Pesto the Penguin

About

Pesto the Penguin is a male king penguin chick from the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium who went viral on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram due to his antics and optics. Pesto is an unusually large chick, reportedly already taller than his parents and the largest recorded chick at the Australia aquarium. He was born on January 30th, 2024, and after viral videos of him were posted online, he grew a fandom that shared memes, reactions and fan art. Pesto went viral during the same timeframe as Moo-Deng the Baby Hippo and the two were often compared and powerscaled in viral posts.

Origin

On April 24th, 2024, the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium in Australia shared the first photos of Pesto the penguin on Instagram.^[1] The post said that Pesto's birthday was January 30th. At the time, Pesto weighed 9.1 kilograms and his gender was unconfirmed. The post, showing Pesto with his mom and dad, gained over 650 likes in five months (shown below).

A few months later, on July 30th, the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium posted a Reel to Instagram^[2] in collaboration with the Herald Sun, showing videos and photos of Pesto and saying that he'd just broken a record at the aquarium, becoming the center's "biggest ever chick" weighing 20 kilograms at the time. The Reel went largely viral, amassing over 293,700 likes in two months (shown below).

On September 11th, 2024, the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium shared its first TikTok^[3] video featuring Pesto, showing his gender reveal party. The gender of king penguins is difficult to determine until months later. Over 16 days, the video received roughly 1.3 million plays and 199,800 likes (shown below).

Spread

Following the abovementioned viral video, interest in Pesto the penguin surfaced en masse online, mostly manifesting on TikTok. For instance, on September 13th, 2024, TikToker^[4] @brookesneddon posted a video of Pesto from the aquarium, gaining over 1.1 million plays and 145,600 likes in two weeks (shown below).

On September 14th, TikToker^[5] @squincx posted a similar video of Pesto at the aquarium, gaining over 16.7 million plays and 3.2 million likes in 13 days (shown below).

On September 21st, Twitter / X^[6] user @bigdybbukenergy tweeted a video of Pesto, writing, "WENT BACK TO SEE PESTO THE PENGUIN. THE DEFINITION OF ABSOLUTE UNIT," receiving over 95,000 likes in six days (shown below).

During the same timeframe, users began making memes with Pesto and Moo-Deng. For instance, on September 25th, TikToker^[7] @gentlebl0ke shared a video of Pesto and Moo-Deng fighting, spoofing a Godzilla vs. King Kong battle. The video amassed over 11.1 million plays and 2.4 million likes in two days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References