Meme History: Moo Deng

Due to loss of habitat from logging, mining, hunting, and civil unrest, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists the Pygmy Hippopotamus as endangered, smack dab in the middle of their so-called “Red List”. There are probably fewer than 2,500 pygmy hippos left in the wild, so it was a big deal when on July 10th, 2024, this one was born in Khao Kheow Open Zoo outside of Bangkok, Thailand.

She’s the seventh baby from her parents, both members of the same zoo, and the internet’s first glimpse of her came via this post on Instagram on July 25th, when she was two weeks old.

The zoo held a vote letting the public decide her name. Options, in line with her sibling’s names—Moo Toon (“Stewed Pork”), and Moo Waan (“Sweet Pork”), included Moo Sap (“Minced Pork”), Moo Daeng (“Red Pork”), and Moo Deng (“Bouncy Pork”), which won…obviously.

In late August and early September, Moo Deng’s story took a turn from locally famous endangered cute animal to world-famous viral internet meme.

On August 26th, the Zoo’s X account posted an image of Moo-Deng being picked up by her caretaker, which received 4.6 million views and tens of thousands of likes and reposts in two weeks, and then on September 5th, also on X, an artist posted an illustration of the same photo, garnering even more views, and kickstarting a much larger trend of illustrations based on cute photos of the hippo.

A zookeeper with 2.7 million followers has been posting about her every few days, fueling all of the hype.

In case it’s not immediately clear, the reasons for Moo Deng’s popularity are twofold. 

First, because her apparent shock and horror seem to resonate with a lot of people who wish they could just bite and scream in moments of panic. Which in the face of this economy, this election year, the climate, you pick it, is a lot of the time. But second, because look at how insanely cute she is!

Basically overnight, social media exploded in adoration, photoshopping her into movie and television moments, creating cute GIFs, comparing her to gummy bears, and riffing on previous memes.

Thai Sephora even took the opportunity to plug some of their makeup in an Instagram post titled “Wear Your Blush Like a Baby Hippo.” Predictably, traffic to the zoo began to rise and more than tripled in early September, compared to the previous month.

Visitors were reportedly seen throwing seashells at her while she’s sleeping because they wanted to see her run around and play. Which is a problem because it’s mean generally, and but even more so when you remember that she’s a literal baby, and is reportedly only awake about two hours a day.

To help manage all of this the zoo has done several things: First, they’ve instituted a 5-minute viewing limit on weekends. Second, they put up signs at the hippo pit warning visitors not to throw things. Third, they’re setting up a store so that at least they’ll get some cash flow out of the hype, and fourth, they’re planning to open a 24/7 live camera feed so Moo Deng fans around the world can watch her any time they want.

Eventually, we all move on to the next cute animal of the day, but Moo Deng is showing no signs of yielding her spotlight any time soon. 

How could she, when our hearts are all melted this easily? One TikToker put it more succinctly than most of us ever could, “There is no one running the game like Moo Deng is right now.”

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