# Pizza Rat

> A subway rat clip passed 9 million YouTube views and became licensed footage and costumes.

- Owner: Matt Little (videographer); Jukin Media (licensing)
- Kind: Meme & format
- Sector: Culture (no sector)
- Seed date: 2015-09-21
- Peak date: Week of Sep 21, 2015
- Date basis: Dates use the stated precision; chart positions are date anchors.
- Spread Score: 47 (Notable), v1.2
- Mechanics: Identity badge, Response chain, Platform jump, Press loop, Controversy

## Summary

Little posted the clip to Instagram, then YouTube. Newswire relays, Twitter jokes and coverage spread it beyond his friends. Jukin licensed it; Yandy sold out a costume. Little later sold six T-shirts, and the meme returned as baseball branding.

## Timeline

- 2015-09-21 — Matt Little (Instagram) — Little posted the subway rat clip to Instagram, then uploaded a copy to YouTube.
- 2015-09-21 — DNAinfo New York / Twitter users (X) — DNAinfo tweeted a GIF, and journalists and other New Yorkers retweeted it.
- 2015-09-21 — Storyful (Facebook) — Storyful relayed the original clip on its Facebook and YouTube newswires.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/pizza-rat

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “Pizza Rat.” Case HIS-00403. Spread Score v1.2: 47/100. Updated 2026-10-13. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-00403