interviews
Famed Internet Cat Thurston Waffles And His Owner Matt Recap How The Pair Meowed Their Way Into Memedom
ver the last year or so, a white Ragamuffin cat named Thurston Waffles became a bit of a YouTube sensation after his iconic meow was used in numerous memes across the internet. Although his owner Matt thought little of the video when it was initially posted, there are now hundreds of remixes, covers and more circulating the web, and Thurston has since accumulated quite the following on social media. We spoke with Matt about their history, the origin of the meme and how Thurston’s meow became … well, the cat’s meow.
Q: Hey there Matt. Kick us off with a quick introduction and let anyone unaware of Thurston know what he’s famous for.
A: Heya! Thanks for having us. Thurston is sitting beside me and threatening to slash my tires if I don’t do a good job on this interview, so I’m a little nervous. We hail from the deep prairie and the frozen land of North Dakota, where Thurston ruthlessly lords over his snowy kingdom with an iron paw. Most people who recognize our homeland will think of either the Bakken Formation or a certain Coen brothers movie featuring a wood chipper. I am a full-time cat servant, and I also do online work with cryptocurrency on the side to keep the fluffy master in kibble. Thurston is best known for a video of him meowing dramatically when he wasn’t getting the walk he wanted.
Q: Before diving into his history on the internet and as a meme, I’d like to hear the full backstory of how he came into your life, as well as where his name stems from. Would you mind recapping how you got Thurston?
A: Back in the year 2009 BTE (Before Thurston Era), it was a dark time. Thurston’s mom Shelli and I led meaningless lives of abject misery with only stale “I Can Has Cheezburger?” memes to keep us warm at night. But then in the year of our fluffy lort, 2010, Thurston spawned and gave our pathetic human lives meaning. My parents called and told me they’d been given two Ragamuffin white farm-cats: twins. When we made the pilgrimage to see them, we saw a scruffy little gremlin staring back at us. We only had room for one kitten at the time: unfortunately, we picked the evil twin. From the first moment I held him and he locked his tiny white fangs onto the flesh of my arm, I instantly fell in love with him. From the vacuous hatred in his eyes to the demanding scowl, I knew from that moment I was forever his.
When we took him home later that day and my parents left us with a stern warning: don’t get him wet and never EVER feed him after midnight. As far as his name, Thurston, the truth is a trade secret … kidding, we got it from an episode of Hey Arnold. We’re also fans of the band Sonic Youth, so he shares his name with the lead singer, Thurston Moore. The second half of his social media name, Waffles, came from a nickname we had for him as a kitten. When he would break things and run around the house, we’d call him “Baron von Turdwaffle.” I have no idea why we called him that since we’ve given him hundreds of nicknames over the years. It’s kind of a competition between cat parents to see who can come up with the dumbest nickname, and Waffles just happens to be the surname I picked when I set up his Instagram.
Q: So retracing his earliest online history, the first post featuring Thurston went up on Vine back in December 2013, and then you made his Instagram in 2016. Can you fill us in on how these early posts were received and sorta what your plan was for his online presence back then?
A: After a couple of years of living with Thurston, I realized that it was basically like living with a rageaholic feral child (one with sharp claws and a piercing howl). He had a lot of bizarre, destructive and funny behaviors. He was also extremely communicative and loudly told us anytime he was displeased. So I started recording him whenever he would fly into a murderous rage. Eventually, I took notice of Vine after seeing how fun short-form video could be and started making videos from there. Short videos really suited us because they were punchy and fun to make, and they seem to fit with his personality really well.
It was on Vine that Shelli and I really met a great community of animal lovers and had lots of supportive people encouraging us to continue making videos. We made a lot of long-term friends in the online cat community, many of whom we still talk to today. When Vine shut down, we decided to move over to Instagram since it seemed like a logical step, and eventually we also did Twitter, YouTube and other platforms as well.
