Pizza Rat facts for kids

Pizza Rat is a super famous internet meme. It's all about a brown rat carrying a slice of pizza. The rat was seen going down the steps of a New York City Subway station in Manhattan. A video of this was first shared on Instagram on September 21, 2015. Later, it was put on YouTube. That YouTube video has been watched over 11.82 million times!

The Pizza Rat Story

How Pizza Rat Became Famous

Right after the video was posted, #PizzaRat became a top trend on Twitter. By September 23, the video had been watched over five million times. Many popular websites like Gawker and BuzzFeed quickly wrote articles about it. People even made Pizza Rat costumes for Halloween that same year!

Scientists from Popular Science magazine looked at the video. They said the animal was a common brown rat. They also noted that it's rare for humans to get so close to these rats. Matt Little, who first posted the video, got very close. Scientists thought the rat might have been too hungry to run away. Or maybe it was just more used to people than other rats.

What Happened Next?

The Washington Post newspaper made a timeline of how the meme spread. It started when the video was uploaded on September 21. The article suggested that the meme became less popular very quickly. This happened because so many people shared it. It also happened because news reporters and companies tried to use it too much.

A baseball team, the Staten Island Yankees, even changed their name for some games! They became the Staten Island Pizza Rats. They wore special uniforms and sold merchandise with a cartoon pizza rat on them.

Was the Video Real?

A person named Zardulu claimed they made the original video. Zardulu is an artist from New York City. They told The Washington Post that they staged this video. They also claimed to have created other famous internet hoaxes. However, Matt Little, who filmed the video, said it was not a hoax. He also said he had no connection with Zardulu.