# Lil Bub Lil Bub was a female housecat born in June 2011 in rural Indiana with genetic mutations causing dwarfism, polydactyly and a shortened lower jaw that left her tongue permanently sticking out. After owner Mike Bridavsky uploaded a short YouTube clip in November 2011, she became one of the defining celebrity cats of the early 2010s internet, inspiring a Tribeca-winning documentary and a charity fund that outlived her. ## Origin Lil Bub was discovered as the runt of a healthy feral litter inside a tool shed in rural Indiana in the summer of 2011, born on June 21st of that year[6]. Mike Bridavsky took her in as a rescue because her mutations required special care, and she lived with him in Bloomington, Indiana[7]. Her first viral breadcrumb was a 15-second YouTube clip titled 'good job bub.3gp,' uploaded on November 8th, 2011 by the account LilBubBub, which shows the cat stalking and pouncing at the camera[8]. The Lil Bub Tumblr blog launched the same day and reposted that video as its first entry[9]. For roughly six months, Bub's online footprint stayed small and mostly Tumblr-based before mainstream blogs picked her up in mid-2012. - **Platform:** YouTube / Tumblr (viral spread) - **Creator:** Mike Bridavsky - **Date:** 2011 ## Overview Lil Bub was marketed as a 'perma-kitten,' a cat whose genetic quirks locked her in a permanent kitten-like appearance with disproportionately short limbs, extra toes totaling 22 claws, no teeth and a tiny lower jaw that made her tongue flop out at all times[3]. Owner Mike Bridavsky described her sounds as a mix of 'squonks, squeaks, gurgles, snorts, hiccups, purrs' rather than normal meows, and the combination of odd vocalizations and alien-looking face is what shaped her online persona[1]. The Lil Bub format was less a template people remixed and more a stream of candid cat content: short YouTube clips of her waddling, licking food, or staring blankly into cameras, paired with photo sets on Tumblr and merch imagery on her storefront[2]. Fans and bloggers compared her to a Mogwai from Gremlins, treating the resemblance as a running gag across posts[1]. The 'happy accident' framing, borrowed from a 2012 BuzzFeed headline, became the standard way outlets described her[4]. Unlike Grumpy Cat, whose image was mostly used as a reaction macro, Lil Bub stayed anchored to her real-life persona. Her presence online was built around videos, photos and in-person appearances rather than captioned stills, which is why the bulk of her legacy sits in long-form content like the Vice documentary and the charity work her owner later organized[5][6]. ## How It Spread The first major non-Tumblr push came on May 18th, 2012, when the design blog Jakprints posted 'Jakprints Loves Lil' Bub,' showing off a sticker of the cat licking an ice cream cone[10]. Over the next ten days Bridavsky scaled up the operation: an official Facebook page launched on May 27th and the store at store.lilbub.com went live on May 30th selling t-shirts, tote bags and postcards[3]. The @IamLilBub Twitter account followed on June 1st, 2012. The inflection point was summer 2012. BuzzFeed's Summer Anne Burton published 'Meet Lil Bub, Nature's Happy Accident Who Is About to Win Your Heart' on June 30th, which reportedly pulled over 193,000 views, 800 comments and 6,000 Facebook shares within a month[4]. Jezebel followed on July 4th with a post calling her 'one of the weirdly cutest, Mogwai-looking motherfucking cats you will ever see'[2]. Vice's Kate Carraway wrote 'Vice Loves Bub More Than You Do' on July 24th, boasting that staffers had Bub postcards taped above their desks[5]. By 2013 Lil Bub crossed into traditional media. Vice announced on March 7th, 2013 that it was producing a feature documentary, 'Lil Bub & Friendz,' co-starring Grumpy Cat, Nyan Cat, Keyboard Cat and meme manager Ben Lashes[11]. Complex and Metro covered the trailer when it dropped on March 18th[12][13]. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 18th, 2013 and won Best Feature Film in the festival's Online Competition, taking home $10,000[14]. That same spring Bridavsky announced 'Lil BUB's Lil Book,' and in June 2013 revealed a Revision3 web series called The Lil Bub Show[15]. ## How to Use Lil Bub was less a meme template than an internet personality, so 'using' her mostly meant sharing her videos and photos. The common conventions in fan posts were leaning on her stuck-out tongue as the punchline, describing her as a 'happy accident' or 'perma-kitten,' and comparing her face to a Mogwai or alien. Captioned photos typically played her blank, wide-eyed stare against a mundane situation. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Lil Bub? Lil Bub was a female housecat born in 2011 with dwarfism, polydactyly and a shortened jaw, marketed online as a 'perma-kitten' with a permanently stuck-out tongue[1]. ### Where did Lil Bub come from? She was found as the runt of a feral litter in a tool shed in rural Indiana in the summer of 2011 and rescued by Mike Bridavsky of Bloomington[6][7]. ### What does Lil Bub mean? The name is just Bridavsky's nickname for the cat; 'Lil Bub' was popularized through his YouTube and Tumblr accounts under the handle LilBubBub starting in November 2011[8]. ### How do you use Lil Bub? Fans mostly share her videos and photos rather than remix a template; posts typically lean on her tongue and 'happy accident' framing, a phrase BuzzFeed used in its 2012 headline[4]. ### Is Lil Bub still popular? Lil Bub died on December 1st, 2019, but her website and charity, Lil BUB's Big FUND, are still active, and the fund reports having raised over $500,000 for animals with special needs[6]. ### Who owned Lil Bub? Her owner was Mike Bridavsky, who ran all her social accounts and starred alongside her in the 2013 Vice documentary[11]. ### What was Lil Bub & Friendz? A Vice-produced feature documentary about internet cat fame, co-starring Grumpy Cat, Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat, that premiered at Tribeca on April 18th, 2013 and won Best Feature Film in the festival's Online Competition[14]. ### Why does Lil Bub's tongue stick out? Her lower jaw was too small to hold her tongue in place, a side effect of the same genetic conditions that caused her dwarfism and extra toes[2]. ### Where was Lil Bub from? She was born in rural Indiana and lived with Mike Bridavsky in Bloomington, Indiana[7]. ### Did Lil Bub have a book? Yes, 'Lil BUB's Lil Book: The Extraordinary Life of the Most Amazing Cat on the Planet' was announced in spring 2013 and released on September 3rd, 2013, with 100 captioned photos[1]. ## References 1. [https://jezebel.com/and-then-dwarf-cat-lil-bub-happened-and-everything-chan-5923454]() 2. [https://store.lilbub.com/]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/lil-bub]() 4. [https://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/meet-lil-bub-natures-happy-accident-who-is]() 5. [https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ppqqa8/vice-loves-bub-more-than-you-do]() 6. [https://lilbub.com]() 7. [https://thefw.com/cute-kitty-lil-bub/]() 8. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq81rUGQofk]() 9. [https://www.youtube.com/user/LilBubBub]() 10. [http://blog.jakprints.com/2012/05/jakprints-loves-lil-bub.html]() 11. [https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bny49a/lil-bub--friendz-premieres-at-tribeca]() 12. [https://www.complex.com/style/2013/03/vice-announces-premiere-of-lil-bub-friendz-at-the-2013-tribeca-film-festival]() 13. [https://metro.co.uk/2013/03/18/lil-bub-friendz-internet-cat-meme-film-gets-first-trailer-3547928/]() 14. [https://www.tribecafilm.com/stories/tff-2013-award-winners]() 15. [https://www.thewrap.com/cat-celebrity-lil-bub-partners-revision3-will-host-new-show-exclusive-98856/]() 16. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Lil%20Bub]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/lil-bub Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library