A lot of our old videos just focused on Thurston‘s various antics and many misbehaviors, really just letting him show people his personality. Our modern videos often pair his daily stunts with our favorite music, and we like to feature people’s art now and then as well since Thurston’s fans make some incredible fan art. (Seriously, check out some of the great art people have tagged us with). Our intentions were never really to have Thursty become a meme: He was always a superstar to us. But it was fun to see other people laugh at the things he did. Online cats have given us so much joy over the years, so it was really fun to contribute to the cat meme culture in some way.
Q: Although he had a presence online for years, it wasn’t until mid-June 2019 when you posted the clip of him meowing that he really took off, which was also the video that became his meme. Could you recap this specific video and timeframe? What was your reaction to seeing it blow up?
A: The really interesting and ironic thing about that video is that I didn’t think it was particularly unique when I posted it. In all honesty, it was just kind of a normal day for Thurston: arguing with his dad to get what he wants, whining at the door to go on a walk and getting aggro when he didn’t get it fast enough. In all honesty, I had no idea the video was even getting more attention than usual until later on that year in October when it started to be used in more remixes and memes. The reason it took me a while to notice is that shortly after the video was posted my 5-year-old nephew developed a very serious ongoing health problem that — to this day — is still undiagnosed nearly a year and a half later. So a few weeks after I initially posted the video, a lot of my thoughts were (and still are) consumed by that situation, and I didn’t spend much time on social media.
Q: About four months later, that video resurfaced and started being used in memes, particularly remixes in songs or other prominent memes where Thurston replaced a character. When did come across one of these for the first time, where, and what was your reaction to seeing your cat used in them?
A: Several months after I posted the video, a friend texted me something like, “I keep seeing this white cat everywhere, and I’m pretty sure it’s Thurston.” So I hopped on my social media kind of thinking it would end up being a different cat, but I kept seeing comments like, “This is the meme cat,” and, “It’s him!” One of Shelli’s friends had also seen the video of Thurston on Facebook, so it started to dawn on us that he was actually becoming a meme. I think we were both stupefied, but as usual, Thurston was not at a loss for words. When we told Thurston he had gotten his claws wrapped around the internet, he just said, “IDGAF, gimme shramp u stupid humans.”
One of the first memes we saw was that people were putting Thurston into the Smudge table meme [Woman Yelling At Cat]. It might sound weird to say, but it kind of felt like an honor. Shelli and I just love Smudge. But yeah, we spent quite a bit of time those first few weeks just laughing at all the different ways people were using Thurston’s face (and my voice). Really, just seeing that people were having fun and laughing meant everything to us. It just felt like Thursty had sent a little bit of joy out into the world. We were very proud cat parents!
Q: When he first became a meme back then, were you necessarily into memes or internet culture, or was this your first experience with that kinda thing? If you were, did you think this clip was meme-worthy back when it was initially shared or was it a surprise?
A: Shelli and I are absolutely meme fans! We’ve enjoyed memes going all the way back to the Dancing Baby, Hamster Dance and Salad Fingers. Meme culture used to be a lot of silly, surrealist humor, and now it’s evolved to become more self-aware. It’s often so layered and ironic you can’t even pinpoint the source of the irony. Over time, memes have also become more niche to the point that sometimes even my mom will send me a meme that I just don’t get.
What I ultimately love about memes is that they bring a lot of novelty to life: whether they are silly, cute, political or just plain weird, a great meme can change your perspective in a small way. Memes give you a new way to relate to the world and to the online community. But then there are some memes that are just totally uncomplicated: a funny moment that people can relate to and then take turns spoofing to see who can get a laugh. I think Thurston’s meme falls into that category: It’s just a weird cat doing a funny thing. So as I saw people remixing the video and making it their own, it really made me appreciate how clever and talented people are. Overall, I just enjoy seeing people happy, and I like knowing that people appreciate Thurston for who he is. It almost brings a tear to this faithful cat servant’s eye knowing that Thursty left a little claw mark on the internet.
And as a side note, I will say that I think that all cats are memeworthy! I love seeing people’s pets and finding out more about each of their personalities. So to anyone reading this, I have a message for your cat: You’re a special kitty and you deserve everything. All of it. Now go scratch the furniture. Good kitty.
