Wikipedia

Nyan Cat

Nyan Catis aYouTubevideo uploaded in April 2011, which became anInternet meme.The video merged aJapanese popsong with an animated cartoon cat with aPop-Tartfor a torso flying through space and leaving arainbowtrail behind. The video ranked at number five on the list of most viewed YouTube videos in 2011.[1]

Nyan Cat

Origin

Animated GIF

Original Nyan Cat doodle

On April 2, 2011, theGIF animationof the cat was posted by 25-year-old Christopher Torres ofDallas,Texas,who uses the name "prguitarman", on his websiteLOL-Comics.[2]Torres explained in an interview where the idea for the animation came from: "I was doing a donation drive for theRed Crossand in-between drawings in myLivestreamvideo chat, two different people mentioned I should draw a 'Pop Tart' and a 'cat'. "In response, he created a hybrid image of aPop-Tartand a cat, which was developed a few days later into the animated GIF.[3] Nyan Cat was based on a real cat: Torres' pet cat Marty, who died in November 2012 fromfeline infectious peritonitis.[4][5]

Song

The original version of the song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" was uploaded by user "daniwell"[6]to the Japanese video siteNiconicoon July 25, 2010.[7]The song features theVocaloidvirtual singerHatsune Miku.[8]The Japanese wordnya(にゃ)(wikt:にゃん) isonomatopoeic,imitating the call of a cat (equivalent to English "meow").[1]The song was later included in therhythm gameHatsune Miku: Project DIVA F,released bySegain August 2012.[9]

On January 30, 2011, a user named "Momomomo" uploaded a cover of "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" featuring theUTAUvoice Momone Momo.[10][11]The voice source used to create the Momone Momo voice was a Japanese woman named Momoko Fujimoto.[12]

YouTube video

YouTubeuser "saraj00n" (whose real name is Sara June)[13]combined the cat animation with the "Momomomo" 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 includingG4andCollegeHumor.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]

In March 2019, ownership of the YouTube channel hosting the original Nyan Cat video was transferred toMeans TV,aworker-ownedvideo streaming service.[14]

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.[15]

Sale as an NFT

In February 2021, it was reported that the GIF's original creator, Chris Torres, had created an updated version and sold it as anon-fungible token (NFT)for 300ether,the equivalent of US$587,000 at the time of sale.[16]

Reception

The Nyan Cat music video reached ninth place inBusiness Insider's top tenviral videosof April 2011, with 7.2 million total views.[17]The originalYouTubevideo has received 205 million views as of May 3, 2023.Nyan Cat won aWebby Awardin 2012 for "Meme of the Year".[18]

Due to the video's popularity, many newremixesand cover versions have been made, some several hours long. There are alsoringtones,wallpapersandapplicationscreated foroperating systemsand devices, including aprogress barsubstitute forWindowswhich would show up in various places such as the file transfer progress indicator inWindows Explorer,following a request on thesubreddit"Somebody Make This".[19][20][21]Video games were developed foriPhone,iPad,[22]Symbian,[23]Android,[24]Windows Phone,[25]andHP webOS,[26]and a variety offlash gamessuch as "Snake"replicas using the cat's rainbow tail.[27]"Nyan Cat Adventure", by21st Street Games,is an officially licensed game.[13][28]An officially licensedcryptocurrencyentitled "Nyancoin" with the domain name nyanco.in (later nyan-coin.org) was launched in January 2014.[29]

Website

Christopher Torres initially criticized the website nyan.cat, which originally featured a similar-looking cat with the pop tart replaced by a slice of toast,[30]and the same background music. The site, which uses the.catsponsored top-level domain,was described by Torres as "plagiarized".[31][32]Since 2012 the website has been operated by Torres, and shows the authentic version of the cat.[13]

Temporary DMCA takedown

On June 27, 2011, the original YouTube video was taken down from the site following aDigital Millennium Copyright Actcomplaint from someone claiming to be Torres. Torres immediately issued a statement on his websiteLOL-comicsdenying 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.[33]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.[34]

Lawsuit

In May 2013, Christopher Torres and Charles Schmidt, the creators of Nyan Cat andKeyboard Catrespectively, jointly sued5th CellandWarner Bros.forcopyright infringementandtrademark infringementover the appearance of these characters without permission in theScribblenautsseries of video games. Torres and Schmidt haveregistered copyrightson their characters and have pending trademark applications on the names.[35][36]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.[37][38]The suit was settled in September 2013, with Torres and Schmidt being paid for the use of the characters.[39]

