A Racoon Runs Wild on a Skyscraper, and the Internet Won't Stop Making Marvel Jokes

A raccoon scaling a Minnesota skyscraper may be the most popular thing on the internet right now and it's putting many people in a Marvel state of mind -- complete with Rocket Raccoon jokes.

We'll explain. The saga started on Monday when the small, mottled brown raccoon was spotted stranded on a ledge of the two-story Town Square office building in downtown St. Paul. Building maintenance was able to get the raccoon to step back from that ledge but instead of safely heading down to the ground, it instead escaped up, scaling some 20 stories on the nearby UBS tower. The story was picked up by Minnesota Public Radio and the raccoon's saga -- with the hashtag "mprraccoon" went viral. The story is the top trending item on Twitter at the time of this article.

The skyscraper-scaling raccoon doesn't just have people keeping track to see what the creature's ultimate fate will be, though. The saga has also invited plenty of Marvel jokes, specifically with people weighing in that the raccoon is secretly Rocket, either not handling the tragic events of Avengers: Infinity War particularly well or doing his best to campaign for his own standalone movie. Others are suggesting that maybe the Guardians could come and save this raccoon since he's clearly related to Rocket.

Even Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn got in on the action, though his tweets weren't jokes. The director has offered to donate $1,000 to the charity of choice for whoever manages to save the "poor dude," an unsurprising gesture given his affection for the fictional Rocket, a character he identifies with.

"Rocket is me, feeling outcast and forgotten," Gunn told fans at a panel last June.

So, while the world waits to see how the MPR Raccoon gets out of this predicament, check out some of our favorite Marvel jokes about this wannabe Rocket Raccoon. And hey, if Rocket can survive Thanos' snap, we have hope this guy can survive his Spider-Man style climb. Hang in there, buddy!