Why Is the Web Fascinated With Hamsters Eating Burritos?

Why Is the Web Fascinated With Hamsters Eating Burritos?

It does not take much to captivate the Internet audience. In the latest instance of this, the only things involved are a hamster and mini burritos.

Comedy group Hello Denizen began publishing videos online this month and its second upload is a massive hit; more than 507,000 views in less than 24 hours.

The 1-minute-23-second clip simply features a hamster eating a couple of tiny burritos.

"Tiny Hamsters Eating Tiny Burritos - Episode 1" starts with chef Farley Elliott preparing the hamster's fine cuisine. While he appears to be chopping up human foods, the people at Hello Denizen assure viewers that all of the burrito's contents were deemed safe for hamsters.

The hamster then walks over to a makeshift, miniature dinner table in a setting that resembles a restaurant. A mini-burrito is placed in front of him. He grabs it with both hands, and chows it down. Followed by another, and another.

And that is how the Internet was won.  One commenter summed it nicely, writing, "I have no idea why, but I can't stop watching this video.. help."

"We like to make comedy videos that are as visual as possible," a Hello Denizen representative told Yahoo via email. "We'd had an idea about making something with miniature food, because that sounded weird and cute. We then realized that feeding that food to a hamster would make it that much better, and adding the extra layer of a chef who cared about this more than anything on earth would make our viewers care as well, and play our game with us."

Judging by the amount of views and positive feedback, it worked.

"We were pretty confident that anybody who saw it would like it; but the response has been overwhelming and amazing," the representative said. "Honestly it makes us so happy that people are so delighted by it."

In addition to the chef, Hello Denizen enlisted the help of a hamster trainer so that the star attraction would walk over to the set, sit, and eat.

"We've got more ideas on deck and plan to keep putting out content regularly, while exploring what we can do with ideas that connect as well as Hamsters Eating Burritos did," Hello Denizen told Yahoo. "Really looking forward to what comes next!"

Hello Denizen is a branch of the Denizen Company, a Los Angeles-based social media marketing agency. Joel Jensen, Joe Matsushima, and Amy Matsushima founded the company four years ago.