Cats Wanting Fruit Loops

2017Image macro / exploitablesemi-active

Also known as: Lööps · Brother May I Have Some Loops · Loops Cat

Cats Wanting Fruit Loops is a 2017 image-macro meme of cats begging for cereal, becoming viral on Twitter in 2018 with absurd captions featuring the stylized spelling "lööps.

Cats Wanting Fruit Loops is an image macro meme featuring photos of cats appearing to beg for bowls of Froot Loops cereal. The original image was posted to Imgur in August 2017 and crossed over with the "Brother, May I Have Some Oats?" format before exploding on Twitter in July 2018, where users paired photos of pleading cats with absurd cereal-related captions often using the stylized spelling "lööps."

catsimage macro memesanimal memesphotoshop memes2018 memes

Overview

The meme centers on images of cats, usually overweight or dramatically posed, sitting near or reaching toward bowls of Froot Loops breakfast cereal. The humor comes from presenting the cats as desperately craving the sugary cereal, often framed in a mock-formal or medieval tone ("Brother, may I have some lööps?"). The signature stylistic touch is the use of Scandinavian-style umlauts over the "o" in "loops," borrowed from the related "oats" meme format. Variations range from simple captioned photos to elaborate Photoshop edits placing the original cat into video game screenshots and movie scenes1.

On August 7, 2017, Imgur user hugmind posted an image of a large cat sitting on its hind legs, seemingly begging for a bowl of Froot Loops sitting on a table nearby2. The post was titled "Fat Cat Epicness" and featured a round, earnest-looking tabby cat with its front paws raised in a posture that looked like pleading. The image gained traction on Imgur and was picked up for remixing relatively quickly.

The photo was later edited into the "Brother, May I Have Some Oats?" meme template, which was popular at the time2. An edit by Imgur user WeylandNZ appeared on August 28, 2017, and another version following the oats template surfaced on Starecat2. These early edits shifted the framing from a funny cat photo to a structured meme format with a repeatable joke.

Origin & Background

Platform
Imgur (source image), Twitter (viral spread)
Key People
hugmind, Tayler Marchment
Date
2017

On August 7, 2017, Imgur user hugmind posted an image of a large cat sitting on its hind legs, seemingly begging for a bowl of Froot Loops sitting on a table nearby. The post was titled "Fat Cat Epicness" and featured a round, earnest-looking tabby cat with its front paws raised in a posture that looked like pleading. The image gained traction on Imgur and was picked up for remixing relatively quickly.

The photo was later edited into the "Brother, May I Have Some Oats?" meme template, which was popular at the time. An edit by Imgur user WeylandNZ appeared on August 28, 2017, and another version following the oats template surfaced on Starecat. These early edits shifted the framing from a funny cat photo to a structured meme format with a repeatable joke.

How It Spread

The concept went relatively quiet until July 2018, when it surged on Twitter. On July 8, Twitter user @HeckinCades posted a "Slaps Roof of Car" variation that picked up over 670 retweets and 1,700 likes. The real breakout came when @TightEndTeen tweeted a Photoshopped version inserting the cat into a screenshot from *The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*, which pulled in over 3,400 retweets and 9,400 likes.

Earlier that month, user @Buxdragon had tweeted a variation that helped set the wave in motion. But the tweet that really supercharged things came from @Akendolfr, who posted an image of a cat appearing to beg for Froot Loops served in a cactus-shaped margarita glass. The absurdity of the presentation, cereal in a novelty cocktail glass with a cat staring longingly at it, captured the meme's spirit perfectly and spread fast.

The Daily Dot noted that cats and Froot Loops had been linked on Twitter long before the 2018 surge, with scattered posts going back years showing real cats near the cereal. The 2018 wave was different because it formalized the joke into a template. Users began dedicating entire accounts to "lööps" content, with one tweet reading: "ATTENTION: This Twitter is now 100% dedicated to cats with fruit loops". Crossovers with other active memes appeared quickly, including "Slaps Roof of Car" edits.

On September 26, 2019, Imgur user hugmind posted an announcement that the cat from the original photo had died at the age of nine from heart disease. The post accumulated over 125,100 views in a single day. Reddit users posted tribute memes honoring the cat in the hours that followed.

Two days later, on September 28, Facebook user Tayler Marchment published posts claiming the cat was her "mom's boyfriend's cat" named Tank and that the cat was actually still alive. Marchment posted a screenshot of the original loops photo from Instagram, dated the same day it had gone viral on Imgur. The conflicting claims about the cat's fate added a strange, unresolved footnote to the meme's history.

