History Main / RodentsOfUnusualSize

* ''SouthPark'' was attacked by giant carnivorous guinea pigs, OrSoIHeard. The guinea pig community was quite full of {{Squee}} over it.

* Any anime with a RidiculouslyCuteCritter mascot. 9 times out of 10, it's a large mouse or rabbit.

* RealLife example: The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capybara capybara]], which is mercifully herbivorous.

* Real life example: a "rat king" is the name given to a group of rats whose tails are so mired in muck and filth that they are permanently stuck together. Just as horrifying today as it was back in the sixteenth century.

*** Probably the stronger rats in the tangle eat the weaker ones. If the weaker ones are lucky, they'll die first.
*** [[{{Discworld}} They develop]] [[{{Planescape}} psychic powers, that's how.]]
**** [[TalesOfTheQuestor Or started throwing around shadow-rats and feeding on magic.]]
*** Or, as Terry Pratchett admits is most likely, they got that way because some bored S.O.B. [[HumansAreBastards tied their tails together, then turned them loose to starve]].
** Probably the trapped rats would eventually escape by either [[LifeOrLimbDecision chewing through their own tails]], or by pulling hard enough to cause "degloving" of the stuck skin, as sometimes happens when a rat is picked up by its tail.

** There is an entire episode of the t.v. show Monster Quest that deals with sightings of cat or even dog-sized rats in major U.S. cities like New York, including a homeless man who reported a 3-foot giant in an abandoned subway tunnel.

* The first mammals, back in the Jurassic, were small [[strike: rodents]] and rodent-like. From a dinosaur's perspective, every mammal since, from saber-tooth tigers to sperm whales to humans is a post-apocalyptic, giant, mutant rat. And yes, we are that scary.
** Large mammals like ''Repenomamus'' already existed in the Mesozoic, disproving the notion that all mammals were very small. Repenomamus could be seen as an equivalent to a giant rodent, however, because the group it belonged to, triconodonts, was generally small ad shrew like.
** Primates, rodents and lagomorphs (rabbits and their relatives) are part of a superorder called ''Euarchontoglires'', which may have coexisted with the later dinosaurs. In other words, [[TomatoInTheMirror we're closer related to rodents than cats and dogs]].
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opossum Opossums]] are marsupials, not rodents, but it's plausible that they could be mistaken for oversized rats (especially if seen at night or from a distance).

* The widderen in ''{{Merlin}}''. [[NightmareFuel Naked Mole Rats Of Unusual Size]].

* More than one sequence from ''Looney Toons'' involved Sylvester '''thinking''' he's encountered this trope, but it's really a young kangaroo that keeps swapping places with the mouse he's after and smacking him around.

** And there's this troper's favorite: the Rylkar from Version 3.5's Monster Manual V. They're basically a nest of giant, evil rats who are connected via a hive mind to their harridan, the huge, disease and corruption spreading, blind matriarch of the nest.
** And while on the topic of ''Dungeons & Dragons''... It's... a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Space_Hamster Giant Space Hamster]]!

* The actual trope namer, surprised it's not on here already, is in The Princess Bride, where Westly tries to reassure buttercup that the ROUS does not exist, though he alreaddy saw one. backfires when he gets attacked shortly after. He throws them off his trail when he wipes blood off himself and covers up the blood-scent with mud.

->'''Westley''': Rodents of Unusual Size? [[TemptingFate I don't think they exist]].

* In New Orleans, nutrias (once farmed for their fur) have established breeding populations along the city's levees and waterways, where they are sometimes mistaken for Rats Of Unusual Size. These semiaquatic mammals are actually from a different family of rodent than rats, and are ''supposed'' to be the size of tomcats.
** If you ever see a "giant killer rat" in a sideshow, it's probably a nutria. (They used to use capybaras, but those are incredibly high-maitenence.)

* The actual trope namer, surprised it's not on here already, is in The Princess Bride, where Westly tries to reassure buttercup that the ROUS does not exist, though he alreaddy saw one. backfires when he gets attacked shortly after. He throews them off his tail when he wipes blood off himself and covers up the blood-scent with mud.

** Or form Middenland, since you know have been attacked by a ''massive'' army of said three-foot ratmen with [[SchizoTech lazer cannons]]

** Previous editions of D&D also included giant beavers, giant porcupines, and -- I B.S. you not -- ''giant carnivorous flying squirrels''.

