You’re alone on a Thursday night, and once again, you’re laying on your bed scrolling through your phone, decreasing your attention span little by little. Suddenly, you’re shot through the heart, but not by a bullet; it’s the same weird 3D looking smurf with a cat face appearing on your feed once again, with the worst electronic music you’ve ever heard in your life paired along with it. You try to escape and scroll down to another video, but once you think you’re safe, it shows up once again when you least expect it.
What is this creature anyway? Where did it come from? And how did it take over the internet in such a short amount of time? Here, we will dive deep into the origins of Smurf Cat like never before, as well as delving into what may come.
Smurf Cat popped out of nowhere and became an international meme sensation. Within a few days of originally being posted, Smurf Cat spread like mayonnaise. It seems to have appeared out of nowhere, but the origins of this creature go far back, all the way to 2011.
Back in September of 2011, Nate Hallinan posted the original picture of the Smurf Cat. It was his take on a realistic smurf, which he had digitally illustrated out onto a forest background. Over time, he posted the artwork to his other social media accounts, like Instagram, DeviantArt, and his own website. At the time, it was pretty unnoticed; not many people seemed to pay any attention to his realistic Smurf. However, that all changed in late August. On TikTok, user @ghojam1 had posted a slideshow with the Smurf Cat artwork edited to be a variety of colors with the song “Keep Their Heads Ringin’” by Dr. Dre playing in the background. Still, that first post had not been the well known meme format we all know and love (or hate). The next day, ghojam1 had posted another picture of Smurf Cat, with the caption “шайпушай” (in English characters, “shailushai”) and “The Spectre” by Alan Walker playing in the background. “Шайпушай” is gibberish, and doesn’t mean anything. The slideshow has received 2.3 million views and the spread of Smurf Cat began, many believing that Smurf Cat blew up because it makes no sense. Now, you can see all sorts of videos including Smurf Cat, like videos of people zooming in on a map until they replace the image with Smurf Cat, or others making outfits inspired by the creature, all with the same part of the same song: “We live, we love, we lie.”
Along with the rise of Smurf Cat, two other similar memes have become popular: Strawberry Elephant and Pineapple Owl. Online, they are treated as rivals, and many people pin them against each other to see which will come out on top. Additionally, Hallinan, the original creator of Smurf Cat, has also created various concept art for other Smurf Cats, which is widely unknown to the public. He came up with ideas for a female Smurf, an elder Smurf, and a baby Smurf.
We decided to ask some students at Torrance High about their opinions on how they view Smurf cat. Kiyomi Kawamoto sees Smurf Cat as a positive icon, stating that “I like Smurf Cat. It gives off really good vibes and always brightens my day.”
Others viewed it as a menace, infuriated by its 24/7 presence all over the Internet, and Armando Gabriel Carbajal was pleased to share his take on Smurf Cat, emphasizing that “I want to grab it and squeeze it’s little body until it’s eyes pop out of its head like a Looney Toons cartoon.” Ouch.
Some students on campus have taken a more neutral stance on the internet sensation, and student Leonardo Rocha gave not only his opinion, but a prediction to where Smurf Cat is headed, “I liked the Smurfs movie, so I’m chill with Smurf Cat, but I know it’s going to get to that point where it’s overused and people are going to hate it, just like Doge.”
Smurf Cat swept the world by a storm when we least expected it. Some celebrated its glory, some cursed it, and some used it to their advantage to make more content relating to the trend. As its fame slowly declines, as all memes eventually become “unfunny”, whether the world likes it or not, it will now go down in meme history for all of eternity.
