“But that’s not a person!” I hear you say. “How can a cat be inspirational?” I hear you ask. Easy – when you’re the world’s most famous cat, you’re bound to have crowds of fans, just waiting for a chance to see you. That, dear readers, is how you become an inspirational cat. “But who is this mystery cat?” Well, that would be Grumpy Cat, the internet phenomenon and cultural icon. Her real name is Tardar Sauce, and she lives just outside Phoenix, Arizona, United States of America. Only in America, right? Not so.
Grumpy Cat was born in April 2012 with a disability, feline dwarfism, and it’s pretty self-explanatory what that is. She’s also a particular type of cat that has little legs, so, she doesn’t look like your average cat. Because of her severe overbite, she looks like she’s got a really grumpy face! You’re probably wondering by now how this cat, from a back-of-beyond place in America, became so famous. That, dear friends, is the power of the internet. The owner’s brother posted a picture on his Reddit account (an online forum that often generates internet phenomenon), and people on the site really took to it. They started to post text captions on Grumpy Cat’s pictures, the most famous being a very stern picture of her face with the words “I had fun once… it was awful” written at the top and bottom of the picture. The rest, they say, is history.
Grumpy Cat’s owner got her a manager, but not just any old manager. Her manager is a guy called Ben Lashes who, believe it or not, specialises in managing internet cat ‘memes’. Since when did that become a job? His other clients include the Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat, which is an 8-bit animation of a cat! A meme, by the way, is basically something that spreads quickly within a culture. The word was created by biologist and renowned atheist Richard Dawkins, who is rather shocked that his intellectual word has been stolen by the internet, to refer to things like hilarious cats and odd people.
Grumpy Cat is at the height of her fame. Her range of merchandise is extremely popular (I am personally the proud owner of many Grumpy Cat t-shirts), and it even includes Grumpy Cat’s very own frozen coffee brand. Not quite sure how using a cat to sell frozen coffee works, but, each to their own. In the US, Grumpy Cat has featured on adverts for cat food companies, and has had multi-million dollar deals. In December 2014, she had her own feature-length Christmas film. A surprisingly enjoyable and heart-warming tale, I might add! In the news, it recently came out that she earned over $100 million for her owners, although they have denied this. Still – that’s quite the achievement.
You are probably wondering why memes like Grumpy Cat are so popular. Memes spread like wildfire, by definition, but they might also disappear just as quickly. This has happened with many internet sensations, but Grumpy Cat has a lasting popularity that not many memes have been able to sustain. Perhaps it’s because she is a cat, and the world has a real fondness for cats. Her characteristic grouchiness, then, is an inspiration to us all.
Image from: http://www.deccanchronicle.com/141017/lifestyle-petsenvironment/article/meet-banye-surprised-cat-gives-grumpy-cat-competition
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