Pizza Rat is an internet meme based around a viral video of a brown rat[1] carrying a slice of pizza down the steps of a New York City Subway station in Manhattan.

[3] Within hours of the video's posting, #PizzaRat was trending on Twitter, and by September 23, the clip had been viewed over five million times.

[2][6][7] Popular Science identified the rat as a common brown rat, 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.

[1] The Washington Post created a timeline of the meme's progression, starting with its upload on September 21.

[2] 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.