Meimi Hartman—you are a genius.

by Meg on June 28, 2006

Meimi, if you are not already a profesh photographer, you better get on it. Look at this shot, for crying out loud. A SMILING HIPPO!? For God’s sake, get thee to National Geographic.

Hippage

Hippos might win the ULTIMATE ear-to-head ratio, BTW.

{ 113 comments }

1 shanchan 06.28.06 at 8:26 pm

Wow! I didn’t even know hippos *could* smile! Great photo!

2 ceebs 06.28.06 at 8:27 pm

Hippo stubble!!

3 Theo 06.28.06 at 8:28 pm

YEEP.
That is NOT a muzzlepuff.

4 jenn 06.28.06 at 8:33 pm

It could be gas.

That is TEWTELLY a muzzlepuff. The definition is a floofy jowl. I believe there is definite floof…prickley but a floof nonetheless.

5 michelle 06.28.06 at 8:33 pm

I love it! Even with the chompy factor, LOVE IT!!!

6 sunnykat 06.28.06 at 8:35 pm

smiling hippo is cute but he needs a shave. i thought i was looking at an aquatic cactus!

7 zelda 06.28.06 at 8:36 pm

Awww, he looks so happy and content. KISSES!!
*smooch smooch!

8 Mina 06.28.06 at 8:37 pm

Thats what I was thinking…hippo needs a shave. Cute though. :D

9 Arvay 06.28.06 at 8:37 pm

He looks like a sunbather getting out after a week of rain.

Not a muzzlepuff, a scrufflepuff!

10 Sara 06.28.06 at 8:38 pm

What a beautiful hippo!! I love the nose

11 jackie 06.28.06 at 8:39 pm

cute. cute. cute.

12 Julie 06.28.06 at 8:40 pm

GAH!!! Smiley hippo made my day!

13 CB 06.28.06 at 8:40 pm

dang. and i thought shaving my legs was a nuissance. imagine waking up to that scruff!

14 karisma 06.28.06 at 8:40 pm

kewl!

15 Julie 06.28.06 at 8:41 pm

…And that is SO teh ultimate muzzlepuff!!!

16 constance 06.28.06 at 8:43 pm

hippo kiss :-*

MUAH

17 Lauri 06.28.06 at 8:43 pm

It’s muzzlestickles!

18 A thinker 06.28.06 at 8:43 pm

NOSE PRICKLES!!

19 Mel 06.28.06 at 8:47 pm

I love it!

20 AuntieMame 06.28.06 at 8:48 pm

It’s the squint that really makes the smile.

At first I thought it was some whacking, ugly fish and I was so relieved to discover that it was actually a hippo.

*doesn’t like fish…*

21 Redzilla 06.28.06 at 8:51 pm

‘cha! Smiling hippo! If you haven’t been by BBC today, gotta go and check out the grinning baby zebra. You can practically hear him snickering at you.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/5125408.stm

22 Lauri 06.28.06 at 8:58 pm

Holy Orthodontics, Redzilla! That is one hilarious zeber!!!

23 Lauri 06.28.06 at 8:59 pm

Moist spinicles!

24 SemanticAntics 06.28.06 at 9:09 pm

That smile is because it knows it’s one of the most dangerous animals in the world.

25 Danielle 06.28.06 at 9:11 pm

That is awesome!!!

26 Mel 06.28.06 at 9:13 pm

MEG! You should make this a greeting card. I’ve forwarded it to at least 8 people already.

27 PuppyMomma 06.28.06 at 9:17 pm

There’s kind of eye-capsule action there too….

28 Aubrey 06.28.06 at 9:21 pm

He’s also smiling because he knows he’s one hippo-notic example of style and good looks. He doesn’t stop talking about himself! That hippodroned on and on!

29 Deborah 06.28.06 at 9:22 pm

Egad! Those whiskers on the muzzlepuffs look like the ones on a co-worker’s chin. How disturbing is THAT!

