What I Learned From Moo Deng’s Cute-to-Frightening Cycle

I posted my first Moo Deng meme via Instagram at 10:15 PM on September 3rd, before the Thai baby pygmy. hippo It took the world by storm (i.e. I am better and more worldly than you).

It started innocently, with reposts of Khao Kheow Open Zoo X accountbut it quickly escalated until my coworkers started tweeting about how I had made a beef brisket out of the poor thing. How Moo Deng — which means “jumping pig” in Thai — went from cute to edible is beyond my pay grade, but perhaps “cuteness aggressiveness“, means that my desire to eat the hippo is motivated by love and not by malice (or hunger). However, Khao Kheow Open Zoo is no longer anxious About Moo Deng’s safety, limiting visiting hours to weekends. So maybe the calls to eat Moo Deng are actually malicious.

The point is that I sent this to the person I love out of love, and now Moo Deng has gone through the spiraling stages of internet fame. This pattern also applies to Brat summer, which began with green memes circulating among Charli XCX’s queer fanbase and ended with: NATO writes “peace” in Brat green and adopting Kamala Harris’ campaign color scheme as her own. Once a fairly insignificant hippo, Moo Deng has become the face of Pop-Tarts and Sephora Thailand, as well as appearing in a number of influencer tutorial networks. Social media marketing is catching the cultural pulse more than ever before, accelerating the timeline between cool and corporate.

Here’s my report on how Moo Deng went from sleepy and cute (you could even say “gross”) to shamelessly loud and the perfect main course for your next neighborhood barbecue.

September 3: This is the first Moo Deng meme I ever posted, which set the stage for many wasted hours of my early 20s in terms of algorithms. But as you can see, I started with pure intentions.

September 11: Moo Deng is getting a Sephora ad, and the part of me that wished I was discovered at a mall as a kid is going crazy. This post is perhaps the best summary of the peak of the Moo Deng Cuteness Era, when beauty influencers were inducting the hippo into the digital celebrity canon.

Also September 11: Although Moo Deng’s greatest appeal at this stage of the game was his cuteness, his tendency to scream while thwarting zookeepers’ efforts to control his movements resonated with another zeitgeist phenomenon: female rage.

September 17: I would classify this Moo Deng cake tutorial as part of the Moo Deng Cuteness Period. However, this is where social media users start to notice comparisons between the hippo and edible products. Perhaps this post marks the point where Moo Deng’s popularity as a beauty icon could potentially translate into a food product.

September 18: This X (former Twitter) user’s mother thought Moo Deng resembled the sugary, spherical South Indian dessert ragi mudde, an easy mistake to make. But the results made her comparisons to the tasty treats even harder:

September 18: User X @Bigcontentguy issued the most extreme call to question Moo Deng I’ve ever seen. His threat mentions side dishes, “some steamed rice, maybe some okra and glazed carrots.” Welcome to edgelord hell.

September 19: Moo Deng’s flash tattoos have been appearing on Instagram and are doing quite well. One image in particular caught my attention: Moo Deng chewing on a severed human leg. To me, this design and its popularity signal that cultural attitudes towards Moo Deng are changing, perhaps to justify the hunger caused by a collective cuteness aggression:

September 19: This meme walks the fine line between the aforementioned celebration of female anger—innocent enough and even empowering—and the vilification of the chunky loaf. Angry, cute, delicious?

September 19: Feminism embraces Moo Deng.

September 20: Makeup artist Mei Pang continues to recreate the iconic look of the hungry hippo. As one commentator put it, “Moisturized and undisturbed, Moo Deng is the ULTIMATE BEAUTY queen.”

September 22: A photoshopped Moo Deng swallows a monkey whole, thus completing Moo Deng’s transformation from a cute, irritable hippo into a… monster?

And another one on its way…