1044 – MemeCats

Episode 1044 – MemeCats

 

[START OF RECORDING]

 

SCOOTER:    Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, friends beyond the binary, and my patron peeps…what up, my patron peeps?  I’m singing to all of you, my patron peeps.

 

INTRO:    [INTRO MUSIC] Hey, are you up all night tossing, turning, mind racing?  Trouble getting to sleep?  Trouble staying asleep?  Well, welcome.  This is Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep.  We do it with a bedtime story.  Alls you need to do is get in bed, turn out the lights, and press play.  I’m gonna do the rest.  What I’m going to attempt to do is create a safe place where you could set aside whatever’s keeping you awake.  It could be thoughts, things on your mind, so thoughts, feelings, anything you’re feeling emotionally there…that’s coming up for you.  So, feelings, those…thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, anything you’re feeling physically or…did I say emotionally?  I already got mixed up.  Thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, changes in routine.

 

Oh boy, am I going through the old changing routine.  Changes in temperature…change in temperature, too.  Holy mackerel.  Also…how about this one?  I don’t know if I’ve ever pointed this one out; blankets not agreeing with you.  Maybe I’ll talk about that tonight, but you’ll…disruptive blankets.  Never thought I’d call out my blankets.  Actually, none of them are…I say, I’m not a blanket man, for starters.  That’s why I’m disrupting, or none of us are.  So, we’d…I say okay, well, let’s just…can we discuss it in a few minutes, please?  I’d like to talk about it right now.  Okay, well, considering…I just need a few minutes to just get…there’s…might be new listeners for the podcast, so maybe you could listen along and then…oh, what’s a podcast?  Exactly.  I’ll help you out.

 

This is why I need my rest and that’s why I’ve been a little frustrated with our relationship.  This is actually the first time I’ve ever talked to any of you.  I mean, I’ve talked at you; I apologize for that.  Again, I was wrong.  Another apology.  I didn’t realize you were sentient bedding.  I was wrong never to anthropomorphize you until now, so I’m sorry for that.  I know that’s not a very good apology, but…so, if you’re new…I’m sorry, blankets.  Oh, boy.  So, if you’re new, here’s what I propose to do; I’m gonna try to create a safe place, just like I’m trying to…I guess trying to create a safe place for myself to sleep in.  Who would have known I’d have to…I mean, I guess I did know I’ve been having…we’ve been having issues in my bed.  My…what is it called again?  Bedding and I.

 

That would be another autobiography; Issues With My Bedding and I.  That could be more of a pamphlet.  So, here’s what I propose to do.  I’m gonna try to create a safe place by sending my voice across the deep, dark night.  I’m gonna use lulling, soothing, creaky, dulcet tones.  So, my voice is a little bit different.  I’m gonna use pointless meanders or I’m gonna go on them.  Maybe you just witnessed one.  Superfluous tangents…all to take your mind off of stuff and keep you company.  That’s kinda the key thing that can be very hard when you first listen to the show.  It takes two or three tries to get used to this podcast, so if you’re feeling off, I totally understand, or you’re feeling skeptical, it totally makes sense.  I’m gonna try to give you some information.

 

The same goes for my bedding; if you’re feeling skeptical about my intentions, why wouldn’t you?  I never anthro…you say Scoots, you anthropomorphize everything, including when you misuse anthropomorphize.  I say, have I anthropomorphized anthro…?  Because I don’t have time for that tonight, but maybe a listener will remind me to anthropomorphize anthro…anthropomorfication.  Anthropomorifcation?  Is there double f’s in there?  Anthropomorphize…let’s see, synthesize, synthesis…anthropomorphis…I guess it’s not anthropomorphisis.  Is it anthropomorphisis or anthro…?  So, anyway, if you’re new, right, you’re gonna be skeptical or doubtful.  What’s this person up to?  So, let me give you a few pieces of information.

 

The reason I make the show is because you deserve a good night’s sleep.  You deserve a place you can get some rest, a bedtime you could look forward to or at least not dread.  That’s one of the reasons I make the show.  Now, the show does not work for everybody, so when I say you, no matter if the show works for you or not, you still deserve those things, and I really hope you can find them.  There is a website; sleepwithmepodcast.com/nothanks if the show definitely doesn’t work for you, but give it a few tries because that’s what I want.  If you can get the rest you need, your life’s gonna be a little bit better tomorrow and a little bit more manageable, and that really…this is true; you deserve that and our entire planet will be a better place if you’re a little bit more rested and more focused tomorrow, because we need you.

 

So, we need…everybody needs you and you need you, right?  So, that’s one thing.  The other reason it’s important to me is because I’ve been there and I guess I…we could talk about that part more, but I…tossing, turning…lately, oh boy, blank…bedding, we’ll talk about it.  Not my bedding’s fault, actually.  Just our relationship.  Okay, so that’s why I make the show.  A few other things that are different about this podcast; it’s not a podcast you so much listen and pay attention to, so some people start listening to it and they’re like, when’s the bedtime…it’s a bedtime story, right?  I say, kind of.  I guess it’s more of a podcast to keep you company while you fall asleep, so it’s not a podcast you really listen to.

 

Some people get pretty…have pretty strong feelings, understandably, because they turn on the show and they kinda think okay, it’s gonna start right away with a bedtime story, and it’s a little bit different than that.  I’ll talk about why, but this is also a podcast you just barely pay attention to.  So, that’s…it could be background noise or you can listen.  It’s not…also not a podcast that puts you to sleep.  It’s here to keep you company and take your mind off of stuff while you fall asleep.  So, I’m more of a mild distraction or a pleasant distraction, and that’s the thing; if you can’t sleep, I’m here to the end of the episode to keep you company whether you’re listening, whether you’re awake, whether you understand or not.  I’m here to keep you company.