30 Jenne_R 06.28.06 at 9:29 pm

I’m sorry but the words used here just crack me up (YEEP?)… LOL’ing at work… bad me.

Pretty sure a hippo smooch would be rather pokey/spiney :(

31 The Housewife 06.28.06 at 9:36 pm

OMG that is ugly and so cute at the same time!!

He’s so funny looking, but that big grin is so hilarious!

32 Tony James 06.28.06 at 9:40 pm

Broody herr! As the pik was loading I thought Meg had found an albino strawberry somewhere (look, it’s been a long day, ok? :p) and had gone completely off the rails.

33 Me 06.28.06 at 9:47 pm

OMG! So cute! But when it was first downloading, I thought it was a porcupine or something like that because I couldn’t see the bottom half…

34 arbed 06.28.06 at 9:51 pm

mmmmmmmmmm albino straaaaaaawberries…..

35 Tony James 06.28.06 at 10:01 pm

Meanwhile, in the world of things that should be cute but aren’t…
Came across an Indian thing called a kitty party. My eyes lit up, as you can imagine – a room full of floofed and skwee’ed kitties, partying and snorgling – what’s not to like!? Alas, ’twas not to be…even the headline is misleading!! :(
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/jan302004/she3.asp

36 Fidget 06.28.06 at 10:02 pm

He’s puckering up to kiss the glass and give it a case of whisker rash. ;)

37 angela 06.28.06 at 10:06 pm

Too CUTE, at first I thought it was a Walrus…A HIPPO, HOORAY!!

38 Aubrey 06.28.06 at 10:26 pm

No, Angela, as I recall, someone else was the Walrus.

Goo Goo G’Joob…

39 ka9q's wife 06.28.06 at 10:31 pm

I think a kitty party is what my dad would call a hen party.

40 Aubrey 06.28.06 at 10:37 pm

Only if you want to peck and choose…

41 Brak_Silverbone 06.28.06 at 10:39 pm

Does anyone else remember a song about hippos called “Mud”? (Not that there’s any mud here. This is one clean hippo.)

Mud, mud, glorious mud,
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood,
so follow me, follow,
down to the hollow,
and there we shall wallow
in glorious mud!

42 *tara 06.28.06 at 11:05 pm

does anyone know if the “hippo stubble” has a purpose?

43 Aubrey 06.28.06 at 11:18 pm

Can’t tell you – looks like you’ve come across a real stubbling block.

44 Kyla 06.28.06 at 11:42 pm

verrry cute :)
I don’t know about the millions of hair hole things on its face though… really bugs me :(

45 greenighs 06.28.06 at 11:42 pm

“does anyone know if the “hippo stubble” has a purpose?”

Makes hippo teens look older so they can date the hot college hotties.

46 denise t. 06.29.06 at 12:13 am

this is the only time i have ever thought to kiss a hippo!

47 Carol 06.29.06 at 12:20 am

So cute that I just made it the background on my desktop!

48 jaypo 06.29.06 at 12:46 am

Pricklepuff galore.

49 hil 06.29.06 at 12:48 am

you all need to get a life

50 ceebs 06.29.06 at 12:54 am

The Hippopotamus
Ogden Nash
Behold the hippopotamus!
We laugh at how he looks to us,
And yet in moments dank and grim,
I wonder how we look to him.
Peace, peace, thou hippopotamus!
We really look all right to us,
As you no doubt delight the eye
Of other hippopotami.

51 taion 06.29.06 at 1:07 am

Hippos are always smiling: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Lightmatter_hippo.jpg
Wonder what they’re so happy about.

52 Annie D. 06.29.06 at 1:42 am

Beautiful bristly creature!

Now, can someone please come up with a smiling manatee picture?

53 Aubrey 06.29.06 at 2:16 am

Here we gather, all of us
To praise this hippopotamus
With his whiskers and his grin
He clearly loves the style he’s in
He may be large
A floating barge
But clubs still admit him free of charge

54 Stacey 06.29.06 at 2:21 am

I want to hug him, I bet he would fit nicely in a hug.

