A Dumpster Delight of 22 Opossum Memes for Lovers of Cute Chaos

Ayala Sorotsky • Writer and Editor

May 14, 2026 6:45 AM EDT

Why do we find opossums so relatable?

There are many reasons why a lot of people say, without a pinch of cynicism, that their spirit animal is an opossum - a trash-dwelling, de*d-playing animal, that lives in the margins of our society. We can list all these reasons here, but they're all boiled down into one thing alone - anthropomorphism. In short, it's the attribution of human traits, emotions, intentions, or behaviors to non-human things, such as inanimate objects, natural phenomena, and of course - animals.

So when we, collectively as a society, anthropomorphize opossums, based on their natural behavior - we get a chaotic-vibing underdogs in popular culture and memes. Opossums are often depicted as misunderstood, filthy, and anxious creatures, with these exact human emotions and behaviors. Are you an anxious person who just wants to cocoon in their bed and eat snacks, while procrastinating taking out the trash? We guess you identify with opossums, then.

Taking into account that it's all just a human cognitive tendency that's meant to make the unknown world more familiar, relatable, and less threatening - we think it makes opossums not just chaotic, but also insanely cute critters. The recent less-cute side of anthropomorphism is the way people assign human emotions to AI - but we don't want to think about it. Let's focus on some opossum memes to distract ourselves from this.

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via @equine__dentist
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via GladysOpossum
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via @BadQualityMemes
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via @mischiefanimals
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via @woofknight
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via GladysOpossum
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via @wholesome-animal-images
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via @TrashOpsAgent
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via @nocturnaltrashposts
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via @TrashOpsAgent
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via @grumpyanimalmemes
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via @ch0mkus
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via @grumpyanimalmemes
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via @hometoursandotherstuff
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via @WholesomeMeme
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via @WholesomeMeme
After 20 whole memes of the American opossum, we want to dedicate a couple of memes to their downunder cousins - the Australian opossum. While they're both pawsome possums, they're actually quite different from each other:
First of all, they're from different parts of the world, obviously. While the American opossum is the only marsupial native to North America, the Australian possum is a distinct marsupial species. They also have key differences in appearance and behavior. American Opossums are larger, have hairless and scaly tails like a rat, pointed white faces, and they classically "play de*d" when they feel threatened. Australian possums are smaller, often fluffier, have bushy tails, and are tree-dwellers, instead of trash-dwellers (though they do that from time to time).
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via @wildgreenmemes
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via @Brendameow1