Top 10 Cat Memes That Took Over the Internet
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Top 10 Cat Memes That Took Over the Internet
From loafing legends to dramatic divas—these cats didn’t just break the internet, they owned it.
🐾 1.
Grumpy Cat (Tardar Sauce)
The unimpressed feline face that launched a thousand memes.
Grumpy Cat’s permanent scowl became the universal symbol of disdain and sarcasm. Her image spawned books, merchandise, and even a Lifetime movie.
Cultural Impact: Turned grumpiness into a brand and reminded us that moodiness is marketable.
🐾 2.
Nyan Cat
A rainbow-trailing, Pop-Tart-bodied space cat set to 8-bit music.
This pixelated icon became a viral sensation in 2011 and is still looping in our minds to this day.
Cultural Impact: One of the first major cat memes to break into NFT territory, selling for nearly $600K.
🐾 3.
Woman Yelling at a Cat
A meme mashup of a Real Housewives confrontation and a confused white cat (aka Smudge) at a dinner table.
Cultural Impact: Sparked endless “me vs. my responsibilities” style meme templates. Smudge now has his own merch and fanbase.
🐾 4.
Keyboard Cat
A retro video of a cat playing a keyboard in a blue shirt—simple, surreal, and hilarious.
Cultural Impact: Became the go-to clip for “play them off” moments and inspired a wave of musical cat videos.
🐾 5.
Ceiling Cat
An early meme of a cat peeking through a ceiling tile, representing an all-seeing feline god.
Cultural Impact: Preceded Reddit and TikTok fame, thriving in the age of ICanHasCheezburger and early meme culture.
🐾 6.
Longcat
An absurdly stretched-out cat whose body just kept going.
Often paired with “TACGNOL,” his evil dark twin.
Cultural Impact: One of the original image macros, fueling surreal meme humor before it was cool.
🐾 7.
Lil Bub
A dwarf cat with a permanently stuck-out tongue and big eyes, Bub was more than cute—she raised money for animal charities and appeared on talk shows.
Cultural Impact: Showed how uniqueness and disability can be embraced and celebrated online.
🐾 8.
Business Cat
A meme of a serious-looking cat in a tie doling out workplace puns.
Cultural Impact: The corporate world’s favorite feline, bringing humor to office drudgery and LinkedIn threads.
🐾 9.
Cat Vibing to Ievan Polkka
A chill gray cat nodding to a remixed Finnish song while a guy plays electronic drums—perfection.
Cultural Impact: Universally adored for its pure vibes and re-edited into thousands of tracks from classical to trap.
🐾 10.
Hovercat
A classic meme showing cats mid-jump, frozen in flight.
Cultural Impact: One of the earliest meme forms that turned everyday cat chaos into something mystical and hilarious.
🐾
Final Paws for Thought
These memes didn’t just go viral—they clawed their way into pop culture, advertising, and even academia. From Tumblr to TikTok, cats continue to reign supreme online because they’re funny, unpredictable, and totally meme-worthy.