Viral baby hippo Moo Deng needs to be a Pokemon according to players

In case you hadn’t noticed, Thailand’s adorable baby pygmy hippo – called Moo-Deng – is currently taking the internet by storm, with almost every image and clip of the adorable creature going viral on every platform.

The tiny hippo is being lauded as adorable by just about everyone, and with so much popularity, comes a lot of memes and fan art. Unsurprisingly, it hasn’t taken long for fans to imagine the hippo as a Pokemon, and the results are amazing.

While there is plenty of Moo-Deng art out in the world, the account @MooDengSOL on X shared a quick mock-up of Moo-Deng by Ash Ketchum’s side, getting ready for combat with the comment “She’s doing her BEST.” At the time of writing, the viral post has over 120,000 likes.

Pokemon fans praised the artwork in the comments and also threw even more compliments at Moo-Deng. One comment reads, “She IS the very best, the best there ever was.” Another comment adds, “She gotta be a legendary next region.”

But it goes even further, as other Pokemon fans have taken the artwork and ran with it, even coming up with full move set ideas for Moo-Deng.

X user and Ru Paul’s Drag Race contestant @XunamiMuse quoted the artwork, commenting, “If Moo Deng was a Pokemon: Ground/Water [type]. Ability: Gluttony.”

Then for moves, they suggested, “Stomping Tantrum, Slack Off, Crunch, [and] Muddy Water.”

Moo-deng, Pokemon, and Drag Race fans united in the comments beneath Xunami’s post, supporting the idea and throwing in even more of their own.

One comment suggests, “Sap Sipper as a Hidden Ability would be slayyyy” before Xunami replied, “I literally thought about that!!!”

Another comment posits the idea, “maybe fake tears as well” to which Xunami also replied, “Omg that was the 5th move!”

Finally, some are asking the most important question, with one person commenting, “Is Moo Deng a single stage Pokemon or will it evolve into a bigger Hippowdon-like Pokemon?”

It looks like pretty much everyone agrees on this one, as Xunami replies, “I don’t want her to evolve” while others add “I feel the same way” and “She’s mythical.”

While Moo-Deng isn’t likely to be in Scarlet & Violet any time soon, you can catch some cute Pocket Monsters all for yourself (maybe catch a Hippopotas and call it Moo-Deng) with the latest Pokemon Go events like Galarian Expedition, Community Day, and the weekly Spotlight Hour.