 

That’s really my job, is to be here talking in some inane sense about stuff.  So, you could listen, but you don’t have to listen.  You could fall asleep, but you don’t have to fall asleep.  You could pay attention, but you don’t need to or hear what I’m saying.  So, those are two things that are very different.  The structure and the purpose of our show is also very different.  So, it’s understandable again if you’re having strong feelings about it.  Our show is designed in a very specific way while a lot of people use the podcast in a variety of ways, and that’s just kinda how it’s cool to adjust the show…what works for you, but when you first get here, this is kinda the way the podcast is set up to work until you get used to it and find your groove.

 

Show starts off with a greeting; friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.  Hopefully that makes you feel seen and welcome, at least enough you could say well, let me look in the window there and see what the podcast’s like.  Then there’s support, support for listeners who are in need right now, and then support for the community around the show, and then support for the show itself.  Like, direct response support; either people supporting the show through memberships or sponsors.  Then there’s the intro.  The intro is…first, the support or the greeting could throw people off, then the intro also throws people off ‘cause it’s about ten to twenty minutes long of me rambling as I’m doing now, anthropomorphizing things, never getting to the point.

 

The intro is a show within a show that never…that’s always running and never gets started, always going but goes nowhere.  It’s new and different every time, so it’s kinda like something spinning around in a circle.  But you say, well, it’s…I don’t know why I keep watching that video of that cat chasing that thing, but I do.  But you would probably…if it was a new cat and a new thing getting chased every day…there’s new business for me; catschasingstuff.com.  Hopefully I bought it.  I guess that’ll definitely be what tonight’s episode’s about, so that throws me off a little bit, but totally makes sense.  So…oh, so the intro goes on and on and on to give you some distance from the day.  So, the main way…it’s not the right or wrong way.

 

You could find out whatever way works for you, but the main purpose of the intro is to give you some time to wind down, get ready for bed, and start to unwind.  Not so much to put you to sleep, but you say okay, I feel comfortable.  Some people fall asleep, some people skip the intro, but for a lot of listeners, they’re listening maybe even before they get in bed.  Maybe they’re doing something else relaxing; stretching or some other calm activity, or just brushing their teeth and stuff, ‘cause then you say well, I missed what Scoots said.  Guess it doesn’t matter.  I couldn’t hear you over the sweet, sweet brushing of my teeth.  So, that’s the intro.  Yeah, some people listen to story-only episodes on Patreon, so just kinda see how it goes.

 

Then there’s more business, and again, that goes for the goal of the podcast being free.  Like, sponsorships make…possible…the show’s free; you don’t have to pay anything.  It’s optional to be a member of the show.  So, that’s the sponsorships, then there’ll be a bedtime story.  I thought it was gonna be about one thing, but I guess tonight we’ll be talking about some new business.  Maybe I’ll talk to the Cusacks and see if they have a business about cats chasing stuff.  So, that’ll be the bedtime story which will be about forty-five or fifty minutes long.  That you could fall asleep to or you could listen to it, or if you need a break during the day you could listen to it, and then it’ll end with thank-yous.  The show ends like that.  So, that’s it, and I guess…so, my blankets, my bedding; I’m sorry.

 

We’ve just been having a rough stretch.  Again, the temperature…when I’m recording this, it’s a different time of the year when you’re recording it, but every time of the year, seasons have different temperatures.  Scoots…you could say I’m finicky when it comes to my bedroom temperature.  Hard to please for sure.  So, yeah, I mean, that’s the truth.  But so, my blankets…my duvet, my…last night we were all in chaos.  Again, part of it is that whatever activity is going on when I’m asleep, my duvets and my comforters…yes, I have two.  Right now only one is in use, my weighted comforter, and then I have a beautiful duvet on it from Brooklyn and one of the sponsors, but…and then I have my sheet.  I do use a top sheet.  Not everybody does, but I just like having that extra layer.

 

But last night…because…usually…because of whatever I’m…is going on, my duvet and my comforter not just tend to get separated; more the filling…I don’t know what I’m doing.  So, what I did settle on is every couple days, I’ll switch it and I’ll bring the bottom of the duvet to my chinny-chin-chin, and the top of the duvet to my toey-toe-toes, or sometimes I’ll just do it on a forty-five degree basis, ‘cause I said, is this thing square or not?  Don’t know the answer to that one.  But last night my sheet got disarrayed.  I didn’t even know it; I lost my sheet.  I said sorry, ‘cause instead of getting out of bed and readjusting, I just tried to put my feet up and readjust my comforter that way.  It wasn’t very effective.  So again, I guess it was on me.  I made…I assumed that somehow the…I don’t know.  Who do we…call it?

 

The duvet fairy or the duvet…the comforter queen would come and redistribute it and shake it and fluff it back out.  But really, I’ve fallen out of the habit of making my bed in the morning.  Today I did, because my sheet was crumbled up on the side of me.  I said, what are you…?  My sheet was spooning me in some sense.  I said no, no, no, that’s not our relationship.  You’re supposed to be a nice, soothing layer between the…we work together as a team.  So, that’s just one of the things that goes on in…one of the few things that goes on in my bed at night, is my…all my bedding has a giant laugh at my expense.  Oh boy.  But so, I can hear my sheet talking about…somebody’s gotta spoon you, man.  I just felt…I said okay, well, I appreciate the effort there, I really do.

 

Holy…my subconscious must be working…they say well, that’s what happening.  I say okay, well…so, anyway.  So, I’m glad you’re here.  Like I said, I’m a human being.  This is the kinda stuff I go through.  Maybe you’re going through something similar or something different.  Maybe you could relate on the emotive level or emotional level.  You say man, even when it’s easy…even…so, I’m glad you’re here.  I really hope I can take your mind off stuff, keep you company.  I really hope I can help you fall asleep.  Thanks again for coming by, and here’s a couple ways I’m able to do it for you for free twice a week.

