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Choo-Choo
About
Choo-Choo is an anthropomorphic pink cat character from the 1960's animated television series Top Cat. On Tumblr, the character gained a significant following in late August 2015, appearing in posts containing animated GIFs and photoshopped images.
Origin
From September 1961 to April 1962, the animated series Top Cat was produced by Hanna-Barbera studios and broadcast on the ABC network. The show centered around a gang of anthropomorphic New York City alley cats, including the titular Top Cat, Fancy-Fancy, Spook, Benny the Ball, Brain and Choo-Choo.
In the show, the character Choo-Choo is depicted as naive member of the group who often exhibits signs of neuroticism and anxiety. On April 25th, 2011, a page for Choo-Choo was created on the Top Cat Wiki.[6]
Spread
In May 2013, the deactivated Tumblr user cinderblockdota[5] posted a photograph of of a television screen with Choo-Choo from the episode " Dibble Sings Again"[10]. The image was uploaded with the caption: "This fucking cat has been stuck on my tv for 12 hours" (shown below). Over the next three years, the post gathered upwards of 16,500 notes.
On August 9th, 2015, the RelatablePicturesOfChooChoo[7] Tumblr blog was launched, highlighting screencaptured images of the Top Cat character. On August 27th, Tumblr user crappyhomemadegifs[1] Top Cat video clip featuring Choo-Choo wearing a sign to promote "Jazz's Bingo Party." Within three weeks, the video gained over 16,400 notes. On August 10th, Tumblr[2] user terriamon posted an edited version of the CADbortion comic with Choo-Choo superimposed into the panels (shown below, left). On August 29th, Tumblr[3] user zombieself[3] highlighted a photoshopped image of Choo-Choo wearing a sign with the phrase "Down With CIS" (shown below, right).
On September 13th, Redditor _Gain submitted a post titled "What is this cat mean? Is it a new meme?" to the /r/OutOfTheLoop[4] subreddit, accompanied by a photoshopped comic with Choo-Choo edited into the bottom panel (shown below). Within 24 hours, the post accumulated more than 1,900 votes (89% upvoted) and 160 comments.
Various Examples
Photoshopped images of Choo-Choo and other Top Cat characters are frequently posted to Tumblr under the tags "choo choo"[8] and "topcat."[9]
Search Interest
External References
[1] Tumblr – crappyhomemadegifs
[3] Tumblr – zombieself
[4] Reddit – What is this cat mean? Is it a new meme?
[5] Tumblr – splendidland
[7] Tumblr – RelatablePicturesOfChooChoo
[8] Tumblr – #choo choo
[10] Tumblr – #topcatoutofcontext
Recent Videos
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Top Comments
Smash Bro 35
Sep 14, 2015 at 08:09PM EDT in reply to
Kirb Blanco
Sep 14, 2015 at 06:05PM EDT