I couldn’t believe it. Had Roku really just casually inserted global viral raccoon sensation Jimothy into Roku City? I’d seen a post claiming so, but knowing how easy it is to fake things with AI, I had to see it for myself.
I powered up one of my home’s half-dozen Roku streaming boxes and spent 10 minutes trying to force the platform into screen-saver mode, which then opens up Roku City. Ever since the most recent Roku platform update, I see this interface far less often than I used to.
Roku City is Roku’s fictional, purple cityscape populated by thinly disguised iconic characters and objects from film, TV, and life.
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After a few minutes of hunting, I figured out how to set my screen saver timeout to one minute. A moment later, the side-scrolling Roku City appeared, and in it, caught mid-waddle atop a chain-link fence, was Jimothy’s unmistakable silhouette.
For those who’ve thrown out their phones, computers, and TVs, Jimothy is a Seattle-based raccoon with a rare disorder called “short spine syndrome.” Don’t worry, it doesn’t appear to impact his mobility or lifestyle, but once you see Jimothy, you never forget him.
Jimothy is so popular that he’s been featured as the unofficial mascot at Seattle Mariners games, launched what’s widely considered “Hot Jimothy Summer,” and is now immortalized in Roku City.
Jimothy made it to Roku City in a matter of hours
“You share the same problem we all share, which is when we really want to get to Roku City, like right now, we wonder, ‘How do we get there?” Damon Van Deusen, Roku’s Vice President, Global Brand and Creative, told me this week, but added that a solution is already in the works: Roku is adding a Roku City tile to the home screen for instant access.
Van Deusen agreed to sit down and explain how Jimothy made his way — virtually — from the alleys of a Seattle suburb to Roku’s iconic services.
Jimothy’s appearance, while surprising, is not out of character for the screen saver enjoyed by Roku’s roughly 100 million customers.
“The Jimothy journey starts six or seven years ago when we actually started realizing that social was paying attention to the screen saver,” explained Van Deusen. Back in 2021, they noticed likely pandemic-quarantined consumers posting about how they’d like to visit the city, share a kiss there, or even get married in the purple space.
“We’ve been putting Easter eggs in the screen saver as a way to engage some fans and social ever since,” he added.
Over the years, the city’s been populated by, among other things, characters from popular films (like the rock monster from Galaxy Quest and Star Trek’s Enterprise). Still, there was something about Jimothy’s timeliness that struck me.
Seattle resident Kiana Hall posted an Instagram video about the unusual raccoon on July 16, 2026. I spotted Jimothy in Roku City on July 31, and the post I saw about the raccoon’s integration in the platform was a few days older than that.
“In the last two years, we created what’s called the Rapid Response Easter Egg Team,” explained Van Deusen.
This cross-functional group cuts through typical product development, and “we figured out a system where we could publish these things really fast. So now everything we do is quicker and quicker and quicker.”
Tracking and choosing from the Zeitgeist
The team, which often communicates on Slack, is constantly kicking around watercooler moments like Punch the Money and Goat on Car. They choose “anything that tickles us, anything that feels really fun. I mean, again, that’s the bar; it’s gotta be delightful, playful, fun, lift spirits, and create conversation,” Van Deusen told me, who later added that delight, or something that triggers an “unexpected smile,” is “really the heart of the whole brand.”
Van Deusen loved that I more or less stumbled on Jimothy’s existence in the city. “An unexpected smile, if you think about it, it’s like it comes out of nowhere. It’s not like you’re looking for it; it’s just like you spotting Jimothy. It’s like, ‘Wait a minute, are you, wait, is that Jimothy?'”
The Jimothy journey starts six or seven years ago when we actually started realizing that social was paying attention to the screen saver,
Not every viral moment can make it in. The Rapid Response Easter Egg Team avoids bummers and negative news. However, they did do a retrospective of Moira Rose’s wigs as a way to memorialize the great Catherine O’Hara, who played Moira in Schitt’s Creek and died on January 30 of this year.
When the right idea comes along, the team knows it. “Then we’ll be like, ‘Oh my God, that’s so cool,’ and then we’ll make it happen right away…and that’s how Jimothy came about.”
Looking at the Roku City Jimothy, I was struck by the silhouette’s uncanny accuracy — it could be no other raccoon.
Van Deusen told me Roku has, over the last five years, built a world-class illustration team, which includes comic book illustrators and former Disney artists.
The company shared the Roku Designer, Illustrator, and Director Tim Cook‘s early Jimothy sketch and how he might appear in Roku City (above). Even in pencil, you can see how he captured the shape and signature gait of the lovable critter.
The making of an icon
To create Jimothy, the team focused on that “iconic sort of hunch.” Van Deusen said that there was a feedback session to ensure they got the look just right.
Silhouettes also happen to be part of Roku City’s DNA, giving you the clear impression of a character or viral figure without a lot of detail.
“We had tried doing less silhouetted versions of the city when we tried to localize for different markets once, and the more you see, the further you get away from the City,” he said.
The suggestion of these shapes and recognizable figures forces you to lean in and engage even more with what is arguably just a screen saver.
“It’s kind of a little bit of a wink, obviously, you know, and we do that on purpose; we never want to say too much. And we never reveal what the Easter eggs are; we always just sort of suggest and like elude, and again, it’s so much more fun,” said Van Deusen, smiling, I think, at the thought of Jimothy’s unmistakable shape.
We developed a tool where we can basically come up with an idea, something we want to do, the illustration team quickly mocks something up, and we can put it in the screen saver, all within a couple of hours.”
As for how Jimothy made it to millions of screen saves so quickly, Roku’s Rapid Response team can add new elements to Roku City in a matter of hours.
“We developed a tool,” Van Deusen said, “where we can basically come up with an idea, something we want to do, the illustration team quickly mocks something up, and we can put it in the screen saver, all within a couple of hours.”
That kind of speed puts Roku City firmly inside the zeitgeist. But that, too, is fast changing, and I wondered how long Jimothy would be waddling across Roku City screens.
Roku does rotate out the Easter eggs, though a backlog of four years or more can rotate in and out of the side-scrolling interface. Roku, by the way, recently added a user-controllable version where you can slide back and forth for a better look at all these hidden gems, including Jimothy.
The lovable raccoons should appear in Roku City “as long as Jimothy is in the zeitgeist,” said Van Deusen, adding, “[he] will eventually, probably be replaced. I don’t know if we’ll always have a rotational raccoon, but we will find the next, you know, popping character.”
Until then, enjoy Jimothy in real and virtual life.
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lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff)