55 Angela 06.29.06 at 2:31 am

Awwwww! Look at the turned up grin. Look at the happy squinty eye! He’s so cuuuuuuuuuute!

56 jaypo 06.29.06 at 2:32 am

ceebs, Ogden Nash is one of my favorites, a writer full of goofiness!

Aubrey, on other hand, is a goof full of wordiness. ;-)

57 E. Collison 06.29.06 at 2:43 am

doncha think both Ogden and Aubery are “full of wordiness,” jaypo? [mischievous smile...]

Aubrey, I do like your poem, but I’d drop the “still.”

Floating barge is great – reminds me of the hippo that was brought down *all* the cataracts of the Nile (back before they were flooded out by the Aswan High Dam) in a *bathtub.* See the book “Zarafa” if you think I’m making this up!

58 E. Collison 06.29.06 at 2:49 am

A very LARGE bathtub, I might add. (And just did!)

59 A thinker 06.29.06 at 2:54 am

A hippo in a bathtub. Floating down the Nile. Hmm. There’s *lots* of room for delightful speculation on that one. Photoshopping. Poetry. A children’s book. And so on…

60 Aubrey 06.29.06 at 3:05 am

EC:

I had lots of problems with that last line. I wanted to indicate that despite his bigness, clubs would be willing to admit Mr. Hippo without paying cover. Using ‘But’ would seem to cover it, however to me it didn’t – here it comes – scan properly.

But that extra syllable didn’t help, did it?

What about:
“Still, clubs admit him free of charge.”

Phew.

61 jaypo 06.29.06 at 3:06 am

EC–god bless’em, yep!

I just read a similar book called “Clara’s Grand Tour” about a Dutch sea captain in the 17th c. who brought a baby rhino back to Europe. They toured all the great courts and she was the rage of Europe. Clara lived till she was 18. True story, great read!

62 jaypo 06.29.06 at 3:08 am

Aubrey, how about:
“He may be large
A floating barge”
Still, clubs admit him free of charge.

Might work?

63 jaypo 06.29.06 at 3:10 am

ooops, not 17th c. Was in the 18th c.

64 Aubrey 06.29.06 at 3:10 am

Great minds, Jaypo, great minds!

65 jaypo 06.29.06 at 3:13 am

[big huggy to all]
G’night!

66 cuteness lover 06.29.06 at 3:15 am

I wish we could kiss them, but then they’d bite or lips off, and maybe our heads. (I’m not sure if any of these words need apostophes, I am scared to use them now, so bear with me). It’s very cute though. I wonder how it would look all shaved?

67 Dara 06.29.06 at 3:21 am

Flanders and Swan(n) did the hippo mud song…hilarious english songsters…

68 E. Collison 06.29.06 at 3:39 am

jaypo, thanks muchly for the rec. on the rhino book. Now I must read it!

I recently came across Pig on the Titanic, which was written for kids but should have great appeal for adults, too. It’s about a passenger who was able to use her music-box pig to divert the attention of the small children in her lifeboat. (All survived, and so did the toy pig, Maxixe.)

69 E. Collison 06.29.06 at 3:42 am

“Still, clubs admit him free of charge.”

Wow – so easy! And I missed it. Nice to know that Cute Collective™ is out there, eh?!

70 Drea 06.29.06 at 3:44 am

yea thats pretty good.

71 cuteness lover 06.29.06 at 4:14 am

Does anyone remember that song, “I want a hippopotamus for christmas” It’s like a little kid singing the song. At first the song is slightly annoying, but then it’s kind of cute. Now I see why the kid wants one, because they smile!

72 Piggalette 06.29.06 at 4:27 am

Very cute. Now we must see a cute rhino! The hubby looooves rhinoceroseses. :)

73 nightbird 06.29.06 at 4:30 am

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas. Only a hippopotamus will do. No crocodiles or rhinosauruses, all I want for Christmas are hippopotamuseses…

74 cuteness lover 06.29.06 at 4:43 am

That’s the one NIGHTBIRD!!!
I hang my head and say “I like that song”…..Only because it’s a cute song about animals though. I was always asking for weird animals like that when I was little.

