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Woman yelling at a cat

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Two photographs next to each other. On the left, a blonde woman angrily screaming and pointing to the picture's right. On the right, a white cat sitting in a chair in front of a plate of vegetables on a table, looking to the picture's left with a confused expression.
The picture pair central to the meme

Woman yelling at a cat is an Internet meme first used in a post by Twitter user @MISSINGEGIRL on May 1, 2019. It juxtaposes two images: on the left, a screen capture of "Malibu Beach Party from Hell", an episode from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, depicting cast member Taylor Armstrong crying and pointing (held back by Kyle Richards); and a picture uploaded to Tumblr in June 2018, depicting a cat from Ottawa, Ontario, Smudge, sitting at a dinner table behind a salad with a seemingly confused expression.

Images used

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Taylor Armstrong in 2012. A screenshot of her in The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills serves as the meme's left image.

The image on the left of the meme image is a screenshot of "Malibu Beach Party From Hell", an episode of the second season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (2010–present);[1] the episode depicts a beach party gone awry when housewives Taylor Armstrong and Camille Grammer feud over the latter's gossip regarding Armstrong's former husband Russell, who died of suicide following what she claimed to be an abusive relationship.[1][2] The still is of the episode's most heated moments, where a tearful Armstrong screams and points at an attendee while being restrained by Kyle Richards;[3] it went viral following its inclusion on a Daily Mail article published a day after the episode's airing.[1] Armstrong went on to work at domestic violence shelters and, in October 2019, said she was now in a more positive marriage.[4]

The picture on the right of the meme image is of a cat from Ottawa, Ontario, named Smudge,[5] whom Miranda Stillabower owned since 2015. According to Stillabower, he was very antisocial around humans at home, and disliked not having a chair to sit on when relatives filled up space at the dinner table.[2] At one dinner in 2018, as a guest left his chair that had salad in front of it, the cat quickly took it over and had a seemingly confused expression on his face; as someone who took pictures of her pets and posted them on Tumblr, Stillabower shot a picture of the moment and uploaded it to the site in June 2018.[2] Although Stillabower had no expectations of her Tumblr post going viral,[2] it nonetheless garnered 50,300 notes and reposts within a year,[1] which Business Insider's Paige Leskin suggested was due to the caption's use of internet jargon.[2]

Popularity

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The first incarnation of the "woman yelling at a cat" meme that used both images was a post by Twitter user @MISSINGEGIRL on May 1, 2019, with the caption "These photos together is making me lose it." In just more than three months, it was retweeted more than 78,000 times and garnered more than 275,000 likes.[1] Although other Twitter users copied the meme with different captions, what surged the meme into massive notoriety was a Reddit post on June 2 by PerpetualWinter satirizing fans of the New York Knicks.[1]

Some journalists, as well as Stillabower herself, attributed the popularity of "woman yelling at a cat" to its flexibility of use;[2][1] subjects include daily scenarios such as encounters with spiders,[1] relationship problems in connection to texting,[1] someone noticing a relative masturbating to porn,[1] to debates such as violence in video games[1] and word pronunciations.[2] Occasionally, other memes are incorporated[2][6] or characters in the meme are replaced with others.[7]

The meme was represented in other formats, being used as Halloween costumes[8][9] (one of which Armstrong responded to on Twitter[10]) and for a sign at a September 2019 event in Guatemala protesting the San Rafael Mining Company.[2][11] A recreation of the meme using a modded The Sims 4 was created by SimplySimmer19 and uploaded to Reddit in April 2020, garnering more than 42,000 upvotes within that month.[12] More than a year after the meme's initial surge, Bruce Sterling recreated the meme in art styles unique to several periods;[13] and Ochre Jelly, who has also Lego recreations of other memes, did one for "woman yelling at a cat", with the situation being about stepping on Lego bricks.[14]

The meme turned Smudge into an internet personality, garnering an official website of clothing, coffee mugs, and other merchandise based on him;[15] 1.4 million followers on his Instagram;[2] and a "Smudgeposting" Facebook group that had 23,000 followers.[2] The Instagram and the Smudgeposting numbers are as of December 2019.[2] Content on Smudge's Instagram includes various types of post, such as him having the same expression as in the meme towards other foods such as nachos.[15] Smudge's owners used sales of a t-shirt of the cat as donation money for the cat-rescuing non-profit Furry Tails.[5] On Instagram, celebrities such as NFL linebacker Bruce Davis and WWE wrestler John Cena posted Smudge memes as well as themselves wearing shirts of the cat, rapper Snoop Dogg also showing appreciation.[15]