Q: Aside from yourself, what about any friends or family members? Did they find it funny or were some of them unknowledgeable about memes and more so confused than anything?
A: My friends and family have been incredibly supportive of Thurston‘s social media! Several of my friends have provided music, art and various support with Thurston‘s pages, so I’m really looking forward to giving them a shout-out down below! In general, I think that my family found the whole thing amusing and were just happy that I was enjoying myself. But to be honest, I don’t think it came as a surprise to anyone that I would be doing something involving cats. I’m unabashedly obsessed with the furry little monsters, and everyone knows it. My Christmas or birthday presents from family usually involve a cat in some way, shape or form. I have a growing collection of cat-themed T-shirts that portray a lot of my own personal favorite internet cats, including Smudge.
Q: Lots of people online seem to confuse Thurston and Smudge from the “Woman Yelling At Cat” meme. Have you ever interacted with Smudge’s owners regarding this?
A: I am definitely familiar with this confusion! Smudge’s popularity really started to grow in 2019, and we loved him from the second we saw him! As I mentioned, I have a shirt with Smudge Lord on it, and I have to laugh when sometimes friends and family get confused about whether or not I’m wearing a Thurston shirt. But honestly, for me, it just felt like a milestone when people started putting Thurston into the real housewives/table meme [Woman Yelling At Cat], and I thought it was hilarious to see all the different iterations people came up with. I haven’t talked to Smudge or his family, but who knows, maybe one of these days Smudge and Thurston can sit down at a table together for a delicious shrimp feast. ;-)
Q: Since Thurston is a fairly prominent meme and internet icon now, do you have any other favorite internet-animal stars, such as legends like Keyboard Cat or Doge? Also, have you ever interacted or collaborated with any others besides Smudge?
A: Wow, Shelli and I have too many favorite internet animals to even count! Of course, we love Gabe the Dog, and we are honored that so many people have compared Thurston to him. Tartar Sauce, Lil Bub, Colonel Meow, the list goes on and on. We’ve interacted with a few various internet-animal celebs, such as the Oreo Cat (who we’ve been friends of and collaborated with going back to the Vine days), Butters the Bean (whose mom Mary is super fun and kind), Barky Cat Bros (whose videos are incredibly clever and funny) and others. And Thurston just wanted to say a special hello to Winston and Bonnie, Shropshire, Deaner and crew, along with all of our other animal friends online!
Q: There are now seemingly hundreds of these remixes with Thurston’s meow, some of which you’ve made and shared yourself, so how did you get into making such memes and which are your favorites, whether fan-made or personally made?
A: My personal favorites of the many great memes that people made were the ones relating to classic video games since I’m a fan of retro gaming and chiptunes. My top favorites would probably have to be the Duck Tales one by 달팽군, the one that had Thursty Saria’s song from Ocarina of Time by memes_b0i and also the Yoshi’s Island ones by Ditzy Flama. It was also fun to see him get the Cyranek treatment.
Oh, and one particular YouTube channel, Malow Meme has been doing a LOT of great memes with Thurston that we’ve been enjoying, so check them out here and here.
As far as making my own memes, I just like to goof off and experiment in my videos. So my edits may be crappy, but I have fun nevertheless. Whether I’m deploying my terrible Photoshop skills or just finding random ways to have fun with his videos, I just hope people are laughing and enjoying the content.
Q: Especially now that you’ve sorta been on the other side of a meme, what do you think of them in general these days? Has your personal experience with memes changed your opinion on them or how you consume them?
A: I think after all this I’ve really grown to appreciate memes for how they connect people. On some level, I think we all can acknowledge that life is absurd sometimes. Memes can help us take a moment away from the uglier aspects of life to just appreciate the absurdity of it all now and then. One thing Thurston’s meme did make me realize also is just how random the growth of a meme really is. Because if you look around online, there’s a lot of really great content that goes unnoticed: funny, fun and interesting voices that never get the attention they deserve. So whether there is some element of luck, novelty or maybe just a certain indefinable quality that gives a meme power, it’s always fun to see what people (or cats) will come up with next.
