Kate Upton

2011viral videoclassic

Published September 24, 2026

Kate Upton is an American model and actress whose early viral videos from 2011 to 2012 made her one of the first swimsuit models to break out through YouTube shares and Reddit front pages. A courtside dance clip and a bathing suit Cat Daddy performance spawned a wave of GIFs, reaction posts and prom invitations that turned her into a recurring internet fixation.

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Overview

Kate Upton's status as a meme is built almost entirely on a short run of viral videos between 2011 and 2013, not on a single image macro. The clips share a formula: Upton in swimwear or short dresses performing a popular dance of the moment, filmed by someone with a camera aimed squarely at going viral1. The Dougie at a Clippers game and the Cat Daddy shoot for photographer Terry Richardson gave the internet a stream of GIF-friendly moments that got recut, reposted and quoted across forums for years2.

The recurring joke online treats Upton less like a working model and more like a shorthand for a specific brand of early-2010s viral bait, with Urban Dictionary entries defining her name as slang for sudden attraction3. That framing is what pushed the clips out of celebrity gossip blogs and into general meme circulation on Reddit, Tumblr and YouTube compilation channels2.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (source) / Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
COED Magazine / Terry Richardson
Date
2011

On April 3rd, 2011, COED Magazine's YouTube channel uploaded footage of Upton doing the Dougie in the stands at a Los Angeles Clippers game1. The clip pulled in more than 2.1 million views within two years and became the first Upton video to move beyond sports blogs into broader meme feeds2. Later that summer, on August 4th, 2011, YouTube user donaldwhiteman1 uploaded a slow motion runway compilation of Upton in various swimsuits that added another 1.4 million views to the stack4.

The breakout moment came on May 1st, 2012, when fashion photographer Terry Richardson released a video of Upton performing the Cat Daddy dance in a white bathing suit5. The same day it landed on the front page of r/videos in a post by user fuckhitler titled "Kate Upton demonstrates the 'catdaddy'", collecting over 15,600 upvotes in 24 hours2.

How It Spread

The Cat Daddy clip did the heaviest lifting for the meme's reach, racking up more than 15.1 million YouTube views within ten months of upload5. Reddit was the accelerant: the r/videos post pushed it into general feeds the same day Terry Richardson published it, and the video was reposted, GIF'd and slow-mo edited across imageboards for the rest of 20122.

The format extended into a real world crossover in March 2013, when high school senior Jake Davidson posted a YouTube video asking Upton to his prom6. Upton replied on Twitter that she would check her schedule7, and Davidson appeared on The Today Show the following day to talk about the request, with Upton calling in during the segment. That story turned the running Upton viral video pattern into a mainstream news beat and produced another round of YouTube uploads about the invitation8.

How to Use This Meme

The Kate Upton meme is not a template you fill in, it is a reference. Posts typically pull a still or GIF from the Cat Daddy or Dougie clips as a reaction to something suddenly attention grabbing, often paired with the Urban Dictionary style joke about instant attraction3. Compilation channels on YouTube commonly stitch the swimsuit runway, Dougie and Cat Daddy videos together as an early 2010s viral bait retrospective4.

Frequently Asked Questions