I Don't Know If the Cat Is Dead or Alive Until I Watch Inside the Box
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Part of a series on Schrodinger's Cat. [View Related Entries]
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About
I Don't Know If the Cat Is Dead or Alive Until I Watch Inside the Box refers to a cartoon referencing the Schrödinger's Cat thought experiment in which Schrödinger announces that he won't know if the cat is dead or alive until he observes it, only to be interrupted by the obviously alive cat meowing from the box. First posted in January 2021, the cartoon saw use as a meme format in the following years.
Origin
On January 22nd, 2021, an unknown Redditor posted a cartoon based on the Schrödinger's Cat thought experiment. In the cartoon, physicist Erwin Schrödinger announces the cat's status in the box is unknown until the cat is observed. However, the cat then meows, revealing that it's alive, with Schrödinger telling her to shut up. The post (authorship unconfirmed, shown below) received over 910 upvotes in the /r/sciencememes[1] subreddit prior to being deleted.
Spread
The post received viral spread online in the following months as it was reposted on Facebook,[2] Tumblr[3] and Reddit, including a February 18th, 2021, repost in the /r/memes[4] subreddit that gained over 15,000 upvotes in three years.
On July 10th, 2021, Redditor Whatisthisuseragain posted the earliest edit of the comic in the /r/okbuddyretard[5] subreddit, a SpongeBob SquarePants meme that received over 4,200 upvotes in three years (shown below, left). On September 24th, voice actor Gianni Matragrano uploaded a voiced version of this meme to YouTube,[6] where it received over 6.7 million views in three years (shown below, right).
More versions of the meme were posted on Reddit, Tumblr and X in 2021. On October 10th, 2021, Redditor 2SpoonfulsOfMilk posted a Team Fortress 2 version that garnered over 7,900 upvotes in the /r/tf2[7] subreddit in three years (shown below, left). On December 8th, Redditor Jackknice posted a Team Fortress 2 redraw of the cartoon that received over 5,900 upvotes in /r/tf2[8] three years (shown below, right).
The meme format maintained popularity online in the following years, with multiple versions appearing on Reddit, iFunny and other sites.
Various Examples
Template
Search Interest
External References
[1] Internet Archive – how to thought experiment
[2] Facebook – Geeks Humor
[4] Reddit – We don't know if the cat is alive or dead until we look inside the box
[6] YouTube – Schrödinger's Sponge
[7] Reddit – i still think this was funnier in my head
[8] Reddit – Schrodinger's Scout
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