 

Alright everybody, it’s Scoots here.  You might have heard me talking in the intro.  I had this idea; I think the intro was the…and I said well, I’d like to lock this idea down, but it’s probably already a thing, catschasingstuff.com.  So, what I did was I called up the Cusack family and I told them about my idea.  They said well…’cause I said you’re designers, you’ve been on the show a few times, this is…maybe…could we…?  They said well, tell us more.  I said well, if it was a website, it would be constant videos of cats chasing stuff around.  They said well, that’s called YouTube.  I said, oh.  Then I said well…and they said, what would our role in it be?  I said well, you’d…then they said, right.  I said…’cause I said…I said…they said tell us more, other…and I said, didn’t I just tell you everything you need to hear in those mumbles?

 

They said yeah, but we need you to understand it better.  I said well…and I already realized they had got me, and what can be a universal moment or universal moment we kind of…are both…participate in on both ends of it.  I know a lot of you are younger than me, so you haven’t really talked on a telephone before.  What do you call that?  Landline.  Unfortunately, the days of newspapers have kinda waned of people reading the newspaper at home, but there still are…there are very similar things which we’re gonna see here coming up, which I guess is a spoiler that we did work something out with the Cusacks.  But it’s the memory…it usually happens on the phone, but it can happen in person, though in person, the person you’re talking to has an advantage of body language and facial expressions and sound effects and stuff, and a little bit more context.

 

But it’s when someone…and there’s a long form of this which kids do a lot and it gets joked about; they give you a recap, and I’ve talked about this before, that it’s an inspiration, is they give you a recap of a book or a movie that’s longer…they say wow, you should have seen this episode of Buffy.  Can’t wait to tell you about it.  Then you say well, wasn’t the…then two hours later, you say wasn’t the episode…?  I say oh, I love you so much.  Thanks for share…you know, that’s what I should say.  But the more smaller one is when someone tries to explain something to you on the phone that’s funny to them.  I guess when it’s in person…I don’t know, it does…I’m not the most…I’m not a good person, so let’s just put that out there.  I’m not perfect, okay?  I’m not always generous and kind.

 

When they explain to you what a YouTube video is and then they show it to you and then they keep go…you say okay, can you just text me the link when I…?  But what I was thinking of is…and I won’t name the friend, but we used to always joke is that he would read…we would get on the phone.  This is just the childhood I lived in.  I loved talking on the phone, in particularly in middle school and high school, with people.  But one of my friends, we…I would talk to him on the phone; he would talk to our other friends on the phone.  We didn’t have group chat or whatever.  But he would always…he would love to explain the latest…that day’s Calvin and Hobbes.

 

He would walk us through the panels, each person, I guess, or whatever person he thought would make…and it was always one of those things where it doesn’t translate to the telephone, a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip and also your personal relationship with it.  I guess that would be the healthy way; say well, just tell me about how it impacted you.  Oh boy, you sound excited about that comic strip.  I guess a more rounded person would say oh, okay, tell me more about what you enjoyed about it.  But usually they would say okay, so in the first strip, Calvin’s in a wagon, right?  You know that wagon, and he’s pretending…oh no, no, that’s the second…no, that’s the…oh sorry, I don’t have it in front of me.  Then they say so, in the first strip, Calvin’s in a…oh no, that’s…nope, that was a Peanuts comic.

 

That’s how I guess I would do it.  You say, and then Hobbes says…and all wagons must…eventually all wagons need someone to pull…I don’t know.  Could he end cute where it’s like, and every wagon needs a friend to pull it.  That would be the end of a Calvin and Hobbes book, or the Week, or any other comic, Far Side…I don’t even know what…those are the ubiquitous comic strips, was like, Calvin and Hobbes, Far Side, Bizarro, and then the Doonesbury ones, Boondocks…I guess Bizarro and Boondocks would be the most modern.  But they say, I’ve heard of those two, Scoots, but none of the other ones you…and I say okay, understandable.  I understand.  Anyway, so, in that vein, in that…so, we’ve all experienced that and we’ve all done it before, and we probably don’t even know we’re doing it.  You say oh, boy.

 

So, and I’ve always thought that would be perfect for a sleep podcast, but I never had the right context until I called the Cusacks and they said no, thank you.  But they said, we do have a cousin, Luke, who is a lot like you, and Luke loves cat memes.  So, maybe you could have Luke on to just describe cat memes to people or cats that could be memed.  I said okay, sounds good.  So, I guess without further ado now, I’d like to introduce Luke Cusack of the Cusack family.  Cousin Luke, they call him.  Sorry, I gotta boot up my Notion workspace here first so I got everything for Luke to go on.  Okay, so here we go, Luke.  So, without further ado, you got Luke Cusack of the Cusack family.  Take it away, Luke.  Oh, thanks, Scooter.

 

Really, I feel like you and I are so closely related and I’m really excited to talk about these cat memes and memeable cats, because it’s just something that’s been around and is important to me.  So, we’re gonna start out at suddenlycat.com, so that way everybody can reference these later on.  We’re given…well, okay, this…I guess where we’re gonna start.  This one is called the Ten Most Famous Cat Memes as of 2020.  Sorry Luke, I didn’t want to interrupt you but I forgot that I was…I got carried away.  I wanted to dedicate this episode to Smush and Shannon.  Smush the cat and Shannon because…Smush’s mom, because they listen to the podcast sometimes.  When you talk about cutest cats or cats that I have the most familiarity with on the internet, like famous internet cats, Smush is the most famous cat to me.

