ViralWorld

Grumpy Cat

You might remember it as Tardar Sauce, Grumpy Cat first video

Grumpy Cat

Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Most viral ever10 of 32

2012·The social era

Photographs of a small cat called Tardar Sauce whose mouth turns permanently down, captioned as though she disapproved of everything.

At a glanceThe facts

Remembered as
Tardar Sauce
Spread in
2012
Began as
A photograph
Where it started
reddit
Format
Photograph
Era
The social era
Who or what it shows
Tardar Sauce, a cat born on 4 April 2012 in Morristown, Arizona
Posted by
Bryan Bundesen, brother of her owner Tabatha Bundesen, on Reddit
Used to say
No. Flat disapproval, or refusal to be impressed
Origin
Not an upload originally
Available
Plays on the original platform

What this wasThe story

A photo classified under cats.

Why it matteredWhat changed

She was the first pet to be run as a business off the back of one Reddit post: a spokescat contract, a book, a television film and a trademark defended in court, all inside three years. Every animal account with a manager since is following the route she took.

TimelineIn order

  1. Made

    Tardar Sauce is born in Morristown, Arizona, one of a litter of four.1

  2. Posted

    Bryan Bundesen posts her photograph to Reddit. Reddit users turn it into lolcat-style parodies.1

  3. Mainstream

    She appears on Good Morning America and sits for a Time photo shoot on the same day.1

  4. Later

    Chronicle Books publishes Grumpy Cat: A Grumpy Book.1

  5. Later

    Friskies names her its official spokescat.1

  6. Mainstream

    Lifetime broadcasts Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever, with Aubrey Plaza as her voice.1

  7. Later

    A jury awards Grumpy Cat Limited 710,000 US dollars against a coffee company that had used her name beyond its licence.1

  8. Later

    She dies aged seven, of complications from a urinary tract infection. The family announces it three days later.1

What people misrememberSet straight

Commonly remembered asA bad-tempered cat.

ActuallyHer expression came from an underbite and feline dwarfism. Her owners said that ninety-nine per cent of the time she was just a regular cat.1

Commonly remembered asHer name was Grumpy Cat.

ActuallyHer name was Tardar Sauce, after tartar sauce. Grumpy Cat was the nickname the internet gave her and the name the company was registered under.1

LegacyWhat it left behind

More from hereIn this collection

Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · a moment that changed what the internet did next · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · still being watched and quoted years later

This began as a photograph, not as a video. Originally published on Reddit.

Where it came fromWhat we know

There is no original upload to identify: this did not begin as one. What it began as is recorded here, and what is shown is a later copy.

Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This began as a photograph, not as a video. Originally published on Reddit.

Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.

When
The sources below date the original to 2012-09-22. ViralWorld records this as a cited claim rather than an established publication date, because it holds no copy to check it against.

What this was built on, each one a record of its own.

Other copies the index knows about. None is claimed to be the original.

More from 2012You were there

More from the social eraMore of the archive

SourcesWhat was read

  1. Wikipedia — Grumpy Cat

Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things

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