WAITING at the bar in his work overalls, Stephen Keough suddenly and unexpectedly finds himself the centre of attention.
A woman standing next to the 37-year-old flashes him a smile and asks if she can pay for his drink.
Before he can answer, she starts flirting up a storm.
“Has anyone mentioned you are seriously vibing Timothée Chalamet,” she coos, to the scruffily-dressed maintenance manager from Bodmin, Cornwall.
Perplexed, down-to-earth Stephen – married to Gemma and a dad-of-three – simply says: “Okay.”
But, despite heading to Gemma, 36, a cleaner who he’s been with for 14 years after meeting at a friend’s house party, she persists.
“No seriously!” she smiles. “I have to say that you have hot rodent looks, you know. Here’s my number.”
Meanwhile, Stephen was left confused. Had he just been compared to both one of Hollywood’s leading actors and a rat in the same sentence?
But the “hot rodent boyfriend” is Gen Z’s newest thing with TikTokers lusting after the likes of Chalamet, Barry Keoghan, Jeremy Allen Wright and Josh O’Connor.
Stephen, who admits he has all the characteristics of a “hot rodent man” – a thin angular face and slightly ratty, dark hair – isn’t offended.
“I am proud to be a hot rodent man – but I’d never let a woman scurry up my drainpipe, I’m devoted to the Mrs,” he says. “Still, I’m glad the days of muscle-bound hunks like Chris Hemsworth getting all the attention are over.
“Finally the rat pack is getting a go… I am glad rat boy looks are now in vogue.
“Women love my unconventional attractiveness. I get asked out all the time – but it’s only a recent thing.
“They finally know what my wife has known since she married me. Rat boys are sexy and banging in bed.”
Stephen, dad to Brianna, 13, Kenneth, ten, and Kayden, seven, is just one of thousands of British men whose rat boy looks are now being labelled the next big thing by the younger generation, active on TikTok – as Fabulous writer Vanessa Feltz said.
“It has been a long time coming,” he says, dismissing “gym boys” and “hipsters”.
Anna Roberts, Associate Editor of Fabulous and hot rodent critic says:
Okay, Gen Z, you’ve gone too far now.
I could handle a lot of things you promoted – thought they were good even.
But ‘rodent boyfriends’. COME ON.
Back in my dating days, when dial up was a thing and you still played Snake on your phone, no one (and I mean NO ONE), would have said ‘rodent men’ were top drawer.
I mean, they might have dated them because they were good people, but they wouldn’t have actively crushed on them.
I will never forget Leo in Romeo and Juliet (who could!) or Paul Rudd in Clueless (to be fair, he looks the same).
These men look like they need a lie down, cold flannel and perhaps some smelling salts.
There’s a reason rodents are pests – whatever TikTok says.
“Hot rodents deserve their time in the sun.
“Not everyone can be super muscled like Thor superstar Chris Hemsworth or sexy like Ryan Reynolds. The hot rodent look is more achievable.
“I have always been slim and sinewy. I work out and am muscled but not like a gym jock.
“I used to get grief at school for having a slightly pointy nose. Now my nose and dark eyes are getting attention for all the right reasons.
“Gemma loves my thin face and angular features. She’s always been ahead of the trend.”
I started modelling and getting more call backs for castings and noticed that producers wanted thinner-faced actors with angular features.
Stephen
Stephen’s noticed women flirting and hitting on him since the start of this year.
“I thought it was just because I was new to the area although a bit odd,” he said. “I started modelling and getting more call backs for castings and noticed that producers wanted thinner-faced actors with angular features.
“Then when one woman told me I was a hot rat, and she loved my angular face, I hit the internet and realised she wasn’t being rude. She was paying a compliment.
“Since then, I have had women ask me out, try and buy me drinks or flirt with me even in front of my Mrs,” Stephen says.
“It’s nice to get attention like that.
“Gemma tells me she was the first to spot my sexy rodent style and the other women can back off.”
According to Gemma, women are so desperate to get in on the rat boy action they will ask her husband out even when she is standing right next to him.
“It’s shocking. Gen Z girls are laser focussed for rat boys,” she says. “The women ignore me when I tell them he is married.
He is great in bed. It’s what many women don’t realise. Rat boys are sexy under the sheets. It’s why I married him.
Gemma
“I had to drag Stephen away on the beach recently because one girl wouldn’t stop chatting him up.
“Stephen is super-hot. I love his thin features and his slightly pointy nose. He is my hot rat.
“He is great in bed. It’s what many women don’t realise. Rat boys are sexy under the sheets. It’s why I married him,” she adds.
“Many newly crowned hot rodent men have had to battle bullying when they were younger.
“When they find a woman who appreciates their looks and bedroom powers they know how to perform.
“That’s another rat pack secret. They are banging in the bedroom.
“As for my hot rodent he is taken. Any ‘rat boyfriend collectors’ can step back.”