75 Liana 06.29.06 at 5:03 am

Im really really sorry to burst the cuteness, but in the Puppies Category theres a comment thats really rude, its on the ktitens one too.. =(

76 chelsea 06.29.06 at 5:41 am

i like his freckles. or splotchy spots. but i like to call them freckles. :]

77 eeeeeeek 06.29.06 at 6:29 am

EEEEK! That is not CUTE

78 ka9q's wife 06.29.06 at 7:32 am

I think this Hippo is scary but cute, such a smiling sweet face. I know they kill people all the time but eye capsules people, c’mon.

79 Norty 06.29.06 at 12:09 pm

ohhhhhhhhhhh

*squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee*

thud.

80 Jan Spencer 06.29.06 at 12:49 pm

Is it possible to snorgle a hippo?

81 Redzilla 06.29.06 at 1:19 pm

I don’t remember any songs about wanting a hippo for Christmas, but I do distinctly remember *getting* Hungry Hungry Hippos for Christmas. An excellent game and one which does reveal the super product cuteness potential of hippos.

82 Rayndrop 06.29.06 at 2:02 pm

“I don’t want a doll or a dinky tinker toy,
I want a hippopotamus to play with and enjoy!”

Yes, cute song – and cute hippo. I agree, the little hair-holes with the tufts of bristle coming out are kinda gross/bizarre, but that just gives him the ugly-but-also-cute appeal.

Somebody mentioned manatees and I am thus forced to ask – WHY ARE THERE NO MANATEES HERE?! Manatees are, in their own blubbery, aquatic way, cuter than puppies, kittens, and baby hamsters all rolled into one. I positively ***ADORE*** manatees. I demand manatee-ness!! NOW!!!

83 Teddy 06.29.06 at 2:17 pm

gessshh, it’s HUGE

84 pheral 06.29.06 at 2:17 pm

yay for hippos and seacows and all sorts! YAY I SAY!

and yay for these: http://bunnyherolabs.com/adopt/

which just took up about an hour of my time. the hamster has particularly cute legs. aww.

85 Theo 06.29.06 at 2:18 pm
86 brownamazon 06.29.06 at 2:33 pm

Random fact: in Africa, more people are killed by hippos every year than any other wild animal. Apparently they’re extremely agressive, unpredictable and dangerous. Oh, and they have the charming custom of spraying their liquid poop all over the place, using their tails as a kind of high-velocity eggbeater, to mark their territory.

Still–outrageously cute ETH ratio (and don’t forget the eye capsules!)We forgive your delinquent behaviour, hippos!

87 Dannee 06.29.06 at 2:37 pm

Well, jeez Theo, now that’s gonna be stuck in my head all day. xD “Dugong, dugong, it’s the cow os the sea-ea-EA!” xD

This guy’s prettty scary ’til you see his little ear. xD And then it’s all “I may have exploding cacti in my mouth, but I’m still adorable!”

88 MikeyFur 06.29.06 at 2:43 pm

Such a funny face! Are there any baby manatee pics out there? That would be really cute. . .

89 ariel 06.29.06 at 2:43 pm

i LOOOOOOVE the dugong!
one chewed on my sandal in the fla keys when i was small

90 Redzilla 06.29.06 at 2:50 pm

“Apparently they’re extremely agressive, unpredictable and dangerous. Oh, and they have the charming custom of spraying their liquid poop all over the place, using their tails as a kind of high-velocity eggbeater, to mark their territory.”

I think my husband is part hippo.

91 Theo 06.29.06 at 2:53 pm

[tries vainly to gouge out mind's eye with spork]

92 Redzilla 06.29.06 at 3:01 pm

Yeah, Theo, everybody always acts like having a great imagination is a good thing, but sometimes, don’t you wish you were a bit duller?

