Ceiling Cat | Know Your Meme
About
Ceiling Cat is a photoshop meme primarily based on {a photograph} of a cat peeking by way of a gap within the ceiling of a room. Its on-line reputation finally led to a number of spinoff characters, together with his nemesis Basement Cat and Basement Horse.
Origin
Whereas the unique photographer of the picture continues to be unknown, a number of individuals have claimed to know its origin. Encyclopedia Dramatica states that the cat belongs to Wikipedia consumer Samguana however this declare has not been confirmed. In Could 2012, One thing Terrible poster Quarex claimed that they have been pals with the cat’s proprietor, posting an identical picture of the cat from a special angle. The consumer additionally mentioned the cat within the picture handed away in 2010.
The picture that might go on to grow to be the picture macro has been on-line since as early as June 1st, 2003 when it was submitted to FunnyJunk. The picture was titled “Stalker Kitty” and didn’t obtain any feedback for 4 years.
It was not paired with the phrase “Ceiling cat is watching you masturbate” till 2006 on the earliest. The captioned picture first unfold through YTMND, with the earliest web site created on February eighth, 2006. A number of different websites have been created that yr, however there have been fewer cases of Ceiling Cat showing on YTMND for every subsequent yr. Two days after the preliminary YTMND was created, CeilingCat.com was created. Ceiling-cat.com was created November twenty second, 2006, solely internet hosting the captioned picture.
Unfold
The picture advanced in to a well-liked Photoshop meme. Many variants of this picture appeared on 4chan‘s /b/, or random board, utilizing the “cat in a gap” exploitable in various methods, together with showing as a god. Ceiling Cat was added to City Dictionary on June 1st, 2006. This definition included the truth that the cat was a deity, alluding to the Catnarok mythology.
On January twenty fourth, 2007, the unique macro was posted on I Can Has Cheezburger. Kongregate posted a Flash sport known as Ceiling Cat Invaders, a knockoff of Area Invaders, on July thirteenth, 2007. On March thirteenth, 2009, design weblog Tubbypaws shared a DIY papercraft Ceiling Cat. I Can Has Cheezburger posted a profile of Ceiling Cat on February third, 2011, highlighting a few of the extra standard picture macro derivatives.
Myths Surrounding Ceiling Cat
Constructing upon this theme of Ceiling Cat as God, the Ceiling Cat meme spawned a couple of completely different pseudo-religious mythologies. In Catnarok, Ceiling Cat goes to be the cat that says the approaching of the battle between Longcat and Tacgnol. collected collectively as “Catnarok.” In March 2009, the Each day Kos posted a picture collection explaining this mythology behind Ceiling Cat.
The LOLCat Bible has decided that Ceiling Cat is the LOLCat equal of God, with Basement Cat representing the satan. This mythology has no correlation with Catnarok, as it’s presupposed to be a near-direct translation of the bible in to LOLSpeak.
“Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, however he didn’t eated dem. Da Urfs no had shapez An haded darkish face, An Ceiling Cat rode invisible bike over teh waterz.”
Wall Cat Concept
On September twenty second, 2010, Redditor avapoet posted a thread to the Right now I Discovered subreddit declaring a bit of the unique picture the place a skirting board is seen, proving that the cat is absolutely inside a gap in a wall and never really a ceiling.
Redditor Jensaarai refuted the publish. They wrote:
Let’s put this to relaxation eternally. The primary identified look of this pic titled “Stalker Kitty” on June 1, 2003:
http://funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/1018/Stalker+Kitty/
This got here a full two years earlier than the “ceiling cat” meme, however the unique picture most positively exhibits it to be a ceiling cat, much more conclusively than this comparability, because it predates the meme. Whoever posted the meme cropped the picture right down to this model to remove the brand, and it was then cropped once more inflicting the good wall-cat confusion.
2018 Resurgence
On June nineteenth, 2018, Twitter consumer @CampbellxEmma tweeted a number of images of her mom’s cat poking its head by way of a gap within the ceiling (proven under). Inside 24 hours, the tweet gained over 74,700 likes and 22,100 retweets.
That day, Twitter consumer @potatobanjo posted a Creation of Adam photoshop superimposed with the 2 completely different ceiling cats (proven under).
Within the coming days, Mashable printed an article titled “Cat pokes head by way of gap within the ceiling, achieves prompt fame,” Twitter printed a Moments web page titled “The meme gods have given the world the second coming of ceiling cat” and Smosh printed an article titled “Ceiling Cat Memes Are BACK Because of a NEW Cat Caught Chillin’ in a Ceiling.”
Notable Derivatives
Search Curiosity
Seek for ceiling cat started in February 2006, the identical month the primary YTMND websites have been created. Search peaked in April 2008. Comparable with different cats from its time, search has been on the decline.