 

Also, Smush and Shannon are really nice, so thanks.  So, this goes out to them, hopefully, but I don’t know how it’s gonna go.  That’s another reason why I kinda forgot to dedicate it to them, ‘cause I haven’t heard you in action, Luke.  Thanks, Scooter.  I’m sure you haven’t heard me in action at all.  But we’re going through the Ten Most Famous Cat Memes as of 2020 from Suddenly Cat.  That’s where we’re starting.  Of course, it makes you think of Grumpy Cat which makes me think of Scooter which makes me think of Rocky the cat, another cat way up there in the great place where cats roam if they want to, roam around the world as Rocky the cat, who Scooter worked with for a while even though Scooter’s allergic to cats.  So, that’s…Rocky and Grumpy Cat looked a lot alike.  They were the same type of cat.

 

Rocky was a bit of a grouch.  So, it opens with Number 10 which is a cat that somebody put some human hands…Halloween hands on.  Then that became a thing.  This cat looks particularly exasperated, so it kinda looks like…it’s a cat that looks like it’s frowning, I guess.  This is…Scooter, this is gonna be tougher than I thought it was.  Then there’s Number 9, an overly-attached cat.  Now, this cat…it looks like its eyes may be faked.  Its pupils are fully dilated and it has a very cute pink nose.  Its ears are back because its eyes are open so wide, and it looks like it has a bit of a smile, but kind of an acceptance…expectant smile, which kinda plays into the meme, which is the cat is overly-attached, so it did something really nice for you, but that probably wasn’t as respectful of your boundaries as a cat should be.

 

So, a lot of the memes play on that, and they’re pretty funny.  It says here it’s as old as 2014 or even earlier.  Wide-eye cat.  Oh, that has been Photoshopped to smile, giving it an extra eager look.  That’s from suddenlycat.com.  It says also plays because the cat looks so cute, but a little bit…I guess it has a little bit of naive…oh, I didn’t realize that would bother you.  But you say, did you not really realize that?  Then Number 8 is a cat which is a cat…I can’t…a cat that’s been slightly surprised in a October-type way.  Some would say a scaredy-cat, but without the y.  This one, according to the article, became prominent in 2010.  It’s grown over the years, peaked in 2019.  It’s a cat; it’s…looks like it may be Photoshopped as well, because we’re not fully dilated pupils, but the pupils are kind of like olives looking down.

 

Then the cat has a look like it’s been surprised; its ears are up, so it’s…has a look like oh boy, did you just surprise me in a non-positive way.  But usually…I don’t know.  I guess it can just…some of the memes kinda seem to play on just that fact, and then some have more of a…a bit more of a punchline.  Some are a simple, straightforward punchline, and some are not.  Fairly simple yet effective, funny meme due to the easy usage for a myriad of situations.  Then the next one…so, I never saw this one, either.  This is a cat with a coughy-poo.  Cat with a coughy-poo.  The cat is going up a set of wooden stairs; it looks like the kinda stairs you would have going down in the East Coast.  I don’t know, in the Midwest if you have basements.  We don’t have them in California, really.

 

But where you go down the wooden plank stairs, but the cat’s going up the stairs, unless it’s going down in reverse.  It looks like it’s coughing.  Even its tongue is coming out.  This is a cat that…2018 was posted.  It’s a Photoshopped cat.  The first meme, according to this, was that it’s like hey, this is what…how little kids cough.  It’s not trying to cover its mouth.  It became very popular.  It even got made into different products.  It’s kinda cute, but it is…it kinda looks like a toddler coughing; it does.  Then we have another wide-eyed cat.  This one has your typical cat eyes.  They’re not dilated; they’re whatever the opposite of dilated is.  They are in the cat eye-type shape as opposed to round.  Maybe that’s a giveaway…I don’t know.  I don’t know anything about cat eyes.

 

But this one is another cat under a little A-N-X-I-E-T-Y cat.  This goes all the way back to a demotivational poster from 2007.  Its eyes are wide but its pupils aren’t dilated.  The cat is…it has kind of like a midnight-type fur.  One ear is…its ears are going back and it’s like, oh no, I hit Send, would be what this…the look you might have on your face…or they kinda say oh, boy.  It’s popularized with the yellow and purple background on Tumblr.  Peaked in 2011 on Tumblr.  Meme usually starts with a situation and then plays off the cat’s reaction.  It’s popular ‘cause many of the reactions or feelings are exaggerated but also relatable which is what makes it funny.  The cat’s also cute.  It looks like it’s sitting up straight, too, but it’s only showing the cat’s head as opposed to…the cat’s head’s cropped…it’s cropped into a different situation, as I said, the purple…those purple motivational posters or whatever.

 

Next one up here is a cat with watering eyes.  The chat’s a little down.  This meme first appeared in 2014, not…from an anonymous meme generator.  Reached its peak in 2019.  The original features a cat which is Photoshopped, according to this, to look teary-eyed and inconsolable.  But it became a trend that featured other cats and it…this…I like how it explain…this has even helped me explain explain.  Why it’s funny?  Exaggerates sadness — this is quoting from suddenlycat.com — of everyday experiences that people can easily relate to.  So, it just…this is similar to…I guess maybe not similar to the…Michael Jordan.  Sometimes it’s similar.  But yeah, it might…say like, this one, the…I don’t know if this is the original.

 

Oh, this is linking some from Know Your Meme, which I guess we could go to next after I get through this, even though I have a lot of other stuff ready for you, Scooter.  But yeah, when a TV show…final episode of a TV show…when you’re down and you can relate, that’s the…that’s a cat that could express your feelings for you.  Next one is a mouth-breather, but it’s not a mouth-breather ‘cause the cat seems like it’s a nose-breather, but it’s called the Heavy Breathing Cat.  This is a big, poofy cat.  I would say jowly ‘cause I don’t know how else to describe it.  It’s looking up like when people do…some people do their profile pictures that way.

