Nyan Cat

Approx. English: /nyan kat/

proper noun

Nyan Cat is the pixel-art cat with a Pop-Tart body and rainbow trail, best known from a looping music video.

#internet meme
#pixel art
#Vocaloid
#meme history

Meaning

Nyan Cat refers to a specific internet meme: a pixel-art cat with a Pop-Tart body flying through space and leaving a rainbow trail. The familiar video pairs the animation with a looping Japanese Vocaloid song. In ordinary use, the name identifies the character, image, video, or its cheerfully repetitive, surreal style; it is not a standard insult or label for a person.[1]

1. The named character and image: a pixel cat with a pastry body and rainbow trail.
2. The video and its recognizable combination of animation and looping song; by extension, a reference to that deliberately repetitive, surreal style.

Pixel-art gray cat with a pink-frosted pastry body flies across a dark blue, star-speckled background, leaving a rainbow trail. — This is the signature Nyan Cat image: a cat fused with a frosted pastry, flying through space and trailing a rainbow. The distinctive combination is what people usually mean when they refer to Nyan Cat. Source

Examples

“That pixel cat with the rainbow trail is Nyan Cat.”

“The loading screen has a Nyan Cat animation looping in the corner.”

“This clip has the same bright, repetitive energy as Nyan Cat.”

Origin and spread

Illustrator Chris Torres posted the Pop-Tart Cat animation on LOL-Comics on April 2, 2011. Three days later, YouTuber saraj00n uploaded a video titled “Nyan Cat,” pairing Torres’s animation with a cover of the already-existing Japanese song “Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!” The image and the titled video are distinct contributions: Torres made the artwork, while the video brought it together with the music and established the familiar presentation. The name combines Japanese “nyan,” a cat-like sound comparable to “meow,” with “Cat”; Torres reportedly called the artwork Pop Tart Cat, while the internet-selected name stuck to the video and character. Know Your Meme documents the video being picked up by blogs and social platforms in April 2011, followed by remixes, fan art, games, and interface adaptations. It also reports one specific reuse: viewers brought repeated “NYAN” strings into the comments on Slipknot’s “Psychosocial” video.[1]

How to use it

Use Nyan Cat when referring to the recognizable character, image, video, or a clearly similar reference. The name is playful and deliberately silly, but a reference alone does not imply anything definite about the person sharing it or being shown. Japanese “nyan” by itself is a cat-like sound, not the name of this specific character.

A video page for Slipknot’s “Psychosocial” shows a top comment filled with repeated strings of “NYAN.” — One documented reuse of the meme: Know Your Meme describes repeated “NYAN” comments appearing on the Slipknot video page. Source

The image and video have separate origins

Chris Torres made and posted the animation; saraj00n later combined it with the song and titled the video “Nyan Cat.” That distinction helps explain why accounts may call the original artwork Pop Tart Cat while naming the familiar video Nyan Cat.[1][2]

One documented comment-chain reuse

Know Your Meme reports that viewers were prompted to play the Nyan Cat song in sync with Slipknot’s “Psychosocial”; repeated “NYAN” comments then appeared on that video. It is a specific early example of the refrain traveling into another video’s comments, not a general rule for how people use the meme.[1]

Questions people ask

Is “nyan” the same thing as Nyan Cat?

No. “Nyan” is a Japanese cat-like vocalization comparable to “meow.” Nyan Cat is the specific character and meme video built around the pastry-bodied cat.[2][3]

Was the song made for the Nyan Cat video?

No. The song existed before the cat animation. The familiar video paired the animation with a cover of it, and the combined upload received the title “Nyan Cat.”[1][2]

Does calling someone Nyan Cat have a standard meaning?

The sources document Nyan Cat as the name of a specific character, image, and video, not as a standard label for a person. A person may be compared with the meme in a particular context, but the reference alone does not establish a fixed judgment about them.[1][3]