Move over Peter Criss, there’s a new drummer cat in town: the “Bongo Cat,” borne of an unassuming animated GIF where a marshmallowy kitten slaps a table in contentment, has pitter-pattered its way into the internet’s heart. Like any number of feline parasites before it, it’s mutated into strange new forms with time, infecting Twitter with a rare case of wholesomeness and plain old good vibrations.
New York’s Brian Feldman celebrated the birth of the Bongo Cat by tracing its path to online superstardom. The source of all this good cheer is a simple, two-frame cartoon animation by artist @StrayRogue, posted all the way back in early May.
Soon enough, another artist added in a set of bongos and Mario music, adding context to the cat’s previous existence as an aimless, void-floater. (The original tweet is protected, but has been reposted on YouTube.) Now, luckily for us all, the Bongo Cat has spread throughout the internet at large, spilling out entire litters of new, extremely pleasant takes on the premise.
Many stick close to Bongo Cat’s roots, interpreting it, above all else, as a cat that drums. In this subsection, the Cat is simply a fiend for the beat and performs accordingly.
In others, Bongo Cat reveals itself as a multi-talented musician and embraces non-percussive instruments of all sorts. The animations, in turn, often become more elaborate.
This continues across all genres of music, the Bongo Cat showing off a proficiency in everything from barbershop and prog rock to disco and holiday novelty songs.
Considering just how adaptable a creation the Bongo Cat is, it’s only natural it’s spread so far so quickly. The work that goes into casting the furry globule in a homemade music video can be as extensive or as limited as any creator wishes. Even the means of Bongo Cat production have been made readily available on a very good website.
The entire phenomenon somehow, despite the influx of attention from across the internet, has managed to stay remarkably clean and good-natured. While this surely can’t last forever, the influence of Bongo Cat—pure, smiling, and just happy to jam—is a welcome one. The creature makes Twitter better. It rejoices in two basic truths: cats are adorable and drums are fun.
[via New York]
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