These Memes About Flounder On 'The Little Mermaid Live' Are Sending Me... To Sea

You wouldn't expect a fish puppet to cause such a fuss, but alas, that's exactly what happened. ABC's broadcast of The Little Mermaid Live blew audiences away on many fronts, but there's one character fans agree is a little... fishy. These memes about Flounder on The Little Mermaid Live may poke fun at the live version of the character, but they also make the best of the rather odd situation.

So here's the deal: Unlike Ariel (Auli'i Cravalho), Sebastian (Shaggy), Ursula (Queen Latifah), Prince Eric (Graham Phillip), and even Chef Louis (John Stamos), the role of Flounder did not get cast with a human actor for this live musical spectacle. Logistically, the reason makes sense: The live portion of the show was all musical; the rest of it featured the dialogue from the original animated film. And since Flounder had no singing parts, there was no need to bring on someone to play his part.

Instead, Ariel's adorable marine companion was played by a puppet, and audiences apparently found the fake Flounder to be hilarious, terrifying, or a combination of the two.

In fact, many viewers took it upon themselves to compare Flounder's, um, disheveled appearance to real-life human situations.

Though the puppet Flounder certainly provided some comedic relief on Twitter, some people were a bit disturbed by how the fake fish was portrayed.

Others used the opportunity to provide commentary on their impressions on the show overall. As evidenced by Twitter, fans had a whole lot to say.

Truly, the Flounder comparisons seem to be never-ending. In fact, some fashion-minded fans suggested the Flounder puppet came from a certain infamous online shopping hub:

Listen, I'm no prop master, but I can guarantee putting together a TV event like The Little Mermaid Live was not an easy feat. Sure, the puppet bears little to no resemblance to the original cartoon character, and yeah, it's better not to stare directly into its dead eyes — but hey, a lot of hard work probably went into making it.

That said, I don't really blame those of you out here tweeting #JusticeForFlounder.