About

*Where's The Cat?" refers to a one-shot comic posted in 2021 by Deadnooodles, and in which a woman tricks a man into entering her home by pretending to be a cat owner. The original comic was the inspiration for many redraws, the first of which became the poster child for this meme.

Origin

On July 13th, 2021, online artist ゴミョン (also known as Deadnooodles) uploaded on pixiv^[1] a 3-panel comic (below, left: original Japanese artwork; below, right: English translation), in which THE iDOLM@STER character Fuyuko Mayuzumi pretends to the Producer that she has a cat at home, and invites him to come over; when he arrives inside and wonders where the cat is, she seductively meows into his ear. This fan art was liked over 9,200 times, and favorited over 12,600 times.

Spread

On July 14th, 2021, Leon Kim uploaded on his Twitter^[2] and pixiv^[3] accounts a re-creation of this comic (see below), in which the host woman is one of his original characters. This version was liked over 26,000 times on Twitter and retweeted over 4,000 times; on pixiv, it was liked over 2,100 times and favorited over 5,000 times.
Its online popularity, probably facilitated by its exposure on Twitter as opposed to Deadnooodles' comic, became such that it often was mistakenly qualified as the original form of the meme. In fact, most of the redraws and edits of this meme from then on are based on Leon Kim's artwork, with its distinctive attributes, such as the two characters and four speech bubbles present in the first panel, the host locking the door behind them in the second panel, and the invitee's shocked face in the third panel.

On January 24th, 2022, 9am9am9am posted on their YouTube^[4] and Twitter^[5] accounts an animation of Hololive member Ouro Kronii explaining this meme to Takanashi Kiara. This video was liked over 54,100 times on YouTube and over 32,000 times on Twitter, and was retweeted over 6,000 times.

On Twitter, a redraw^[6] posted by @thegreyzen on July 4th, 2022, and featuring Princess Daisy and Luigi from the Super Mario Bros. franchise, was liked over 30,000 times and retweeted over 3,000 times.

A 4-panel redraw^[7] posted on June 9th, 2023 by IdiotoftheEast, and featuring Ranni and the Tarnished from Elden Ring, was liked over 41,100 times and retweeted over 2,000 times.

An edit^[8] posted on r/memes on March 18th, 2022, and featuring Fubuki and Saitama from Onepunch-Man, gained over 9,000 points.

Relevant Examples

External References