Introduction

The Cat Looking at Man Holding Dog meme depicts a cat with a jealous and sad expression as it watches its owner holding a puppy. This image has become a popular template for object labeling memes.

Background

The meme centers around a photograph of a cat staring at its owner who is holding a puppy. The cat's expression conveys feelings of jealousy and sadness, leading to its use as a relatable meme format. Its popularity began to surge on Reddit starting in August 2019.

Meme History

On August 17th, 2019, Redditor angiexxn shared a four-panel image featuring a man holding a puppy while a cat looks on with sadness. This original post garnered over 25,000 upvotes on the /r/aww subreddit within four months. Following this, the image was widely reposted across various subreddits, including /r/Thisismylifemeow and /r/animalsdoingstuff. On August 21st, 2019, the first known meme based on this image was posted by Redditor 2moca, receiving 150 upvotes in /r/MemeEconomy. Subsequently, on August 25th, 2019, Redditor _cuberpunk created a meme that gained over 700 upvotes, while Redditor rithkott's post on the same day became the first viral meme in this format, amassing over 19,500 upvotes.

Internet Reaction

The meme gained further traction on September 22nd, 2019, when Redditor Jforceteam2 posted a Crying Cat edit in the /r/funny subreddit, which received more than 45,600 upvotes. On the same day, LocoMotoiv shared the first object labeling meme based on this edit in /r/me_irl, earning over 9,500 upvotes. The edited image had limited use until a viral post by Redditor mijuzz7 on October 31st, 2019, gained over 117,000 upvotes in two months, leading to a surge in the meme's popularity across major Reddit communities.