Which reminds me: on my YouTube channel, I actually ran into a Reddit user who generated a lot of the initial interest in the video by posting it to Reddit. It was really kind of fun to come full circle and just hear from this random stranger who had such a huge impact on my life. What can I say but that life is strange (great game too by the way)!
Q: Now that the meme has been around for just over a year, Thurston has quite the online fan base with hundreds of thousands of followers between Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc. Given his following, would you say his renown in meme culture has had any major impacts on your personal life? In what ways have you capitalized on this, and what are his fans like when interacting with them?
A: In all honesty, I would say the biggest impact on my life is that in a strange way it kind of renewed my faith in people. I am the type of person who’s really affected by the things I see going on in the world. Sometimes it can feel like there’s nothing but bad news and ugliness out there, but Thurston‘s friends and fans have really helped to rebuild my sense of optimism. There are so many people out there that are so positive, kind and supportive, and it’s just a regular reminder to me how much of a difference a kind word can make in a person’s day.
I’m sure a lot of content creators feel this way, but I truly believe Thurston has some of the most amazing fans. Thurston had a serious health scare earlier this year, but with a lot of hard work, we have him back to almost 100 percent. We also lost our beautiful cat Abigaile recently. His fans helped make these very difficult times in our lives much easier. To that end, I just want to give a special shout out to Thurston‘s LGBT fans, along with our friends around the world who have interacted with us over the last year.
As far as capitalizing on Thurston’s meme, we do have a small merch store for those who want it, but for the most part, we are just happy that people love him. For us, immortalizing him in some way for being the special cat that he is has been worth its weight in gold.
I also think this is a great chance to say that we love the sharing ethos of the internet, and that includes meme culture. People are free to use his videos and pictures in any way they like. None of them are licensed, nor are we possessive of any of our content because we value the collective culture of a free internet. We just love seeing people use Thurston’s videos and pictures for art, memes or videos: feel free to do so! That includes regular people who want to sell stuff they’ve created with his likeness: go for it! We don’t care, in fact, we love seeing it.
Really, Shelli and I are just thankful for all the opportunities this has presented. I enjoy making videos and plan to get back to regular posting soon. In the future, we would love to do some charitable work with our local animal shelter, and hopefully beyond. We are very passionate about animal welfare, and want everyone to have happy, healthy pets living in their forever homes. So have your pets spayed or neutered, and be sure to incorporate wet food into your cat’s diet. ;-)
Q: What about the whole “shrimp” and “shrimp rage” thing on his profiles? Can you explain what that’s about, how it started and if there are any other inside jokes among fans?
A: Well we found out later that the word “shr---ing” has another [explicit] definition on Urban Dictionary: That’s not the one we are using, but you can look it up if you are curious [laughs] (Hint: it involves toes). But yeah, the inside joke basically started between Shelli and me when we bought these freeze-dried shrimp treats that Thurston loved — and we’re not talking about a regular type of love — we are talking about a Fatal Attraction type of love! So he would sit in front of his mom with a venomous glare and bags under his eyes. Sometimes he would bite us to get the shrimp. He knocked things off the counter and destroyed numerous treasured possessions to get to them.
So, we realized that these shrimp treats were a serious addiction for him, and we started joking that he was “Jonesing” for his shrimp fix. Eventually, Thurston‘s mom just started calling it “shr---ing” and it stuck. Now the term just means when he’s glaring at us or throwing a little rage fit about something he wants. And the thing about shr---ing is that sometimes even HE doesn’t even know what he wants. Thurston just knows that it’s your job to fix his irritation and you’re not doing it fast enough. Stupid human.
Another inside joke fans like is “stumping.” Stumping is really not complicated. It’s just when a cat gets on a high perch to be more at your level so they can scream at you and make demands. For a cat, the higher the stump, the greater their authority. If your cat is on a stump, you must obey. That’s just how it is. We sometimes refer to it as a “stump speech” if Thurston is screaming at us. One last inside joke we like is BKE, which is “Big Kitten Energy.” That’s when your cat has lots of energy, zooms around the house, bites your ankle and runs away, and is just generally feeling good.
