America’s newest political pundit is… a pygmy hippo named Moo Deng. Hailing from the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand, it predicted the results of the 2024 U.S. election by eating a watermelon with Trump’s label. And wouldn’t you know it? The hippo nailed it.
The video quickly went viral, and people laughed at how accurately this hippo became the symbol of the election. People took to the comments section, with some users joking, “Moo Deng looks like most of my Trump-supporting friends.”
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Another user humorously noted, “Let’s blame this pig.”
A user noted, “Lmfao love how stan twt collectively went from loving to hating this pig.”
“The hippo was rigged”, joked another.
“Moo Deng the Oracle”, a user labelled it.
“Guess it's time to start trusting *anyone* with a crystal ball. Next, we'll have psychic cats predicting world events”, a user commented
Meanwhile, a user humorously asked, “So, he was behind the victory of Trump?”
Moo Deng’s prediction
On November 4, 2024, the day before the election, Khao Kheow Open Zoo treated its visitors to an event that was both charming and bizarre: Their most beloved animal, Moo Deng, the pygmy hippo at the zoo, was given two watermelons to eat. One had Trump’s name engraved on it, and the other had Harris on it.
People and caretakers of the zoo waited with anticipation as Moo Deng approached the fruit labeled Trump and started to feed on it, ignoring the Harris melon. Another hippo at the zoo may have had a preference for her melon, but an apple of Moo Deng’s eye became the subject of an internet spectacle.
The event was planned to be amusing and add a light-spirited undertone to a heavy political year after many others had animal oracles to predict game and political results.
It took only several hours for people to flood social media platforms, sharing many hilarious answers. Many compared Moo Deng’s prophecy to famous animal predictors in the past, namely Paul the Octopus, a renowned World Cup predictor in 2010. Other users suggested that some real-life political analysts should take over Moo Deng’s insight, while others enjoyed the sarcasm in a hippo deciding something as serious as the presidency.
A win-win for Moo Deng
It has also brought other material benefits to the home zoo in which Moo Deng was raised and brought to fame. After the videos appeared on the internet, visits skyrocketed. On weekdays, the number of visitors rose from 800 to more than 4,000, according to Fox 32 Chicago.
Who is Moo Deng?
Moo Deng is the young hippo who’s now Thailand’s newest social media darling and an unwitting political seer as of last week. This hippo was born on July 25 and rather quickly became the star of the @khamoo.andthegang Instagram account, which was originally created to share the story of the older hippo friend, Khamoo.
However, as soon as Moo Deng joined the industry, she attracted more attention than anyone else. The New York Times even stated that her name translates as “bouncy pork” in Thai.
Yammi Saracino, a Bangkok artist who grew close to Moo Deng, said that the zoo conducted a naming competition for her, and she could have been named “Moo Daeng” or “Moo Sap.” The people participated in the voting for their favorite name, which was known as “Moo Deng.” Later, the hippo became popular as a “lifestyle icon,” and users began sharing memes devoted to this animal. Today Show’s Hoda Kotb even joked that Moo Deng is “redefining beauty standards”.
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