That Fucking Cat — Tom cat from Tom and Jerry peering suspiciously around a wooden fence against a teal background

That Fucking Cat

2007reaction imageclassic

Published October 1, 2026

That Fucking Cat is a reaction image macro built from a smirking screenshot of Tom from the 1965 Tom and Jerry short Bad Day at Cat Rock. Anonymous 4chan users spammed the picture on /b/ in the mid-2000s, where the frustrated reply 'If I see the fucking cat one more time' gave the shitpost its name and turned it into one of the board's rare successful forced memes.

forced meme memes 4chan memes reaction memes cats image macro memes

Overview

The image shows Tom the cat peeking around a wooden construction beam with a tight, condescending smirk, hand curled over the edge of the girder1. Also tagged Cover-Tom, the macro works as a pure non sequitur: posting it, often without any caption, is the whole joke, and the picture is designed to look at the viewer like it knows something they don't4.

The attached catchphrase, 'If I see that fucking cat one more time,' names the format's own exhausting repetition and became part of the gag4. A common follow-up reply is a photo of former US congressman Tom DeLay smirking in a nearly identical way, treated as a human mirror of Tom's expression4. The image is also notable for being one of the few genuinely forced memes, pushed through sheer repetition on /b/ until the hostile reactions themselves started reading as the punchline4.

Origin & Background

Platform
Tom and Jerry (source frame) / 4chan /b/ (viral spread)
Date
2007

The frame comes from Bad Day at Cat Rock, a Tom and Jerry short released on February 10th, 1965, in which Tom chases Jerry onto a half-built skyscraper and the two of them peek out from behind the wooden beams1. Tom's smirking peek, animated by the Chuck Jones unit at MGM, is the exact pose later cropped for the macro6.

In the mid-2000s, anonymous users on 4chan's /b/ board started spamming threads with the still as a shitpost, with the recurring reply 'If I see the fucking cat one more time' giving the bit its name4. The earliest surviving posting of the macro form is a DeviantArt upload from August 2nd, 2007 by user JWC, titled 'IF I SEE THAT FUCKING CAT' and showing a slightly battered Tom2. The earliest archived 4chan thread featuring the image dates to February 14th, 20083.

How It Spread

After the /b/ spam campaign, the macro leaked into the wider cartoon-reaction ecosystem through reposts and off-site mirrors4. JWC's August 2007 DeviantArt upload is the earliest surviving example and pulled in more than 3,000 views over the following years2.

The first archived 4chan sighting on February 14th, 2008 shows the image already being used as a standalone reply, which lines up with the 'forced meme that worked' framing3. On March 28th, 2009, Newgrounds user KevnSevn uploaded That Fucking Cat Dress-Up, a Flash game that let players customize the Tom crop with hats and props, confirming the picture had moved past /b/ and into derivative fan projects5.

The underlying clip from Bad Day at Cat Rock was later re-upped to YouTube, where the scene with Tom's smirk became easy to screenshot fresh for new posters6. Know Your Meme catalogued the entry under the alternate name Cover-Tom and flagged it as one of the rare successful forced memes4.

Timeline

1965-02-10

Tom and Jerry short Bad Day at Cat Rock is released, containing the construction-site scene with the smirking Tom frame.

2007-08-02

DeviantArt user JWC uploads 'IF I SEE THAT FUCKING CAT,' the earliest surviving example of the macro.

2008-02-14

Earliest archived 4chan posting of the image appears on /a/, mirroring the /b/ spam pattern.

2009-03-28

Newgrounds user KevnSevn uploads That Fucking Cat Dress-Up, a Flash game based on the Tom crop.

How to Use This Meme

Typical use is to drop the Tom crop into a thread with no context, usually as the first or final reply, letting the smirk read as either a dare or a brag4. A common convention is to answer it with the Tom DeLay photograph, matching Tom's smirk to the congressman's face as a visual callback4.

Frequently Asked Questions