See also

References

  1. ^abc"Talking Twin Babies, Nyan Cat among YouTube's top videos of 2011".Los Angeles Times.December 20, 2011.Archivedfrom the original on 2012-06-05.RetrievedDecember 20,2011.
  2. ^prguitarman (April 2, 2011)."Pop Tart / Nyan Cat!".LOL-comics.Archived fromthe originalon September 6, 2012.RetrievedNovember 13,2011.
  3. ^abc"POP Profile: The Guy Behind The Viral Phenomenon" Nyan Cat "".Pop goes the Week. April 19, 2011.RetrievedOctober 28,2011.
  4. ^"RIP Marty --The Inspiration for Nyan Cat".mashable. November 2, 2012.RetrievedNovember 2,2012.
  5. ^"From Meme To Memory: RIP Marty, Nyan Cat's Inspiration".petslady. November 2, 2012. Archived fromthe originalon May 31, 2022.RetrievedNovember 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 động họa ( nguyên túc ).【 sơ âm ミク】Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!【オリジナループ】. Fromnicovideo.jpArchived2011-06-06 at theWayback MachineJuly 25, 2010. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  8. ^"Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya! / daniwellP | KARENT".KarenT(in Japanese). 31 August 2011.Retrieved25 October2024.
  9. ^"Watch The Nyan Cat Song In Hatsune Miku Project Diva f".Siliconera.9 August 2012.Retrieved15 April2020.
  10. ^Nyan Cat hit 10M viewsArchived2011-06-20 at theWayback MachineVocaloidism,May 22, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
  11. ^ 【UTAU】Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!【 đào âm モモ】【ミクカバー】 ‐ ニコニコ động họa ( nguyên túc ). Fromnicovideo.jpArchived2011-04-26 at theWayback Machine,January 31, 2011. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  12. ^Fujimoto, Momoko; Oyamano, Mayo (6 August 2011)."これがソラリス の hải か!" Âm nguyên hệ nữ tử "ガールズトーク"[This is the ocean of Solaris! A Girl's Talk with the "Sound System Girls" ].ASCII.jp[ja](Interview) (in Japanese). Interviewed by Yotsumoto Toshimi.Archivedfrom the original on 13 August 2011.
  13. ^abc"Profiles in Geekdom: Chris Torres, Creator of Nyan Cat".PCWorld.February 4, 2012.Archivedfrom the original on 2012-03-08.RetrievedMarch 22,2012.
  14. ^"Means TV, with a boost from the Nyan Cat, launches a post-capitalist streaming service".Theintercept. March 21, 2019.RetrievedApril 10,2019.
  15. ^"Chris @PRguitarman on X".X. November 11, 2023.RetrievedNovember 11,2023.
  16. ^Stanley, Alise (19 February 2021)."Remastered Nyan Cat Gif Sold for the Equivalent of $587,000 in a Crypto Art Auction".Gizomodo.Retrieved28 February2021.
  17. ^"Top viral videos of April: What's A" Nyan Cat "?".Business Insider.May 3, 2011.RetrievedNovember 13,2011.
  18. ^"Special Achievement: Meme of the Year: Nyan Cat".webbyawards.Retrieved13 December2019.
  19. ^Brandrick, Chris (2011-07-13)."Nyan Cat Invades Windows 7, Dances Along Progress Bars".PCWorld.Archivedfrom the original on 2012-07-19.Retrieved2011-09-22.
  20. ^Robberts, Eric (12 July 2011)."Nyan Cat Progress Bar".EKM.CO.Retrieved19 April2022.
  21. ^"[SMT] A Nyan Cat loading bar UI mod for Windows".19 June 2011. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13.Retrieved2022-04-19.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)(June 19, 2011)
  22. ^Dredge, Stuart (May 14, 2011)."Apps rush: Nutkin, Nyan Cat and more".The Guardian.London.RetrievedNovember 13,2011.
  23. ^"Nyan Cat on the Nokia Cell Phone".Pdadevice. 2011-07-02.Retrieved2011-09-22.
  24. ^"Nyan Cat: Lost In Space".RetrievedApril 10,2015.
  25. ^"Nyan Cat strays into the Marketplace".wpcentral.Archived fromthe originalon October 19, 2014.RetrievedNovember 13,2011.
  26. ^"Nyan Cat for HP webOS".Developer.palm. Archived fromthe originalon 2011-08-10.Retrieved2011-07-04.
  27. ^"nyake" – Internet Archive
  28. ^"Nyan Cat Adventure (Xbox 360 – Indie Game) Review".thegamerplex.Archived fromthe originalon April 6, 2012.RetrievedDecember 21,2011.
  29. ^Sharwood, Simon (January 23, 2014)."Cryptocurrencies now being pooped out by cartoon cat".The Register.RetrievedJanuary 24,2014.
  30. ^Non-Stop Nyan Cat!The original nyan.cat, archived by theWayback Machine.Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  31. ^nyan.catArchived2011-05-31 at theWayback MachineRetrieved November 13, 2011.
  32. ^"Huy Hong: so tremendously humbled, thank you. Lies and thievery".prguitarman.tumblr.Archived fromthe originalon April 26, 2012.RetrievedNovember 13,2011.
  33. ^Walker, Aiden (2023-11-17)."Original 'Nyan Cat' Video With Over 200 Million Views Gets Taken Down, Creating Controversy Online Between Original Artist And Original Poster".Know Your Meme.Retrieved2024-08-16.
  34. ^"I did NOT file a Youtube Copyright Complaint".prguitarman. June 27, 2011. Archived fromthe originalon July 26, 2012.RetrievedNovember 13,2011.
  35. ^"Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat creators sue Warner Bros".BBC News.2013-05-02.Archivedfrom the original on 2013-05-04.Retrieved2013-05-02.
  36. ^Adi Robertson (2013-02-12)."Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat creators sue 'Scribblenauts' studio for using their memes".The Verge.Archivedfrom the original on 2013-05-05.Retrieved2013-05-03.
  37. ^"Nyan Cat Creator Comments on Warner Bros. Lawsuit".GamePolitics. 2013-05-07.Retrieved2013-05-07.
  38. ^Phillips, Tom (2013-05-03)."Warner Bros. and 5th Cell targeted by Keyboard Cat, Nyan Cat lawsuit • News •".Eurogamer.net.Archivedfrom the original on 2013-06-25.Retrieved2013-06-27.
  39. ^Van Syckle, Katie (2013-09-26)."Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat Come Out Ahead in Lawsuit Against Warner Bros".Nymag.Archivedfrom the original on 2013-09-30.Retrieved2013-10-02.
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