Meme Watch: Nyan Cat (AKA Pop Tart Cat)

Nyan Cat is an 8-bit drawing of a gray cat with a pop tart for a body who is propelled through outer space by rainbows, which is the oddest sentence I’ll ever type. Nyan Cat can be seen in the completely relevant picture of Bar Rafaeli above. Back in April, illustrator prguitarman posted a .gif of Pop Tart Cat on his website. Then YouTube member saraj00n set the cat to the song “Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya” by Japanese musician daniwellP in a video titled “Nyan Cat”. It was super effective. The video got over ~~9000~~ one million views in two weeks and is now at over 21 million views. On June 16th, YouTube even added a Nyan Cat themed progress bar to the video.
Earlier this week, YouTube abruptly pulled the video claiming copyright infringement, the problem being that no one involved in the making of Pop Tart Cat or the song had complained. After much wrangling by prguitarman, the video is back on YouTube (unfortunately without the custom progress bar). To celebrate, we’re posting some of our favorite Nyan Cat memes. There are a few more good ones over at WarmingGlow as well.

Original version with over 21 million views:

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/QH2-TGUlwu4?version=3&hl=en_US

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/FYcPJgHdiq8?version=3&hl=en_US

Nyan Cat theme piano cover

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/EK-oJJaMjoM?version=3&hl=en_US

Obi-Wan gets nyan’d

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/6KEYwwRmMKU?version=3&hl=en_US

Say Nyanything [Made by Buzzfeed]

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/h-tVpSGrzAM?version=3&hl=en_US

Mister Snacks Fluffington as Pop Tart Cat

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/3KT_89gi2Dk?version=3&hl=en_US

“Meet Nyan Cat Man. (wait for it…)”