Cat Feeder Camera Cats

About

Cat Feeder Camera Cats, also known as Cat House Cameras or Cat Feeder Camera GIFs, refers to a series of cat images, GIFs and videos taken from the Chinese livestream app Hello Street Cat on which cameras are set up in stray "cat houses" where food is dispensed after user donations. The trend started with the Cat Eating Then Looking Up video in late 2023. Then, a fandom around a particular cat named Mr. Fresh, also known as the Side-Eye Cat, developed. In early 2024, internet users on Twitter / X compiled multiple stream clips from the app, likening the cats to being mass-produced in a factory. Mr. Fresh and the others then gained collective fan art, memes and redraws, evident in the Hedgehog Eating Cat Food meme.

Origin

On October 8th, 2023, TikToker^[1][2] @catzoo1 posted two videos that showed a Chinese livestream with a camera set up in a cat feeder. The first video (which later became the "Cat Eating Then Looking Up" meme) gained roughly 16.6 million plays and 2.1 million likes in three months (shown below, left).

The second video of a different cat (later known as "Mr. Fresh") gained roughly 457,500 plays and 123,700 likes in three months (shown below, right).

Also on October 8th, 2023, TikToker^[3] @annettesullivan also went viral for posting the Cat Eating Then Looking Up video, receiving roughly 2.7 million plays and 445,900 likes in three months.

The screen recording of the Cat Eating Then Looking Up was seemingly taken from a viral video on the Chinese video platform Weibo. The livestream with the cat was from a different Chinese app called Hello Street Cat^[4] that livestreams so-called "cat houses" where user donations feed stray cats (example image shown below).

Spread

Going into late October 2023, the two TikTokers continued to upload clips from the Hello Street Cat livestream. For instance, on October 10th, 2023, TikToker^[5] @annettesullivan posted a video that introduced Mr. Fresh, gaining roughly 1.9 million plays and 239,800 likes in three months (shown below, left).

On October 24th, 2023, TikToker^[6] @annettesullivan posted a video of a hedgehog eating the food in front of a cat (later becoming the "Hedgehog Eating Cat Food" meme), earning roughly 559,300 plays and 88,400 likes in three months (shown below, right).

Memes using the video of the Cat Eating Then Looking Up started to surface on TikTok^[7] and Twitter / X^[8] in October and November 2023.

Fan Art

As the Cat Eating Then Looking Up became increasingly common on Twitter / X, users on the platform surfaced more images and GIFs from the Hello Street Cat livestream. The trend predominantly started on January 10th, 2024, when X^[9] user @SCUMFUCKSYRUP posted a tweet including three cats captioned, "do they mass-produce these cats in a factory," gaining over 131,000 likes in two days (shown below, left).

The viral tweet led to discourse and fan art, such as a drawing shared by X^[10] user @boople__art on January 12th captioned, "this is The Last Supper," gaining over 54,000 likes in less than a day (shown below, right).

Additional Spread

On January 16th, 2024, X^[11] user @realblueluffy posted the TikTok^[6] video of the hedgehog eating the cat food, captioned, "NEW CAT FEEDER CAMERA GIF DROPPED," receiving over 149,000 likes in two days.

The tweet inspired redraws of the image to surface, posted in viral quotes and replies (examples shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References