Meaning
What does Crying Cat mean?
The Crying Cat is a number of images that feature a feline seemingly having tears in its eyes.
You can find numerous versions of the image on the internet, featuring different cats in various situations.
As people tend to associate facial expressions with feelings – even in animals – it looks like the cat with the wet eyes is very sad, and anyone who sees this cat immediately wants to comfort it.
Crying Cat is often used as a reaction image, or in a meme with text describing something sad – normally in a sarcastic way.
So I found the original Crying Cat meme face and it always makes me sad.
Origin
What's the origin of Crying Cat?
The original image shows a small, gray and white kitten looking into a camera with wet, glassy eyes, looking like it is crying.
However, this was not the image that made the Crying Cat meme popular, but another photoshopped version of the “Serious cat”, with the crying cat’s eyes photoshopped into the image.
The edited Crying Cat was first created by an anonymous user in “Meme Generator” in 2014, and since funny cats are ridiculously famous on the internet, it’s popularity peaked shortly after it was shared.
Spread & Usage
How did Crying Cat spread?
Since the first meme was posted, several hundred versions of the Crying Cat has been shared online, where people have simply photoshopped the original eyes into new cat images.
These are now spread all over social media and meme platforms, and is still a popular meme format several years later.

External resources
- Know Your Meme – Crying Cat
- Tenor – Crying Cat Meme GIFs