Sweet and spicy shrimp! Here’s the sweet 🥺 #shrimpcomp pic.twitter.com/o7gCzwXFhm
— Thurston Waffles (@ThurstonWaffles) December 19, 2019
Q: Before we wrap up this interview, I’d like to hear more about Thurston and what he’s like. How old he is now, what’s his demeanor like, and can you share any funny quirks or anecdotes about how he behaves?
A: So Thurston is 10-and-a-half years old now. He has a pretty unique personality. He likes to shout. A lot. I don’t think he was socialized properly as a kitten, so he doesn’t “cat” very well. Let’s get this out of the way: He has not covered a single t--d in 10 years. We cover his t--ds for him. That’s just how it is: We are the designated t--d coverers. And yes, we have tried every type of litter box to no avail. He just doesn’t know how to cover t--ds, but we love him anyhow.
Overall, Thursty has kind of a salty personality, and he is often found screaming at his mom or dad because he wants something. But this is actually one of his coolest qualities: He is very good at communicating with humans. He looks you right in the eye when he says something, uses eye contact as a weapon, and he really knows how to manipulate people. So, in a way, he feels a lot more like living with a human child than a cat. He can also be a little bit controlling: He wants everyone sitting in their proper spot and wants to know what you are doing at all times!
But Thurston’s biggest secret is that he’s actually a real sweetie. His cuddles are second to none, and he will jump right into your arms and give you a full-on hug with both paws wrapped around your neck. He also likes to bonk heads together as a show of friendship. He loves going for walks outside with dad, breaking household objects and trying to bat cheese out of dad‘s hand. Now, Thurston would kill me if he knew I was writing this, but he does have one kryptonite. It’s marching bands. He fears only one thing in the entire universe, and that’s a marching band: Anytime there is a parade, he will run and hide in the closet until we can coax him out with shrimp.
Q: So has all this internet fame gone to Thurston’s head or is he still the same old cat he’s always been? How does he like to spend his time, and what are some of his favorite activities?
A: Well let’s be honest, any time a cat gets internet famous, it’s going to go to their head. They are cats after all: They know their place is to be worshiped — just ask the Ancient Egyptians. And after going through a very unpleasant health crisis earlier this year, Thursty is back to well over 9000 percent shrimp levels! Has the meme changed him? Not really! His favorite activities still include lounging in front of a light therapy lamp, waking us up in the middle of the night to cuddle and biting the ankles and toes of ungrateful humans. Let’s not forget walkies! He loves going out in his harness and leash to patrol his kingdom and laugh at all the pathetic humans who have to cover their own t--ds!
Q: Thanks again for taking the time to speak with us. To end things here, I’d like to hear from Thurston, so please translate. Thurston, with your following of several hundred thousand fans, what would you like to say to them, and how do you want to be remembered in the future?
A: Okay, dad here for one more second. I’m just going to step away from the keyboard and bandage my hand. Thurston is taking over now.
Who dis? Some guy? Dumb humans. You have shrimpses? Give or I bite. Yesss precious yesssss. Gimme many shrimpses and go away. Dumb humans, I make you cover my t--ds.
Q: Any final word or additional info to add before we wrap this up?
A: We just want to say thanks to everyone who has been there for Thurston and us, especially the fans. A HUGE thanks to our vet and her staff. Thursty is so lucky to have you in his corner! We’d like to give a special shout-out to our YouTube fans for being patient with us. It’s been a very challenging year in our personal lives, but we are planning to come back soon! Once again, we’d like to send people over to our Instagram to check out some of the awesome fan art in our tags! We love you artists, you are so freaking talented! We’d also like to specifically ask you to check out our friends, artists and musicians who have helped make Thurston’s content possible. Music: Jerome Pullen, AKA Cavves, Blisstonia and Vaya Futuro. Art: Danelle Malan, AKA dwuff, Ben Geldenhuys, AKA The Beardly Ben and Myuuchu.
Matt is the owner of Thurston Waffles and works in the cryptocurrency industry, based in North Dakota. You can follow along with them on Instagram, YouTube and Twitter to see more of their content.
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