Nyan Cat is one
of Internet’s most famous meme that was uploaded on April 2011 as a YouTube video.
This video depicts an animation of a cartoon cat with the body of a Pop Tart
flying through outer space with a rainbow shooting from behind. The background
music of the video is a Japanese pop song called
“Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" by Hatsune Miku and the animation was
posted by Christopher Torres1.
Original Video
I think Nyan Cat
became popular for its catchy repetitive high pitched yet cartoon like song.
With the combination of the smiling cute GIF cat that prances across the
universe, it also lets the viewer think he/she is part of a game.
Another reason
Nyan Cat went viral because the video just does not make sense to people. They
question why the cat’s body is a Pop Tart and why there is a trail of rainbow
while the cat is flying in outer space. In addition, after a while, the song
becomes quite annoying and remains stuck in one’s head for sometime, hence, it
is fun to show this video to people as a form of joke.
According to
Google Insights, the video peaked its popularity/interest by the viewer on June
2011, one month after its upload onto the web. Then there was a dip on
September 2011, but then interest was regained in October of 2011. Gradually
after that, there was a slow decrease in interest over time but it safe to say
that there is still a significant interest in the viral video2.
The Nyan Cat
video was also placed ninth in Business Insider’s top ten viral videos in April
of 20113. Today, the original YouTube video has received 103, 969,
957 views as of November 28, 20134. Along with the videos popularity
there has been new remixes, cover versions, and parody videos. Extending off of
Nyan Cat’s popularity other memes that have emerged from this is Nyan Cat games
wherethere is an officially licensed game called “Nyan Cat Adventure” owned by
21st Street games5.
Nyan Cat is now everywhere, whether it is painted on walls of a subway
station, people making reaction videos to watching Nyan Cat.
Caption: Who
left the Tubes again?
Work Cited:
1. Thazar, B.,
2011. POP Profile: The Guy Behind The Viral Phenomenon “Nyan Cat”. Available
at: http://popgoestheweek.com/2011/04/pop-profile-the-brains-behind-the-viral-phenomenon-nyan-cat/
2. Google
Insights: Nyan Cat. Available at: http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=nyan+cat#q=nyan%20cat&cmpt=q
3. Wei, W., 2011. Top viral videos of April: What’s A “Nyan
Cat. Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/top-viral-videos-of-april-2011-5
4. saraj00n,
April 5 2011. Nyan Cat [original] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4