About

Zoom Cat Lawyer refers to a viral video taken from a live stream of a civil forfeiture hearing held on the video conferencing application Zoom in Texas’ 394th Judicial District Court. The video features attorney Rod Ponton struggling to disable a filter that places a white kitten mask over his face, making it appear as though a cat is speaking.

Origin

On February 9th, 2021, the YouTube account 394th District Court of Texas – Live Stream published a clip entitled "Kitten Zoom Filter Mishap." The video features an attorney, Ron Ponton, attempting to remove a white kitten face filter from his Zoom application. In the video, the kitten's eyes dart back and forth as Ponton says, "I don’t know how to remove it. I’ve got my assistant here and she’s trying to." Ponton then attempts to move forward, saying, "I’m prepared to go forward with it." Finally, he says, "I’m here live. I’m not a cat."

The post received more than 13 million views in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Spread

Following the post, Judge Roy Ferguson shared the clip on Twitter. ^[1] He wrote, "IMPORTANT ZOOM TIP: If a child used your computer, before you join a virtual hearing check the Zoom Video Options to be sure filters are off. This kitten just made a formal announcement on a case in the 394th (sound on)." The tweet received more than 35,000 likes and 11,000 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

As the video continued to spread online, Reuters reporter Lawrence Hurley shared the clip on Twitter, where he captioned the post, "'I’m here live, I’m not a cat,' says lawyer after Zoom filter mishap. 'I can see that,' responds judge." The post received more than 28 million views, 322,000 likes and 120,000 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

“I’m here live, I’m not a cat,” says lawyer after Zoom filter mishap

“I can see that,” responds judge pic.twitter.com/HclKlAUwbM

— Lawrence Hurley (@lawrencehurley) February 9, 2021

That day, Redditor TheAnarchyReaper shared the video in the /r/funny^[2] subreddit, where it received more than 69,000 points (95% upvoted) and 1,900 comments in less than 24 hours.

Rod Ponton's Response

Speaking with the New York Times^[3] on February 9th, 2021, the lawyer, Rod Ponton, said that he was happy to give people a laugh. He said, "If I can make the country chuckle for a moment in these difficult times they’re going through, I’m happy to let them do that at my expense."

To Vice, ^[9] Ponton said, "Oh, that was just a mistake by my secretary. I was using her computer and for some reason she had that filter on. I took it off and replaced it with my face. It was a case involving a man trying to exit the United States with contraband and contraband cash. All it was was a mistake. It was taken off and we had the hearing as normal."

Media Coverage

Several media outlets covered the video, including The New York Times,^[3] NBC,^[4] USA Today,^[5] The Guardian,^[6] ABC,^[7] The Daily Dot, ^[8] Vice^[9] CNN^[10] and more.

Search Interest

External References