 

I don’t know what it’s called when you’re looking up at a…you’re pretending to look up at some floating…heavenly object or whatever, but you’re looking off to the side, so you’re not looking at the camera; you’re looking up to the upper-left or the upper-right of the camera.  Usually sometimes it’d be somebody that’s running for something or kinda…I don’t know, real…I don’t know how to describe it ‘cause I’m not good at describing stuff.  But then at the…underneath it says ‘heavy breathing’, so you put the meme on top.  Appearing in late 2013, reaching peak popularity in March 2014, this meme was often used in response to mouth-watering food because it just has the cat with the breathing thing.  But then it’s been repurposed to say like oh, if you’re talking to somebody when you’re…it’s somebody you have a crush on.

 

A lot of the cat memes are based into running into somebody you have a crush on.  Then we got…Number 3 is Polite Cat.  This cat is looking up at…it’s on a wooden floor or a wooden table and it’s looking up.  It has dilated pupils, so I guess that is Photoshopped, maybe.  The cat has…its mouth is perfect…in a perfectly straight line and it’s giving full attention even though it’s lying down looking up.  This is from 2018.  We got…gathered a bunch of points on one site.  People liked how polite it looked, and started to create multiple variations as a photograph.  Doesn’t say it’s Photoshopped, but then other people created other versions of the cat, like about acting nice when you don’t want to, suck it up, according to suddenlycat.com.

 

Oh, and though the cat’s Photoshopped face is a little unnatural, it sums up how one feels in the circumstances.  So, forced politeness cat, I would say.  Then Grumpy Cat, the famous one, Tartar Sauce.  2012 on Reddit, then a million views on Imgur, and some of the previous images were Photoshopped, but Tartar just has an extremely grumpy face which is why the cat became a legend.  There’s a lot of…even the first meme is very funny…about Valentine’s Day, and it’s saying just remember that every day is like that.  Eventually it had a website, social media accounts, over a million followers, and then went to the great cat place in the sky.  That was Number 2 because Number 1 is still going, I think.  That’s RHBH?  Is that what it is?  I don’t know.  RHOBH?  RHOBH?  Person raising their voice and pointing at a cat.

 

If you’ve…yeah, if you’ve used it, that’s from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Taylor, Season 2.  That was…December 2011 is the first picture.  She seems very upset with somebody and she’s pointing and kind of yell-crying.  Then a cat named Smudge is sitting at a proper fancy table.  That picture’s from 2018 which was already popular ‘cause it looks like the cat, Smudge, is sitting down.  Looks like some sort of salad-type dish.  Now that I’m looking at it, it doesn’t look like a fancy table; it’s got a…but it looks fancy for a cat.  But it was in 2019 that the two items were put together by @MISSINGEGIRL, and that’s where it blew up and just got more and more popular and used as a…it got memefied, I guess.  Let’s have another…I’ll explain it through somebody explaining it; the meme was used to depict exaggerated reactions and a dumbfounded person listening, or someone pretending to be dumbfounded.

 

However, it’s off…also evolved as a response to poorly thought-out signs.  So, that’s the first list we have.  I don’t know if we should click through here to this Know Your Meme cat thing, just ‘cause I don’t want to get too distracted, but I do want to see what it is, so let’s just see what comes up.  Knowyourmeme.com.  Oh, this one is just crying cat images, so it’s a lot of crying cat images, but Scooter has us working here, so, I do want to respect that.  The next one we’ll go into is just a Pinterest pin, and hopefully it opens up.  I don’t know.  It did not, so, let me figure out how to do this here, Scooter.  Okay, there we go here.  Maybe not, though.  Okay, so this one is from Cheezburgers.  It’s a Pinterest pin from Cheezburger.

 

Oh no, but this is gonna be on their…more like…because we don’t have the…so, this will be good ‘cause Scooter said yeah, this is interesting.  So, we’ll just put this link.  The first one is a cat with its eyes closed in the profile.  The cat has very big ears and it has headphones in and it’s sleeping.  So, you could put almost anything.  Cute, peaceful look on its face.  Then there’s a cat that’s been Photoshopped to look like a muscle-bound person, like a cute cat face on a muscle-bound person.  There’s a lot of these ones.  I call them standing cat images.  There’s another one where the cat looks almost like a Weeble Wobble and its feet are poking out.  It’s very tubular and it’s looking down, a little bit like if you…like it got dressed up in some sort of suit and then said okay, now you gotta go down…like some sort of ceremony they have to attend that they don’t want to.

 

Then we got a couple cat and…cat and parrot pictures here.  One is a parrot standing upright looking out, and a cat is on…the parrot is on the inside and there’s a cat on the outside, ready to rumble, but the cat…there’s a big glass door between them.  So, the parrot has a stern look on its face because I think it’s aware of that it is in a safe place and the cat may be less aware, or says I’m waiting.  Then there’s a cuter version which is…looks like a parrot giving a piggy-back ride to a kitten.  The kitten’s eyes are kinda wide and it’s getting…it is on the back of a parrot.  Looks peaceful, but I don’t know if it is.  Then we have some cats together memes, or pics…there are just pictures that could be memed one day.  These two are two cats sitting on a piece of IKEA furniture in front of other stuff.  One cat is a little bit shorter.

 

It’s leaning back like it’s been taken aback or it’s thinking of what the person…the other cat said, which is kind of like a tigery-type cat…was leaning forward.  I don’t know, it doesn’t look quite like it’s mansplaining or catsplaining, but it could be.  Then we have two cats underneath a sink.  One cat seemed like it was about to have a drink of water.  Its face it turned towards us, but then there’s another cat licking from the faucet with its head on top of the other cat, kinda cutting it off.  The cat on the bottom says, I was just trying to drink some water; now you’re putting your head on me and taking the water I was about to drink.  Kinda like a sibling rivalry-type moment.  Then we have two cats sitting.  Scooter, I don’t know, is this still working?  Yeah, keep going.

