Animal Tales
Cats on the internet: can we ever get enough of them? In 2005, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen became the first person to upload a cat video, which showed his pet Pyjamas playing with a piece of rope. Unfortunately Steve’s thirty second clip, filmed in semi-darkness, failed to spark much interest and cat video fans were forced to wait until May 2006 for the first viral hit. When Michael Wienzek posted ‘Puppy vs. Cat’, a short film that featured seven curious Labrador puppies circling round a less than delighted adult cat, the post attracted 16 million hits. Here are some more online felines that have since become household names: Grumpy Cat - The combination of a pronounced underbite and a condition known as feline dwarfism gave Grumpy Cat (otherwise known as Tardar Sauce) her disgruntled expression. Her image was often accompanied by captions such as “I had fun once. It was awful.” Although Grumpy Cat has sadly passed away, her memory lives on in online images and merchandise (one popular online store sells almost 900 items featuring her face). At the time of Grumpy Cat’s death, aged seven, she had accumulated more than 1.5 million followers on Twitter, 2.5 million on Instagram and 8.3 million on Facebook. It’s rumoured that she also made $100 million from film and media appearances, sponsorship deals and merchandise sales. Maru - Japanese cat Maru has achieved a Guinness World Records title for being the most-viewed animal on YouTube. Maru is a Scottish Fold cat with a characteristically round face (the name means ‘circle’ in Japanese). Maru’s owner originally planned
to document his pet growing from a kitten to an adult, without any intention of creating a video star. When the first video was released in 2008 it received relatively low viewing figures, and it wasn’t until Maru’s owner decided to introduce some cardboard packaging into his cat’s playtime routine that things really took off. From the moment Maru was confronted by a cardboard box, it was clear that his playful response would give rise to a million likes and follows. Maru’s most popular videos feature him skidding, jumping and diving into boxes, or sticking his head through holes cut into the cardboard. Choupette Lagerfeld - After fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld died in 2019, rumours abounded that he had left much of his vast fortune to his Birman cat, Choupette. During the years she spent touring the high-fashion circuit with her outlandish owner (who designed a Louis Vuitton carrier bag especially for her), Choupette became an internet sensation and now has almost 70 thousand followers on Instagram. She currently lives with a nanny (the former Lagerfeld housekeeper Françoise Caçote) in Paris, and still visits her agent for the occasional photoshoot. A staple of popular culture - Nowadays cat videos are some of the most-viewed features on YouTube. In 2015 it was estimated that two million cat videos had been shared on the platform, so the number could easily have reached three million or more by now. Whether we view videos, buy cat-related merchandise or follow the social media account of a famous feline, it seems the internet has effectively transformed cat-watching from a niche entertainment to a staple of popular culture.
By Kate McLelland
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