Geek Life Awards 2011: Best Internet Meme Winner
We have a winner! Geek Life’s Best Internet Meme of the Year 2011 is Nyan Cat! What other pixelly pastry-based kitties can compete? Well, not many! I’m positive most of our readers know what Nyan Cat is, but do you know its origins? Keep reading!
There was once a song where the lyrics were nothing but “Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!” (after “nyan” for the Japanese equivalent of “meow”) sung by one virtual idol, Vocaloid Hatsune Miku of Project Diva fame. It was uploaded by user “daniwell” to the Japanese video site Nico Nico Douga on July 25, 2010. A remixed version by “Momo Momo” was uploaded to the site on January 31, 2011. One day in April (April 2, 2011 to be exact), a 25 year old on the Internet by the name of “prguitarman” (Christopher Torres of Dallas, TX) posted an animation of a pixel-based cat with the body of a Pop Tart flying through space with rainbows streaming behind it. On April 5, 2011, YouTube user “saraj00n” uploaded a movie of the animation combined with the Momo Momo version of the music to create the Nyan Cat sensation.
As of December 23, 2011, the video has been seen over 55 million times and has received multiple tributes and remixes, including the “Live-Action Nyan Cat” and a game called Nyan Cat Adventures for the Xbox Live Indie Games market. One can now find various forms of merchandise involving the pasty-based feline celebrity, including t-shirts, phone apps, ringtones, and more. There was even some controversy when someone falsely claiming to be the creator of the original gif had the movie removed from YouTube, but this was proven to be a hoax by the actual creator and the video was restored.
Where can one find the not-so-elusive Nyan Cat? Why not try these links:
Variations:
Cat unhappily dressed as Nyan Cat
Lego Nyan-Cat
Minecraft Nyan Cat
Real Life Nyan Cat
Now that the song has been burned into everyone’s brains, I bid you all a fond 2012!
-
Mahadear6
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