ViralWorld

Woman yelling at a cat

You might remember it as Smudge the cat

The archive does not hold a copy of this image that it may show.

Biggest memes ever11 of 32

2019·The platform era·unexpected

Two unrelated pictures side by side: a woman in tears pointing and shouting, and a white cat sitting at a dinner table looking unimpressed.

At a glanceThe facts

Remembered as
Smudge the cat
Spread in
2019
Began as
A social-media post
Where it started
twitter
Format
Meme
Era
The platform era
Taken from
A scene from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and a Tumblr photograph of a cat called Smudge
Who or what it shows
Taylor Armstrong, held back by Kyle Richards; and Smudge, of Ottawa, owned by Miranda Stillabower
Made by
The Twitter user @MISSINGEGIRL, who put the two together
Origin
Not an upload originally
Available
Not held by ViralWorld

What this wasThe story

Two panels side by side. On the left, Taylor Armstrong of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills mid-shout, pointing, held back by Kyle Richards — a screen capture from a 2011 episode. On the right, a white cat named Smudge sitting at a dinner table behind a plate of salad, looking politely appalled; his owners had posted the photograph to Tumblr in June 2018. A Twitter user joined them on 1 May 2019.

Smudge became a celebrity in his own right and Armstrong eventually posed for a recreation with him. The format was named among the defining memes of 2019 and turned up on Halloween costumes, greetings cards and advertising within months.

Why it matteredWhat changed

It is the model of a meme made by one person noticing that two existing images belong together. Neither half was new; the argument between them was.

TimelineIn order

  1. Made

    The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs the episode “Malibu Beach Party From Hell”. A still of Taylor Armstrong crying and pointing circulates after a Daily Mail article the next day.1

  2. Made

    Miranda Stillabower posts a photograph of her cat Smudge at a dinner table behind a plate of salad, captioned “He no like vegetals”.1

  3. Remixed

    @MISSINGEGIRL tweets the two images side by side with the words “These photos together is making me lose it”.1

  4. Took off

    A Reddit post using the pair to mock New York Knicks fans sets off its wide use as a template.1

  5. Record

    It is named Meme of the Year at the Shorty Awards, presented to Armstrong and to Smudge.1

The version you rememberNot the same thing

The version people rememberWoman yelling at a cat

One image in two halves, as though she were shouting at him across a table.1

Where the footage came fromA 2011 television episode and a 2018 Tumblr post

Seven years and a country apart. The cat is not in the episode.1

What people misrememberSet straight

Commonly remembered asA woman shouting at a cat.

ActuallyTwo pictures with nothing to do with each other. She is shouting at somebody on a reality television programme in 2011; he took a guest’s chair at dinner in 2018.1

LegacyWhat it left behind

More from hereIn this collection

Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · copied, redrawn and reused until the original stopped mattering · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · still being watched and quoted years later

This first circulated as a social-media post, not as a video upload. Originally published on Twitter.

Where it came fromWhat we know

There is no original upload to identify: this did not begin as one. There is no copy of it here either — what it was, when it appeared and what people called it is what this page can tell you.

Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This first circulated as a social-media post, not as a video upload. Originally published on Twitter.

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

When
The sources below date the original to 2019-05-01. ViralWorld records this as a cited claim rather than an established publication date, because it holds no copy to check it against.

SourcesWhat was read

  1. Wikipedia — Woman yelling at a 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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