The internet has always favored cute animals when choosing a subject for a meme: dogs, cats, llamas, and even the occasional pizza rat. The new rising subject of internet memes can be found rummaging through your trash bins.

   The opossum. 

  Social Media accounts, with ‘possums as their focus, have been appearing by the dozen. Most feature the notorious ‘possum memes, but others include different types of ‘possum content: opossum art, products, and even real pet opossums with accounts featuring them. These accounts have upwards of 80,000 followers, and get thousands of likes for each post, with the content being posted almost every day. So not only is opossum content on the internet multiplying, but the number of consumers of this content is also increasing. 

   Memes centered around ‘possums started circling the internet in early 2018, and have continued to rise in popularity as more meme pages with a focus on these animals are being created. A handful of the memes are about the opossums themselves, but most only use the ‘possums as a canvas, with the punchline not relating to the image or the animal. So then why have these trash thieves stolen the collective heart of the internet? 

   Some of it may be a result of modern internet culture’s thirst for chaos. Recent meme culture has strayed away from the standard “set-up/punchline” format, and instead of moving towards memes that are funny purely because they are random and chaotic. Most memes still have an aspect of relatability to them but are now more free form in how the jokes are set up.  However, a large portion of the memes are still nonsensical, and the mischievous marsupials make the perfect canvas for such memes. 

   Perhaps it’s because opossums have the perfect blend of cute and chaotic. Or maybe it’s the “playing dead” that draws the internet to opossums, a trait that most of us wish we could do in this day and age. It could be the fact that they are generally considered disgusting that makes them relatable.

   Whatever the reason, let’s warm our welcomes for these up and coming stars of the internet.