Anyway…smiling manatees…check out this site:
http://cars.er.usgs.gov/Education/sldshw/manatee/Image4.html

93 Amy 06.29.06 at 3:23 pm

Yeah, guys, the brillo-pad chin doesn’t impress me…and I wouldn’t want to kiss that one on the nose either, hippos kill more people in Africa per year than sharks, lions, and alligators combined.

94 jaypo 06.29.06 at 3:25 pm

Well, RedZ, that hippo is proud of himself for somethin’…

95 Amy 06.29.06 at 3:26 pm

Hehe! I didn’t see Theo’s comment, sorry bout that. Hate to be redindant.

96 Fatal Fury 06.29.06 at 3:37 pm

Uuf! Just a little bit bigger and it could have been my new wallpaper. :p

97 brownamazon 06.29.06 at 3:46 pm

Red: Egads. You must be a saint, woman! Or else you pay your cleaning lady very well.

98 ka9q's wife 06.29.06 at 4:06 pm

I don’t know, if you are going to hold reprehensible behavior against an animal then look at what dolphins do to each other and sometimes attempt with humans, small boats, interesting rock formations and by one account i read a herring.
http://outside.away.com/outside/magazine/0999/199909outthere.html

99 Bubbles 06.29.06 at 4:19 pm

(Last line of the Hippo Christmas song) “…And hippopatamusses like me too! They do!”

I’m with the manatee side of the room. Thank Poseidon I live in San Diego and can spend all day in the manatee exhibit at SeaWorld. Unfortunately my husband now refers to me as his “little sea cow.”

100 crrash 06.29.06 at 4:48 pm

Maybe shaving on your day off is opptional in the animal world too?

101 abbynormal 06.29.06 at 5:14 pm

When this was loading I thought it was gonna be a baluga whale…they are always smiling too.

102 Theo 06.29.06 at 6:27 pm

Belugas are *squishy* though (seriously!); this water-horse is *spiky*.

103 Bubbles 06.29.06 at 6:30 pm

Ooh! I loves the fat, squishy-headed belugas, too!

104 Sera 06.29.06 at 7:28 pm

I’m sorry to say, but this picture kind of grossed me out. I think it’s the gargantuan hair folicles.

105 Theo 06.29.06 at 7:44 pm

Maybe those are transceiver antennae. It’s Sea Sputnik!

106 Redzilla 06.29.06 at 8:18 pm

I think I like the pic ’cause it reminds me of my hairless cat, Flannery. She’s the same color as Hippo, and she also has the completely truncated whiskers common to hairless cats. So, when she gives me extreme kitteh close up kisses in the morning, this is kind of what I see.

107 Krissy 06.30.06 at 4:22 pm

WhHAT a great photo!!!!

108 Clotypus 06.30.06 at 7:51 pm

Such an awesome picture. A shame they’re vicious, dangerous brutes :)

109 Clotypus 06.30.06 at 7:51 pm

Btw, Hippo whiskars = awesome

110 Brak_Silverbone 07.01.06 at 3:20 am

Thanks for the information about the song, Dara–the odd thing is I heard it as a kid on a record my folks had by a group called Serendipity. I’m perfectly willing to bet it was a cover version. :)

A bold hippopotamus was standing one day,
on the banks of the cool Shalimar…
He gazed at the bottom as it peacefully lay
By light of the evening star…

(can’t remember the rest of that verse)

(And then later in the song all the hippos decide to jump in the river… can’t recall the first half of this verse, but–)

They dived all at once, with an [can't recall word] splash,
Then rose to the surface again
A regular army
Of hippopatami
All singing this haunting refrain…

Repeat chorus!

111 Lohan Roberto 07.02.06 at 3:42 am

Your think this is cute????

Check out my kitty: http://www.zxocuteboy.com/2006/06/sterling-slepping-in-my-bag.html

112 cuteness lover 07.04.06 at 7:54 pm

AAaaahhhhh, Sterling is cute.

113 stephanie 07.06.06 at 6:34 pm

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