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Man Behind Subway Rat Face Crawl Video SPEAKS
By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 14, 2011
Modified Jan 14, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 14, 2011
Modified Jan 14, 2011
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Since it went viral yesterday morning, that video of a panicked rat scrambling around inside a subway train (and crawling across a sleeping man's face) has racked up almost half a million views on YouTube. NYC The Blog, which embedded the video yesterday, reports that the gentleman who made it, one Jeffrey Forde, sold his non-watermarked version of the video to several media outlets for almost $4,000! There is also, of course, a T-shirt for sale, and we expect beer cozies and mouse pads to hit the markets today. Rats inside subway trains: the key to NYC's economic recovery? They've certainly been good to Forde, and yesterday he talked to the media about his good fortune.
Forde says he was napping on the train around 2 a.m. on Tuesday when he was awoken by a scream. The rat was "resting comfortably on the sleeping man's lap," and Forde took a photo. But he tells ABC 7, "I said, 'wait a minute, if he does that again I have to get it on video.' " And that attention-starved little rat didn't disappoint. "That poor unfortunate guy, he just got a face full of rat," says Forde. "He just kind of shoulder shrugged it off, the rat jumped off, he went back to sleep like it was so routine to him." Some people moved to a different car, while others stayed to watch the show. But Forde documented the incident for posterity, and got a nice little payday. At press time, it's unclear if the video's rodent star will ever see any residuals.
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jeffrey forde
rat inside subway train
rat video
subway
vermin video
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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