The Nefarious Anglerfish

About

The Nefarious Anglerfish refers to a photo of a cat whose head and tail are peeking out of a gap in a soft cloth, giving it an appearance similar to an anglerfish. Since the photo was posted online, it has been the subject of various image macros, and inspired The Grandiloquent Caption caption meme format.

Origin

On June 15th, 2023, Instagram user @uni.unagi^[1] posted a picture of their cat in which it appears an extra appendage is coming from their head. The picture gained over 308,000 likes in six months (shown below).

On June 18th, user @GenderT0r3tto^[2] reposted the image to Twitter with the caption "The nefarious anglerfish," gaining over 5,500 retweets and 21,000 likes in six months (shown below).

Spread

The image began spreading as "The Nefarious Anglerfish" on social media over the following months. On August 28th, 2023, the image was posted to /r/dankmemes^[3] by a deleted Redditor, gaining over 1,600 points in four months (shown below).

On September 4th, TikToker drcrowbar made an ironic meme with the cat, gaining over 960 likes in a similar time frame (shown below).

As of December 2023, the image seems most popular on Tumblr, where users have made multiple memes and fan artworks based on the cat. For example, on August 23rd, user maamlet^[5] posted a joke with the picture, gaining over 140,000 notes in four months (shown below, left). On November 6th, Tumblr user cheddar-baby^[4] posted a You Better Not Be… variation with an alternate angle of the cat, gaining over 28,000 notes in six weeks (shown below, right).

Related Memes

The Grandiloquent Caption

The Grandiloquent Caption is a caption meme format in which a photograph of an animal or a person in a pose resembling a certain object or being is paired with a caption presenting that object or being in a humorously grandiloquent way. Spawned by the Nefarious Anglerfish meme in July 2023, the format saw viral spread on Tumblr and X / Twitter in 2024.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References