Grumpy Cat - Grumpy Cat - appearance
On the Russian-speaking Internet, this meme is known as “Angry Cat” (aka “Gloomy Cat”, “Grumpy Cat” and “Gloomy Cat”). This translation is completely incorrect - Tardar Sauce (this is the real name) is female. She was born on April 4, 2012 in the Bandesen family in Arizona and received her name from her youngest daughter, Crystal, to whom the spots on the kitten’s skin reminded her of splashes of sauce. An annoying typo crept into the nickname, but the mother of the family, Tabatha, did not correct the mistake.
Tabatha Bandesen - owner of Grumpy Cat
The reason for Grumpy Cat's popularity was primarily her specific appearance. A dark “mask” with downturned corners of the mouth left an imprint of universal despondency, sadness and severity on its muzzle. This unusual expression is associated, according to the owner, with congenital genetic abnormalities - dwarfism and malocclusion. Tardar's limping gait is due to the length of her hind legs, which sometimes makes her seem a little unsteady.
Wikipedia and some other resources classify Grumpy Cat as a Snowshoe breed, distinguished by the color of a Siamese/Thai cat (the so-called seal point - cream body, dark ears, tail and muzzle) and white “socks” (hence the name of the breed - "snow shoes") However, despite the external similarity, the owners did not confirm this fact: “We are not sure what breed Grumpy Cat is. There is nothing about her from her parents. She looks like a Ragdoll or a Snowshoe, but there is not a single cat like this around our house. Her mother is tri-colored and short-haired, her father is gray and white and tabby. (Although I suspect there may be options with him).”
Photo gallery: Grumpy Cat family
Callie - Grumpy Cat's mother
Grumpy Cat's Father
Grumpy Cat and her brother Pokey
The Gloomy Cat is also not a munchkin (as Internet users have repeatedly suggested). To obtain these cats with shortened legs, nurseries deliberately select (since this is also a deviation and a recessive trait), but Grumpy Cat’s parents were completely ordinary animals.
Photo gallery: breeds to which the Grumpy Cat was classified on the Internet
Munchkin (in seal point color)
Ragdoll
Snow-shoe
It is also worth noting that Grumpy Cat’s brother has the same signs of genetic abnormalities, although they are less pronounced.
Video: Grumpy Cat as a child (you can also see photos of the Tardar brothers and sisters in it)
Be that as it may, except for the gait, the rest of Tardar Sauce is an ordinary, full of energy, active cat. She runs great, jumps (although she is afraid to go down) and hides - this is her favorite game. Despite his stern appearance, the Grumpy Cat has an affectionate and calm character. The owners take care of her health: visits to the veterinarian are regular, photo shoots are scheduled only once a week, meetings with the media and sponsors outside of the schedule are short, and the number of people allowed to contact Grumpy Cat is limited. Despite requests from fans, personal meetings are not held.
What kind of Grumpy cat?
What is known about Grumpy Cat? A kitten with an unusual appearance was born in 2012, and the entire Internet mourned the death of the cat in 2013. It’s good that this turned out to be just someone’s cruel invention - the gloomy kitty lives and pleases its owners with its wonderful character.
Tabatha found a pregnant cat on the verge of giving birth and took her into her home. The first litter included several kittens, one of which turned out to be unusual. The kitten, named Pokey, looked like a munchkin and at the same time a Burmese cat, but had the usual black and white color. The second litter produced another non-standard baby, which Tabatha’s daughter Crystal immediately liked. Tard's owners claim that the parents did not have any breed standards, but nevertheless, in appearance, Grumpy cat repeats the color of the Snowshoe breed, the length of the Munchkin's paws, and the fluffiness of the Burma.
The owners who kept both the first and second kittens turned out to be caring: they paid attention to the distinctive features of the little angry cat and showed her to the veterinarian. After examination, it was revealed that the dwarfism gene that manifested itself in Grumpy does not particularly interfere with the animal’s life, although a certain clumsiness and sluggishness in movements are noticeable: a problem appears with the hind legs located at the wrong angle in relation to the body. In addition, the front legs are noticeably shorter than the hind legs. The little cat is only afraid of heights. The movements of everyone's favorite do not differ in speed; rather, on the contrary, the cat moves at a slightly slower pace.
The downturned corners of the muzzle are responsible for the angry expression of Tarde. This pathology not only does not harm the pet of the Bundesen family in any way, on the contrary, it led the cat to success. There is no trace of any cat depression in the animal - the affectionate and sociable kitty feels great, and the owners love her very much.