 

I think it’s…I’m barely…oh, here’s a…here’s one of a cat; it looks like its eyes are Photoshopped, that it’s a little sad, and it’s taking a bite of pepperoni pizza.  Looks a little bit too fake.  Then Smudge, just Smudge.  Then one of a cat in a big…a cat or a kitten poking its head out of a flowerpot and another one…its paws up on the flowerpot looking in.  Another sibling rivalry.  These could be kittens.  Oh, there’s three…oh, no; there’s four cats in this picture.  But there’s one cat looking at the camera and it has a very human face or expression, but it’s sitting on top of a cat with its hands over the other cat’s eyes, kind of like…looks like it is…they were either play-fighting or it’s just like hey, I’m gonna use you as my thing.  Then there’s other…two other cats, though, in the background, sleeping.

 

Some of these are videos that are even more sleepy, if you know…watch the video.  There’s one of a cat in bed and then there’s some sort of dancing, but it’s not dancing for us…lighted-up cactus with eyes, so I’m sure the cat’s about to go after it.  Then there’s a cat dressed up, standing with its hands on its hips.  I think that’s part of the outfit.  Oh, the outfit’s put on the front of the cat so it looks like…I don’t know.  It has some sort of…it has a blue…the cat is saying…I don’t know.  It’s interesting.  Then there’s another cat with its fake, polite smile, that thing.  I see the crying…there’s a cat that looks like a baked potato, and it also has butter on it, and it’s sitting in a foil bed, and it’s crying.  Then there’s a cat that looks like it’s shouting and its arms are wide.  It’s saying hey, what in the hey, hey?

 

There’s one…some of these can’t be real, Scooter.  There’s a crying chihuahua.  There’s a cat staring at a Christmas tree bulb.  Okay, hey, Luke, let’s go to another one with a little bit more…I don’t mean to interrupt you, but…I got it, Scooter, I got it.  I was getting…too Calvin and Hobbes-y, huh?  Yeah, why don’t you bring up your next website that you did your research on?  Okay, thanks, Scooter.  This is from petnaturals.com blog, Vermont, from 2013, and it’s their picks for the ten best cat memes of all time.  The first one is Happy Cat.  It’s a grey cat.  It looks very happy, very famous.  This is Number 1 they started with.  It’s the one that says I can haz a cheezburger?  Or you could do it in more of its voice.  It’s where…from a series where cats use lolspeak, from 2007.  That’s Number 1.

 

Number 2 is Grumpy Cat, and they’re…this one, they’re saying I had fun once.  It was awful.  Grumpy Cat’s actually in the lap of someone in jean shorts, at least in that one.  3 is one of the favorites here at Pet Naturals, known…also known as Sophisticated Cat; they call it I Should Buy A Boat Cat.  It’s a cat in a three-piece suit with a kitee and a newspaper, sitting up, looking forward, thinking.  It says, I should buy a boat.  They also like that it has a anthropomorphic quality.  The next one is Invisible Bike Cat, which…according to Pet Naturals, spurred a whole slew of invisible memes; invisible high jump, invisible shopping cart, invisible sandwich.  But this one, the cat must be jumping, and it’s in front of a mirror which I think adds to it, but it looks like…in mid-jump, that it’s riding an invisible bike, maybe even an invisible…what are those things called?

 

A unicycle or something?  Or one of the big…something like that.  Number 5 on Pet Naturals is Colonel Meow.  He’s got…this is a very long-haired grey cat and it says yes, I am judging you.  Its eyes are narrowed.  It has a nocturnal quality to the cat, like, it might be flying through the night, you know, on wings at night.  Very furry.  So popular, it was interviewed by Anderson Cooper.  Then there’s Chemistry Cat.  They say, not…they were just like, not sure where this came from, but it’s a meme that provides opportunity to make corny jokes.  So, the cat has a bow-tie and glasses on, round, Harry Potter-esque glasses.  It’s a furry, furry kind of…I don’t know what color you’d call that.  Eggshell-colored cats.  Back behind it is a chalkboard with a bunch of stuff on there including milk squared, a mouse over…divided by cheese.

 

Cheese squared over something cubed.  Then in front of the cat is a notebook where…similar…taking notes to what’s on there, a little dog toy or something, and then different beakers and tubes and stuff with different liquids.  This one’s funny; it says, trying to think of a good chemistry pun.  Then it has Chemistry Cat and it says all the good ones argon.  Argon; A-G-R-O-N.  So, that one’s funny.  Then Cat Holding Another Cat, holding it back.  They’re in front of what looks like a wheelbarrow or a bike holder and it says, don’t do it, Carl.  One cat has…it looks like it has its arms around the cat.  It only has one arm around it, but the cat’s back fur makes it look like another arm, like it’s holding the cat around with both its arms.  It’s very cute.  Both cats are looking at something off-camera.

 

It says, don’t do it, Carl; you’re on your ninth life.  Adorable meme, the Pet Naturals calls it, looking in the same direction.  Limitless array of potential meme captions in a different…in addition to.   Don’t chase…their…another one of their favorites is don’t chase the laser, Carl.  It’s what the humans want.  Next up is Business Cat.  This is a classic.  It’s another poster one.  Cats wide-eyed.  It has a collar and a tie on, and wide-eyed sitting up.  The meme they chose is, I need you to stay late tonight.  Then Business Cat’s staring just to the left of us and it says, we really have to catch that red dot.  It could be saying okay or whatever.  Business Cat cannot…is a classic; cannot be left off our list.  Then next one, Number 9, is Ceiling Cat, which is a piece of wallboard…it looks like it’s a ceiling, but it could be just wallboard.

