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Nyan Cat

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Nyan Cat

Nyan Cat is the name of a YouTube video, uploaded in April 2011, which became an Internet meme. The video merged a Japanese pop song with an animated cartoon cat with the body of a Pop-Tart, flying through space, and leaving a rainbow trail behind it. The video ranked at number 5 on the list of most viewed YouTube videos in 2011.[1]

Origin

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.[2] 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.[3] The design of Nyan Cat was influenced by Torres' pet cat Marty, who died in November 2012 from feline infectious peritonitis.[4][5]

The song

The original version of the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" was uploaded by user "daniwell"[6] to the Japanese video site Niconico on July 25, 2010.[7] The song features the Vocaloid Hatsune Miku (初音ミク). The Japanese word "nya" (にゃ), is onomatopoeic, imitating the call of a cat. The equivalent English language word is "meow".[1]

A user named "Momomomo" ("もももも") uploaded a remixed version of the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!", adding the repeating vocal sound "nya" throughout the song, to Nico Nico Douga on January 30, 2011.[8] The added vocal sound was created using the singing synthesizer software UTAU with the voice preset, "Momone Momo" (error: {{nihongo}}: Japanese or romaji text required (help)).[9] The voice source used to create the Momone Momo voice was Momoko Fujimoto (藤本萌々子), a Japanese woman who lives in Tokyo.[10]

YouTube video

YouTube user "saraj00n" (whose real name is Sara)[11] combined the cat animation with the "Momo Momo" version of the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!", and uploaded it to YouTube on April 5, 2011, three days after Torres had uploaded his animation, giving it the title "Nyan Cat".[1][3] The video rapidly became a success after being featured on websites including G4 and CollegeHumor. Christopher Torres said: "Originally, its name was Pop Tart Cat, and I will continue to call it so, but the Internet has reached a decision to name it Nyan Cat, and I’m happy with that choice, too."[3]

Popularity

The Nyan Cat music video reached ninth place in Business Insider's top ten viral videos of April 2011, with 7.2 million total views.[12] The original YouTube video has received 106,957,997 views As of March 12, 2014. Due to its 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 Windows,[13] iPhone, iPad,[14] Symbian,[15] Android,[16] Windows Phone,[17] and HP webOS.[18] "Nyan Cat Adventure", by 21st Street Games, is an officially licensed game.[11][19] A officially licensed cryptocurrency entitled "Nyancoin" with the domain name nyancoin.org was launched in January 2014.[20]

Christopher Torres criticized the website nyan.cat, which originally featured a similar-looking cat with the pop tart replaced by a slice of toast,[21] and the same background music. The site, which uses the .cat sponsored top-level domain, was described by Torres as "plagiarized".[22][23] Since 2012 the website has been operated by Torres, and shows the authentic version of the cat.[11]

Temporary DMCA takedown

On June 27, 2011, the original YouTube video was taken down from the site following a Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaint from someone claiming to be prguitarman, the creator of the Nyan Cat GIF animation. Christopher Torres immediately issued a statement on his website LOL-comics denying that he was the source of the complaint, and contacted Saraj00n and daniwell, who hold the copyright for the video and the song, in order to file a counter-complaint to YouTube. During the period that the video was unavailable for viewing, Torres received numerous abusive e-mails from people who wrongly believed that he had filed the DMCA complaint. On June 28, 2011, the Nyan Cat video was restored to YouTube.[24]

Lawsuit

In May 2013, Christopher Torres and Charles Schmidt, the creators of Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat 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.[25][26] 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.[27][28] The suit was settled in September 2013, with Torres and Schmidt being paid for the use of the characters.[29]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Talking Twin Babies, Nyan Cat among YouTube's top videos of 2011". Los Angeles Times. December 20, 2011. Retrieved December 20, 2011.
  2. ^ "Pop Tart / Nyan Cat! by prguitarman on LOL-comics, April 2, 2011". Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  3. ^ a b c "POP Profile: The Guy Behind The Viral Phenomenon "Nyan Cat"". Pop goes the Week. April 19, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
  4. ^ "RIP Marty --The Inspiration for Nyan Cat". mashable.com. November 2, 2012. Retrieved November 2, 2012.
  5. ^ "From Meme To Memory: RIP Marty, Nyan Cat's Inspiration". petslady.com. November 2, 2012. Retrieved November 2, 2012.
  6. ^ "daniwell" is variously credited on the web as daniwellP and Daniwell-P; the account that uploaded the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" uses the name daniwell.
  7. ^ ニコニコ動画(原宿).【初音ミク】Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!【オリジナループ】. From nicovideo.jp July 25, 2010. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  8. ^ ニコニコ国際交流".【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.
  9. ^ Nyan Cat hit 10M views Vocaloidism, May 22, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  10. ^ Momone Momo Official Channel YouTube. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  11. ^ a b c "Profiles in Geekdom: Chris Torres, Creator of Nyan Cat". PCWorld. February 4, 2012. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  12. ^ "Top viral videos of April: What's A "Nyan Cat"?". May 3, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  13. ^ Brandrick, Chris (2011-07-13). "Nyan Cat Invades Windows 7, Dances Along Progress Bars". PCWorld. Retrieved 2011-09-22.
  14. ^ Dredge, Stuart (May 14, 2011). "Apps rush: Nutkin, Nyan Cat and more". The Guardian. London. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  15. ^ "Nyan Cat on the Nokia Cell Phone". Pdadevice.com. 2011-07-02. Retrieved 2011-09-22.
  16. ^ "Galactic Nyan Cat for Android". Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  17. ^ "Nyan Cat strays into the Marketplace". wpcentral.com. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  18. ^ "Nyan Cat for HP webOS". Developer.palm.com. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
  19. ^ "Nyan Cat Adventure (Xbox 360 – Indie Game) Review". thegamerplex.com. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
  20. ^ Sharwood, Simon (January 23, 2014). "Cryptocurrencies now being pooped out by cartoon cat". The Register. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  21. ^ Non-Stop Nyan Cat! The original nyan.cat, archived by the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  22. ^ nyan.cat Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  23. ^ "Huy Hong: so tremendously humbled, thank you. Lies and thievery". prguitarman.tumblr.com. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  24. ^ "I did NOT file a Youtube Copyright Complaint". prguitarman.com. June 27, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  25. ^ "Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat creators sue Warner Bros". BBC News. 2013-05-02. Retrieved 2013-05-02.
  26. ^ Adi Robertson (2013-02-12). "Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat creators sue 'Scribblenauts' studio for using their memes". The Verge. Retrieved 2013-05-03.
  27. ^ "Nyan Cat Creator Comments on Warner Bros. Lawsuit". GamePolitics. 2013-05-07. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
  28. ^ Phillips, Tom (2013-05-03). "Warner Bros. and 5th Cell targeted by Keyboard Cat, Nyan Cat lawsuit • News •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2013-06-27.
  29. ^ Van Syckle, Katie (2013-09-26). "Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat Come Out Ahead in Lawsuit Against Warner Bros". Nymag.com. Retrieved 2013-10-02.
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