Julia Stahl
23130480
The beloved Pop-Tart cat, Nyan Cat, “mascot of the internet and friend to everyone”# took the internet by cheerful rainbow storm on April 5th 2011 when a Youtuber with the handle saraj00n posted a video using a gif of the adorable gray cat with a cherry pop-tart body bounding through space, leaving a rainbow trail, while the Japanese Vocaloid song “Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya” by Daniwell-P looped in the background; this bizarrely adorable video reached over one million views in just two weeks.# The meme originated with a gif created by a 25 year-old Dallas cartoonist, Christopher Torres--or prguitarman--on his webcomic site LOL-Comics (prguitarman.com). Torres created the gif in response to two separate fan requests that he draw a poptart and a cat, so he combined the two, using his own cat Marty as the model, to unforseeably infectious effect.#
Following the hysteria prompted by the saraj00n video, Nyan Cat’s popularity continued to soar, reaching its peak in June 2011.# As the Nyan craze spread, the rainbow cat seized media attention, rating number nine on Business Insider’s top ten viral videos of 2011 at an astonishing 7.2 million views worldwide, and popping up all over Tumblr, College Humor, G4, and news stations.# Who knows just why this video became so beloved, other than its oddball kawaii factor, but the Pop-Tart cat dominated media and has spawned a litter of imitations, spoofs, video games, musical tributes, and even jewelry, clothing and plush toys.# Nyancat Lost in Space, and Nyanicorn (the robot attack unicorn spinoff) have proved to be such highly popular games for iPhones and iPads that Nintendo was prompted to offer Nyancat games as well.#
The Pop-Tart kitten has been used for some nefarious purposes, for those ever-tempting Lulz, as well: on May 29th, 2011, the hacker group LulzSec attacked the PBS website and defaced it with multi-meme pranks like this one:
Greetings, Internets. We just finished watching WikiSecrets and were less than impressed. We decided to sail our Lulz Boat over to the PBS servers for further… perusing. As you should know by now, not even that fancy-ass fortress from the third shitty Pirates of the Caribbean movie (first one was better!) can withhold our barrage of chaos and lulz. Anyway, unnecessary sequels aside… wait, actually: second and third Matrix movies sucked too! Anyway, say hello to the insides of the PBS servers, folks. They best watch where they’re sailing next time.#
Nyan Cat’s tale has something of a tragic twist, as Marty--Torres’ cat who inspired the original gif--passed away in November 2012, after battling Feline Infectious Peritonitis; Torres tweeted the saga of Marty’s adoption, life, and death, endearing the real cat to his many followers and received a flood of empathy and concern, demonstrating the strength of connections that bizarre internet communities can forge#. Marty’s death, however tragic for Torres and his fanbase, has a silver lining in the enduring popularity of his adorable legacy Nyan Cat; in Torres’ own words:
“A hero has fallen, but will live on forever.” #
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
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