About

Marcus the Sea Lion, also known as Xiao Xiao the Sea Lion, refers to a viral video that shows a sea lion yelling "BAAAA" before shaking its head back and forth very fast and then dancing on its flippers. The clip of the animal begins by panning over the sea lion's body before settling on its face. In late November and December 2025, videos of the sea lion began circulating under the name "Marcus," with internet users joking about how "awkward" it seemed and how it kept spamming emotes by making sounds, funny faces and dancing. In early December 2025, some internet users asserted that "Marcus" was actually named Xiao Xiao or Qiezi (meaning "eggplant"), and that it was a female California Sea Lion from the Wuhan Polar Ocean Park in China.

Origin

Videos of the sea lion, often referred to as "Marcus," originate from the Rednote or Xiaohongshu^[9] account for the 海合安武汉极地海洋度假区 or the "Haehaan Wuhan Polar Ocean Resort," as seen in the screenshots shown below.

Instagram^[2] user @happywife5269 began reposting videos of a sea lion honking and dancing for its trainer in late November 2025, and is notably one of the first internet users to refer to the sea lion as "Marcus," as seen in a November 29th, 2025, post that gathered over 44,000 likes in a week.

On November 29th, 2025, Instagram^[1] user @nick_bailu posted a Reel showing the sea lion often referred to as "Marcus" yelling and dancing. The post gathered over 196 million views and 17 million likes in a week.

The video was reposted to the subreddit /r/Awww^[5] on December 1st, where it gathered over 50,000 upvotes in six days. It was also reposted to TikTok^[6] by the account @Overtime, where it gathered over 93 million plays and 10 million likes in six days.

Spread

On December 2nd, 2025, the Instagram^[4] page @memesbreakcore posted an edit of the Marcus the Sea Lion video that overlayed a fast-paced breakcore beat over the animal's antics, gathering over 40,000 plays and 3,000 likes in five days.

On December 4th, 2025, X^[3] user @tivent_1 reposted the video with the caption, "This is genuinely such an awkward video," gathering over 30,000 likes in three days.

Also on December 4th, X^[7] user @mossyseals posted a compilation of sea lion videos, writing, "I’m afraid I’ve grown quite fond of you marcus and your silly ways," gathering over 8,000 likes in three days.

i’m afraid i’ve grown quite fond of you marcus and your silly ways pic.twitter.com/L441zRe1gZ

— the festive penguin moss *ੈ✩🦭𓏲.𖥔 ݁ ˖ (@mossyseals) December 5, 2025

On December 5th, 2025, X^[8] user @bugsizedd posted a thread claiming that "Marcus" was actually a female California Sea Lion from China's Wuhan Polar Ocean Park named Xiao Xiao.

Thread of Xiao Xiao the female California Sea Lion from Wuhan Polar Ocean Park! (not: “Marcus”)

These are from their Rednote/Xiaohongshu! pic.twitter.com/Ru11hBASdb

— bug 🦭 sealtwt ✨ (@bugsizedd) December 6, 2025

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References