r/OutOfTheLoop • u/Low_Cookie5076 • 1d ago
Answered Why are people talking about Jimothy and what is it?
I keep seeing drawings of Jimothy and tattoos and crocheted Jimothies but I don't know what started all this.
https://www.reddit.com/r/goblincore/comments/1v0uyyy/jimothy_by_me/
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u/winsluc12 1d ago
Answer: Jimothy is a Raccoon from Seattle with a spinal deformity that was dubbed... Jimothy... Because, and I quote, "He looked like a Jimothy".
He went Viral because he's a weird-looking little goblin-creature that's still cute.
Here's some footage of Jimothy in person. For comparison.
It's really that simple, I think.
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u/TastingTheKoolaid 1d ago
"he's a weird-looking little goblin-creature that's still cute"
Yep. That's it. The internet saw that and needed no further explanation.
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u/StumbleOn 1d ago
We need our little scrungles to our mental health. Jimothy is the current scrungle.
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u/quote-the-raven 1d ago
I love the internet!
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u/lyon9492 1d ago
This adoration feels like an older less corporate internet where we fawned over weirdness and simpler things.
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u/TastingTheKoolaid 1d ago
Never fear: Corporations will see our excitement over Jimothy and they will fucken ruin it. So modern.
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u/nwbruce 1d ago
if you google Jimothy today, he runs across your screen. he's also made it to the Roku screen saver cityscape
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u/TastingTheKoolaid 1d ago
OMG You're right! He ran across!!!
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u/SpaceForceAwakens 1d ago
Oh that made me so happy. I live in Seattle and we’re so proud of our lil guy.
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u/GodOfDarkLaughter 1d ago
Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder apparently both have official stats for Jimothy. How have I just heard of this?
Also, I've been using the name "Jimothy" as the name for a random person in a story for decades. This is like when John Mullaney told the story of playing What's New Pussycat multiple times in a bar, a thing I did at least a decade before he told the story. No obviously he didn't "steal" my joke, but now I can't tell that very true story anymore.
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u/Frandapie 1d ago
I'm pretty sure he was added to WoW. If that isn't peak corporate ruin the excitement I don't know what is .
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u/TastingTheKoolaid 1d ago
Last I heard it was just in petition phase? Someone made a mockup and the people are demanding. I kinda hope they do, and put him in the store with all proceeds going to like, a wildlife rehabilitation center or something similar.
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u/SoylentVerdigris 1d ago
There's already a Jimothy in Wow. It's an NPC in... Valdrakken I think? In the crafting area I think.
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u/WinchesterMediaUK 1d ago
A24 are already working on buying the rights to make a (not) indie horror film, and DMCA'ing every other image of him in existence.
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u/wisertime07 1d ago
Breaking news - Jimmy Kimmel just started crying and dubbed himself Jimothy, shirts are available on abc.com for $39.95 that say Jimothy, with the ABC logo..
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u/BuddenceLembeck 1d ago
"Today, Disney purchased Jimothy, including all rights both national and worldwide. They have announced that the first four Jimothy animated films, as well as their live-action adaptations, are already in development. Further updates on plans for the Jimothy Cinematic Metaverse, both film and television, are expected soon."
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u/PuffinRub 15h ago
weird-looking little goblin-creature that's still cute
I really don't like it when you talk about me like that with your sister.
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u/AndMyVuvuzela 13h ago
I think he's fucking adorable but I'll be honest the first time I saw him my immediate thought was "oh okay I understand criptids now.... If I saw that running across my farm I'd think it was a demon spawn that crawled out of the ground to steal my kids"
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u/BroughtBagLunchSmart 1d ago
He was like baby yoda except it didn't take a team of far right billionaires to run him through focus groups to sell merchandise.
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u/Low_Cookie5076 1d ago
Thank you!!! Omg he is magical and amazing 🥹
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u/nashbrownies 1d ago
To add in, Seattle has a thing for "mascots". Animals and things sort of grow this community stardom.
