Ceiling Cat

Ceiling cat refers to a popular internet meme, centered around a feline, like Cool Cat, Cursed Cat or Crying Cat.

This meme consists of an image macro of a cat peeking out of a rectangular hole on a ceiling, paired with various captions.

The first photo of “Ceiling Cat” was uploaded to FunnyJunk in 2003, however, it didn’t garner any attention without captions.

The most popular edition of the image macro was created in 2006, with a text caption saying, “Ceiling Cat is watching you masturbate.”

This spread through YTMND sites, as well as dedicated websites such as CeilingCat.com and Ceiling-Cat.com.

“Ceiling Cat” was first defined on Urban Dictionary on June 1^st, 2006, with several other entries to follow.

It was here on Urban Dictionary that the trope of deifying “Ceiling Cat” began, that would spread to sites like 4chan, where photoshop edits of the meme were popular, especially on the /b/ board.

The meme even inspired an online flash game, Ceiling Cat Invaders, published by Kongregate on July 13^th, 2007, based on the mechanics of Space Invaders.

“Ceiling Cat” spread to sites like Reddit by 2010, however in the following years its popularity was declining.

It wasn’t until June 2018, when Twitter user @CampbellxEmma posted photos of a cat looking through the ceiling, that the “Ceiling Cat” meme saw resurgence, which was commented upon by blogs such as Mashable and Smosh.

• Believe.art – Who Is Ceiling Cat? A Brief History of the Divine Kitty
• Dogalize.com – Ceiling Cat and the Legendary Meme History
• Fandom – Teh Meme Wiki