About

Cat Laughing or Screaming Cat, or as it's commonly referred to, the Laughing Cat Meme, is a reaction video and meme of an orange cat shaking as it laughs and screams loudly with its ears back and its mouth open wide. It is similar to other laughing cats, such as the Cat Pointing and Laughing meme, and is typically used in videos as a funny reaction clip. Originally appearing online in late 2020, the meme primarily spread in late 2025 and early 2026 on TikTok, also becoming an exploitable green-screen template in which the cat is overlaid on other scenes.

Origin

Original Cat Video

On December 20th, 2020, the original video of the orange cat was uploaded on TikTok^[1] by user catsajack with the hashtags "#fetchmetheirsouls #fyp #cats #catsoftiktok." This video used the "fetch me their souls" audio clip from the Call of Duty Zombies video game alongside video of a cat shaking with its ears back and mouth open, presumably from being moved by the owner.

The video garnered over 6.1 million views, 755,600 likes and 9,300 comments in five years.

Original Laugh and Scream Audio

Later on March 31st, 2024, the meme review YouTuber^[2] MentallyMitch uploaded a video, titled "Meme review w/ Friends | Vol. 9," in which he reacts to several memes. At the 11:43 timestamp, he gets to a meme that says, "some of y'all roses when y'all 🐱's stank," accompanied by an image of the rose toy with a disgusted face edited onto it, followed by the exaggerated laugh and scream that would later become paired with the aforementioned cat.

Spread

The meme combining the orange cat clip with the laughing audio emerged online sometime in early April 2024. The earliest known example was posted by TikToker^[3] iclsybau on April 8th that included a text caption to create the meme, receiving over 9,500 likes and 110 comments in roughly two years.

On April 28th, 2024, TikTok^[4] user catpl4nkton_ posted a variant using the meme as a reaction to a cat video, garnering over 532,000 likes and 5,200 comments in roughly two years.

That same day, Tenor^[5] user Realbarrythebear uploaded a GIF version of the meme to the site under the title "Orange Cat Laughing GIF," which later became used in various comment sections and memes as a simple reaction GIF.

On December 18th, 2024, TikToker^[6] fundaily401 shared an example using the exploitable version of the Laughing Cat meme about showing their mom a meme, receiving over 4.7 million likes and 13,900 comments in roughly a year.

On February 12th, 2025, the YouTube channel CAT NUMBERS uploaded a video multiplying the meme numerous times from one to 10 million, garnering over 1.4 million views, 11,000 likes and 670 comments in 11 months.

Various Examples

Template / Green Screen

Search Interest

External References