Keyboard Cat
Internet 2007 · Charlie Schmidt (owner / video creator)
Orange tabby Fatso whose original 1984 home video, uploaded to YouTube in 2007, became the meme used to "play off" failures of all kinds.
The original Keyboard Cat was Fatso, an orange tabby owned by Spokane artist Charlie Schmidt, who filmed her seemingly playing a Casio electronic keyboard in 1984. Schmidt uploaded the clip to YouTube on 7 June 2007 under the title "Cool Cat." It went viral in 2009 when comedian Brad O'Farrell began appending it to videos of public failures with the title "Play him off, Keyboard Cat" — birthing a meme template. Fatso had died in 1987, decades before the video became famous. Schmidt later trained a successor cat, Bento, to perform the routine; Bento died in 2018. As of 2024 a third cat, Skinny, performs occasionally for Schmidt's social channels.
0 words. Sources: see /methodology.
Tags
orange
tabby
real
internet-celebrity
youtube
fatso