What is Screaming Cat?

Screaming Cat is a reaction image of a black and white cat named Inkky mid-yowl, usually edited with cartoon tears and captioned 'yamero,' Japanese for 'stop it'.

Where did Screaming Cat come from?

Tumblr user busket posted the original photograph of their cat Inkky on August 15, 2015. Tumblr user nicolas-px added the crying edit three days later.

What does Screaming Cat mean?

The image works as shorthand for exaggerated melodrama and is often paired with 'yamero' or 'yamete' to imitate an over-the-top anime reaction to bad news.

How do you use Screaming Cat?

Users typically overlay the crying cat as a reaction to something they want to frame as absurdly tragic, from surveillance jokes to dark-humor punchlines.

Is Screaming Cat still popular?

The picture peaked between 2017 and 2019 and stays in circulation as a classic reaction image, though Inkky herself died in September 2020.

Screaming Cat

2015reaction imageclassic

Published September 26, 2026

Screaming Cat, also known as Yamato Cat, is a reaction image of a black and white cat named Inkky caught mid-yowl, often photoshopped with cartoon tears and paired with the Japanese caption 'yamero,' meaning 'stop it.' First posted to Tumblr in August 2015, the picture became a go-to macro for over-the-top anguish.

reaction memes cats captioned animal memes tumblr memes photoshop memes

Overview

The image shows Inkky, a black and white cat, caught in an open-mouth wail1. Edits usually pile on cartoon tears to push the expression from mildly upset into full-blown sobbing2. The 'yamero' caption frames the cat as a weeaboo-adjacent shorthand for melodramatic distress3.

The format works as a reaction to any scenario a poster wants to play as absurdly tragic, from FBI-in-your-computer bits9 to dark r/dankmemes rewrites6. ShitpostBot 5000's edit turned Inkky into the autocorrect answer for 'AAAA,' cementing her as the visual for the internet scream4.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Tumblr (original photo) / Twitter (viral spread)

Key People

busket, nicolas-px

Date

2015

On August 15, 2015, Tumblr user busket posted several photos of their cat under the caption 'the struggle,' one of which caught Inkky mid-scream in the frame that would spawn the meme1. Three days later, Tumblr user nicolas-px reposted a photoshopped version with cartoon tears added, and that edit is the frame most people know as Screaming Cat2. Inkky's owner Kiana McMillian confirmed the cat's identity years later7.

How It Spread

The picture sat on Tumblr for over a year before jumping platforms. On January 15, 2017, an anonymous 4chan user posted it on /v/8, and within a week ShitpostBot 5000 tweeted the cat as the punchline for 'AAAA,' pulling more than 1,800 retweets4. The next day, @watery_day tweeted the original photo and claimed Inkky as her own cat5.

Reddit picked up the format through 2017 and 2018. On February 17, 2017, r/dankmemes user tylercanda posted a macro that cleared 1,700 points6. Funfoil_Hat's February 14, 2018 r/me_irl edit captioned 'The FBI agent in my computer watching me drink my sixth bottle of ranch' hit 8,100 points9. FunnyJunk users ran the image as a 'yamete' anime-panic reaction that April10.

On January 21, 2019, @watery_day posted a viral tweet asking users to know Inkky by name, pulling 25,000 retweets and 55,000 likes in a month7. Inkky died in September 2020 after cancer spread to her chest, and McMillian announced her passing on Twitter11.

Timeline

2018-02-14

Funfoil_Hat's r/me_irl 'FBI agent in my computer' variation hits 8,100 points.

2019-01-21

@watery_day's viral claim tweet pulls 25,000 retweets and 55,000 likes in a month.

How to Use This Meme

Users typically drop the crying-cat image into any post they want to frame as absurdly tragic, either as a straight reaction or as an image-macro with a top caption. A common convention pairs the picture with 'yamero' or 'yamete' for an anime-panic beat, and edits often exaggerate the tears further for effect.