Pizza Rat Who? New York City Rats Go Viral Over Their Shared Love For A Sweet Treat
Sweet love!
An a-dough-rable pair of New York City rats got their paws on a doughnut in a TikTok clip that’s proved a worthy challenger to the beloved pizza rat footage.
The video, shared by Carly Hittner on her account @smallredcar, shows a rat nibbling on a doughnut abandoned on the subway tracks, then dragging it away.
The rat then finds a fellow rodent, and the two split the snack in what looks like the kind of budding romance that hasn’t been seen since Roddy and Rita in “Flushed Away.”
“Some of the men in this city need lessons in chivalry,” Hittner wrote in a caption on the video, which has more than 3.3 million views.
The TikTok user also tagged the video with a sharp message for the Big Apple: “Donut rat treats his woman better than half you other rats in this city.”
Hittner told Today.com that she took the video earlier this month following a dinner date with her boyfriend.
“We see this rat trying to carry this thing that’s bigger than its whole body and you’re thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s like pizza rat!’” said Hittner, referring to the ambitious rodent that took social media by storm in 2015 and sparked allegations of a hoax.
The apparent “love story” between the “doughnut rat” and its friend led to a caption that Hittner based on a recent talk with a pal about dating in the Big Apple.
“I was listening to my friends talking about dating, relationships and their kind of grievances with dating in the city. And it was like, ‘Oh, well, if a rat can do it. It’s simple. It shouldn’t be this hard,’” she said.
The clip, which Hittner shared on Wednesday, has TikTok users praising the rat as “A HIGH VALUE MAN” as well as a “PROVIDER” for its squeaky sweetheart.
“The NY rats have a better love life than I do,” one user wrote.
“This is the nicest guy in nyc,” proclaimed another user.
Hittner told New York’s Fox 5 that she’s “humored and surprised” by how much support and agreement there’s been over what she referred to as a “lighthearted jab.”
“They’re giving us some good humor and some good content, so I’ll leave it at that,” she said. “They’re making an example for men, then it can’t be that big of a problem.”