How to Use This Meme

The basic format pairs a photo of a cat (ideally a chubby or dramatically posed one) with a caption requesting cereal. Common approaches include:

- A captioned image with text like "Brother, may I have some lööps?" using umlauted vowels for comedic effect - Photoshopping the original Imgur cat into unexpected scenes, games, or movies with Froot Loops placed nearby - Crossover edits combining the loops cat with other active meme templates - Posting real photos of cats near cereal boxes or bowls and framing them as "lööp seekers"

The tone typically ranges from mock-desperate to mock-sacred, treating the cat's desire for cereal as an existential quest.

Cultural Impact

The Daily Dot covered the meme's rise in July 2018, noting the unlikely pairing of cats and branded breakfast cereal as peak internet randomness. The article also included a public service announcement: cats probably want the milk in the bowl, not the cereal itself, and milk is actually bad for most cats.

The meme's 2019 chapter, with the conflicting reports about the original cat's death, drew attention to how internet-famous animals often exist in a strange space where their real identities get lost beneath layers of remix culture. The community's immediate response with tribute memes showed genuine attachment to the cat behind the joke.

Fun Facts

The original Imgur post was simply titled "Fat Cat Epicness" with no reference to cereal meme culture.

A rudimentary Twitter search reveals people have been posting about their cats wanting Froot Loops since at least 2013, years before the meme format existed.

The characteristic umlauts in "lööps" come from the "Brother, May I Have Some Oats?" meme lineage, not from any Scandinavian connection to cats or cereal.

Whether the original cat named Tank actually died in 2019 is still disputed, with the Imgur poster and a Facebook user giving contradictory accounts.

Derivatives & Variations

"Slaps Roof of Car" crossover:

@HeckinCades and others merged the loops cat with the popular car salesman format, captioning variations like "this bad boy can fit so many lööps in it"[2].

Video game edits:

The Zelda: Breath of the Wild Photoshop by @TightEndTeen placed the cat in Hyrule, reaching over 9,400 likes[2].

Margarita glass loops:

@Akendolfr's version with Froot Loops served in a cactus glass became one of the most shared single images[1].

"Brother, May I Have Some Oats?" variants:

The original cat was retrofitted into the existing oats meme template by multiple editors on Imgur and Starecat[2].

Frequently Asked Questions

Cats Wanting Fruit Loops

2017Image macro / exploitablesemi-active

Also known as: Lööps · Brother May I Have Some Loops · Loops Cat

Cats Wanting Fruit Loops is a 2017 image-macro meme of cats begging for cereal, becoming viral on Twitter in 2018 with absurd captions featuring the stylized spelling "lööps.

Cats Wanting Fruit Loops is an image macro meme featuring photos of cats appearing to beg for bowls of Froot Loops cereal. The original image was posted to Imgur in August 2017 and crossed over with the "Brother, May I Have Some Oats?" format before exploding on Twitter in July 2018, where users paired photos of pleading cats with absurd cereal-related captions often using the stylized spelling "lööps."

cats image macro memes animal memes photoshop memes 2018 memes

Overview

The meme centers on images of cats, usually overweight or dramatically posed, sitting near or reaching toward bowls of Froot Loops breakfast cereal. The humor comes from presenting the cats as desperately craving the sugary cereal, often framed in a mock-formal or medieval tone ("Brother, may I have some lööps?"). The signature stylistic touch is the use of Scandinavian-style umlauts over the "o" in "loops," borrowed from the related "oats" meme format. Variations range from simple captioned photos to elaborate Photoshop edits placing the original cat into video game screenshots and movie scenes.

On August 7, 2017, Imgur user hugmind posted an image of a large cat sitting on its hind legs, seemingly begging for a bowl of Froot Loops sitting on a table nearby. The post was titled "Fat Cat Epicness" and featured a round, earnest-looking tabby cat with its front paws raised in a posture that looked like pleading. The image gained traction on Imgur and was picked up for remixing relatively quickly.

The photo was later edited into the "Brother, May I Have Some Oats?" meme template, which was popular at the time. An edit by Imgur user WeylandNZ appeared on August 28, 2017, and another version following the oats template surfaced on Starecat. These early edits shifted the framing from a funny cat photo to a structured meme format with a repeatable joke.

Origin & Background

Platform
Imgur (source image), Twitter (viral spread)
Key People
hugmind, Tayler Marchment
Date
2017

On August 7, 2017, Imgur user hugmind posted an image of a large cat sitting on its hind legs, seemingly begging for a bowl of Froot Loops sitting on a table nearby. The post was titled "Fat Cat Epicness" and featured a round, earnest-looking tabby cat with its front paws raised in a posture that looked like pleading. The image gained traction on Imgur and was picked up for remixing relatively quickly.

