Nyan Cat

Origin

Song

The original version of the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" was uploaded by user "daniwell" to the Japanese video site Niconico on July 25, 2010. The song features the Vocaloid virtual singer Hatsune Miku. The Japanese word (wikt:にゃん) is onomatopoeic, imitating the call of a cat (equivalent to English "meow"). The song was later included in the rhythm game Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F, released by Sega in August 2012.

On January 30, 2011, a user named "Momomomo" uploaded a cover of "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" featuring the UTAU voice Momone Momo. 【UTAU】Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!【桃音モモ】【ミクカバー】 ‐ ニコニコ動画(原宿). From nicovideo.jp , January 31, 2011. Retrieved May 30, 2011. The voice source used to create the Momone Momo voice was a Japanese woman named Momoko Fujimoto.

Animated GIF

On April 2, 2011, the GIF animation of the cat was posted by 25-year-old Christopher Torres of Dallas, Texas, who uses the name "prguitarman", on his website LOL-Comics. Torres explained in an interview where the idea for the animation came from: "I was doing a donation drive for the Red Cross and in-between drawings in my Livestream video chat, two different people mentioned I should draw a 'Pop Tart' and a 'cat'." In response, he created a hybrid image of a Pop-Tart and a cat, which was developed a few days later into the animated GIF. Nyan Cat was based on a real cat: Torres' pet cat Marty, who died in November 2012 from feline infectious peritonitis.

YouTube video

YouTube user "saraj00n" (whose real name is Sara June) combined the cat animation with the "Momomomo" version of "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!", and uploaded it to YouTube on April 5, 2011, three days after Torres had uploaded his animation, giving it the title "Nyan Cat".

In March 2019, ownership of the YouTube channel hosting the original Nyan Cat video was transferred to Means TV, a worker-owned video streaming service.

In November 2023, the original Nyan Cat video ceased to be available on the saraj00n YouTube channel, and its new location was given as the YouTube channel NyanCat.

Sale as an NFT

In February 2021, it was reported that the GIF's original creator, Christopher Torres, had created an updated version and sold it as a non-fungible token (NFT) for 300 ether, the equivalent of US$587,000 at the time of sale.

Reception

The Nyan Cat music video reached ninth place in Business Insiders top ten viral videos of April 2011, with 7.2 million total views. The original YouTube video has received 205 million views . Later that year, before being made private on the Nyan Cat YouTube channel, the video peaked at 210,009,029 views on November 9, 2023. Nyan Cat won a Webby Award in 2012 for "Meme of the Year".

Due to the video's popularity, many new remixes and cover versions have been made, some several hours long. There are also ringtones, wallpapers and applications created for operating systems and devices, including a progress bar substitute for Windows which would show up in various places such as the file transfer progress indicator in Windows Explorer, following a request on the subreddit "Somebody Make This". Video games were developed for iPhone, iPad, Symbian, Android, Windows Phone, and HP webOS, and a variety of flash games and mobile games such as "Snake" replicas using the cat's rainbow tail or endless runners like "Nyan Cat: Lost in Space". "Nyan Cat Adventure", by 21st Street Games is an officially licensed game. An officially licensed cryptocurrency entitled "Nyancoin" with the domain name nyanco.in (later nyan-coin.org) was launched in January 2014.

Website

Christopher Torres initially criticized the website www.nyan.cat, which originally featured a similar-looking cat with the pop tart replaced by a slice of toast, and the same background music. The site, which uses the .cat sponsored top-level domain, was described by Torres as "plagiarized". Since 2012 the website has been operated by Torres, and shows the authentic version of the cat.

Lawsuit

In May 2013, Christopher Torres and Charles Schmidt, the creators of the Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat memes respectively, jointly sued 5th Cell and Warner Bros. for copyright infringement and trademark infringement over the appearance of these characters without permission in the Scribblenauts series of video games. Torres and Schmidt have registered copyrights on their characters and have pending trademark applications on the names. Torres released a statement saying that he had tried to obtain compensation from 5th Cell and Warner Bros. for commercial use of the character, but was "disrespected and snubbed" multiple times. The suit was settled in September 2013, with Torres and Schmidt being paid for the use of the characters.

