Zoom Cat Lawyer, also known as I'm Not a Cat, is an Internet meme that refers to a viral video taken from a live stream of a civil forfeiture hearing, and being held on the video conferencing application Zoom in Texas' 394th Judicial District Court. The video features an attorney named Rod Ponton, who is struggling to disable a cat filter that shows a gray tabby kitten instead of his face, making it appear as though a cat is speaking.
On February 9, 2021, the YouTube channel for the 394th District Court of Texas live-streamed and published a clip entitled "Kitten Zoom Filter Mishap." The video features an attorney, Rod Ponton, who accidentally signed in with a white kitten face filter and is attempting to remove it from his Zoom application. [1] In the video, the kitten's eyes appear to dart back and forth when Ponton says, "I don't know how to remove it. I've got my assistant here and she's trying to." Ponton then attempts to move forward, saying, "I'm prepared to go forward with it." Finally, he says, "I'm here live. I'm not a cat." [2] The post later received 3.6 million views on YouTube and over 26.9 million views on Twitter. [3] Ponton told CNN and the Associated Press that he was using his assistant's 10-year-old desktop computer when he logged on to the civil forfeiture hearing. [4] Ponton claimed his secretary or her daughter had last used the image. [5]
After the clip was posted, Judge Roy Ferguson shared the clip on Twitter with a tweet being captioned as "IMPORTANT ZOOM TIP: If a child used your computer, before you join a virtual hearing check the Zoom Video Options to be sure filters are off. This kitten just made a formal announcement on a case in the 394th." [6] Reuters reporter Lawrence Hurley later shared the clip on Twitter. [1] Canadian poet Margaret Atwood praised and also shared the tweet with a caption "I on the other hand am a cat. I just can't get this human filter off." [7] After the incident, Ponton said to The New York Times , "If I can make the country chuckle for a moment in these difficult times they're going through, I'm happy to let them do that at my expense." [2] He said to Vice , "Oh, that was just a mistake by my secretary. I was using her computer and for some reason, she had that filter on. I took it off and replaced it with my face. It was a case involving a man trying to exit the United States with contraband and contraband cash. All it was was a mistake. It was taken off and we had the hearing as normal." [8]
After the clip grew in popularity, several notable media outlets covered the video, including The New York Times , [2] NBC News, [9] The Wall Street Journal , [10] USA Today , [11] The Guardian , [12] ABC , [13] The Daily Dot , [14] Vice , [8] CNN , [15] and others. [4] [16] Wonderland described it as one of the best memes 2021 produced. [17] Jochan Embley of Evening Standard described it as one of the "Most hilarious Zoom fails in the year". [18] Natasha Hinde of HuffPost listed it among the "most hilarious Zoom moments of all time", [19] while WPBN-TV reported that the meme would be made into a bobblehead by the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum. [20]
The meme also inspired a prank involving Charles Barkley on Inside the NBA . [21] In a clip in which Minnesota representative Tom Emmer appears upside-down in a virtual US Congress Committee Finance meeting, a co-attendee references the meme, stating, "at least he's not a cat". [22]
The clip also appeared in a Mike's Hard Lemonade commercial. [23]
Ponton is an instance of a Milkshake Duck, a person who gains popularity on social media for some positive or charming trait but is later revealed to have a distasteful history. In 2014 Ponton allegedly "used federal agents to torment a former lover with drug raids and bogus charges", which ended up "destroying her business" according to a Reason documentary. [24] [25] [26] [27]
"All your base are belong to us" is an Internet meme based on a poorly translated phrase from the opening cutscene of the Japanese video game Zero Wing. The phrase first appeared on the European release of the 1991 Sega Mega Drive / Genesis port of the 1989 Japanese arcade game.
A bobblehead, also known by nicknames such as nodder, wobbler, or wacky wobbler, is a type of small collectible figurine. Its head is often oversized compared to its body. Instead of a solid connection, its head is connected to the body by a spring or hook in such a way that a light tap will cause the head to move around, or "bobble," hence the name.
An Internet meme, or meme, is a cultural item that spreads across the Internet, primarily through social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Reddit. Internet memes manifest in a variety of formats, including images, videos, GIFs, and other viral content. Key characteristics of memes include their tendency to be parodied, their use of intertextuality, their viral dissemination, and their continual evolution. The term "meme" was originally introduced by Richard Dawkins in 1972 to describe the concept of cultural transmission.