The meme has been used by notable individuals and institutions. NFL's Stefon Diggs, during an interview, wore cleats with the meme on it.[16] Library and Archives Canada used the meme in a Facebook post explaining why its employees sometimes handle rare books bare-handed.[17]

Publications called "woman yelling at a cat" one of the best memes of 2019[18] and the 2010s decade,[19] while Smudge himself topped Time magazine's 2020 list of the best popular online cats of that year.[20]

"Woman yells at a cat" won Meme of the Year at the 12th Shorty Awards, presented to Armstrong and Smudge on May 3, 2020.[21]

Commentary

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Writers cited "woman yelling at a cat" as an example of the pop culture impact of The Real Housewives franchise,[1] and how previously-released media gain a second life on the internet.[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "How an unlikely marriage of memes gave us 'woman yelling at cat'". The Daily Dot. August 12, 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Leskin, Paige. "How a cat named Smudge's distaste for salad created one of 2019's most popular memes". Business Insider.
  3. ^ "Kyle Richards Hasn't a Clue What the Woman Yelling at Cat Meme Is All About". 2019-11-13.
  4. ^ Armstrong, Taylor [@TaylorArmstrong] (October 27, 2019). "Thank you – that is my past and I have moved on and am in a really healthy, happy marriage. It doesn't seem like my life any longer. I work w domestic violence shelters and support victims. It's ok to laugh at the images that have been created" (Tweet). Retrieved March 12, 2021 – via Twitter.
  5. ^ a b Greenspan, Rachel (January 17, 2020). "Smudge the Cat Is the Real Star of the Woman Yelling at a Cat Meme and He's Still Living for Drama". Time.
  6. ^ MacDonald, Shana (2021). "What Do You (Really) Meme? Pandemic Memes as Social Political Repositories". Leisure Sciences. 43 (1–2): 143–151. doi:10.1080/01490400.2020.1773995. S2CID 225734172.
  7. ^ Seaver, James B. (1 April 2020). "Mommy Juice". New Directions in Folklore. 17 (1): 112–113. ISSN 2161-9964.
  8. ^ "Someone turned the 'woman yelling at a cat' meme into their Halloween costume". The Daily Dot. October 27, 2019.
  9. ^ Houghtaling, Ellie (28 October 2019). "Guy absolutely nails his 'woman yelling at a cat' meme Halloween costume". Mashable.
  10. ^ Armstrong, Taylor [@TaylorArmstrong] (October 27, 2019). "BTW "woman yelling at a cat" is me" (Tweet). Retrieved March 12, 2021 – via Twitter.
  11. ^ Ortega Martínez, Julián [@julian_ortegam_] (September 4, 2019). "The #WomanYellingAtACat meme reaches another level in #Guatemala: Woman: 'You told us San Rafael Mining Co. would bring development/progress'. Cat: 'Yes, for the investors and the companies providing services to them'" (Tweet). Retrieved March 11, 2021 – via Twitter.
  12. ^ "That 'woman yelling at a cat' meme gets immortalised – in The Sims 4". PCGamesN. 28 April 2020.
  13. ^ Frauenfelder, Mark (December 3, 2020). "A gallery of 'woman yelling at cat' meme art in different historical styles". Boing Boing. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
  14. ^ Cellania, Miss (February 25, 2021). "'Woman Yelling at Cat' in LEGO". Boing Boing. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
  15. ^ a b c "Woman yelling at cat meme: His name is Smudge, he's from Ottawa and he hates salad". CTVNews. November 18, 2019.
  16. ^ DelVecchio, Steve (November 17, 2019). "Stefon Diggs features 'woman yelling at cat' meme on his cleats". Larry Brown Sports.
  17. ^ Hanson, Helena (January 7, 2020). "A Canadian Government Agency Is Using The Sad Cat Meme To Teach People A Lesson". Narcity.
  18. ^ "What is the meme of the decade?". The Daily Dot. November 14, 2019.
  19. ^ "From Distracted Boyfriend to Baby Yoda, the best memes of the decade". Evening Standard. December 27, 2019.
  20. ^ Greenspan, Rachel (February 11, 2020). "Welcome to the Ultimate Chaotic Catittude Power Ranking of the Cattiest Cats Around". Time.
  21. ^ Shorty Awards (May 4, 2020). Woman Yells at Cat wins Meme of the Year || 12th Annual Shorty Awards – via YouTube.
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