# Pop Cat

Pop Cat is a meme built from two images of a cat named Oatmeal, one with a closed mouth and one edited into a wide open O shape, swapped back and forth so the cat looks like it is popping its mouth. It blew up on Twitter in October 2020 and spread into lip-sync edits, a viral clicker game, and beyond.

## Overview
Pop Cat is a meme made from two images of a cat named Oatmeal: one with its mouth shut and one photoshopped so the mouth gapes open in a big O shape[1]. Flip between the two fast and the cat looks like it is popping its mouth, usually paired with a sharp popping sound[5].

The pull is simple. Oatmeal's wide, startled face is funny on its own, and the two-frame loop drops easily into edits, so people set it to song lyrics and built endless spin-offs[2]. That low-effort, high-reward format is a big reason Pop Cat ended up everywhere online[1].

## How It Spread
Pop Cat really took off on Twitter. On October 10th, 2020, user @partitiongal reposted the edit alongside the original two images, and the tweet ran up over 1.6 million views, 57,100 retweets, and 161,600 likes[3]. After that, editors started syncing the two frames to music and spinning the cat into reaction images across other platforms[2].

Pop Cat also jumped off social feeds. In August 2021, it went viral all over again when users from Taiwan, Thailand, and Malaysia competed to top a global click leaderboard[3]. That competition centered on popcat.click, a browser clicker where visitors tap the cat to pop its mouth[1]. A Solana meme coin named Popcat launched in 2022 and carried the name into crypto trading[3].

## How to Use
Making a Pop Cat edit is straightforward. The common setup pairs the closed-mouth Oatmeal photo with the open-mouth O-shaped version, then cuts between them in time with audio[2]. The pops are often matched to song lyrics or a simple popping sound effect, the same noise the meme is named for[5].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Pop Cat?
Pop Cat is a meme built from two images of a cat named Oatmeal, one with a closed mouth and one edited into a wide open O shape, swapped to make the cat look like it pops its mouth[1].

### Where did Pop Cat come from?
It started with Oatmeal's owner, Twitter user @XavierBFB, and first spread after Redditor Skettidragon posted an edit to r/MEOW_IRL on October 9th, 2020[4].

### What does Pop Cat mean?
There is no deep meaning. It is just a cat opening and closing its mouth while making a popping sound, used for laughs and lip-sync edits[5].

### How do you use Pop Cat?
People cut between the closed-mouth and open-mouth images in time with music or a popping sound effect to make the cat lip-sync or react[2].

### Is Pop Cat still popular?
Pop Cat is treated as a classic cat meme. Its biggest viral moments were in 2020 and 2021, and the popcat.click clicker game helped keep the format familiar[1].

## References
1. [https://thepetsmagazine.com/blog/pop-cat/](<https://thepetsmagazine.com/blog/pop-cat/>)
2. [https://wellbehavedcat.com/pop-cat/](<https://wellbehavedcat.com/pop-cat/>)
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pop-cat](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pop-cat>)
4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/MEOW_IRL/](<https://www.reddit.com/r/MEOW_IRL/>)
5. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Pop%20Cat](<https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Pop%20Cat>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/pop-cat
Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library