Lifestyle

I Iz Kitty – Hear Mez Meowwwwr (Or, the Cat Internet Phenomenon)

Published

10 years ago

August 8, 2014

The Internet has recently been a-purr with a new viral sensation of the decidedly feline kind. The world is crazy for cats, it seems! These adorable furry friends have taken cyberspace by storm: from photos to videos, gif’s to ”cat-sies,” netizens cannot seem to get enough of these seemingly purrfect creatures. Feline videos and photos these days really are the cat’s meow. Grumpy Cat, Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat are three of the kitty-phenomenon’s brightest stars.

Grumpy Cat, in fact, has gained so much popularity in just about over a year since her first video went viral, that she’s landed a movie deal (“Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever”, to be released in December 2014 by Lifetime), “authored” a bestselling book (“Grumpy Cat: A Grumpy Book”), and is even the inspiration for a signature coffee line (“Grumpuccino”). She’s appeared on “Good Morning America,” been interview by Forbes, and was featured by Time Magazine as meme of the moment. As if all that were not enough to make the most popularity of celebrities bare their teeth and hiss, Grumpy Cat slinked away with the 2013 Internet Cat Video’s (yes, Internet cats have their own Awards!) Golden Kitty award, given by web users to their most beloved viral kitty.

Need we say more?

I have always been a fan of the furry feline (I had 21 – yes, you read correctly, 21! – cats, at one point), so it doesn’t surprise me much that this is “trending.” Without getting catty about it, it should, in fact, surprise no one. History reveals that humanity has, from the seeming dawn of time, always been largely fascinated with cats.

“Mau” than man’s best friend

Though they may not have been bestowed the lofty title of “man’s best friend,” unlike their canine counterparts, they hold an even loftier title, in this day and age: “man’s best shot at Internet fame.” There is no power known to humanity, it would seem, that can stand against the crazy cuteness of cats.

Human folk have been under this feline spell since the time of the ancient Egyptians, during which they were worshiped as gods (the cat-goddess Bast) and valued for their important role in vermin and snake control. The goddess Bast was a central figure to early Egyptian religion, and was revered as the deity of protection, fertility, and motherhood.

In ancient Egypt, cats were known as “mau”, and believed to have been domesticated from the Middle Eastern subspecies of the Wildcat approximately 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent. They held such an important place in ancient Egyptian society, that some felines were given the same mummification rites upon their death as was accorded to humans.

Ode to a cat

Humanity’s homage to cats in popular culture dates back to, once again, ancient Egyptian times. Cats were generally seen in pictographs and hieroglyphs; and in temples, as statues of Bast, the cat goddess.

Poetry from as early as the 9th century also reflects our feline fancy. The poem “Pangur Ban” was penned in that era by an Irish monk, in honour of his fur baby. Although I highly doubt they were called fur babies, back then.

In the 1870’s, Harry Pointer (Pointer, NOT Potter) and his carte de visite’s featured cats with amusing captions. Several hundred years later, Christopher Smart would author the poem “For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry.” And even further along, in the 1930’s, T.S. Eliot would write his renowned and well-loved Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Aficionados of musical theater will perhaps know that the musical CATS was based on this work.

Now, we have LOLcats as perhaps the most popular cat photo and meme sharing venue. Ben Huh of the Cheezburger Network says that cats, in fact, have an undisputed rule of the Internet. He pointed out that people submit 10 times as many “LOLCats” as “Hot Dogs” to the site.

Scott Stulen of the Walker Arts Center, a contemporary art museum in Minneapolis, describes the response to the Cat Internet Video Festival, first held in 2013: “There’s something about the cat video that transcends language and transcends culture,” he said. And it’s more than simple entertainment, because people feel such a strong connection. “There’s definitely something much deeper to it.”

The cat craze has obviously outlived its nine lives, and it doesn’t show any signs of fading away anytime soon.

Picture purrrfect

Meeeeowve over, selfies! It seems the feline fascination is such that in certain countries, like the United Kingdom, cat photos are more popular than selfies.

UK mobile network company, Three, in conjunction with net research company Viral Spiral, conducted a study which found that internet users share more than twice as many online cat pictures as they do selfies. More than 3.8 million cat snaps are shared each day, as against 1.4 million selfies.

The study also disclosed that one in five internet users have created an online persona for their cat. This computes to more than 350,000 cat owners who have set up an account on Twitter or Facebook or other social networks for their pet.

Daniel Fisher, CEO at Viral Spiral, said: “The most popular Internet cats display human characteristics, mirroring our everyday habits. The Internet cat Hall of Fame features grumpy, affectionate, keyboard playing, surprised, talking and angry cats.

And it’s all about making people laugh, with humour winning over cuteness. The vast majority of cat videos online are cute, but the superstars are the ones who are hilarious, make us smile and want to share with our friends and followers.”

Purrfect combination

Why the seeming obsession with cats that – more seemingly so, if history is any indicator – won’t go away anytime soon? Not that we would EVER want it to, might I add.

Naturalists, psychologists and sociologists have all studied the phenomenon, and have come up with several theories, which may explain why we worship on feline ground. Maybe the key is one, or a combination of these factors.

First, we are in awe of cats. It’s pretty hard not to be, really. Being around a domesticated cat is like being around the king or queen of agile, fierce, beautiful, awe-inspiring jungle beasts. Only smaller in size cuddly, entertaining, funny, squishable, and safe.

Mieshelle Nagelschneider, author of the book Cat Whisperer said in an interview with a reporter from the online publication, New Republic, that humans have an inclination towards cats and towards watching cat videos or looking at cat photos because we wish we could do the things that cats can do. “When we are watching these videos, they just blow our minds,” she said.

Second, it seems that cats (and this may come across to some as a little, well, weird) remind us of our own human offspring. Hence, the desire to protect and nurture them.

Michael Newall, a philosopher of art at the University of Kent, theorizes that our almost obsessive interest in cats may derive from their outward resemblance to human babies; what with their big eyes, smallish noses, and dome-shaped heads. These features, in turn, set-off in us the evolutionary nurturing instincts that we demonstrate toward our babies.

In similar manner, Ben Huh also noted that, in references to cat memes, “cats have very expressive facial and body expressions, so they are a perfect canvas for human emotion, which makes them awesome for captioning and anthropomorphization.”

Third, we love that cats are social and comic, and yet incredibly aloof, dignified creatures. We find this paradox endlessly amusing, apparently. Tom Cox, author of Under the Paw – Confessions of a Cat Man and Talk to the Tail says: “Cats have a combination of incredible dignity, but also comedy about them. Cats can be so ridiculously pleased with themselves — and you don’t get that with dogs. Because they are so proud and so aware of that dignity, when it is punctured it’s the funniest thing in the world.”

And fourth, and simply enough, the Internet has become the best avenue for cat owners to share their love for their fur babies. The Internet has, in fact, become the equivalent of a “dog park” for cats and their humans.

Whatever the reasons, one thing is for certain – the Internet has brought out and magnified (as the Internet does with virtually anything it touches) what has been there all along: We cannot get enough of cats.

And perhaps – knowing cats as I do – this has been their Great Feline Agenda all along.

The 10 Most Famous Internet Cats in the World (according to a list published in cutestpaw.com in April, 2013. All images from the respective Facebook pages):

1. Maru the Cat