hammie

We just love hamsters—from their adorable butts to the way they look napping, they never fail to put a smile on our collective faces. But we suppose we’d be lying if we saidthat  hamsters are always cute. After all, not many people look “pretty” when eating! And sometimes hamsters just look so weird in a way that we can’t quite explain. Basically, they’re 90 percent “totes adorbs” and 10 percent “WTF, mate?!”

But even at their ugliest, hamsters still manage to be cute, as the popular Twitter hashtag #AllJapanCuteButUglyHamsterChampionshipSeries so ably demonstrates. Check out some of the best photos below and prepare to go “Awwww!” at all sorts of silly-looking hammies!

The hashtag #全日本ハムスターぶちゃいく選手権大会 was started earlier this month and gained quite a bit of steam towards the end of last week. In that time, numerous Twitter users tweeted photos of their hamsters looking, well, cute-but-ugly!

▼ A perfect example of what we’re talking about

[tweet https://twitter.com/otonoha0802/status/647042594875138051 align=center]

The word ぶちゃいく (“buchaiku”) is the operative descriptor here and it is a sort of baby-talk version of the terribly insulting ぶさいく (“busaiku”), which basically means “ugly” and can be written with the kanji 不細工 meaning “poorly made.” Definitely not a word to throw around lightly! Similar to kimo-kawaii, which is frequently used to describe “cute-but-gross” things, “buchaiku” describes an adorable kind of ugly these hamsters have in spades.

▼ And here’s yet another perfect example. What are you doing, hammie?!

[tweet https://twitter.com/mocomo2co2/status/646660131086663680 align=center]

The concept of the hashtag was apparently too much for many hamster-owning Japanese Twitter users to resist, and now it’s filling up with these photos that are adorable as well as unsightly. Photos like the gaping open mouth below seem to be particularly popular.

▼ Those teeth!

[tweet https://twitter.com/moriakidayo/status/646975671583948800 align=center]

But other photos just show hamsters being, for lack of a better word, weird.

▼ That’s not how that works…is it?!

[tweet https://twitter.com/ham_viwa/status/646889110712356864 align=center]

▼ That yawn would be horrifying if it didn’t look so much like Kirby.

[tweet https://twitter.com/_moco11/status/646662386913439744 align=center]

To be fair to our little furry friends, quite a few of these photos seem to be of hamsters either falling asleep in weird positions or eating, and no one looks good in those situations! Still, we don’t feel too bad about it, because, seriously, look at this picture.

▼ “NOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM!”

[tweet https://twitter.com/sigh21/status/646468919977357312 align=center]

Now, enjoy the rest of these ugly-but-cute photos of hamsters being hamsters! And if you happen to have a hamster of your own, you can participate by tweeting photos with this hashtag: #全日本ハムスターぶちゃいく選手権大会. Be sure to include a mention for RocketNews24 (@RocketNews24En) so we can see your photos!

[tweet https://twitter.com/toro303606/status/645929156027387905 align=center] [tweet https://twitter.com/sannibonimono/status/645606555627315201 align=center] [tweet https://twitter.com/l_O_p_O_l/status/645591921822273536 align=center] [tweet https://twitter.com/ayaponini/status/645590552323293184 align=center] [tweet https://twitter.com/mocomo2co2/status/647180270089560064 align=center] [tweet https://twitter.com/sun_blue_sunny/status/647779311949209600 align=center] [tweet https://twitter.com/_t0my_/status/647087053591605248 align=center] [tweet https://twitter.com/mepooooo_bot/status/647031678137823234 align=center] [tweet https://twitter.com/hamu_aka/status/645581475757191168 align=center] [tweet https://twitter.com/youryouryour_86/status/645585407086751744 align=center]

▼ “These photo are so cute! LOL”

[tweet https://twitter.com/glugluhikahika/status/648008781205409796 align=center]

We agree, @glugluhikahika! We totally agree!

Source: Twitter
Images: Twitter/@toro303606, @ham_viwa, @l_O_p_O_l, @sannibonimono, @ayaponini, @mocomo2co2