An NYC artist captured her own slice of pizza rat fame — and, potentially, profits — by producing a video re-creation of a rat dragging a pizza down stairs with the roles of “pizza” and “rat” played by cuddly plush toys.
“I make urban soft sculptures. I already had a pizza and rats. My art collaborator Lippe saw the video of pizza rat. We made the video the next day,” Tina Trachtenburg, who goes by @motherpigeon on Twitter, told Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York.
Trachtenburg posted a video on social media of a plush rat towing and nibbling a slice of plush mushroom pizza assisted, apparently, by puppeteers outside the frame. Trachtenburg told the site her rats sell for $80, her plush pizza slices cost $20 and she will be selling both at Union Square this Friday.
Pizza rat spurred an explosion of videos, memes and marketing pile-ons referencing voracious urban animals, including “milkshake squirrel,” who hopped into a trash can to mongo the remainder of Shake Shack shake.
