Charlie Schmidt, a performance artist based in Spokane, Washington, recorded the original footage in 1984 on VHS4. He dressed his cat Fatso in an infant's blue T-shirt belonging to his son Cody, then moved the cat's paws to simulate keyboard playing while staying hidden beneath the shirt3. Schmidt later told The Washington Post he "wasn't aiming for anything except relieving my boredom" during a period when he had "no work, or money, or anything"7. He composed the backing track himself "in about 2 minutes to have a track for fatty to play out"6.

Fatso died in 1987, and the VHS tape sat in storage for twenty years4. In June 2007, Schmidt digitized the footage and uploaded it to YouTube under the title "charlie schmidt's 'cool cat'"3. The video attracted modest attention, collecting around 325,000 views over the next two years10.

The meme was born on February 2, 2009, when Brad O'Farrell, the syndication manager at My Damn Channel, created a mashup video pairing the Keyboard Cat footage with a clip of a person in a wheelchair falling off an escalator4. O'Farrell had gotten Schmidt's permission to use the footage and titled his creation "Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat"10. He also convinced Schmidt to let anyone use the footage freely, a decision that proved crucial for the meme's spread4. Using his connections with YouTube editors, O'Farrell got the video featured on YouTube's front page10.

Keyboard Cat ranked No. 2 on Current TV's list of 50 Greatest Viral Videos4. The meme crossed into mainstream media through segments on CNN, The Daily Show, and coverage in the Associated Press, The Guardian, and the Los Angeles Times10.

The commercial crossover was significant. Bento's Wonderful Pistachios ad during the 2010 World Series brought Keyboard Cat to a television audience of millions2. Video games incorporated the meme as well. An Easter egg in the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm announcement featured the game's villain Deathwing at a keyboard with the text "Keyboard Cataclysm: Play 'em Off, Deathwing," and Ubisoft's Splinter Cell: Conviction teaser parodied the format with "Play Him Off, Keyboard Sam"4. The Earthworm Jim Xbox Live Arcade remake included Keyboard Cat-related bonus content4.

Merchandise expanded the brand beyond digital media, with paintings, T-shirts, Halloween costumes, and the battery-operated toy doll3. O'Farrell himself dressed as Keyboard Cat for Halloween in 20093. A wide range of fan art also emerged across the internet3.

Keyboard Cat's trajectory from forgotten home video to global meme is one of the most striking examples of delayed virality in internet history. The 25-year gap between filming (1984) and viral fame (2009) makes it an extreme case of pre-digital content finding a second life online.

The format's appeal was rooted in its simplicity and versatility. Any embarrassing moment, political gaffe, or spectacular failure could be punctuated by the same cheerful cat performance. The Guardian described the collection as including "breakdancers kicking babies into the air, people falling off escalators, George W. Bush being pelted with shoes, all made inexplicably more hilarious by the interruption of the Keyboard Cat"11. O'Farrell's original mashup video was eventually removed from YouTube due to copyright violations on the fail footage it contained, though reuploads kept it alive3.

The meme's cultural penetration throughout 2009 was remarkable. At the MTV Movie Awards, host Andy Samberg joked that award winners whose speeches ran too long would be played off by Keyboard Cat4. Kato Kaelin spoofed the concept in a segment called "Keyboard Kato" on the first episode of Tosh.04. During Weezer's summer tour with Blink-182, Keyboard Cat "played" the band off at the end of every set4. The Nintendo DS game Scribblenauts, unveiled at E3 2009, included "Keyboard Cat" as a summonable object, drawing attention to the title due to the meme's timeliness4.

With Fatso long dead, Schmidt found a successor. He scoured animal shelters and adopted a similar-looking orange tabby named Bento, who became "Keyboard Cat 2.0"8. Schmidt announced the new cat in March 2010 with a video titled "Keyboard Cat REINCARNATED!" featuring Bento performing in the same style with updated footage and a new song4. In November 2010, Bento starred in a Wonderful Pistachios commercial during the Major League Baseball World Series2. The Keyboard Cat brand earned around $145,000 from Wonderful Pistachios alone, according to Grunge7.

Schmidt actively protected his intellectual property. When Keyboard Cat appeared in the video game Scribblenauts without authorization, he sued publisher Warner Bros. for copyright and trademark infringement. The case was settled "amicably," according to New York Magazine7. A battery-operated toy doll resembling Fatso was introduced in October 20113. In February 2011, Schmidt produced a Banksy-inspired spoof called "Exit Through the Pet Shop," telling the story of Bento's rise3.

The Guardian included Bento in its list of the "Ten Best Cats on the Internet" in 2013, alongside Grumpy Cat, Maru, Lil Bub, and Nyan Cat5. Bento shared a manager with Grumpy Cat and worked the cat conference circuit, making personal appearances and promoting merchandise9.

Bento died on March 8, 2018, at the age of nine8. Schmidt posted a YouTube tribute, and the death was covered by The Spokesman-Review, Consequence of Sound, and Mashable, with a Twitter Moments collection of tributes2. Grumpy Cat's official account shared condolences: "Rest In Peace Keyboard Cat Bento"7.

Schmidt initially said he wasn't sure about finding another Keyboard Cat, telling The Washington Post, "I'm not doing any dating right now with cats, but it can happen"7. In March 2019, he announced "Keyboard Cat 3.0" in Skinny, a cat he had actually adopted back in 2009 and named after Fatso's older sister4. Schmidt told The Spokesman-Review that Skinny had "been patient all these years and watched Bento be famous"7. In April 2020, Schmidt's original YouTube channel was hacked by a cryptocurrency group and temporarily terminated. The channel was later reinstated, but the original videos were not restored4. In 2023, Schmidt's channel introduced yet another orange tabby named Arlo, described as Skinny's cousin taking piano lessons7. By September 2025, the original Keyboard Cat video had received over 81 million views4.