Ceiling Cat
Added 14 years ago by Chris Menning • Updated 9 days ago by sakshi
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Tags: lolcat 4chan photoshop caturday animal ytmnd icanhascheezburger single character image macro exploitable voyeurism samguana catnarok quarex tubbypaws avapoet
Additional References: Encyclopedia Dramatica Urban Dictionary Wikipedia
About
Ceiling Cat is a photoshop meme based on a photograph of a cat peeking through a hole in the ceiling of a room. Its online popularity eventually led to several derivative characters, including his nemesis Basement Cat and Basement Horse.
Origin
While the original photographer of the image is still unknown, several people have claimed to know its origin. Encyclopedia Dramatica[1] states that the cat belongs to Wikipedia user Samguana[2] but this claim has not been confirmed. In May 2012, Something Awful poster Quarex claimed[18] that they were friends with the cat's owner, posting a similar photo of the cat from a different angle. The user also said the cat in the photo passed away in 2010.
The photo that would go on to become the image macro has been online since as early as June 1st, 2003 when it was submitted to FunnyJunk.[3] The photo was titled "Stalker Kitty" and did not receive any comments for four years.
It was not paired with the phrase "Ceiling cat is watching you masturbate" until 2006 at the earliest. The captioned image first spread via YTMND, with the earliest site created on February 8th, 2006.[4] Several other sites[5] were created that year, but there have been fewer instances of Ceiling Cat appearing on YTMND for each subsequent year. Two days after the initial YTMND was created, CeilingCat.com[6] was created. Ceiling-cat.com[7] was created November 22nd, 2006, solely hosting the captioned image.
Spread
The photo evolved in to a popular Photoshop meme. Many variants of this image appeared on 4chan's /b/, or random board, using the "cat in a hole" exploitable in a number of ways, including appearing as a god. Ceiling Cat was added to Urban Dictionary[8] on June 1st, 2006. This definition included the fact that the cat was a deity[9], alluding to the Catnarok mythology.
On January 24th, 2007, the original macro was posted on I Can Has Cheezburger.[10] Kongregate posted a Flash game called Ceiling Cat Invaders[11], a knockoff of Space Invaders, on July 13th, 2007. On March 13th, 2009, design blog Tubbypaws[16] shared a DIY papercraft Ceiling Cat. I Can Has Cheezburger[12] posted a profile of Ceiling Cat on February 3rd, 2011, highlighting some of the more popular image macro derivatives.
Myths Surrounding Ceiling Cat
Building upon this theme of Ceiling Cat as God, the Ceiling Cat meme spawned a few different pseudo-religious mythologies. In Catnarok[13], Ceiling Cat is going to be the cat that announces the coming of the fight between Longcat and Tacgnol. collected together as "Catnarok." In March 2009, the Daily Kos[14] posted an image series explaining this mythology behind Ceiling Cat.
The LOLCat Bible[15] has determined that Ceiling Cat is the LOLCat equivalent of God, with Basement Cat representing the devil. This mythology has no correlation with Catnarok, as it is supposed to be a near-direct translation of the bible in to LOLSpeak.
"Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated dem. Da Urfs no had shapez An haded dark face, An Ceiling Cat rode invisible bike over teh waterz."
Wall Cat Theory
On September 22nd, 2010, Redditor avapoet posted a thread[17] to the Today I Learned subreddit pointing out a section of the original photo where a skirting board is visible, proving that the cat is really inside of a hole in a wall and not actually a ceiling.
Redditor Jensaarai refuted the post. They wrote:
Let's put this to rest forever. The first known appearance of this pic titled "Stalker Kitty" on June 1, 2003:
http://funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/1018/Stalker+Kitty/
This came a full two years before the "ceiling cat" meme, but the original image most definitely shows it to be a ceiling cat, even more conclusively than this comparison, since it predates the meme. Whoever posted the meme cropped the photo down to this version to eliminate the logo, and it was then cropped again causing the great wall-cat confusion.
2018 Resurgence
On June 19th, 2018, Twitter user @CampbellxEmma[19] tweeted several photographs of her mother's cat poking its head through a hole in the ceiling (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 74,700 likes and 22,100 retweets.
That day, Twitter user @potatobanjo posted a Creation of Adam photoshop superimposed with the two different ceiling cats (shown below).
In the coming days, Mashable[20] published an article titled "Cat pokes head through hole in the ceiling, achieves instant fame," Twitter published a Moments[21] page titled "The meme gods have given the world the second coming of ceiling cat" and Smosh[22] published an article titled "Ceiling Cat Memes Are BACK Thanks to a NEW Cat Caught Chillin’ in a Ceiling."
Notable Derivatives
Search Interest
Search for ceiling cat began in February 2006, the same month the first YTMND sites were created. Search peaked in April 2008. Similar with other cats from its time, search has been on the decline.
