Every once in a while, a news interview video goes viral and sweeps across the country.
Most notably was the “Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That” lady, who’s revelation on the news that she had bronchitis prompted one of the most legendary runs a meme has ever had. The song remixes were unbelievably catchy…
And most recently, we had the “Corn Kid,” who’s simple love for corn and the fact that it “has the juice” sent the internet into a frenzy. I’m sure corn sales sky rocketed (I’m not actually sure, just assuming) after the fact, and I’ve got a feeling there will be a similar impact from this new viral video out of New York.
It’s no secret that the “City That Never Sleeps” has a tremendous, overwhelming rat problem. They actually just hired someone called “The Rat Czar,” who has the sole task each and every day of trying to eradicate as many rats as possible. An urban legend claims that rats outnumber residents in New York City, which is home to over 8 million people…
CBS News was covering Kathleen Corradi’s (The Rat Czar, and I hope you say her last name like “Karate”) first anti-rat day of action, which was held in the borough of Harlem. The Rat Czar herself spoke about the event, saying:
“Rats need food, water, and shelter to survive. Today, we’re going to cut off their food source and reduce their habitat, take away the places they can live.”
Makes sense to me…
However, the highlight of the day of action wasn’t actually the catching of rats, but was instead the moment when CBS interviewed a Harlem resident about the rat problem the city faces. This woman gave an all-time news interview moment, and was only featured for maybe 10 seconds total.
The Harlem resident was clearly fed up with the rat problem, and described the size of the unwanted rodents in a rather unique way:
“We’ve had rats the size of Crocs…just running up and down the street.
Like a Croc shoe? An average size 8, running up and down the street.”
When I first heard “rats the size of crocs,” I was thinking we had some rats that needed to be wrangled by Steve Irwin running around. She then cleared things up by explaining she was talking about Croc shoes, which might be one of the few times in history that someone “cleared things up” yet at the same time made things more confusing. Why would you describe a rat’s size comparative to Crocs?
And not only a Croc shoe, an “average size 8” Croc shoe. Not a size 9, not a size 7, a size 8. I’m guessing that maybe she or someone she knows wears a size 8 Croc, and at one point they were able to compare it to a rat standing near them. At least I hope that’s why she said that…
Take a look:
@wearecbsnewyork Rats the size of Crocs?! #harlem #harlemnyc #nyc #newyork #newyorkcity #fyp #rats #rat ♬ Rats the size of crocs – CBS New York
TikTok users were absolutely loving the woman’s insight on the size of NYC rats, leaving comments like:
“At first I was like ‘hold up, you got rats the size of crocodiles?'”
“Crocs, average size 8, is crazy.”
“We love a queen that’s creative with her unit of measurement.”
“I don’t know how many times I watched this, but it’s the ‘rats the size of crocs’ that did it for me.”
“Not me wearing my ‘Size Rat’ crocs.”
Crocs, if you are listening (the shoe, not the scaly creature), you have to sign this woman to some sort of endorsement deal immediately.
There’s no telling how much “free publicity” this video will account for…