* An enemy from ''[[VampireTheMasquerade Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' is called a Ghoul Rat. The size of an Irish Wolfhound.
* In {{Shadowrun}}, devil rats are Awakened rodents the size of a border collie. Nasty, vicious, disease-carrying, and (for some reason) bald all over.

** ''TheElderScrolls IV'' had vast array of underground catacombs and Romantic secret passages lit by torchlight. [[{{Discworld}} It was damp. There were rats.]]
*** There's also a woman in one of the cities that keeps pet rats. Her rival hated them, and so put out meat to lure them, which had effect of attracting mountain lions which came and killed a few of the rats. The lions were surprisingly weak in battle though compared to the ones you usually fight in the wild.

** Which is usually considered ThatOneBoss for the first half of the game, considering the fact that it could attack twice per turn, and hit all of your party with each attack for a ''lot'' of damage. Damn rats.

* ''AdventureQuest'' has BURPS, which stands for "Big Ugly Rat Pests". They're ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. And every other year that's a war fighting nothing BUT those guys. They also qualify as GoddamnedBats because they're a pain in the ass to hit, where as the bigger ones deal quite a bit of damage. At higher levels you'll still be fighting the guys, often in groups.
* ''ParasiteEve'' had mutated rodents that trying to kill you. And giant squirrel, too.

* Somehow played for laughs at the start of ''TheBardsTale'', where the eponymous Bard goes into the basement of a tavern to kill a rat for the hostess. After some patronising dialogue from the narrator, a giant rat emerges from the darkness, and ''[[BreathWeapon breathes fire]]'' on the Bard, forcing him to retreat back above ground. Turns out it was all just a prank, which the drunken patrons got a good laugh out of.

* The bonus-content version of the credits from ''[[NancyDrew Resorting To Danger]]'' includes a clip of Casper the albino squirrel, grown to the size of an elephant, destroying the laboratory by shooting laser beams from his eyes.

* ''InvaderZim'' had Pee-Pee the hamster. Zim he knew that it was so cute that no one would dare harm it so he turned it to his monster pet.

* Hero example: in one episode, RescueRangers (a fly and four rodents) are enlarged to human size.

* Ratigan from ''TheGreatMouseDetective'' get especially scary looking in the climax of the movie.

* In a Donald Duck comic there is a comic where Donald and Fethry fight giant rat ghosts

* The StephenKing short story ''Graveyard Shift''.

* The StephenKing short story ''Night Shift''.

* ''AdventureQuest'' has BURPS, which stands for "Big Ugly Rat Pests". If I recall correctly, there's also a monster named the Rodents of Unusual Size...or was that in the monster description...ah well, either way, they're ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. And every other year that's a war fighting nothing BUT those guys. They also qualify as GoddamnedBats because they're a pain in the ass to hit (especially the smaller ones), where as the bigger ones deal quite a bit of damage. Did I also mention that even at higher levels you'll still be fighting the guys, often in groups?

*In the S.M Stirling book, ''In The Courts of the Crimson Kings'' when the protagonist rescued from a prison, his [[TransplantedHumans Martian]] rescuer warns him that the tunnels under Olympus Mons are inhabited by all manner of unpleasant creatures including rodents of unusual size, [[SubvertedTrope they turn out to be thousands of tiny rodents that swarm like army ants]].

[[AC:{{Myth}}]]

* In New Orleans, nutrias (once farmed for their fur) have established breeding populations along the city's levees and waterways, where they are sometimes mistaken for Rats Of Unusual Size. These aquatic mammals are actually from a different family of rodent altogether, and are ''supposed'' to be the size of tomcats.

* In New Orleans, nutrias (once farmed for their fur) have established breeding populations along the city's levees and waterways, where they are sometimes mistaken for Rats Of Unusual Size. These aquatic mammals are actually from a different family of rodent altogether, and are ''supposed'' to be cat-sized.

* One sequence from ''Loony Toons'' involved Sylvester '''thinking''' he's encountered this trope, but it's really a young kangaroo that keeps swapping places with the mouse he's after and smacking him around.

*Parodied in ''[[TheLordsOfCreation In The Courts of the Crimson Kings]]'' by S.M. Stirling. The main character runs into what the native Martians call "rodents of unusual size." They are smaller than usual, form a hive, and are very nasty.