Booboo

A guinea pig named Booboo is currently the internet’s favorite animal, which is strange because he’s just a guinea pig. He lives with his owner Megan and two other guinea pigs named Titi and Teddy, they’re all very small and fuzzy, and for reasons I don’t fully understand, this is what the internet has decided to love right now. Somewhere between Reddit and 9Gag and Facebook, a collective decision was made that this rodent is the cutest thing to have ever lived.

This has happened before. There was Grumpy Cat, who had a stupid permanent frown and somehow became a brand. Lil Bub looked like a genetic accident and that made her beloved. Prince Chunk was just a fat pug, but being fat was apparently enough. Each one gets their moment and then fades. But a guinea pig is different—you’re not famous for having an interesting expression or being absurdly obese. You’re famous for being small.

Booboo’s main distinguishing feature is that his owner puts glasses on him sometimes, which I admit is funny. Tiny glasses on a guinea pig work because there’s no way they don’t. But that’s the whole thing. He’s two years old, he looks like every other guinea pig, and millions of people have watched him eat a carrot and felt something close to joy. Not ironic joy. Actual joy.

There’s something depressing about that, or maybe something honest. The world is mostly bad, and then you see a guinea pig in glasses and for a minute you don’t have to think about anything else. It’s not meaningful, it’s not even clever, it’s just a small thing being small. Maybe that’s enough sometimes. Maybe that has to be enough.