Lesson learned: Don't feed the trolls.

Remember that gorilla that the Cincinnati Zoo had to shoot when a little boy got away from his mom and jumped into the enclosure with him?  Apparently this incident spawned a runaway internet meme contest based on the gorilla's name and this incident.

I wasn't all that aware of the meme fun, but the zoo folk were not amused.  So not amused that they said as much and asked the internet to stop it.  Naturally, this was like throwing red meat to a hungry lion, or gorilla, if you will.

“We are not amused by the memes, petitions and signs about Harambe,” Thane Maynard, the zoo’s director, said in an email to The Associated Press this week. “Our zoo family is still healing, and the constant mention of Harambe makes moving forward more difficult for us.”

For example, replying to a Twitter post about zebras and their unique stripes, one user wrote: “U had a unique way of killing Harambe.”

On a post celebrating Elephant Day, another wrote: “Harambe loved elephants.”

Mr. Maynard’s words of protest seemed only to make things worse. His Twitter account was hacked with pro-Harambe messages. 

Well, I looked around the internet and found a few of the memes that so annoyed the zoo, and there are some howlers.  Behold, and enjoy: