Pizza Rat is an
internet meme
An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...
based around a
viral video
Viral videos are video, videos that become popular through viral phenomenon, a viral process of Internet sharing, primarily through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhon ...
of a
brown rat
The brown rat (''Rattus norvegicus''), also known as the common rat, street rat, sewer rat, wharf rat, Hanover rat, Norway rat and Norwegian rat, is a widespread species of common rat. One of the largest Muroidea, muroids, it is a brown or grey ...
carrying a slice of
pizza
Pizza is an Italian cuisine, Italian, specifically Neapolitan cuisine, Neapolitan, dish typically consisting of a flat base of Leavening agent, leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomato, cheese, and other ingredients, baked at a high t ...
down the steps of a
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...
station in
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
.
The video was first uploaded to
Instagram
Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
on September 21, 2015, and a copy was uploaded to
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
later. , the YouTube video had more than 12.35 million views.
Impact
Within hours of the video's posting, #PizzaRat was trending on
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
, and by September 23, the clip had been viewed over five million times.
Articles were quickly written by
Gawker
''Gawker'' was an American blog founded by Nick Denton and Elizabeth Spiers that was based in New York City and focused on celebrities and the media industry. According to SimilarWeb, the site had over 23 million visits per month in 2015. Fo ...
,
BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet mass media, media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John Seward Johnson III, John S. Johnson III to ...
,
DNAinfo
''DNAinfo'' was an online newspaper that focused on neighborhood news in New York City and Chicago. It was closed down by CEO and owner Joe Ricketts in November 2017 after writers in its New York branch voted to unionize, a move to which Rickett ...
, and
Gothamist
''Gothamist'' is a New York City–centric blog operated by New York Public Radio. From 2003 to 2018, Gothamist LLC was the operator, or in some cases franchisor, of eight city-centric websites that focused on news, events, food, culture, an ...
.
Pizza Rat costumes, as well as "sexy" Pizza Rat costumes, were created and worn for
Halloween
Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...
that year.
''
Popular Science
Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...
'' identified the rat as a common
brown rat
The brown rat (''Rattus norvegicus''), also known as the common rat, street rat, sewer rat, wharf rat, Hanover rat, Norway rat and Norwegian rat, is a widespread species of common rat. One of the largest Muroidea, muroids, it is a brown or grey ...
, and noted the rarity of humans to be able to get as close to them as Matt Little, the individual who originally posted the video to YouTube, did while filming the video. They attributed this to either the rat being too hungry to run, or more used to humans than other rats.
''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' created a timeline of the meme's progression, starting with its upload on September 21. The article argued that journalists and marketers attempting to gain clout from the meme, as well as the users themselves oversharing it, led to the meme's death within two days of its initial creation.
Zardulu, a New York City-based performance artist, claimed credit for staging the original video as well as several other viral hoaxes in an interview with ''The Washington Post''. However, Little denies that the video was a hoax and states that they have no association with Zardulu.
[{{cite podcast , host=Goldman, Alex, title=Zardulu , date=25 February 2016 , url= https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/o2ho6j/56-zardulu , access-date=19 August 2022 , website=Reply All]
See also
*
First Avenue station (BMT Canarsie Line)
*
Rats in New York City
*
Chicago rat hole
References
Pizza in the United States
East Village, Manhattan
Wildlife of New York City
Environmental issues in New York City
Individual rodents
2015 YouTube videos
2015 in New York City
Mice and rats in popular culture
Pizza in New York City
Internet memes introduced in 2015