 

It’s looking through there; it’s looking through a square hole in the wallboard or the ceiling.  It’s staring down like hidey-ho, neighbor, or whatever.  But it says Ceiling Cat is watching you, neighborino.  Pet Naturals says a popular cat meme; features a feline peering through a hole in the ceiling.  It also spawned a similar character, Basement Cat.  Fans of this meme may be surprised to learn that it’s looking through a hole in sheet rock.  Figure that out.  But it does look like it’s looking down on us from the ceiling.  The last one is called Hipster Kitty, so this is pretty dated, I think.  But it’s…let me read this one.  I’ve never seen this one before.  Hipster Kitty’s been reblogged hundreds of times.  According to Know Your Meme, it spawned over 800 variations.

 

This image, created by Craig Wheat, a Portland artist, is parodying…so, it’s a cat and it’s set against a two solid-color backdrop.  The cat seems to have glasses and a…I don’t know, a hood scarf on, and it says 87 degrees; let me get my scarf.  So, you’ll have to excuse me as…I don’t get that one.  But I don’t know, are they saying that hipsters are always cold or…?  I don’t know.  So, that’s Pet Naturals.  Then we’re gonna go to Best Life Online’s 100 Funniest Meme Cats Ever.  Maybe we should save that one for the end.  Yeah, we’ll go to boredpanda.com.  This one’s from nine months ago and it’s Thirty of the Funniest Internet Famous Cat Pics, but they’re illustrated by Tactooncat.  So, then again, you can enjoy it on two levels.  The first one is a cat standing up straight, and…very straight.  Its arms are down.

 

It’s a very thin cat and it looks like it’s getting written a ticket from a parking person.  This one says kitten memes are versatile.  This is from Bored Panda.  Some different ones…oh, it doesn’t really say anything, but…the second one is a cat up against a mirror.  Maybe its mouth is so wide, it’s hugging itself, but hugging itself from a cat it hasn’t seen in a hundred years, or that it’s…it just won some giant award.  The cat’s face could be described as unbelievably ecstatic, and it’s pressed up against the mirror.  Both its arms are wide, so…and then yeah, it’s cool to see it illustrated in these illustrations.  Number 3 is a cat under a bed looking through the…like, its eyes are perfectly lined up with…this one gets funnier, actually Scooter, the more I look at it.

 

So, the cat is underneath the bed and then it’s lined up with two holes in the bed frame where the…it’s an adjustable bed frame, so the cat’s looking straight through the holes at us and kinda…I’m watching you, or we’re…you…or it could be like, you could do a hiding…hide-and-seek meme, or you could just laugh at it.  According to Bored Panda, Tactooncat creates cat drawings almost daily.  Has 115 followers.  First posted their first drawing in 2019.  The next one is a cat looking up at a…it looks like it’s outside by an outdoor outlet.  It’s a all-black midnight cat.  It’s sitting on all four paws and then it’s staring up, and a white to off-white type parrot-type bird is sitting on its head looking at the cat, too.  The cat’s like, what the heck?  Don’t go Number 2, kind of is the look on its face.

 

The next one…this is a amazing one I’ve never seen before too, Scooter.  This is a boot of a car…or not a boot, but a hatchback, full of…what are those…?  Not pumpkins; watermelons, and the more rounded watermelons, not as much oblong watermelons.  There’s one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen that you can see, so there’s presumably twenty or more watermelons.  There’s a coffee mug and then there’s other stuff.  The people are going on a road trip to a picnic, but…and they’re in charge of bringing the watermelons.  Maybe a pool noodle or something?  So, then there’s a cat standing, and one hand is on a watermelon, and the cat’s standing where the latch would come down for the…what do you call it?

 

There’s even a broomstick holding up the hatchback for the cat’s…loving the cat’s safety.  But the cat has the most aggressive look on its face I’ve ever seen, like do not…like it’s a guardian of the…watermelon cat and that the cat is smart enough to realize how delicate the watermelons are.  So, that one’s pretty cute.  Then there’s another one.  The next one is a grey cat.  A human’s holding its arm.  Almost look like you could infer that the human’s pulling the cat away or that it’s just holding the cat at a distance or if there wasn’t what’s below the cat, I’d say oh, it’s teaching the cat how to dance.  Actually, the cartoons are cool.  You should look at them ‘cause they have kind of a different take on the expressions, or…you say oh, that’s how you were seeing it and I see it differently kinda thing, which is cool.  But the cat’s looking down.

 

It’s standing on what looks like a fresh catch of fish, like straight from the sea.  But the cat cannot reach the fish because the way the human is holding it and that the cat’s standing up on two legs.  So, the cat’s kinda just staring at the fish like for…in a forlorn way, ‘cause the human’s keeping him away from it.  Then, I don’t know how many we’re doing; ten of these?  The next one is so cute, I can’t even believe it exists.  It’s a…is that a goose or a duck?  I think it’s a duck, a white duck.  It’s got a big bill, webbed feet.  It’s leaning forwards toward the camera, and on its back is a scrawny baby kitten saying let’s go for a ride; fly, come on.  It’s so cute.  Or wherever you’re going, I’m going.  Then the next one is a cat outdoors, and what looks like…and this is just my projection, a very nice outdoor area.

 

Alls you can see is a fence and some…a few different plants.  But this really looks like somebody that takes care of their yard or it’s at a museum or something.  Or at least, I don’t live there.  There’s a plant that starts with an S that’s good for air, there’s some wheat.  It looks like maybe a baby maple or something.  There’s grass, there’s rocks, there’s lights.  But the cat itself is an extremely furry…I don’t know if that’s what a tabby is, or a brindle.  I don’t know, that’s what they always say my…color of my dog is, brindle.  I say sorry, what?  I don’t know what that means.  But the cat is so furry that you can’t delineate any of its body shape.  The cat is clearly crying out.  Now, it could be singing horribly off-key.

