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Nyan Cat

You might remember it as Pop Tart cat, Nyan Cat original 10 hours

Most viral ever11 of 32

2011·The social era

One of the most recognisable objects the internet has produced, and a clean origin question between animation and song.

At a glanceThe facts

Remembered as
Pop Tart cat
First known
2011
Began as
A video upload
Uploaded by
saraj00n
Format
Video
Era
The social era
Made by
Christopher Torres drew the animation; daniwell wrote the song; a YouTube user called saraj00n combined them
Original title
Pop Tart Cat
Who or what it shows
A cat with the body of a toaster pastry, based on Torres’s own cat, Marty
Origin
Likely original upload
Available
Playable from the source

Why it matteredWhat changed

Three people who never met made it: one drew the cat, one wrote the song, one put them together. It is the plainest case of a meme as an assembly, and of the person who did the assembling being the one nobody remembers.

TimelineIn order

  1. Made

    The musician daniwell uploads the song Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya! to the Japanese video site Niconico, sung by the voice synthesiser Hatsune Miku.1 What else happened on 25 July

  2. Remixed

    A user called Momomomo uploads a cover of the song using a different synthesised voice.1

  3. Made

    Christopher Torres posts an animated GIF of a cat with a pastry for a body on his site LOL-Comics. He calls it Pop Tart Cat.1

  4. Posted

    The YouTube user saraj00n sets the GIF to the cover version and uploads it under the title Nyan Cat.1

  5. Record

    It wins Meme of the Year at the Webby Awards.1

  6. Later

    Torres and Charles Schmidt, who made Keyboard Cat, sue Warner Bros. over the use of both characters in a video game. The case is settled that September.1

  7. Came back

    Torres sells a remastered version of the GIF as a non-fungible token for 300 ether, then about 587,000 US dollars.1

The version you rememberNot the same thing

The version people rememberNyan Cat, the YouTube video

The cat flying through space to a looping song. Uploaded by somebody who made neither.1

Where the footage came fromPop Tart Cat and Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!

A silent GIF posted on an illustrator’s own site and a song uploaded to a Japanese video site the summer before, with no connection between them.1

What people misrememberSet straight

Commonly remembered asOne person made Nyan Cat.

ActuallyThe animation, the song and the video combining them are by three different people.1

Commonly remembered asIt was always called Nyan Cat.

ActuallyTorres named his drawing Pop Tart Cat. Nyan Cat is the title the uploader gave the combined video, after the song.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

The version shown here is an official copy on YouTube, published by a rights holder.

Where it came fromWhat we know

High-confidence original source.

View the official copy on YouTube

No original upload has been established for this record. The index is showing the earliest copy it currently knows about, and says so rather than guessing.

Created by Sara June. Originally uploaded by saraj00n. Established by research, not by who posted the copy shown here.

When
Originally published April 2011.
Where
Known on 2 platforms: YouTube, Tumblr.

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

More from 2011You were there

More from the social eraMore of the archive

ConnectedFollow it further

SourcesWhat was read

  1. Wikipedia — Nyan 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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