External References
[1] Encyclopedia Dramatica – Ceiling Cat
[2] Wikipedia – User: Samguana
[3] FunnyJunk – Stalker Kitty
[4] YTMND – Ceiling Cat…
[5] YTMND – Sites tagged "ceiling cat"
[8] Urban Dictionary – "ceiling cat"
[9] Speak LOLspeak – Ceiling cat
[10] ICHC – ceiling cat is watching you…
[11] Kongregate – Ceiling Cat Invaders
[12] ICHC – Cheezburger Confidential – Ceiling Cat
[13] Encyclopedia Dramatica – Catnarok
[14] Daily Kos – Thursday Ceiling Cat Edition of the Post-Revolutionary Pootie Diary
[15] LOL Cat Bible – Ceiling Cat
[16] tubbypaws – Ceiling Cat iz papercrft now
[17] Reddit – TIL that Ceiling Cat is actually Wall Cat
[18] Something Awful – Quarex's Post
[19] Twitter – @CampbellxEmma
[20] Mashable – Cat pokes head through hole in the ceiling achieves instant fame
[21] Twitter Moments – The meme gods have given the world the second coming of ceiling cat
[22] Smosh – Ceiling Cat Memes Are BACK Thanks to a NEW Cat Caught Chillin’ in a Ceiling
[23] Twitter – @potatobanjo
[24] Reddit – Jensaarai's Post
Entry Editors ( 10 )
Recent Videos ( 4 )
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Ceiling Cat is No More
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Ceiling Cat
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lolcats - Basement Cat & Ceiling Cat movie trailer
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Flying Bears and Weiner
Recent Images ( 170 )
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Ceiling Crazy Lady Is Watching You Masturbate
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Celling Pierluigi Collina
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Ceiling Cat
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An attempt was made.
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this is what dying feels like
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gonna eats ur launch
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Ceiling Italian
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Lööps
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she watches you
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Ceiling Octoling is watching you masturbate
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Creation of Adam
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@CampbellxEmma tweet
Comments ( 34 )
Basement cat should be mentioned here.
Soon, this cat has started different kinds of variation such as Ceiling Pedobear or Ceiling Longcat…
Will provide moar pics soon
added a bunch of pics from ichc
some dealing with ceiling cat's role as a center of the lolcat's religion
There's a ceiling loooongcat picture? I must see this.
Also; Ceiling cat is mentioned as a God amongst the many lolcats in most images I've seen, like Provie said.
Also I hate it how people make ceiling cat white like Loooongcat instead of orange.
This is definitely a meme, but I think it should just be added as a sub-entry for LOLcats.
@Max, No its very much its own entity.
@Max
"part of a series on LOLcats"
A long long time ago, in a website far, far away, there was a split in the community. Some people wanted "Jesus," some wanted "Happy Cat," and some wanted "Jeebus."
Happy Cat won out. So actually any reference to "Jeebus" is a chapter that hasn't been fixed (probably because the bot I had someone make didn't search for that, only for "Jebus."
Old meme.
is even in an item on the famous gaiaonline.com
This lil guy also appeared in Scribblenauts.
yeh i just tried that smbz, longcat and tacgnol work too!
Uhh I think youtube has been hacked, all videos that usually show like a camera (as in if they were dleleted or processing) have a picture of ceiling cat
if god kills a kitten when i masturbate, does that mean one day ceiling cat will die one day while watching me?
Ai added sum rare stuff! Look at teh pikchurz!
It's not ceiling cat v basement cat. Its Longcat v Tacgnol
Ooh, a Felidae prtsc. :D Nice.
Look up, just to be sure
I added ceiling Shadowcat
Added Ceiling Creeper.
That's a nice pingas you have here…
…It would be a shame if something happened to it
D:
Badly Shopped Ceiling BrandO added.
you know, it takes more than someone who has read the ED article and simply reworded it by removing the jokes and commentary.
this is the biggest problem with KYM. if the moronic moderators and "OP" (like IRCOP, not "original poster") equivalents simply accepted the fact that ED has beaten them to the punch on everything from pre 2010….
but rather EMBRACED THIS FACT, by linking to the corresponding ED fact, and even quoting the ED article…
I think KYM would have increased site traffic.
EDiots would be less likely to be vitriolic and hateful of KYM (because their site traffic would benefit).
it is often complained: "ED is not a chan encyclopedia." well clearly KYM is much much more of a #chan encyclopedia…
KYM could help ED and ED could help KYM. and by "help" I do not mean supply KYM with a public licensed source for plagiarism and lack of original research.
Hey guise, if you have the tineye firefox plugin, search one of the ceiling cat images.
I BLEEV IN CEILIN CAT…
Description for this article said "Ceiling Cat is like Big Brother, always watching
I'm re-reading 1984
NO ponies, please.
They are CATS.
ceiling cat is watching you fapfapfapfapfapfap
(climaxes in ceiling cat's face)
Hey, I never TOLD you to watch me masturbate.
"Researching"
“Its online popularity eventually led to several derivative characters, including his nemesis Basement Cat and Basement Horse”
actually, that would be "nemeses", the plural of "nemesis".
I miss the simplicity and wholesomeness of lolcats
No politics, just innocent lulz….
It's an older meme sir, but it checks out. I was just about to upvote it.
No politics, just innocent lulz….
It's an older meme sir, but it checks out. I was just about to upvote it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS6BX-gcJqw
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