Couple Enlists 4,000 Pound Hippo to Eat Organic Jello-Filled Watermelon for a Casual Baby Gender Reveal
Gender reveal parties can get pretty creative these days, but this family’s use of a hippo eating a watermelon stands out.
Posted by TikTok user @xyssa.jada, in a video of Bridgette and Jonathan Joseph’s baby gender reveal, a watermelon is tossed into a hippo’s mouth — the hippo bites down, and the blue color that flows out of it reveals that their baby may be a boy. Talk about hungry hungry hippos.
Filmmaker Ana Bretón shared the video on Twitter on Sept. 21, and it has garnered 6.5 million views as of Monday morning.
I did it. I found the worst gender reveal. pic.twitter.com/37b5GkrTbN
— Ana Bretón (@missbreton) September 21, 2019
In subsequent tweets, Bretón shared some charming information about the family, and offered the chance for fans of the video to donate to the hippo, who resides at The Capital of Texas Zoo.
Hi all! I’ve been in touch with the family in the video. While I’m not a fan of gender reveals, it was not my intention to bring darkness to their special day. Here’s some background written by Bridgette. Donations to the ACTUAL hippo in the vid here: https://t.co/rByV2mbXRK pic.twitter.com/fDWY29niTE
— Ana Bretón (@missbreton) September 22, 2019
Tank the Hippo only eats the best foods, so the blue food exploding from the watermelon was organic blue Jell-O, Michael Hicks, the zoo’s director, told TIME. The 4,000-pound aptly-named animal eats watermelon and Jell-O cups as a weekly staple in his diet, Hicks says, so it only made sense to use his chomping skills for the Josephs’ special moment.