 

That would be the softer way to interpret it, or it could have just learned…I say, that person you had a crush on just married your best friend or whatever, something like that, or you just dropped…you just bought a phone and then you dropped it on a rock kind of look.  But also that it could be singing is another way to do it, to say, that’s a softer one.  The next one…holy mackerel, I’ve never seen this one, either.  The comment says, proves that cats are liquid, which is a great descriptive…so, this is a plastic drawer from some sort of…not even IKEA-level furniture; like one of the ones you even have before you get IKEA furniture that I still have stuff of, that’s like, you get it somewhere else that’s just like, all plastic, like a clear plastic drawer.

 

But the cat is in the drawer looking up and it’s so furry that it looks like it was…it’s liquefied, and it has this look on its face that is just…and you could see one of its teeth poking out.  It’s just very funny.  I know this…it’s so sleepy ‘cause it doesn’t interpret.  Oh, we sill have more.  Okay, I don’t know if this is a top-20 list.  The next one is a gentleman sitting on his kitchen floor and a kitten is eating or drinking, and he’s so happy.  His hands are just up against his chin and he’s leaning in, and he just has full joy watching the cat eat.  The next one is a cat on a couch reaching out with two arms, and its cat food is on the floor out of its reach.  It’s like, the cat is so…when…we’ve all done that; you try to reach for your drink and you’re on the couch and you can’t reach it, and you’re like, ugh.

 

The cat is trying to reach for its food so it can eat on the couch and watch TV or something, and it can’t quite reach it.  The next one someone put Laser Kitty.  I’ve never seen this one, but it’s a big cat or a very furry cat on its back on a…what do you call those?  A floor that could be wooden or it could be…whatever you call it, linoleum.  Laminate, they call it, and the cat is looking at the camera with a wildcat look.  But on its belly is either a beam of sunlight or flashlight or…not a laser.  It looks like some sort of super laser.  But it does look like it could be sunlight just ‘cause it’s really lighting the cat’s…lighting the cat up.  The cat looks like it’s enjoying it.  Then we have the cat…the O-S-H-I-T cat-esque thing, but this cat is caught in the blinds.  It maybe made a jump or something.

 

It’s hanging exactly from the blinds, like on its belly down, so it’s halfway through the blinds.  The next one is a cat with its legs…its front legs shaved, so it just looks like…I don’t know.  The person or the commenter put Short Skirt Cat.  Okay, the next one after that is a cat with gigantic teeth.  This one is cute.  I like this one a lot.  So, there’s a pumpkin in the foreground.  The pumpkin has a very long stem, and then the cat has its head sideways and is biting on the stem, almost like its using it to clean its teeth or to practice, ‘cause it’s enjoying it.  I mean, the cat definitely looks like it’s enjoying it.  The cat just has really big teeth.  But it also is…for someone with…’cause I used to always…I chew on stuff all the time; I get it.  I say, I get this…I get you, man.  Okay, Number 16 is a cat sitting in a tree.  Very furry cat.

 

It’s sitting spread around…you can’t even see…you can only see its bottom legs.  It’s…think its arms are up against it and it’s asleep in the crook of a tree with its head against the…it’s perfectly nestled, I would say.  Its head’s against the…what is that?  The trunk.  Did I say that?  Yeah.  Okay, a couple more here.  The next one is a cat that looks like it’s singing into a microphone.  Its mouth is open and it’s in front of a microphone and it looks like it’s singing.  It’s very cute, though.  Sorry, I lost the page, there.  That was so cute.  My thumb misfired.  Oh, this is thirty.  We won’t make it through all thirty.  But we’ll go to twenty and then you can…through and see it yourself, ‘cause Scooter only told…so, the cat looks like it’s singing; that one’s cute.  Then 18 is a cat…a kitten, not a cat.

 

It looks like it’s in a car above a box, and it has…what is that thing called that people lie down in and they can sleep in there?  Not a ukulele and not an umbrella.  Oh, I forgot what it’s called.  Oh, hammock, but it’s a mask that a lot of people are familiar with now, and a kitten’s in the mask, sleeping like it’s a hammock.  It’s so cute and peaceful.  Then the next one…oh boy, that one we gotta skip ‘cause it’s…it looks like a cat posing for a magazine that you can…that don’t exist anymore.  Then the next one…perfect one to end on is a cat looking up at…past the camera expectantly at someone, with…not just an innocent look on its face but…I don’t even know how to describe the look on its face.  But hanging from its lower lip is some sort of salamander.  I don’t know, the cat’s…it’s not like the cat is covering it up.

 

It’s like, what are you…almost like, what do you mean there’s a salamander, or something.  I don’t have anything…I wasn’t in your pet salamander collection.  I guess we do have to do 21 because it’s so lovely, so 21 is a kitten in a sink, covered in foam, holding onto the sink with a smile on its face, saying I love getting tubby, which is rare.  It just looks like a perfectly happy cat covered in foam.  So, that’s it, and Scooter taught me…just, if you’re still here, think of that happy cat in the foam and join its tubby, and think of that kitten rocking back and forth in its hammock, slowly drifting you off into dreamland.  Goodnight.

 

[END OF RECORDING]

(www.leahtranscribes.com)

Notable Language:

• Anthropomorphize
• Brindle
• I love getting tubby

Notable Culture:

• Calvin & Hobbes
• Grumpy Cat
• KnowYourMeme

Notable Talking Points:

• From my chinny chin chin to my toey toe toes
• A lot of cat memes are about running into someone you have a crush on
• Guardian of the Watermelons