The entirety of the internet agrees on one thing: Moo Deng is the moment

The myth. The legend. The icon. The gift. Moo Deng.

On Monday, my Twitter / X timeline started getting flooded with blurry pictures of a baby hippo looking very upset about being bothered. Whether she was being picked up or being sprayed with water, there was action in the blurriness—it communicated the baby’s vehement discontent at the interruption better than a focused picture ever could.

The baby hippo has a name: Moo Deng, a name that was chosen via a public poll and translates from Thai as “bouncy pork.” She’s two-month-old baby pygmy hippopotamus, and she lives at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi Province, Thailand. Within days, she was all over everyone’s timelines—and deep within our hearts.

Moo Deng, the sensation

It didn’t take long before my timeline was flooded with fan art of the baby hippo, initially largely captioned in Thai, Japanese, or Korean. One of the posts captured what was going on perfectly. “I don’t know why this baby hippo is all over my timeline. So I drew her,” user @yajima_en wrote in Japanese.

Attempting to pin down exactly why Moo Deng wordlessly and effortlessly took over the internet is hard to say. The pictures and videos are objectively incredible—not only is she adorable, but her attitude in her protestations feels singular. As so many of us are stuck at our computers, perhaps idly scrolling through social media and seeing a creature whose entire being is screaming “NO” provided some relief. It’s funny as hell, but part of you is also like, “Hell yeah, Moo Deng.”

She is also just so rolly-polly and good. And it’s not too often you get baby hippos coming down your timeline. Moo Deng feels novel.

I’ve never experienced anything quite like the sudden, quiet flood of Moo Deng onto my timeline. It was as if the internet, all across the world, wordlessly agreed that Moo Deng was it. As if we’d found something so universally excellent, we didn’t need to say anything about it for five whole days. Articles—from major outlets like The Guardian and Time Magazine—started proliferating Thursday night and Friday morning. But Moo Deng has been the prominent feature of my feed since Monday.

Moo Deng did not need words or clickbait. The zoo is absolutely capitalizing on Moo Deng’s newfound popularity on TikTok and Instagram, but her rise to fame was completely organic. Capitalist entities, like Sephora, are also seeking to jump on Moo Deng’s popularity, offering advice on how to make your makeup to become Moo Deng.

But Moo Deng doesn’t need Sephora’s help. Moo Deng is transcendent.

So thank you, Moo Deng, for providing some much-needed joy and levity this week, and hopefully in the weeks to come. May you continue to shine bright.