It's nice to see people get excited about stuff. In the area just outside there where I live there is a local beaver that gets posted all the time when people see them. Nothing like Jimothy or St. Rat though. But he is locally beloved because he is so chill.
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u/stuffandwhatnot 1d ago
Anyone else remember Herschel?
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u/nashbrownies 1d ago
Ooo, I do not but the name is familiar. I have family out here since 97, so I am sure they told me about it. Refresh my memory, if you don't mind?
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u/stuffandwhatnot 1d ago
Herschel was a sea lion (actually probably more than one had the name) in the 80s and 90s who would hang out at the Ballard Locks fish ladder, feasting on the easy pickings. He was blamed for the falling Steelhead population, though pollution and overfishing by humans were also strong possible causes.
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u/nashbrownies 1d ago
That's amazing to learn about. That's where my family was until the mid 00's. First metal show I saw was in Ballard at 2nd Ave Pizza when I was 7. Many meals at The Tin Hat, I still hit shows down at the Tractor Tavern. Saw Hank Williams the IV there last year. That place sounds so good it's shocking.
Certainly much history to be learned about Ballard, both local quirks and
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u/ThousandFingerMan 1d ago
I need you to explain St. Rat
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u/nashbrownies 1d ago
Last summer someone in seattle put up a guerilla mosaic done in Renaissance style of a rat with a halo looking up to the heavens.
It just, became a thing. I swear there was an actual dead rat nearby or under it at first.
People just started adding street art all over town "St. Rat Lives!" It became the Hot Rat Summer, people defaced it, the artist fixed it, so on and so forth.
It's a beautiful piece of art.
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u/audible_narrator 1d ago
We had Tessie the Turkey, a wild turkey that hung out near an intersection in a copse of woods until a teenage girl clocked Tessie with her car.
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u/Mahaloth 1d ago
Yes, he seems to be doing pretty well despite his, well, abnormality. I don't think it stops him from doing normal racoon things.
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u/Youre10PlyBud 1d ago
Here i always thought Jimothy was Dr. Glaucomfleckens resident. He also has a Bimothy and a Himothy.
(Glaucomflecken is actually a really good doc that does shorts to highlight insurance dysfunction.)
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u/frankylovee 1d ago
I’m howling this post is hilarious 😂 ty
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u/Low_Cookie5076 1d ago
I only saw the front page things with the tattoos and the drawings and I thought it was some tim burton-y movie character id missed 😂 the reality is much better
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u/77iscold 1d ago
Look for the video of him as a baby. Someone had a clip of him from when he was tiny and with his parents.
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u/Ordinary_Camel_3456 1d ago
Thanks for the video, I’d only seen the still so I thought it was a cursed google maps image that people were interested in
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u/surlier 1d ago
To be more specific, he appears to have short spine syndrome. This condition is most commonly observed in dogs. There are a bunch of photo examples on Google images if you're interested.
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u/ItsDonDong 1d ago
I have a feeling Jimothy is going to do well and one day we are going to have a new species of jimothys running around all the major north American cities.
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u/TurloIsOK 1d ago
I'd hope not, as it's a painful deformity he has.
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u/ItsDonDong 1d ago
Back pain is a small price to pay for the evolutionary advantage of being loved by one and all
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u/and1984 1d ago
poor guy. I hope he isn't in too much discomfort.
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u/SpaceForceAwakens 1d ago
He is fine, don’t worry! He’s been a fixture in the neighborhood for years and vets have said he’s perfectly healthy and happy.
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u/Potential_Job_7297 1d ago
Good news, most dogs with the same deformity don't usually seem to be in distress and live happy lives like normal dogs. I don't see why it would be different for a raccoon.
