Above photo by author. Feature photo byTorley
Cats, cats, cats. You may hate them, you may love them, but put one on your website and you’ll find yourself an internet, social media favorite faster than you can cough up a hairball. Ack!
My five-year-old daughter Lila spends a decent amount of her time on YouTube. She loves hopping from video to video, and I always get a kick out of her favorites. The overweening appeal of cats — and the effect they can have on a blog or website — dawned on me this weekend when she found The Mean Kitty Song.
Over thirty one millions hits. Yes, you read that right. Thirty. One. Million. Hits.
It’s a cute video, and even taking into account the number of small children who, like Lila, will view this thing 30 times a day if left to their own devices, that’s still a lot of people watching a cute little tabby cat in action.
The adorable spiky haired guy singing? I can’t help wondering how many times he got laid because this video.
But it doesn’t stop there….
This video of a cat freaking out also holds its own as far as Youtube views with well over 9 million views.
Why is this poor thing acting this way? According to the video notes, she’s never been abused, she just doesn’t like men.
And finally, this next video of an orange feline clocks in at over 2 million views.
I suppose I’d also be somewhat miffed if someone named me Burger and Fries.
The Magical Allure of Kitty Cat Cuteness
Beyond Youtube, you’ll find a proliferation of funny and popular cat websites like Lolcats.com which features the ever famous cat in a fruit helmet photo. There’s also sparklecat.com apparently written by cats for cats. It even has a Cat-To-Cat advice column offering tips on everything from how to keep your human from dressing you up in costumes to methods of coping when your person comes home smelling of other cats.
Even the most hardened human cannot resist a pissed off cat dressed as a taco, two cats talking or yet another cat in citrus head gear, this time with wayfarer animation.
How do we harness the all powerful attraction of cats for our own websites and projects? I’ll let you know when I figure it out. In the meantime, hang in there!
COMMUNITY CONNECTION
Just can’t get enough? Take a look at photos of Matador member’s pets or learn more about taking your pet along when traveling.
About the Author
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15 Comments... join the discussion!
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Noah dances like that. It’s the reason I married him.
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Gotta love the kitty love.
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I’m probably a crazy cat lady (I even have the action figure!), but I can easily spend hours just watching cats… my kitten it attacked a chair leg right now, and I think I’ve been laughing at him for going on 10 minutes… they’re just so entertaining!
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I think some people get it. And some don’t. Just all there is to it. Although considering the number of hits these sites get, there are clearly a lot of closet cat people.
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[facepalm]
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And yet…. I refer to your Flickr page…. http://bit.ly/aBgT3u.
I totally get your feelings on this one and agree in certain respects. But people do love and respond to cats. You can hate it, but that doesn’t change it.
Looking forward to many a facepalm in the future.
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People also love the feeling you have after taking a huge dump. Would Matador approve an article about that too?
I shall attempt the facepalm once more with ASCII. My apologies if it is messed up (if it’s a random array of characters sorry!). Sadly, I’m sure you’ll give me more opportunities for it to be deserved:……………………………………..________
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Benny,
Funny that you’d mention taking a big dump. You reminded of a scene from one of my favorite books in which a man very carefully describes his morning constitution. The character brings us into each detail even to the satisfaction he feels as the “rising stink” greets his nose.
I’m talking about Ulysses. People at the time were absolutely shocked and horrified by everything James Joyce described, mainly because at the time, literature was intended to be clean, neat and fit into a very specific box.
But the reality is, taking a dump is part of the human condition as is our endless fascination with things seemingly pointless videos of cats and the silly things they do.
I completely agree with you that these things are ridiculous, and it amazes me that these cat videos and websites are so popular. That is exactly why I ask why.
Why is it that I can play the Mean Kitty Song and my daughter will come running in from any room of the house to watch with slaw-jawed wide-eyed amazement. Ok, a five year old may be an easy sell, but then what about Noah, my husband?
Noah is a generally cynical person and tends to read only hard core science, politics, art, sports and my blog. I’m not sure he’d read my blog, though, if he didn’t know me personally. Yet, he watched and then continued to choose to watch more cat videos. Why?
Then let me ask you. What’s the difference between the cat videos here and, say, a video of a drunken (seeming) Irishman running around in a pillow fight?
So yes, I am indeed fascinated by internet memes. What makes one thing “hit” while another doesn’t. Why did Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up find a huge audience when Forgetting Sarah Marshall did not.
Noah told me recently a study he read that showed how these things seem to be based on luck. Or popularity. When you see many other people standing in a line, most people are more likely to stand in that line than in the shorter one next to it.
One thing I want to be entirely clear, though. I included this article NOT as an attempt to generate search traffic. I think my work on Matador as well as outside stands strongly enough on it’s own. I included it because I think this is a genuine topic of discussion. And thanks to your frustration and facepalm (another internet meme of equal silliness, i might add), the conversation now exists.
Perhaps I could have brought it up in more directly, but you know, sometimes, I don’t feel like being all serious. Sometimes, I just want to post silly cat images and let them speak for themselves.
Add to that, there are plenty of people who genuinely enjoy them. Who are we to say they shouldn’t? I just want to know what part of us is touched by these things. I want to talk about why.
I look forward to your many more facepalms from you, because, like you, I enjoy a challenge to my beliefs and world view.
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Thanks for that comment Leigh. I would just suggest this site domain be changed from matadorlife to matadorrandom; then I’d have nothing to bitch about
Good to know you weren’t looking for site traffic and genuinely wanted to discuss something… but… LOLcats?? Slow news day?
Re: pillow fight video. That was on irishpolyglot.com; a video site about what I do during my travels. It fits the description. So I think it’s very different. I won’t go to lolcats.com and tell them to stop it, because that’s what the site is about. My argument was not about the LOLcats itself (hell, I love some Internet memes!), just that I don’t see that topic as worth discussing on Matador.
By the way, I don’t drink and I don’t seem drunk in the video. Please don’t pull the drunk Irish guy card again, you don’t want to be on an Irishman’s bad side
Anyway, keep up the good work – based on recent trends I might just have to give in and accept that “life” can mean absolutely anything (to author’s of this site) and accept that (I don’t quite agree, but as an Editor of Matador you clearly know what this particular page is supposed to be about), and focus my critical comments on the other Matador sites – I think they miss me there
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Have you ever heard of Maru the Cat? He’s a Japanese kitty who has his own blog that is one of the most popular blogs in Japan. His specialty is jumping in and back out of boxes, large and small. He cannot resist a box. He’s so funny and popular that people have even started imitating him, and videos exist with people jumping in and out of boxes like Maru.
It sounds like I’m joking, but I’m not.
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Maru looks just like my old cat from NYC. And while, yes, it does sound like you’re joking, after all the cat videos I’ve seen in the past few days, it really doesn’t surprise me.
Very funny.
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That second one bothered my cat. He had to come in here to see what was going on and we shared a look of concern.
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The last one bothered me. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a cat sound like that. Unless you’re talking feral street cat in the middle of the night. Or perhaps demon from hell coming to take your soul.
I can understand why you’d both be concerned.
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‘we shared a look of concern’
sweet.
we need a gatito.
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