Thousands of people are asking Nintendo to turn this dead gorilla into a Pokemon

Not content with making the sadly deceased gorilla, Harambe, 2016's biggest meme, people are now campaigning to have him immortalised in pop culture forever as a Pokemon.

Harambe wasn't pocket-sized, he didn't fight in battles and he was an actual real-life animal, rather than a fictional monster. But none of those things have stopped nearly 15,000 people (at the time of writing) backing a petition to induct him into the series. The petition, which is appealing to Nintendo rather than The Pokemon Company - a potential sticking point going forward - has a target of 15,000 signatures. In just a day it's almost topped that, which shows just how big a deal the gorilla has become. Eric CreamyMemes, who started the petition, said: "Harambe deserves to live on forever in our hearts. Support this petition if you want Harambe to become a Pokémon." He's gone to some serious effort here. The mockup artwork shows two Pokemon - "Hambo" and his evolved counterpart, "Harambe". They've been listed as Ghost/Fighting monsters. Not long after the petition was posted it was picked up by a parody account for Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary Nintendo game designer who was one of the main creative forces behind most of the Japanese company's biggest franchises. Again, this is a parody account, and definitely not an endorsment from the real Miyamoto. https://twitter.com/RealShigeruM/status/763102527416139776 The internet in 2016 continues to amaze. Read more