Who doesn’t like a good raccoon meme? Who doesn’t like a good raccoon? Wait, who doesn’t like a good raccoon anything? Trash pandas are awesome and no, there can’t be any other way.
Along with lolcats, doggos and other animals, trash pandas have taken over the internet and they’re here to stay, especially in meme form.
And speaking of raccoon memes, there is a dedicated Instagram page that celebrates raccoonhood with existential, funny, and straight up adorkable memes.
So, scroll down to check out our curated list of the top memes the page has to offer, and while you’re at it, make sure to upvote, comment and check out the page itself!
More Info: Nocturnal Trash Posts
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So, the dedicated raccoon meme page is called Nocturnal Trash Posts, alluding to the age-old facts that raccoons are night-time critters with a huge affection for trash. The page currently boasts 570 posts that it has shared with an audience of over 324,000 followers.
The page is run by retro game streamer and meme creator Hanna (@NocturnalHanna), with whom CNN News got in touch for an interview. The page also has a complementary shop called the Nocturnal Trash Pile that sells everything from clothing to accessories to home décor, all adorned with lovely raccoon artwork.
“I decided to make my Instagram page after I had been making raccoon memes to send to my friends for a few months,” explains Hanna about the origins of the now-viral page.
“There were barely any raccoon memes at the time, so I decided to make my own and then ended up posting them to Instagram. It was slow initially, but it soon started to take off, and it was cool to see how many people were relating to my posts.”
For the most part, the page is all about getting in touch with the existentialist in us, being apathetic about life, and self-loathing. All of this is wrapped in a fine coat of comedy because everyone loves humor as a coping mechanism.
But besides that, there are also memes that focus on love, mental health, unexpected wordplay, and the like, hitting on some contemporary ideas and concepts from the internet along the way.
Oh, and the visuals—all of the sayings and phrases are complemented by the amazing raccoon pic collages and photoshop work, accentuating the humor to the next level.
“The inspiration for the posts is all over the place,” elaborates Hanna. “I sometimes see a raccoon photo and I instantly have an idea of what I want to do with it, and then sometimes it’s the other way around. I spend a lot of time thinking of different ideas and testing them with different photos. There’s a lot of drafts I don’t end up posting. There’s also some meme formats that I’ll see circulating around that I will love and end up making a raccoon version of.”
Hanna has been making trash panda memes for around 3 years at this point, and though they have evolved a lot over this time, for the last year, she has been trying to make the style more consistent.
“I like to make my memes look very aesthetically pleasing with backgrounds and layouts that help emphasize the message. A lot of my memes are dramatizations of feelings many of us share. I feel by dramatizing these emotions it can be relatable and an easy way to share it with others,” adds Hanna.
She described her memes as ranging from sad and existential to silly and surprisingly motivational. After all, raccoons are a great animal to represent and to convey these topics and themes since many view this majestic animal as “the underdog”, which is relatable. Also, they’re cute, so why wouldn’t you use raccs for memes?
Creating memes is a form of art, especially if you do it kinda sorta professionally, so of course there will be challenges along the way, as explains Hanna:
“The most challenging part of creating a raccoon meme is thinking of ideas and what will resonate with people. I’ve been doing this for over 3 years now and it can sometimes be difficult to find new inspiration or think of something I haven’t done yet. It can also be really difficult to find photos sometimes for what I’m envisioning. There really aren’t that many different raccoon photos out there compared to, say, dogs or cats.”
“I wish more people knew that raccoons are just misunderstood little friends and they shouldn’t be treated as pests or looked down upon. I’d like to think my page has helped with this as I’ve been told by some people that they hated raccoons until they found my page. I’ve always loved and related to raccoons from a young age. They would break into our trash bin at night and my parents would go outside to scare them away and I would run out and try to stop them because I wanted to see the raccoons,” said Hanna.
She continued: “Overall, I never expected such niche animal memes to become so popular and resonate with so many people! Since I started the account, raccoons and raccoon memes are all over Instagram now and it’s really cool to see. I myself have struggled to relate to others, so it’s been a really rewarding experience putting my thoughts and feelings into my memes and seeing just how many people relate. I’m really glad I can help brighten anyone’s day even if it’s in such a small way.”
Note: this post originally had 45 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
If you haven’t had your fill of trash pandas today, remember, this is CNN News, of course we have posts about them—it would be a crime not to cover brother panda content.
You can read this entertaining thread about how a guy live-tweeted a “raccoon rescue” story, how this woman saved a raccoon, or perhaps you just want to watch a bunch of raccoons eating hotdogs.
Whatever the case, be sure to visit the Nocturnal Trash Posts Instagram page or the equally entertaining Facebook page, and give them a follow, or follow Hanna and everything she does on Twitter, but not without sharing with us your favorite raccoon memes in the comment section below!
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