Possums

Submission 28,060

Part of a series on Animals. [View Related Entries]

Overview

Possums or Opossums are nocturnal marsupials found in North and South America. In the late 2010s, the animal became the inspiration for various memes based on their long snout, sharp teeth and vicious appearance. Though typically vilified in culture, their outsider reputation has been the focus of many of the jokes about the animal.

Online History

One of the earliest online for possum fans was the website Opossum.com, which served as The National Opossum Society.^[2] Registered on October 12th, 1998,^[3] the National Opossum Society offered resources for understanding possums, adopting and caring for them and general education of the animal.

While possums did not share in the type of online fandom reserved for dogs and cats, for much of the 2000s, fans of the animals did share images of ones they deemed cute.

On February 11th, 2007, DeviantArt ^[4] artist JoshuaDunlop posted an image of fan-made Pokémon based on the animal. In the description, they wrote, "As per request here is a possum pokemon i call Posumbrela." The post (shown below, left) received more than 15,000 views in 11 years.

Three years later, on November 14th, 2010, YouTuber pawssc posted a video of an infant Virginia possum. The post (shown below, right) received more than 46,000 views in eight years.

The following year, on March 20, 2011, YouTuber cudaviper posted a video entitled "Possum eating strawberry." Within seven years, the post (shown below) received more than 1.5 million views.

On October 22nd, 2014, the Tumblr ^[5] account "Rate a Possum" launched. Their first post (shown below, left) received more than 1,000 notes in four years.

On January 6th, 2018, the Twitter ^[4] account @own___ass launched. The page is dedicated to memes specifically about possums (examples below, center and right). The account is a mix of original content and possum-related submissions.

On March 16th, the creators of the account were interviewed by BuzzFeed. ^[6]

On May 23rd, the account posted^[7] a two-panel image of a small possum and the caption "ʰᵉʸ ᶦ'ᵐ ᵈᵒʷⁿ ʰᵉʳᵉ." The post (shown below) received more than 41,000 retweets and 134,000 likes in three months.

On August 1st, The Daily Dot ^[8] published an article about the ride of possum fandom online.

Interview Possum

Interview Possum refers to a photograph of Sand Mountain Sam, an opossum who serves a similar role to Sand Mountain, Alabama, as Punxsutawney Phil does to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and much of the United States in that it can supposedly predict the weather. The image comes from the ceremony for Sand Mountain Sam's 2018 "prediction" for the remainder of winter and spread through Twitter as people added various captions to it.

On February 2nd, 2018, Facebook ^[1] meme page Olivia's O'meme Outlet^[2] posted an image from a possum being "interviewed" at a Groundhog's Day in the Tennessee Valley Area of picture with the caption "Pineapple is stored on the pizza," gaining more than 600 reactions (shown below).