Nyan Cat

Nyan Cat is a YouTube video uploaded in April 2011, which became an internet meme. The video merged a Japanese pop song with an animated cartoon cat with a Pop-Tart for a torso flying through outer space and leaving a rainbow trail behind. The video ranked at number five on the list of most viewed YouTube videos in 2011. Nyan Cat is a very large role model for scene culture considering the neon/bright colors, popularity and cute character design. These details are also very commonly seen in other fictional icons of scene such as in GIR from *Invader Zim*.

## Information

>  *"Nyan Cat is the name of an animation uploaded on April 2 2011, and became a viral internet sensation. The design of Nyan Cat was inspired by my cat Marty, who crossed the Rainbow Bridge but lives on in spirit. I am the original artist behind the iconic GIF and have remastered the image for its 10 year anniversary."*
>
> Chris Torres, creator of Nyan Cat, FANDOM Wiki Page
>
>

Though the GIF was created by prguitarman, its popularity spike was due to a YouTube User named Saraj00n pairing it with Momo's "Nya Nya Nya!" song and uploading it, where it immediately became a hit. Nyan Cat has an arch nemesis named Tac Nayn, one of the oldest known Nyan Cat spoofs. The common theory that Nyan Cat and Tac Nayn are related, or twins has not been confirmed nor denied by FrankieDudeUltimate or prguitarman, but the idea is very often brought up in fan creations.

On NYAN.CAT, Nyan Cat has the original theme song on an infinite loop, whilst an animated GIF file of Nyan Cat without the rainbow trail or background flies over a rainbow embedded onto the website. The stars that fly across the screen are also embedded. The three options highlights in pink, and the GIF image saves as "`original.gif`" and the preview icon on the "Pick a Flavor" bar also saves under this. Nyan Cat also has two different pages: the main page, and the page simply titled Original. These pages have few differences; however, the main page can be taken by other Nyans at certain times of the year such as Halloween.

## Origin

### Animated GIF

On April 2, 2011, the GIF animation of the cat was posted by 25-year-old Christopher Torres of Dallas, Texas, who uses the name "prguitarman", on his website *LOL-Comics*. Torres explained in an interview where the idea for the animation came from: "I was doing a donation drive for the Red Cross and in-between drawings in my Livestream video chat, two different people mentioned I should draw a 'Pop Tart' and a 'cat'." In response, he created a hybrid image of a Pop-Tart and 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 from feline infectious peritonitis (FIP).

### Song

The original version of the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" was uploaded by user "daniwell" to the Japanese video site Niconico on July 25, 2010. The song features the VOCALOID virtual singer Hatsune Miku. The Japanese word *nya* (にゃ) is onomatopoeic, imitating the call of a cat (equivalent to English "meow"). The song was later included in the rhythm game *Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F*, released by Sega in August 2012.

On January 30, 2011, a user named "Momomomo" uploaded a cover of "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" featuring the UTAU voice Momone Momo. The voice source used to create the Momone Momo voice was a Japanese woman named Momoko Fujimoto.

### YouTube video

YouTube user "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 including G4 and CollegeHumor. 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 to *Means TV*, a worker-owned video 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. On November 6, 2023, saraj00n uploaded a video calling for a ceasefire in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war.

## References

1. ↑ "Talking Twin Babies, Nyan Cat among YouTube's top videos of 2011". *Los Angeles Times*. December 20, 2011.
2. ↑ prguitarman (April 2, 2011). "Pop Tart / Nyan Cat!". *LOL-comics*.
3. ↑ "POP Profile: The Guy Behind The Viral Phenomenon "Nyan Cat"". Pop goes the Week. April 19, 2011.
4. ↑ "RIP Marty --The Inspiration for Nyan Cat". *mashable.com*. November 2, 2012.
5. ↑ "From Meme To Memory: RIP Marty, Nyan Cat's Inspiration". *petslady.com*. November 2, 2012.