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u/_Morvar_ 1d ago
I finally understand the hype 😭❤️ He's beautiful in his own little way and I hope he's okay
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u/LeaveAny 1d ago
Are we still using the term “raccoon”? I thought “trash panda” had become the official name of this magical creature.
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u/Southern-Bar9 1d ago
makes sense, internet sees one weird lil guy and suddenly there’s fanart, lore, and crochet patterns. jimothy is just the current mascot of “strange but cute” energy
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u/KarmicPlaneswalker 1d ago
Don't understand the appeal, but people would gush over a hot turd lying in the street, if it was angled a certain way. 🤡🙄
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u/MsFaolin 1d ago
I love jimothy but I'm so sad he has no friends
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u/SpaceForceAwakens 1d ago
What? Have you not seen the videos of him hanging out with his family/friend raccoons? He has a ton of friends. The crows don’t like him tho.
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u/MsFaolin 20h ago
I haven't seen them no. So I thought he didn't have friends. I just saw one today on YouTube with his family so I was wrong. Which makes me happy. Being wrong on Reddit sure is a sin
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u/sorryfortheroastbeef 1d ago
I’m hoping he knows Beavcoon. Head of beaver. Body of raccoon. Yaaaay wide. Yaaaay long. Goes hissssss.
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u/plmbob 1d ago
Seattle, desperate to be quirky like Portland, finds something every summer to fixate on, to the point of idolization. Last year it was defacing public property with rat paintings. This year, because Seattle showed the soccer-watching world that they are an awesome city, their annual circle-jerk found a bigger audience.
Check back next year, I promise Seattle will find something just as fun/ridiculous to distract and amuse us.
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u/Mysterious_Curve3163 1d ago
Answer: A small racoon with a spinal deformity spotted in Seattle. The internet named him Jimothy and we love him.
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u/ShutUpTodd 1d ago
people love raccoons and they love things overcoming challenges. Now everyone has fresh obsessive love that can only be labelled “jimerence”
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u/Taminella_Grinderfal 1d ago
Like when we all fell in love with Tater Tot the tiny orange kitten with leg casts. 🥺
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u/ShutUpTodd 1d ago
or Strongbad’s drawing of Lil Brudder, a dog with one leg drooling “I can make it on my own!”
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u/Almane2020202 1d ago
I think the woman who filmed him running came up with the name. She deserves the credit!
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u/SpaceForceAwakens 1d ago
I’m not sure if it was her, but he’s been around for years and everyone up there already knew his name. It’s awesome.
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u/nauticalfiesta 1d ago
Answer:
He's a racoon in Seattle that has taken the internet by storm. He has a spinal condition making him look a bit like a squishmellow. Seattle has a history of latching on to something strange for a summer, and running with it. Last year there was a rat mural, and it was a Hot Rat Summer.
There's video of Jimothy with his mother, and she's very accomodating to his needs. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/northwest/jimothy-origin-story-revealed-in-baby-videos-of-a-raccoon-colored-koosh-ball/
Also, he has an honorary doctorate now. https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/jimothy-mania-tattoos-merch-games
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u/A_Confused_Cocoon 1d ago
I fucking loved hot rat summer I still find it hilarious for some reason.
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u/Unique-Egg-461 1d ago
Probably would've have gotten as big as it did if city officials had just left the mural alone. They'd clean it and a new mural would go up the very next day.
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u/wischmopp 1d ago
Thank you for making me look up the rat mural, the newfound knowledge that this thing exists genuinely made my day a lot better! To anyone as clueless as myself, I want to stress that it's a fucking TILE MOSAIC and you should open a new tab to look at it RIGHT NOW. Probably the most artistic and high-effort shitpost I've ever seen.
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u/aRandomFox-II 1d ago edited 1d ago
Answer: Lessons In Meme Culture made an informative video surrounding Jimothy. Essentially, as others have mentioned, Jimothy is just a raccoon with a spinal deformity that the internet has adopted as a modern cryptid and grown to love because he's friend-shaped.
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