This redefines “smoking roaches.”
Thought New York City’s Pizza Rat was majestic? Enter cigarette cockroach, a bodacious bug that was observed scurrying about an undisclosed residence in the Big Apple with a cancer stick in tow, smoking out all vermin competition.
A video of the tiny tobacco toker is currently blowing up on Instagram as urban wildlife enthusiasts marvel at what could be the animal kingdom’s newest celebrity sleazeball.
“Roach just trying to have a smoke in peace,” reads the caption to the uproarious clip, which was uploaded a day ago by the popular Instagram account WhatIsNewYork.
In the video, shot through a gate in an undisclosed NY neighborhood, the enterprising creepy-crawly is seen dragging what appears to be a cigarette butt along the pavement.
Central Park snowy owl, eat your heart out.
It’s unclear why the cockroach was toting a smoke; however, these pantry pillagers are known to consume a smorgasbord of nonappetizing objects, including paper, clothing and even their own droppings.
‘Gram gawkers had a field day with the sight of the diminutive nicotine fiend.
“NY roaches are not leading the healthy lifestyles, it’s the stress,” joked one social media wit, while another quipped, “How did you find this video of my ex?”
“How dare he! He’s not 25 feet from the entrance,” joked another in reference to NYC’s smoking ordinance.
Some film buffs compared the cig-loving insect to the talking roaches in the movies “Joe’s Apartment” and “Men in Black.”
This isn’t the first cockroach to tote a smoke: In 2019, a palmetto bug was filmed carrying a cigarette across a sewer grate.
Whatever the case, both of these “roach smokers” deserve a spot alongside the Pizza Rat in the pantheon of anthropomorphic Big Apple vermin. For the uninitiated, this fast food-loving rodent went viral in 2015 after it was filmed dragging a crusty slice down the subway steps in an iconic NYC scene.
Pizza Rat achieved such mythical status that the Yankees’ minor league team temporarily changed their name to the Staten Island Pizza Rats in 2018 — much to the Bronx Bombers’ chagrin.
Like a pie-loving Punxsutawney Phil, Pizza Rat has spawned a veritable menagerie of viral imitators. These have included the Nutella Squirrel of the East Village, a “hipster” avocado rat from Brooklyn and other mini garbage-loving Gothamites.
In 2020, a hangry New Jersey squirrel arguably one-upped Pizza Rat after swiping two slices from a family’s delivery pizza box.
