The Overlord Manatee meme, also known as 'Hugh the Manatee,' features a photograph of a Florida manatee with its snout and face pressed firmly against the glass of its aquarium enclosure. This physical distortion gives the creature an unintentionally menacing yet comical appearance, as if it is staring directly into the viewer's soul with an air of superiority. First appearing on sites like Reddit and Tumblr in the early 2010s, the image quickly became a staple for jokes involving puns, aquatic dominance, and the 'kneel before your god' trope. Users typically utilize the template to portray the manatee as a benevolent or tyrannical ruler of the sea, often accompanied by captions written in all-caps Impact font to emphasize its regal, albeit squishy, authority.