The photo was later edited into the "Brother, May I Have Some Oats?" meme template, which was popular at the time. An edit by Imgur user WeylandNZ appeared on August 28, 2017, and another version following the oats template surfaced on Starecat. These early edits shifted the framing from a funny cat photo to a structured meme format with a repeatable joke.

How It Spread

The concept went relatively quiet until July 2018, when it surged on Twitter. On July 8, Twitter user @HeckinCades posted a "Slaps Roof of Car" variation that picked up over 670 retweets and 1,700 likes. The real breakout came when @TightEndTeen tweeted a Photoshopped version inserting the cat into a screenshot from *The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*, which pulled in over 3,400 retweets and 9,400 likes.

Earlier that month, user @Buxdragon had tweeted a variation that helped set the wave in motion. But the tweet that really supercharged things came from @Akendolfr, who posted an image of a cat appearing to beg for Froot Loops served in a cactus-shaped margarita glass. The absurdity of the presentation, cereal in a novelty cocktail glass with a cat staring longingly at it, captured the meme's spirit perfectly and spread fast.

The Daily Dot noted that cats and Froot Loops had been linked on Twitter long before the 2018 surge, with scattered posts going back years showing real cats near the cereal. The 2018 wave was different because it formalized the joke into a template. Users began dedicating entire accounts to "lööps" content, with one tweet reading: "ATTENTION: This Twitter is now 100% dedicated to cats with fruit loops". Crossovers with other active memes appeared quickly, including "Slaps Roof of Car" edits.

On September 26, 2019, Imgur user hugmind posted an announcement that the cat from the original photo had died at the age of nine from heart disease. The post accumulated over 125,100 views in a single day. Reddit users posted tribute memes honoring the cat in the hours that followed.

Two days later, on September 28, Facebook user Tayler Marchment published posts claiming the cat was her "mom's boyfriend's cat" named Tank and that the cat was actually still alive. Marchment posted a screenshot of the original loops photo from Instagram, dated the same day it had gone viral on Imgur. The conflicting claims about the cat's fate added a strange, unresolved footnote to the meme's history.

How to Use This Meme

The basic format pairs a photo of a cat (ideally a chubby or dramatically posed one) with a caption requesting cereal. Common approaches include:

- A captioned image with text like "Brother, may I have some lööps?" using umlauted vowels for comedic effect - Photoshopping the original Imgur cat into unexpected scenes, games, or movies with Froot Loops placed nearby - Crossover edits combining the loops cat with other active meme templates - Posting real photos of cats near cereal boxes or bowls and framing them as "lööp seekers"

The tone typically ranges from mock-desperate to mock-sacred, treating the cat's desire for cereal as an existential quest.

Cultural Impact

The Daily Dot covered the meme's rise in July 2018, noting the unlikely pairing of cats and branded breakfast cereal as peak internet randomness. The article also included a public service announcement: cats probably want the milk in the bowl, not the cereal itself, and milk is actually bad for most cats.

The meme's 2019 chapter, with the conflicting reports about the original cat's death, drew attention to how internet-famous animals often exist in a strange space where their real identities get lost beneath layers of remix culture. The community's immediate response with tribute memes showed genuine attachment to the cat behind the joke.

Fun Facts

The original Imgur post was simply titled "Fat Cat Epicness" with no reference to cereal meme culture.

A rudimentary Twitter search reveals people have been posting about their cats wanting Froot Loops since at least 2013, years before the meme format existed.

The characteristic umlauts in "lööps" come from the "Brother, May I Have Some Oats?" meme lineage, not from any Scandinavian connection to cats or cereal.

Whether the original cat named Tank actually died in 2019 is still disputed, with the Imgur poster and a Facebook user giving contradictory accounts.

Derivatives & Variations

"Slaps Roof of Car" crossover:

@HeckinCades and others merged the loops cat with the popular car salesman format, captioning variations like "this bad boy can fit so many lööps in it"[2].

Video game edits:

The Zelda: Breath of the Wild Photoshop by @TightEndTeen placed the cat in Hyrule, reaching over 9,400 likes[2].

Margarita glass loops:

@Akendolfr's version with Froot Loops served in a cactus glass became one of the most shared single images[1].

"Brother, May I Have Some Oats?" variants:

The original cat was retrofitted into the existing oats meme template by multiple editors on Imgur and Starecat[2].

Frequently Asked Questions