Let’s face it, cats can get up to some crazy antics in real life. So it’s no surprise that they’ve also entertained the world as some of the funniest and most memorable memes online. Here, we run through the list of the internet’s top 10 cat memes of all time.
Think you’re a meme meow-stro? Will you instantly recognise these 10 famous cat memes? Let’s find out.
#10: Cat with Prosthetic Hands
Image: https://twitter.com/apricotbelly
This meme features cats with tiny fake human hands in various positions. Starting in 2017, twitter user @apricotbelly posted the series of photos above, and the post received more than 249,000 likes and 154,000 retweets in less than three years.
Besides looking adorable, it also sparked off other images in 2020 that had cats (first a black then a white one) looking very thoughtful. These new photos blew up on Reddit with 72,000 points collectively, and 24,000 likes on Twitter in a matter of days.
Image: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cats-with-prosthetic-hands
#9 Overly attached cat
Image: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/384846730631413982/
Showing up on the internet in 2014 (or even earlier) this meme depicts a wide-eyed cat that has been photoshopped to smile, giving it an extra-eager look.
Image: https://imgflip.com/tag/overly+attached+cat
The meme is basically used in instances of somewhat creepily eager behaviour, which is hilarious considering how adorably innocent the kitty looks.
#8 Scared cat
Image: https://imgflip.com/tag/scared+cat?sort=latest&after=1c82g0
According to Google trends, this meme first became prominent in 2010, however has grown increasingly over the years, hitting a peak in November 2019. It features, well, a scared looking cat, with the text spelling out an appropriately frightening situation.
Image: https://imgflip.com/i/3wgt8b
It’s a fairly simple, yet effective and funny meme. Due to its easy usage for a myriad of situations, it has managed to stay popular for a decade now—even being used to respond to this year’s coronavirus pandemic. 😷
#7 Coughing cat
Image: https://twitter.com/40ozAliah
Speaking of the ongoing pandemic, here’s a cat that really needs to wear a mask. In Dec 2018, Twitter user @40ozAliah posted a photo of a cat with a photoshopped cat, pointing out that it looks like how children cough. It might have been the uncanny resemblance, or just how strange the image looked, but the tweet went viral, garnering close to 600,000 likes to date.
Image: https://filmdaily.co/news/coughing-cat-memes/
Not only did people validate the likeness in various forms of tweets, coughing cat became so popular that companies are even making t-shirts, mugs, and phone cases with the meme’s image. Talk about viral!
#6 Anxiety cat
Image: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/anxiety-cat
While the photo of the cat itself first appeared in a demotivational poster in 2007, it became popularised with the yellow and purple background on Tumblr in 2011, with search interest peaking around October that year.
The meme usually starts with a situation, then continues to an anxious reaction. Why it’s so popular is that though many of the reactions or feelings are exaggerated, they’re also pretty relatable—and the end result is hilarity.
#5 Crying cat
Image: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/crying-cat/photos
The meme first appeared in 2014 from an anonymous meme generator but reached its peak in late 2019. The original features a white cat, photoshopped to look teary-eyed and absolutely inconsolable. It then became a trend that featured other cats with the same expression in various situations to allude to different circumstances.
Image: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/crying-cat/photos
Why it’s funny is that it exaggerates the sadness of everyday experiences that people can easily relate to, and well, who can turn away from a distraught kitty?
#4 Heavy breathing cat
Image: https://imgflip.com/meme/Heavy-Breathing-Cat
Appearing first in late 2013 and reaching peak popularity in March 2014, this meme was often used as a response to mouth-watering food posted on the internet. It features a staring fat cat with the simple ‘heavy breathing’ caption.
Image: https://imgflip.com/meme/Heavy-Breathing-Cat
Since then, the meme has also been used to respond to a wide variety of situations that require, well, heavy breathing. One thing’s for sure, we won’t get tired of seeing this little round one’s face no matter the circumstance.
#3 Polite cat
Image: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/polite-cat
On June 7th, 2018, this photograph of a cat was submitted to the humor site 9gag in June 2018 and gathered upwards of 1,200 points within two months. Netizens noted how polite it looked, and ran with it, creating multiple variations over time.
The meme is often used to address having to ‘suck it up’ in unpleasant situations, and though the cat’s photoshopped face is a little unnatural, it definitely sums up how one feels under said circumstances. #relatable.
#2 Grumpycat
Image: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/grumpy-cat
This iconic cat named Tardar Sauce was first posted on Reddit in September 2012, reaching more than 25,300 up votes in 24 hours, and nearly 1,030,000 views in the first 48 hours on Imgur. Unlike some of the previous entries that were photoshopped, Tardar naturally had this extremely grumpy face, which is mainly why he became such a legend.
Image: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/650277633688464296/
It seems inevitable that netizens turned Tardar into a meme, with the grumpiest captions they could think of. He eventually had a website, social media accounts with over a million followers and scores of merchandise. Sadly, in May 2019, Grumpy Cat died at age seven after contacting a urinary tract infection. His legacy however, still lives on.
#1 Woman yelling at cat
