5 Things You Need to Know About the Rhode Island "Pizza Rat" Video That’s Dominating Twitter
- The viral clip, filmed by a local student on Federal Hill, shows a massive rat dragging an entire slice of pepperoni pizza across a busy city street, with the rodent perfectly navigating traffic as if it had done it a thousand times before.
- The video quickly became a meme after locals started photoshopping the rat into historical Rhode Island moments, including the Gaspee Affair and the founding of Providence by Roger Williams, with the caption "Still hungrier than the British."
- The Rhode Island Department of Health released a statement saying the rat was "likely a non-native brown rat" but praised its "uncanny traffic-safety awareness," adding that no pizza was wasted because the slice was "technically reclaimed public property."
- Restaurant owners on Atwells Avenue have embraced the chaos, with one pizzeria offering a limited-time "Rhode Island Rat Special" — a whole pizza at 50% off, served with a small plastic rat toy that squirts marinara sauce.
- The hashtag #PizzaRatRI is now trending nationally, and a local Providence artist has already sold over 100 t-shirts featuring the slogan "Keep Rhode Island Weird... and Hungry."