- Nyan Cat
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Nyan Cat (originally called Pop Tart Cat) is an Internet meme which started as an animated GIF of a cat with the body of a cherry Pop-Tart flying through space, leaving a rainbow trail behind it. The animation has also been made into a YouTube video set to a remix of the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!"[1]
Contents
Origin
Animated gif
The original animation was made by 25-year-old Christopher Torres of Dallas, Texas, who uses the name "prguitarman" on his website LOL-Comics. The animation was posted on April 2, 2011.[2] Torres said in an interview: "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. 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."[3]
YouTube video
YouTube user "saraj00n" combined the cat animation with a version of the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" uploaded by Nico Nico Douga user "もももも" ("Momo Momo"), and uploaded it to YouTube on April 5, 2011, giving it the title "Nyan Cat".[1][3]
The song
The original song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!", made with the Vocaloid Hatsune Miku (初音ミク ), was uploaded by user "daniwell"[4] to Nico Nico Douga on July 25, 2010.[5] The song's lyrics refer to the Japanese word for the sound cats make, "nyā" (にゃあ ).[6]
Momo Momo uploaded his/her version of the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" to Nico Nico Douga on January 31, 2011.[7] The Momo Momo version uses the singing synthesizer software UTAU with the voice "Momone Momo" (桃音モモ), which repeats the word "nyan" throughout the song.[8] "Momone Momo" comes from the kanji "momo" 桃, meaning "peach", and "ne" 音, meaning "sound".[9] The voice source used to create Momone Momo was Fujimoto Momoko (藤本萌々子 ), a Japanese woman who lives in Tokyo.[10]
Popularity
The Nyan Cat music video reached ninth place in Business Insider's top ten viral videos of April 2011, with 7.2 million total views.[11] The original YouTube video has received over 47 million views as of November 15, 2011[update]. Due to its popularity, many new remixes and cover versions have been made, some hours long. There are also ringtones, wallpapers and applications created for operating systems including Windows 7,[12] Nokia,[13] iPhone, iPad,[14] Android,[15] HP webOS.[16] and Windows Phone 7.[17]
Christopher Torres has criticized the website
nyan.cat
, which features a similar-looking cat with the same background music. The site, which uses the .cat sponsored top-level domain, has been described by Torres as "plagiarized".[18][19]Temporary DMCA takedown
On June 27, 2011, the original YouTube video was taken down from the site following a Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaint from someone claiming to be prguitarman, the creator of the GIF animation. Christopher Torres (prguitarman) immediately denied being 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. On June 28, 2011, the video was restored to YouTube. During the period that the video was unavailable, Torres received hate mail from people who wrongly believed that he was the person behind the DMCA takedown notice.[1][20]
See also
- Robot Unicorn Attack
References
- ^ a b c "Nyan Cat / Pop Tart Cat". Know Your Meme. http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/nyan-cat-pop-tart-cat. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "Pop Tart / Nyan Cat! by prguitarman on LOL-comics, April 2, 2011.". http://www.prguitarman.com/index.php?id=348. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ a b "POP Profile: The Guy Behind The Viral Phenomenon “Nyan Cat”". Pop goes the Week. April 19, 2011. http://popgoestheweek.com/2011/04/pop-profile-the-brains-behind-the-viral-phenomenon-nyan-cat/. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
- ^ "daniwell" is variously credited on the web as daniwellP and Daniwell-P; the account that uploaded the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" uses the name daniwell.
- ^ ニコニコ動画(原宿).【初音ミク】Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!【オリジナループ】. From nicovideo.jp July 25, 2010. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
- ^ From Denshi Jisho. Dictionary definition of "nyā" (にゃあ ). Retrieved June 2, 2011.
- ^ ニコニコ国際交流".【UTAU】Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!【桃音モモ】【ミクカバー】 ‐ ニコニコ動画(原宿). From nicovideo.jp, January 31, 2011. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
- ^ Nyan Cat hit 10M views Vocaloidism, May 22, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ Momo Momone - UTAU Wiki Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ Momone Momo Official Channel YouTube. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "Top viral videos of April: What's A "Nyan Cat"?". May 3, 2011. http://www.businessinsider.com/top-viral-videos-of-april-2011-5. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ Brandrick, Chris (2011-07-13). "Nyan Cat Invades Windows 7, Dances Along Progress Bars". PCWorld. http://www.pcworld.com/article/235674/nyan_cat_invades_windows_7_dances_along_progress_bars.html. Retrieved 2011-09-22.
- ^ "Nyan Cat on the Nokia Cell Phone". Pdadevice.com. 2011-07-02. http://pdadevice.com/nyan-cat-on-the-nokia-cell-phone.html. Retrieved 2011-09-22.
- ^ Dredge, Stuart (May 14, 2011). "Apps rush: Nutkin, Nyan Cat and more". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2011/may/13/apps-rush-thomas-friends-squirrel-nutkin. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "Galactic Nyan Cat for Android". https://market.android.com/details?id=com.chasinglemons.galacticnyancat. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "Nyan Cat for HP webOS". Developer.palm.com. http://developer.palm.com/appredirect/?packageid=com.taytabbb.nyan&applicationid=9147. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
- ^ "Nyan Cat strays into the Marketplace". wpcentral.com. http://www.wpcentral.com/nyan-cat-strays-marketplace. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ nyan.cat Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "Huy Hong: so tremendously humbled, thank you. Lies and thievery". prguitarman.tumblr.com. http://prguitarman.tumblr.com/post/4954865409/huy-hong-so-tremendously-humbled-thank-you-lies. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "I did NOT file a Youtube Copyright Complaint". prguitarman.com. June 27, 2011. http://www.prguitarman.com/index.php?id=369. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
External links
- Nyan Cat on LOL-Comics, the original GIF animation by prguitarman (Christopher Torres), April 2, 2011.
- Nyan Cat original video on YouTube by saraj00n, April 5 2011.
Categories:- Internet memes
- YouTube videos
- Viral videos
- IOS games
- Fictional characters introduced in 2011
- Fictional cats
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