Internet Combines Love for Animals and Snark With #TheInternetNamesAnimals

You’re on the Internet right now, so you probably know that us Internet folk love to take ridiculous things far too seriously and serious things far too ridiculously. In fact, this was never more clear than when a recent campaign by the British government to allow citizens to vote online to name their new $287 million polar research vessel yielded the top choice: “R.R.S. Boaty McBoatface.”

This boat naming campaign inspired Twitter to take on one of the Internet’s favorite subjects: animals.

For too long, we’ve lived through uninspired, bland scientific names scrubbed clean of creativity or clarity, but no more! The beautifully bored denizens of the Web decided to take a crack at renaming some animals with the hashtag #TheInternetNamesAnimals:

Pantless Thunder-Goose #TheInternetNamesAnimals pic.twitter.com/S0iKonLUhA

— Jarod K. Anderson (@JarodAnderson) March 22, 2016

Squirty McFossilFace #TheInternetNamesAnimals pic.twitter.com/HNriYliX20

— 𓅪 Dr Alex Evans 𓅪 (@alexevans91) March 22, 2016

American Murder Log #TheInternetNamesAnimals pic.twitter.com/SdEqt99NrW

— Jarod K. Anderson (@JarodAnderson) March 22, 2016

Tiny Danger Grapes#TheInternetNamesAnimals pic.twitter.com/SAkB9RaaCK

— Katie Kang, PhD (@ProProkaryote) March 25, 2016

Stab Rabbit #TheInternetNamesAnimals pic.twitter.com/rfMgeZLfY1

— Gregory Harrison (@GregHarrisonTX) March 23, 2016

https://twitter.com/ChuckWendig/status/712075232098516992

After this started to catch on, even some major U.S. zoos and wildlife organizations decided to jump in on the action:

Owley McCutiepants! #TheInternetNamesAnimals #birdyear pic.twitter.com/MNkmjhfkdG

— US Fish and Wildlife (@USFWSMtnPrairie) March 25, 2016

No-Pants McToothy #TheInternetNamesAnimals https://t.co/KHwlGvNHv2 pic.twitter.com/FmHD8k8by1

— National Zoo (@NationalZoo) March 25, 2016

A Malayan Tapir? Not on #AprilFoolsDay! We came up with 1 name. Now it's your turn. #TheInternetNamesAnimals pic.twitter.com/VZtNjwxYMa

— Zoo Miami (@zoomiami) April 1, 2016

All I know is that if I ever have a kid, I’m leaving it up to Twitter to pick his or her name. Check out some more of our favorites here.