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.