Bro the Cat

About

Bro the Cat is a kitten character who is the main protagonist of animated shorts by artist sluj. The low-poly animated series about the kitten made in the style of PlayStation 1 graphics launched on X / Twitter in August 2023, with the character achieving widespread recognition in 2024. In the videos, Bro is usually found standing still in various wacky scenarios, staring at the camera and making the same meowing sound several times.

Origin

On August 22nd, 2023, 3D artist sluj (@smashdird) posted a 3D animation of a black kitten standing on a porch next to a pizza box with a slice of pepperoni pizza in its paws. The video, captioned, "bro wants in" (shown below) garnered over 1.2 million views, 5,300 reposts and 30,000 likes on X^[1] in one year.

bro wants in pic.twitter.com/7NgUYth7Sk

— sluj (@smashdirt) August 21, 2023

On August 30th, 2023, sluj posted a sequel video in which the same kitten asks for some barbeque, captioned, "bro asking for more". The video (shown below) received over 490 reposts and 3,900 likes on X^[2] in one year.

bro asking for more pic.twitter.com/E3Y4wUwSZN

— sluj (@smashdirt) August 29, 2023

Spread

The shorts did not become a series until March 2024. On March 27th and 29th, 2024, sluj reposted the first two animations to Instagram,^[3][4] where they received over 541,000 likes and 185,000 likes in seven months. On April 1st, 2024, sluj continued the series with an animation of Bro holding a fish on a plate that gained over 94,000 likes on Instagram^[5] in seven months. On April 4th, sluj posted an animation of sluj breaking a plate that received over 298,000 likes on Instagram^[6] and 650 reposts and 3,100 likes on X^[7] in seven months (shown below).

pic.twitter.com/WdfYVhDWKA

— sluj (@smashdirt) April 4, 2024

In the following months, sluj continued the animated series with videos of Bro appearing in various scenarios, usually standing still, staring at the camera, and meowing several times, posting the animations to X, Instagram, and, starting in June 2024, to TikTok.^[8]

On July 7th, 2024, sluj posted the first Bro animation to gain over one million views on TikTok^[9] (shown below).

On July 12th, 2024, sluj posted the earliest Bro animation to gain over one million views on X^[10] / Twitter (shown below).

pic.twitter.com/NQnVp6CwWD

— sluj (@smashdirt) July 11, 2024

The artist continued the series through 2024. As of November 8th, 2024, sluj had over over 247,000 followers on Instagram, 166,800 followers on TikTok and 38,000 followers on X.

Various Examples

External References