UPDATED 08/23/16:
All your dad-approved Harambe jokes might kill when popping them off in your immediate social circle, but the Cincinnati Zoo is definitely not a fan. As part of a deep-dive on Harambe's post-death existence as an improbably ubiquitous meme, the Associated Press spoke with Cincinnati Zoo director Thane Maynard—and, well, he'd really like you to please cut it out.
"We are not amused by the memes, petitions, and signs about Harambe," Maynard told the AP. "Our zoo family is still healing, and the constant mention of Harambe makes moving forward more difficult for us. We are honoring Harambe by redoubling our gorilla conservation efforts and encouraging others to join us."
James Leggate, a web editor for Ohio-based news station WCPO, started his own petition earlier this month to prevent "the goofuses of the internet [sic]" from making any more Harambe-related petitions by simply petitioning against those petitions with a Harambe-related one of their own. "Journalists aren't the only ones affected by Harambe memes," Leggate wrote. "The people who run the Cincinnati Zoo's Twitter are constantly barraged by tweets about Harambe, many of them jokes that were funny the first time, but not so funny when other people use them over and over."
After reading all that, the internet collectively breathed a sigh of resignation and promptly stopped the Harambe jokes. The end! Actually, no, of course not. In fact, WCPOreported that Maynard's Twitter account was hacked over the weekend and wasn't fully returned to the actual owner's control until late Sunday evening. According to WCPO's report, at least one hacked tweet read "#DicksOutForHarambe."
Sadly, as of Tuesday morning, the Cincinnati Zoo had apparently decided to deactivate their Twitter account in light of incessant Harambe jokes:
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