# Oh Long Johnson

Oh Long Johnson is the phonetic nickname for the eerie warbling sounds made by an aggravated black cat in a 1998 America's Funniest Home Videos clip. The footage sat dormant until 2006 YouTube uploads turned the cat's growls into one of the decade's most-quoted talking-animal videos, later cemented by a 2012 South Park episode built entirely around the phrase.

## Origin
The source footage first aired on America's Funniest Home Videos sometime in 1998, well before YouTube existed[4]. It surfaced online on April 6, 2006, when a user posted a talking-cat compilation to YouTube that included the clip[5]. Two months later, on June 11, 2006, YouTuber pkwvermittlung uploaded the isolated nine-second version titled 'Oh Long Johnson… talking cat,' which is the copy most later remixes point back to[2].

No single creator built the meme. The AFV segment is found footage from an anonymous home videographer, and the viral form came from viewers repeatedly re-uploading, captioning, and subtitling the same recording[4].

- **Platform:** America's Funniest Home Videos (source) / YouTube (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2006

## Overview
The gag hinges on pareidolia. A black cat backed into a corner produces a stretched, throaty vocalization that sounds uncannily like human speech, and viewers argue over what exactly the animal is saying[1]. The widely repeated phonetic readings include 'Oh Long Johnson,' 'Oh Don Piano,' 'All the live long day,' and 'Why I eyes ya'[3].

The clip works as raw novelty. There is no punchline built into the video itself, only nine seconds of a cat making noises that flirt with English. That ambiguity fueled years of subtitled reuploads, phonetic breakdowns, and shirt designs riffing on competing transcriptions[1]. By the late 2000s the sound had drifted free of the video, with 'Oh Long Johnson' getting used as a standalone exclamation of surprise or mild dread[3].

## How to Use
There is no image template to build. Reuse typically means quoting 'Oh Long Johnson' as an all-purpose exclamation of surprise, exasperation, or a wry 'oh snap' equivalent[3]. The other common convention is sharing the clip and letting viewers argue in the replies about what the cat is actually saying, since 'Oh Don Piano' and 'Why I eyes ya' are equally defensible readings[1].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Oh Long Johnson?
Oh Long Johnson is the phonetic label for the odd vocalizations of a black cat from a 1998 America's Funniest Home Videos clip that later went viral on YouTube[2].

### Where did Oh Long Johnson come from?
The source clip aired on America's Funniest Home Videos in 1998, and its viral life started with a YouTube upload on April 6, 2006, followed by an isolated version on June 11, 2006[2][5].

### What does Oh Long Johnson mean?
It is one of several phonetic readings of the cat's noises, alongside 'Oh Don Piano' and 'Why I eyes ya,' and Urban Dictionary defines it as an expression of surprise or exasperation similar to 'oh snap'[3].

### How do you use Oh Long Johnson?
People typically drop it into conversation as an exclamation of surprise or share the original clip and argue about what the cat is actually saying[1][3].

### Is Oh Long Johnson still popular?
It reads as a classic 2000s viral clip today, cemented by its inclusion on Complex's 2011 top-100 list and its 2012 South Park appearance, though it is not a currently trending format[1][4].

## References
1. [https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2011/12/the-100-best-viral-videos-of-the-2000s/talking-cat-oh-don-piano](<https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2011/12/the-100-best-viral-videos-of-the-2000s/talking-cat-oh-don-piano>)
2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Caa-QEY-FA](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Caa-QEY-FA>)
3. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Oh%20Long%20Johnson](<https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Oh%20Long%20Johnson>)
4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/oh-long-johnson](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/oh-long-johnson>)
5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6gJsBSNuFk](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6gJsBSNuFk>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/oh-long-johnson
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