Nyan Cat

Nyan Catis aYouTubevideo uploaded in April 2011, which became anInternet meme. The video merged aJapanese popsong with an animated cartoon cat with aPop-Tartfor a torso flying through space and leaving arainbowtrail behind. The video ranked at number five on the list of most viewed YouTube videos in 2011.
On April 2, 2011, theGIF animationof the cat was posted by 25-year-old Christopher Torres ofDallas,Texas, who uses the name "prguitarman", on his websiteLOL-Comics.Torres explained in an interview where the idea for the animation came from: "I was doing a donation drive for theRed Crossand in-between drawings in myLivestreamvideo chat, two different people mentioned I should draw a 'Pop Tart' and a 'cat'." In response, he created a hybrid image of aPop-Tartand a cat, which was developed a few days later into the animated GIF.Nyan Cat was based on a real cat: Torres' pet cat Marty, who died in November 2012 fromfeline infectious peritonitis.
The original version of the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" was uploaded by user "daniwell"to the Japanese video siteNiconicoon July 25, 2010.The song features theVocaloidvirtual singerHatsune Miku.The Japanese wordnya(にゃ)(wikt:にゃん) isonomatopoeic, imitating the call of a cat (equivalent to English "meow").The song was later included in therhythm gameHatsune Miku: Project DIVA F, released bySegain August 2012.
On January 30, 2011, a user named "Momomomo" uploaded a cover of "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" featuring theUTAUvoice Momone Momo.The voice source used to create the Momone Momo voice was a Japanese woman named Momoko Fujimoto.
YouTubeuser "saraj00n" (whose real name is Sara June)combined the cat animation with the "Momomomo" version of the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!", and uploaded it to YouTube on April 5, 2011, three days after Torres had uploaded his animation, giving it the title "Nyan Cat".The video rapidly became a success after being featured on websites includingG4andCollegeHumor. Christopher Torres said: "Originally, its name was Pop Tart Cat, and I will continue to call it so, but the Internet has reached a decision to name it Nyan Cat, and I'm happy with that choice, too."
In March 2019, ownership of the YouTube channel hosting the original Nyan Cat video was transferred toMeans TV, aworker-ownedvideo streaming service.
In November 2023, the original Nyan Cat video ceased to be available on the saraj00n YouTube channel, and its new location was given as the YouTube channel NyanCat.
In February 2021, it was reported that the GIF's original creator, Chris Torres, had created an updated version and sold it as anon-fungible token (NFT)for 300ether, the equivalent of US$587,000 at the time of sale.
The Nyan Cat music video reached ninth place inBusiness Insider's top tenviral videosof April 2011, with 7.2 million total views.The originalYouTubevideo has received 205 million views as of May 3, 2023. Nyan Cat won aWebby Awardin 2012 for "Meme of the Year".
Due to the video's popularity, many newremixesand cover versions have been made, some several hours long. There are alsoringtones,wallpapersandapplicationscreated foroperating systemsand devices, including aprogress barsubstitute forWindowswhich would show up in various places such as the file transfer progress indicator inWindows Explorer, following a request on thesubreddit"Somebody Make This".Video games were developed foriPhone,iPad,Symbian,Android,Windows Phone,andHP webOS,and a variety offlash gamessuch as "Snake" replicas using the cat's rainbow tail."Nyan Cat Adventure", by21st Street Games, is an officially licensed game.An officially licensedcryptocurrencyentitled "Nyancoin" with the domain name nyanco.in (later nyan-coin.org) was launched in January 2014.
Christopher Torres initially criticized the website www.nyan.cat, which originally featured a similar-looking cat with the pop tart replaced by a slice of toast,and the same background music. The site, which uses the.catsponsored top-level domain, was described by Torres as "plagiarized".Since 2012 the website has been operated by Torres, and shows the authentic version of the cat.
On June 27, 2011, the original YouTube video was taken down from the site following aDigital Millennium Copyright Actcomplaint from someone claiming to be Torres. Torres immediately issued a statement on his websiteLOL-comicsdenying that he was the source of the complaint, and contacted Saraj00n and daniwell, who hold the copyright for the video and the song, in order to file a counter-complaint to YouTube.During the period that the video was unavailable for viewing, Torres received numerous abusive e-mails from people who wrongly believed that he had filed the DMCA complaint. On June 28, 2011, the Nyan Cat video was restored to YouTube.
In May 2013, Christopher Torres and Charles Schmidt, the creators of Nyan Cat andKeyboard Catrespectively, jointly sued5th CellandWarner Bros.forcopyright infringementandtrademark infringementover the appearance of these characters without permission in theScribblenautsseries of video games. Torres and Schmidt haveregistered copyrightson their characters and have pending trademark applications on the names.Torres released a statement saying that he had tried to obtain compensation from 5th Cell and Warner Bros. for commercial use of the character, but was "disrespected and snubbed" multiple times.The suit was settled in September 2013, with Torres and Schmidt being paid for the use of the characters.