{"id":567720,"date":"2026-07-25T15:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T15:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/567720\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T15:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T15:40:11","slug":"why-jimothy-the-raccoon-has-become-a-mega-meme-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/567720\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Jimothy the raccoon has become a mega meme online"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charli XCX might be hoping the release of her new album<\/a> sets off another Brat summer, but many believe the season has already been claimed by a furrier force – Jimothy.<\/p>\n

First spotted bounding across streets in Washington, the Seattle raccoon with an unusual, spindly shape and the scamper of a Tasmanian Devil has been seized on by the internet as a new hit meme.<\/p>\n

Like Moo Deng<\/a> and Neil the Seal<\/a> before him, he is the latest cute, distinctive and seemingly chaotic creature to be immortalised in amateur footage, sometimes cringeworthy brand posts, and even murals.<\/p>\n

But what is it about Jimothy, as he’s been nicknamed, that has gripped the internet?<\/p>\n

It all began with an innocuous video shared by Seattle resident Kiana Hall on Instagram.<\/p>\n

“What am I looking at?” Hall could be heard exclaiming, as the unusual-looking raccoon hurtles across a pavement and up some nearby steps.<\/p>\n

A caption alongside it referred to the creature as “Jimothy the raccoon with short spine syndrome”.<\/p>\n

While it is not known for sure if the condition has caused his appearance, many have assumed as such, and the description has stuck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charli XCX might be hoping the release of her new album sets off another Brat summer, but many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-567720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}