I Should Buy a Boat Cat

2012image macroclassic

Published August 30, 2026

In February 2012, a Reddit user pulled a screengrab of a suited cat reading a newspaper from an old Björk music video and slapped the caption 'I should buy a boat' on it1. The post hit r/funny hard and turned the still into one of the go-to advice animal templates of the early 2010s, spawning the Sophisticated Cat and Fancy Cat image macro series2.

advice animalscatsimage macro memessnowclone memescatchphrase memes

Overview

I Should Buy a Boat Cat, also called Sophisticated Cat or Fancy Cat, is an image macro built around a still of a cat in a blue button-up shirt sitting at a table with a newspaper and a cup of coffee1. The base caption reads 'I should buy a boat,' delivered as if the cat has just had a small, dignified epiphany over breakfast. Fans quickly turned that punchline into a snowclone, swapping 'a boat' for anything from a horse mask to a book to a house2.

The format sits inside the wider advice animal family, but the joke is looser than most. Instead of top-text setup and bottom-text payoff, the cat usually gets a single line of caption while the image does the deadpan work. Quickmeme spun up dedicated pages for both Fancy Cat and Sophisticated Cat, which together collected more than 700 user submissions by late 20122. Tumblr users also lifted the caption off the cat and stuck it onto other reflective-looking animals and people, which is roughly the point at which 'I should buy a boat' stopped being about the cat at all2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Björk music video (source image) / Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
DrTango
Date
2012

The source image is not a real photo of a cat with a newspaper. It is a frame from the Spike Jonze directed music video for Björk's 'Triumph of a Heart,' released in January 2005, in which Björk's anthropomorphic cat husband sulks around the house before she heads out for a night in Reykjavík3. The relevant shot arrives around the 3:56 mark, where the cat sits at a kitchen table in a blue shirt.

The meme itself is a Reddit invention. On February 2, 2012, user DrTango posted a screengrab of the scene to r/funny under the title 'I'll just leave this here,' with 'I should buy a boat' added as a caption2. The post pulled more than 12,350 upvotes before it was archived, and that single caption is what fixed the image in meme form2.

How It Spread

The image traveled fast off Reddit. On February 3, 2012, 9gag reposted DrTango's macro, and within nine months it had racked up over 40,400 upvotes and roughly 4,200 Facebook shares on that site alone2. College Humor picked it up on February 9, and by late August the cat had made it into an episode of the YouTube show Game Grumps2.

The snowclone kicked in almost immediately. On September 10, 2012, redditor RoTTaax posted a version to r/AdviceAnimals with the caption 'I should write a book,' framed as how it feels to write a long comment for three upvotes, which pulled around 9,900 upvotes in its first month2. On November 6, 2012, redditor bathroomstalin swapped the caption to 'I should buy a horse mask,' and later that same day TwoSwords posted a photoshopped follow-up with an actual horse head mask on the cat; both hit the r/AdviceAnimals front page within 24 hours2.

By January 2013 the character had picked up a supporting cast. A r/aww post of a cat walking beside a duck drew jokes about Sophisticated Cat taking financial advice from Actual Advice Mallard, and redditor ZeeHanzenShwanz followed up with an AdviceAnimals macro pairing the two in a conversation about chasing the red dot2. A Quickmeme page called 'Boat Advice' launched shortly after to house the crossover format2.

How to Use This Meme

The template is the still of the suited cat with the newspaper, plus a single caption in the 'I should buy a X' pattern. Common convention is to keep the phrasing casual, as if the cat is thinking out loud after a sip of coffee, and to swap 'a boat' for something absurdly out of proportion to the setup (a mansion, a horse mask, a small country). Some versions ditch the snowclone entirely and use the image as a reaction to any moment of quiet, self-satisfied realization.

Frequently Asked Questions

I Should Buy a Boat Cat

2012image macroclassic

Published August 30, 2026

In February 2012, a Reddit user pulled a screengrab of a suited cat reading a newspaper from an old Björk music video and slapped the caption 'I should buy a boat' on it1. The post hit r/funny hard and turned the still into one of the go-to advice animal templates of the early 2010s, spawning the Sophisticated Cat and Fancy Cat image macro series2.

advice animals cats image macro memes snowclone memes catchphrase memes

Overview

I Should Buy a Boat Cat, also called Sophisticated Cat or Fancy Cat, is an image macro built around a still of a cat in a blue button-up shirt sitting at a table with a newspaper and a cup of coffee1. The base caption reads 'I should buy a boat,' delivered as if the cat has just had a small, dignified epiphany over breakfast. Fans quickly turned that punchline into a snowclone, swapping 'a boat' for anything from a horse mask to a book to a house2.

The format sits inside the wider advice animal family, but the joke is looser than most. Instead of top-text setup and bottom-text payoff, the cat usually gets a single line of caption while the image does the deadpan work. Quickmeme spun up dedicated pages for both Fancy Cat and Sophisticated Cat, which together collected more than 700 user submissions by late 20122. Tumblr users also lifted the caption off the cat and stuck it onto other reflective-looking animals and people, which is roughly the point at which 'I should buy a boat' stopped being about the cat at all2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Björk music video (source image) / Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
DrTango
Date
2012

The source image is not a real photo of a cat with a newspaper. It is a frame from the Spike Jonze directed music video for Björk's 'Triumph of a Heart,' released in January 2005, in which Björk's anthropomorphic cat husband sulks around the house before she heads out for a night in Reykjavík3. The relevant shot arrives around the 3:56 mark, where the cat sits at a kitchen table in a blue shirt.

The meme itself is a Reddit invention. On February 2, 2012, user DrTango posted a screengrab of the scene to r/funny under the title 'I'll just leave this here,' with 'I should buy a boat' added as a caption2. The post pulled more than 12,350 upvotes before it was archived, and that single caption is what fixed the image in meme form2.

How It Spread

The image traveled fast off Reddit. On February 3, 2012, 9gag reposted DrTango's macro, and within nine months it had racked up over 40,400 upvotes and roughly 4,200 Facebook shares on that site alone2. College Humor picked it up on February 9, and by late August the cat had made it into an episode of the YouTube show Game Grumps2.

The snowclone kicked in almost immediately. On September 10, 2012, redditor RoTTaax posted a version to r/AdviceAnimals with the caption 'I should write a book,' framed as how it feels to write a long comment for three upvotes, which pulled around 9,900 upvotes in its first month2. On November 6, 2012, redditor bathroomstalin swapped the caption to 'I should buy a horse mask,' and later that same day TwoSwords posted a photoshopped follow-up with an actual horse head mask on the cat; both hit the r/AdviceAnimals front page within 24 hours2.

By January 2013 the character had picked up a supporting cast. A r/aww post of a cat walking beside a duck drew jokes about Sophisticated Cat taking financial advice from Actual Advice Mallard, and redditor ZeeHanzenShwanz followed up with an AdviceAnimals macro pairing the two in a conversation about chasing the red dot2. A Quickmeme page called 'Boat Advice' launched shortly after to house the crossover format2.

How to Use This Meme

The template is the still of the suited cat with the newspaper, plus a single caption in the 'I should buy a X' pattern. Common convention is to keep the phrasing casual, as if the cat is thinking out loud after a sip of coffee, and to swap 'a boat' for something absurdly out of proportion to the setup (a mansion, a horse mask, a small country). Some versions ditch the snowclone entirely and use the image as a reaction to any moment of quiet, self-satisfied realization.

Frequently Asked Questions