Milkshake! is a British children's television programming block on Channel 5 and is currently aimed at children aged 2 to 7.
Rickrolling or a Rickroll is an Internet meme involving the unexpected appearance of the music video to the 1987 hit song "Never Gonna Give You Up", performed by English singer Rick Astley. The aforementioned video has over 1.5 billion views on YouTube. The meme is a type of bait and switch, usually using a disguised hyperlink that leads to the music video. When someone clicks on a seemingly unrelated link, the site with the music video loads instead of what was expected, and they have been "Rickrolled". The meme has also extended to using the song's lyrics, or singing it, in unexpected contexts. Astley himself has also been Rickrolled on several occasions.
Bad Luck Blackie is a 1949 American animated comedy short film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Keyboard Cat is a video-based internet meme. Its original form was a video made in 1984 by Charlie Schmidt of his cat Fatso seemingly playing a musical keyboard to a cheery tune. While Schmidt had uploaded the video himself to YouTube in 2007, Brad O'Farrell, with Schmidt's permission, appended the video to the end of a blooper video uploaded in 2009 as if to have the cat "play" the person offstage after the gaffe as they had done in vaudeville. The idea of this quickly expanded on the Internet by numerous other users, typically under the name "Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat", and became a popular meme on YouTube.
Nyan Cat is 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 a Pop-Tart for a torso flying through space and leaving a rainbow trail behind. The video ranked at number five on the list of most viewed YouTube videos in 2011.
A YouTube poop (YTP) is a type of video mashup or edit created by remixing/editing pre-existing media sources, often carrying subcultural significance into a new video for humorous, vulgar, satirical, obscene, absurd, profane, annoying, confusing, or dramatic purposes. YouTube poops are traditionally uploaded to the video sharing website YouTube, hence the name.
Doge is an Internet meme that became popular in 2013. The meme consists of a picture of a Shiba Inu dog, accompanied by multicolored text in Comic Sans font in the foreground. The text, representing a kind of internal monologue, is deliberately written in a form of broken English. The meme originally and most frequently uses an image of a Shiba Inu named Kabosu, though versions with other Shiba Inus are also popular.
Images and videos of domestic cats make up some of the most viewed content on the World Wide Web. ThoughtCatalog has described cats as the "unofficial mascot of the Internet".
Bill Wurtz is an American musician, singer-songwriter, video producer, animator, and internet personality. He is known for his distinctive style of music, with deadpan delivery and singing, and his animated music videos, with surrealist, psychedelic graphics.
In Internet culture, a Milkshake Duck is a person who gains popularity on social media for some positive trait but is later discovered to have a distasteful history or to engage in offensive behavior. The term has been connected to cancel culture, a trend of social media, sometimes resulting in celebrities being ostracized and careers abruptly derailed by publicized misconduct.
Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, known professionally as Doja Cat, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, she began making and releasing music on SoundCloud as a teenager. Her song "So High" caught the attention of Kemosabe and RCA Records, with whom she signed a recording contract prior to the release of her debut extended play, Purrr! in 2014.
Amala is the debut studio album by American rapper Doja Cat. It was released on March 30, 2018, by Kemosabe Records and RCA Records. The album's deluxe version was released on March 1, 2019, and featured her breakthrough singles "Juicy", "Tia Tamera", and "Mooo!". Her first commercial release in four years, Doja Cat has expressed strong disdain towards the record for a number of reasons.
"Mooo!" is a song by American rapper and singer Doja Cat. Originally self-published exclusively as a music video on August 10, 2018, it became a viral internet meme and amassed over 578 million views. It was subsequently released as the lead single from the deluxe edition of her debut studio album Amala. The viral success of "Mooo!" is considered a major factor in Doja Cat's internet fame, ultimately "setting the tone for her career", despite being considered by Doja Cat herself as a "throwaway" and a "joke".
Carole Ann Baskin is the CEO of Big Cat Rescue, a non-profit animal sanctuary. She has attracted the attention of local, national and international media outlets to the plight of captive big cats.
"Let's Go Brandon" is a political slogan and Internet meme used as a euphemism for the phrase "Fuck Joe Biden" in reference to Joe Biden, the 46th and current president of the United States.