Dora Heideman
Fall 2013
Sociology 167
Assignment #5: “Meme’s” and Diffusion of Internet Trends
“Grumpy
Cat” is the hilarious meme that made its way into the online world in September
2012, that uses of a picture of a mixed breed female cat named Tardar Sauce
(shortened to “Tard”), who has an unmistakable permanently grumpy face due to
feline dwarfism in addition to an under bite, and then individuals create their
own general or specific “complaints” and hilarious texts and ideas of what they
believe the grumpy cat is “thinking” and write it in text over the picture of
this grumpy looking cat. For example, “I WATCHED A VAMPIRE MOVIE ONCE.--------[GRUMPY
CAT FACE]-------- MY FAVORITE CHARACTER WAS THE SUN.” (http://imageshack.com/a/img689/2778/egfi.jpg
). Or, one of my personal favorites, on top, a photo of an adorably innocent
looking kitten saying “…Santa’s not real?”, and right below grumpy cat is
pictured with the simple text beside her face, “NO.” (http://imageshack.com/a/img801/1410/v0yz.jpg
).
The history
of the now widely famous Grumpy Cat meme begins on September 22, 2012 when
Bryan Bundesen, brother of Tardar Sauce’s owner Tabatha Budensen, posted a
picture of the cat to the website Reddit (original Grumpy Cat image: http://imageshack.com/a/img138/2637/tsi6.png
). The post on Reddit quickly gained popularity within the first 24 hours with
users creating photoshopped parodies and image macros of the grumpy cat photo,
placing it on the front page of Reddit with more than 25,000 upvotes. The same
day, Bundesen added three additional video clips of Tard playing indoors onto
YouTube, proving wrong the claims that were being made that the cat was not
real and was photoshopped. Meanwhile, the image spread to popular image-sharing
website Imgur, gaining nearly 1,030,000 views within the just first 48 hours. Grumpy
Cat’s instant viral status seems to have been a streak of luck for Tardar’s
owners, as Bundesen explained in an interview with CNN, “‘It was an accident,’ said Bryan Bundesen of the viral
stardom that followed [the original photo posted on Reddit]. ‘We thought it
would get some laughs, with the Internet liking cats. And it just kept going.’”
And it really did. Even though it was posted and gained quick popularity in
September 2012, Grumpy Cat maintained it’s viral status online throughout the
following year being featured on the cover of WSJ on May 30, 2013 as well as the cover of the October 7th,
2013 issue of New York Magazine, and
the popular cat even won Buzzfeed’s “Meme of the Year Award” at the 2013 Webby
Awards. (See Google Insights chart below.)
<script type="text/javascript"
src="//www.google.com/trends/embed.js?hl=en-US&q=grumpy+cat&cmpt=q&content=1&cid=TIMESERIES_GRAPH_0&export=5&w=500&h=330"></script>
Grumpy Cat
gained her quick and lasting popularity due to her overtly hilarious grumpy face,
the Internet’s liking of cats (as mentioned by Bundesen above), and, as pointed
out by Grumpy Cat fan Mason Peatross in an interview for a FoxNews article, “‘There's
this great universal quality that Grumpy Cat captures,’ explained Mason
Peatross, who waited in line more than 90 minutes for his 30 seconds with the
snoozing kitty. ‘Everybody's got that grumpy moment where they just hate
things. The cat just makes me laugh every time.’” As he perfectly explains it,
this is why the grumpy faced cat became an instant hit in the day and age of
Web 2.0 and inserting one’s own idea over a popular image to make it into a
meme; in this case usually using text over the image to write what they feel
should be said along said one of many hilarious photos of Tard (or what they
feel Tard might be “thinking”).
The popular meme also had a
favorable precursor of presence the online public arena from the popular “so-and-so
is not impressed” memes (which stemmed from a photo that went viral of Olympic
gymnast McKayla Maroney) and other pictures of a variety of grumpy looking
cats. However, nothing quite compared to the competitive edge behind the Tardar
Sauce’s viral meme capacity, as his natural face was ridiculous and hilarious
on its own, whereas other hilarious cat photos and videos were typically
captured just at the “right” moment, depicting a face that was just a result of
good timing rather than natural ridiculousness. “Grumpy Grandma” emerged on the
Internet in January 2012 (9 months before grumpy cat), but only became viral
and an Internet meme after the
success and infatuation the Internet world had developed with grumpy cat and
the simple hilarity behind grumpy memes.
SOURCES:
MORE OF MY FAVORITE GRUMPY CAT IMAGES/MEMES:
Grumpy Cat would prefer not to co-exist with vampires… - http://imageshack.com/a/img689/2778/egfi.jpg
How Grumpy Cat handles laptop over-the-shoulder lurkers. - http://imageshack.com/a/img811/1979/7trv.jpg
Grumpy Cat stars in the new hit movie… - http://imageshack.com/a/img40/9628/3lc3.jpg
Original Grumpy Cat - http://imageshack.com/a/img138/2637/tsi6.png
Grumpy Cat crushes children’s dreams… - http://imageshack.com/a/img801/1410/v0yz.jpg
Grumpy Cat is not impressed with Jon Snow. - http://imageshack.com/a/img19/5061/zoi5.jpg
The Grumpiest place on earth… - http://imageshack.com/a/img203/3538/4ez8.jpg
High School tries to utilize Grumpy Cat’s popularity to
spread a Prom anti-drinking message via billboard… - http://imageshack.com/a/img850/8707/ekz2.png
The worst thing about waking up for Grumpy Cat… - http://imageshack.com/a/img689/3360/drwp.jpg
Description of the perfect meme. - http://imageshack.com/a/img713/4284/72e6.jpg
Grumpy Cat isn’t a fan of spring time…“A LITTLE BIRD TOLD ME
IT WAS SPRING…I ATE HIM.” - http://imageshack.com/a/img713/4677/04bl.jpg
