Cats Vs Printers — A grey British Shorthair-type cat sits calmly on top of a printer or electronic device in a home environment.

Cats Vs Printers

2006Video fad / compilation genreclassic

Published March 31, 2026

Also known as: Cat vs. Printer · Cat Attacks Printer

Cats vs. Printers is a YouTube video fad built around clips of house cats reacting aggressively to home printers, typically attacking the paper as it feeds out of the machine. The trend kicked off in April 2006 when a Spanish cat owner uploaded footage of her cat Marcus shredding paper from an HP Deskjet, and it snowballed over the next six years into a full-blown video genre covered by outlets from The Guardian to BuzzFeed.

cats vs technology memes cats youtube viral pet video memes late 2000s memes

Overview

The formula is simple: a printer starts doing its thing, and a cat loses its mind. Most cats vs. printers videos show the animal swatting at, biting, or outright tearing apart the paper as it emerges from the machine. Some cats are merely fascinated, batting at the moving tray with cautious paws. Others go full berserker mode, ripping pages to shreds before they finish printing.

The appeal sits at the intersection of two internet constants: cats doing ridiculous things and technology misbehaving. The mechanical whirring, the rhythmic paper feeding, the sudden movements of the print head all seem to trigger a cat's predatory instincts8. As Neatorama put it, "something about printers makes cats hate them"8.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube
Creator
Azahara Carreras León
Date
2006

The first known cat vs. printer video hit YouTube on April 23, 2006, uploaded by Azahara Carreras León4. The clip shows her cat Marcus going after an HP Deskjet printer mid-job, violently tearing up the paper as it prints. By June 2013, the video had pulled in over 1.8 million views4.

Two days after León's upload, YouTuber choucrouto posted a separate video of an orange cat reaching into a printer during a print job4. These two videos, appearing within 48 hours of each other, planted the seed for what would grow into a recognizable video genre.

How It Spread

León's video spread through the blog ecosystem in late 2006, landing on VideoSift2 and personal blogs like Life of 7 Cats, where the blogger called it "too cute" and noted it would appeal to anyone whose cat "goes crazy whenever the printer is printing out a document"3.

By 2007, the original video had been reuploaded to YouTube dozens of times4. On September 5, 2008, the fad got a major boost when YouTuber Paperinjerate uploaded "Pussy versus Printer," a clip that added comedic sound effects as the cat swatted at the machine4. That video hit 7.2 million views by mid-2013, making it the most-watched entry in the genre4.

Another cat vs. printer clip went viral in April 2009, and by that July, Urlesque had assembled the first known compilation of these videos4. The genre picked up steam through 2010, with The Guardian featuring a cat vs. printer clip on its science blog, where the writer quipped, "I'll bet this working feline is happy it's finally caturday"6. Gizmodo framed the whole phenomenon as a boxing match, dubbing it "Cat vs. Printer: The War of the Ages" and awarding one particular round to the printer after a cat took "punch after punch, only striking back rarely and feebly"1.

Between 2010 and 2012, the video fad earned coverage from Animal Planet, BuzzFeed, College Humor, eBaum's World, Boing Boing, and the Huffington Post4. HuffPost's 2011 write-up described the rivalry as "a story almost as old as cats vs. dogs," noting that printers are both "irresistible and terrifying" to cats7. Viral Viral Videos highlighted a version with a dubbed British voiceover in October 20105. College Humor titled one entry "Printer Wins Crucial Victory in War on Cats"8.

In December 2012, YouTuber mihaifrancu uploaded a two-minute compilation stitching together the best cat vs. printer moments, and Neatorama ran the compilation with the observation that "the ongoing war between cats and printers makes for some hilarious video footage"8.

How to Use This Meme

Cats vs. Printers is more of a video genre than a remixable template:

1

Film your cat reacting to a printer in action. Inkjet printers with visible paper-feeding mechanisms tend to get the strongest reactions.

2

Upload with a title following the "[Cat name] vs. Printer" or "Cat Attacks Printer" format.

3

Optional: add sound effects, commentary, or voiceover for comedic effect. The Paperinjerate video's added punch sounds helped it outperform the original by millions of views4.

4

Compilation videos that stitch together multiple cats' reactions became popular later in the trend's lifecycle8.

Cultural Impact

The genre crossed over from YouTube novelty to mainstream media coverage across multiple countries and outlets. The Guardian ran it on their science blog6. The Huffington Post gave it a feature calling the cat-printer dynamic timeless7. Gizmodo covered it multiple times, treating individual videos like rounds in an ongoing prizefight1. College Humor, eBaum's World, Animal Planet, and Boing Boing all picked up various entries4.

The trend sits within the larger early YouTube ecosystem of "cats vs. [household object]" videos that dominated the platform's first decade. Printers proved especially reliable as antagonists because of their combination of noise, movement, and paper dispensing, all of which trigger cats' hunting instincts.

Fun Facts

León's original 2006 video featured a cat named Marcus attacking a specific HP Deskjet model, one of the most common home printers of that era4.

The sound-effects-enhanced version by Paperinjerate outperformed the original by roughly four times the view count4.

The Guardian filed their cat vs. printer coverage under their science blog, not entertainment6.

HuffPost argued that cat vs. printer clips prove cats don't "always have to fight" with technology, as some cats seem genuinely curious rather than hostile7.

Frequently Asked Questions