Talking about genetic defects, the owners concluded that it was the mother: Pokey and Grumpy Cat had different fathers. The gender of the kittens did not affect either: Pokey is a boy, and Tardar is a girl.
But the gloomy look gave Tardar a second name and fame. You shouldn’t think that an angry cat is offended by the whole world - there are many videos that show that the owner’s pet has a cheerful, playful disposition.
The unusual brother and sister still live in the family of single mother Tabatha with her children. We are not talking about selling the sullen pussy - it is a family heirloom and just a beloved cat.
On May 14, 2020, at the age of 7, Grumpy Cat died, but she will forever remain in our hearts.
History of the popularity of Grumpy Cat
On September 22, 2012, a photo of six-month-old Tardar was posted on Reddit by Tabatha's brother, Brian.
Original photo posted on Reddit
Many Reddit users did not believe that the photo was not edited in Photoshop, so a few days later Brian posted links to two videos on YouTube. The videos quickly went viral. The popularity that descended on Grumpy Cat was phenomenal. There were numerous pictures, demotivators, drawings with the image of Grumpy Cat and inscriptions.
Photo gallery: a selection of memes, demotivators and fanart
"How are you? No way"
"Thinking of you. It's horrible"
"What doesn't kill you will definitely try again"
Drawing - Grumpy Cat fanart
"Tomorrow is Monday"
“The end of the world has not come. It's a pity"
"What's wrong?" - "All"
iFanart - “NO”
More than half a million people have subscribed to Grumpy Cat’s Instagram page (there are now 2.4 million users), and about 250 thousand have signed up on Twitter (currently 1.53 million). Views of the third video on YouTube exceeded 20 million. Facebook also showed significant numbers (currently the page’s audience exceeds 8 million).
Video: Original Grumpy Cat - over 20 million views
In a matter of weeks, Grumpy Cat was no longer just a meme. The cat's owner was not at a loss, and soon the Grumpy Cat Limited company was founded and an experienced manager was hired - 34-year-old Los Angeles resident Ben Lashes. The choice was explained by the fact that Lashes specialized in Internet memes - promotion and making a profit, and also worked for a percentage of the income (20%). Thus, his assets already included a cat pianist, who brought in about $300 thousand from the sale of souvenirs.
The owner of the Angry Cat made the right choice. From 2012 to 2014, according to analysts, she earned more than $100 million. The turnover of Tabatha Bandesen's company even exceeded the earnings of many top sports and Hollywood stars: according to analysts, for example, the income of such actors as Cameron Diaz, Matthew McConaughey and Nicole Kidman was much less.
Here is a partial list of what was included in this dizzying amount:
The main source of income was souvenir products: T-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, figurines, phone cases, postcards, etc. And now you can buy a wide range of products on the website - more than a thousand items. Prices start from $15. The store's slogan is also noteworthy: "Find and buy something terrible for yourself." Here are just a few of the inscriptions on T-shirts, mostly collected from the most popular stories about Grumpy Cat on the Internet:
- "Happy birthday. You've grown old."
- “Today is April Fools' Day. Don't believe in anything and don't trust anyone. Just like any other day."
- "I have an idea? Keep it with you."
- “No” - Nope - one of the most popular inscriptions on demotivators gives scope for graphic design.
- "The first day at school? I hate her already” (on a child’s sweatshirt).
- “Parties, barbecues and fireworks? Sounds terrible” (with an American flag in the background, a reference to Independence Day).
- “Leprechauns? I eat them." (design for St. Patrick's Day).
- "Homework? No. I ate it."
- “Mondays? I don't like them."
Photo gallery: examples of design of souvenirs and clothing
Soft toy with collar
Women's sweatshirt
Sweatshirt “Halloween? Argh."
Easter T-shirt
T-shirt “Taxes? No"
Sweatshirt “Boo? How about BOOOOOO"
Notepad: “Book - NO”
T-shirt "Running is terrible"
T-shirt “Time to be angry”
Mug: (Owner's name) feels
Two books about Grumpy Cat have been published. She was invited several times to appear on television shows: Good Morning America! " The movie, however, was not entirely successful: it failed at the box office. But considering that the life cycle of the meme ends with oblivion, it played its role: Grumpy Cat was remembered again.
Movie poster for "Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas"
Video: “Hard To Be a Cat at Christmas”
With such popularity, advertising contracts were only a matter of time. Soon, Grumpy Cat starred in a Friskies video. This predetermined her priorities: to this day, the main advertiser of Grumpy Cat Limited on social networks is Purina. Grumpy Cat is also currently promoting a local pet supply manufacturer from her native Arizona, PetSmart.