References

References

1. (December 20, 2011). "Talking Twin Babies, Nyan Cat among YouTube's top videos of 2011". [[Los Angeles Times]].
2. "daniwell" is variously credited on the web as daniwellP and Daniwell-P; the account that uploaded the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" uses the name daniwell.
3. ニコニコ動画(原宿).【初音ミク】Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!【オリジナループ】. From [http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11509720 nicovideo.jp] {{Webarchive. link. (2011-06-06 July 25, 2010. Retrieved May 30, 2011.)
4. (31 August 2011). "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya! / daniwellP {{!}} KARENT". Crypton Future Media.
5. (9 August 2012). "Watch The Nyan Cat Song In Hatsune Miku Project Diva f". [[Siliconera]].
6. [http://www.vocaloidism.com/2011/05/22/nyan-cat-hit-10m-views/ Nyan Cat hit 10M views] {{Webarchive. link. (2011-06-20 ''Vocaloidism'', May 22, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2011.)
7. (6 August 2011). "これがソラリスの海か！ "音源系女子"ガールズトーク". {{ill.
8. prguitarman. (April 2, 2011). "Pop Tart / Nyan Cat!".
9. (November 2, 2012). "RIP Marty --The Inspiration for Nyan Cat". mashable.com.
10. (November 2, 2012). "From Meme To Memory: RIP Marty, Nyan Cat's Inspiration". petslady.com.
11. (February 4, 2012). "Profiles in Geekdom: Chris Torres, Creator of Nyan Cat". [[PCWorld (magazine).
12. (April 19, 2011). "POP Profile: The Guy Behind The Viral Phenomenon "Nyan Cat"". Pop goes the Week.
13. (March 21, 2019). "Means TV, with a boost from the Nyan Cat, launches a post-capitalist streaming service". Theintercept.com.
14. (November 11, 2023). "Chris @PRguitarman on X". X.com.
15. Stanley, Alise. (19 February 2021). "Remastered Nyan Cat Gif Sold for the Equivalent of $587,000 in a Crypto Art Auction".
16. (May 3, 2011). "Top viral videos of April: What's A "Nyan Cat"?".
17. "Nyan Cat [original]".
18. "Special Achievement: Meme of the Year: Nyan Cat".
19. Brandrick, Chris. (2011-07-13). "Nyan Cat Invades Windows 7, Dances Along Progress Bars". PCWorld.
20. (12 July 2011). "Nyan Cat Progress Bar".
21. Dredge, Stuart. (May 14, 2011). "Apps rush: Nutkin, Nyan Cat and more". The Guardian.
22. (2011-07-02). "Nyan Cat on the Nokia Cell Phone". Pdadevice.com.
23. "Nyan Cat: Lost In Space".
24. "Nyan Cat strays into the Marketplace". wpcentral.com.
25. "Nyan Cat for HP webOS". Developer.palm.com.
26. [https://archive.org/details/nyake "nyake" – Internet Archive]
27. "Nyan Cat Adventure (Xbox 360 – Indie Game) Review". thegamerplex.com.
28. Sharwood, Simon. (January 23, 2014). "Cryptocurrencies now being pooped out by cartoon cat". The Register.
29. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110531001830/http://nyan.cat/ Non-Stop Nyan Cat!] The original nyan.cat, archived by the [[Wayback Machine]]. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
30. [http://nyan.cat/ nyan.cat] {{Webarchive. link. (2011-05-31 Retrieved November 13, 2011.)
31. "Huy Hong: so tremendously humbled, thank you. Lies and thievery". prguitarman.tumblr.com.
32. (2013-05-02). "Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat creators sue Warner Bros". BBC News.
33. Adi Robertson. (2013-02-12). "Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat creators sue 'Scribblenauts' studio for using their memes". The Verge.
34. (2013-05-07). "Nyan Cat Creator Comments on Warner Bros. Lawsuit". GamePolitics.
35. Phillips, Tom. (2013-05-03). "Warner Bros. and 5th Cell targeted by Keyboard Cat, Nyan Cat lawsuit • News •". Eurogamer.net.
36. Van Syckle, Katie. (2013-09-26). "Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat Come Out Ahead in Lawsuit Against Warner Bros.". Nymag.com.