^[2]

Spread

The GIF has been in use for My Reaction When style posts since at least June 8th, 2015, when it was posted in the /r/reactiongifs subreddit by user BigJ76, where it received 4,580 points (95% upvoted).^[4] Then, according to the Imgur blog, the evolution of the popularity of the image began to rise even further on June 25th, 2015, when user ruinedeye posted the above high quality GIF to Imgur with the caption, "MRW I remember that I hate the smell of leaves". The post received 1,129,665 views, over 9,000 points and 195 comments in four days. That day, user ShagPurple reversed the GIF, and posted it with the caption "MRW I remember I love the smell of leaves", which received over 933,00 views, over 10,000 points, and 112 comments in four days.^[5] The reaction GIFs have also spread into wide use on Tumblr.^[6]

On June 28th 2015, College Humor's sister site Dorkly published an article highlighting several instances of the meme^[7]. This was also done on Buzzfeed the following day^[8].