Video: Friskies commercial with Grumpy Cat
The conclusion of a contract for branded product lines: Grumppuccino iced coffee was also a great success. The manufacturer of the Grenade drink was going to compete with Starbucks in this way.
Grumppuccino
Paradoxically, Grenade became a source of income from the other side: in 2020, Grumpy Cat Limited sued them. The subject of the lawsuit was the placement of Grumpy Cat on roasted coffee and T-shirts: an agreement on such use of images was not in the contract. After 2 years of litigation, the company of the owner of Tardar, by court decision, became richer by another $710 thousand.
The ill-fated ground coffee that cost Grenade $700 thousand
The image of the Grumpy Cat was also used for charitable purposes. For example, she participated in an action to adopt homeless animals from a volunteer shelter.
History of the popularity of Grumpy cat
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//data-ad-slot=”2475549904″ $ads_google = empty($ads_google) ? false : true; ?> if ($ads_google == false) {?> $ads_google = true; ?> } ?> The cat's dissatisfied face made her famous, making her an Internet star. The owner of the animal was able to quit her job as a waitress and began to make good money from the popularity of her pet.
With the growing popularity of Tardar, there was a need to create a page on Facebook in her name, and in 2013, the pussy won the Webby Award in the Meme of the Year category.
The beginning of 2013 was spent creating two videos advertising cat food, where the leading role went to the now famous Tardar. Then an offer came from the company Broken Road, planning to make a feature film starring the gloomy celebrity. It is expected to repeat the success of the film "Garfield".
Surprisingly, the book “Grumpy Cat: A Grumpy Book” was soon published. She quickly found her readers.
Resourceful owners filed a patent and trademark, and even won a lawsuit for a large sum due to the unauthorized use of their pet's image. In addition to releasing the Grumppuccino coffee drink, Grenade Beverage used the cat's image for a series of T-shirts and a blend of roasted coffee beans.
In 2014, the celebrity became popular on the social network VKontakte and Instagram. The gloomy, funny cat has more than 2.4 million subscribers; several dozen and sometimes hundreds of thousands of people view the pages of the fluffy gloomy cat every day and like it!
The happy owners earned about 100 million dollars from Grumpy's , so despite the pet's gloomy appearance, the owners cannot be called gloomy.
Secrets of popularity
The question that worries many social media users is: “How to achieve such success? Can it be repeated?" The author of this article, by occupation, has some relation to promotion, including Internet marketing, so at one time he asked himself the same questions. Here is a short list of conclusions drawn after analyzing the available information:
- The success of the first photo was accidental, as is usually the case with online memes. What was important was how the owners of the Angry Cat took advantage of the hype around the animal. The first component of success is an image: bright, unusual and memorable. This was not just a cute cat (there are thousands of them on the Internet) - her appearance was explained, her character was attached to her. Even though it turned out to be a rather gloomy worldview, anyone could easily recognize an already experienced emotion in the features of the Angry Cat. Many memes touched upon points that were understandable to everyone: dissatisfaction with the world around us, the beginning of the work week or school year, lack of joy from the holidays, irritation with people around.
- The second step was a very competent and timely use of the popularity of the meme and the involvement of a professional in the field of Internet marketing. The right manager was not only able to immediately assess how to properly monetize millions of views and thousands of likes on social networks, but also quickly registered a trademark and offered clothing and souvenirs to the public at the right time, at the peak of popularity, before the production of goods with Grumpy Cat thousands of small companies would take over.
- Maintaining constant public interest was also important. The life cycle of Internet memes is short: explosive growth in popularity is usually replaced by oblivion or, at best, quiet interest. The angry cat lasted for several years, actively “shine” in advertising, TV shows, programs and regularly blogging on social networks. And even now, when her fame has subsided a little (who, for example, knows about the game released with her for Android and iOS in 2020?), Facebook posts evoke an active response, and Purina trusts her with its advertising.
- The regularity and accuracy of maintaining social networks and constant publications also played a role. Posting high-quality photos from the right angles and in interesting places, reports on events, new ideas for pictures - all this makes Grumpy Cat’s subscribers come to her page in search of fresh content, and therefore share it with friends.
To summarize these three points: the question of whether it is possible to predictably create your own meme of this level should be answered with a resounding “no.” The success of an Internet virus is almost always accidental: you never know what the public will react to in a similar way. That is why, despite numerous attempts to repeat the success of Grumpy Cat (for example, the angry Japanese cat Koyuki), they never came close to the original in popularity. In addition, all the followers were deprived of the effect of novelty: in publications they were invariably considered as competitors to Grumpy Cat, which immediately placed them on the second rung.
