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Pizza Rat Might Have Been A Hoax And Nothing Matters Anymore

by Gillian Fuller

Remember “Pizza Rat?” (Of course you do, it was like, the biggest video of 2015).

It turns out, the whole thing might be an elaborate hoax, along with “Selfie Rat” and the lesser-known-but-still-noteworthy “Cannibal Rat.”

Gothamist reports an actor named Eric Yearwood was paid $200 to star in the “Selfie Rat” video by a performance artist (and rat-trainer) named Zardulu. He believes Zardulu was also behind “Pizza Rat,” and trained her pet rat to star in the viral film.

Yearwood, a member of the Upright Citizens Brigade improv theater, explains,

[Zardulu] said she was an NYC-based performance artist and wanted help with a project and was going to pay me a little bit of money. You get weird casting calls and stuff all the time, so I didn't really think too much of it, and when she described the project to me it seemed pretty weird.

Yearwood's story is corroborated by several unnamed sources, all of whom, allegedly, had to sign non-disclosure agreements to star in the faux films.

One, who also happens to be a member of UCB, confirms,

It's the same rat in all the videos. I'd bet my life on it. She told me a year ago about the rat training, just not the specific performance art pieces.

However, there's still question as to whether or not the videos were really hoaxes. The New Yorker who filmed Pizza Rat, Matt Little, denies involvement with anyone named Zardulu and insists the video was spontaneous.

He says:

I am not a good enough liar to perpetrate any kind of hoax like this and keep it up.

Or maybe that's a lie too.

Is this "hoax" story just a giant performance art piece by the Upright Citizens Brigade? Is pizza rat even really a rat? IS ANYTHING REAL?

We may never know.

Citations: Was Pizza Rat A Hoax (Gothamist)