King of the Jungle vs. King of the Internet / King of Our Hearts

Submission 1,532

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About

King of the Jungle vs. King of the Internet or King of Our Hearts is an exploitable single-panel comic by artist Tim Whyatt depicting a lion at the zoo caged next to a cat, the lion labeled "king of the jungle" and the cat labeled "king of the internet," referencing the internet's perceived love of cats. The comic was uploaded to Whyatt's Facebook page in August 2016 and became the subject of memes over the following years where the cat is replaced with a notable online figure. An alternate version of the format where the label "king of the internet" is replaced with "king of our hearts" also gained virality throughout the 2020s, in which the cat is replaced with a more generally loved subject.

Origin

On August 25th, 2016, comic artist Tim Whyatt posted a comic to Facebook^[1] showing a lion and a cat caged next to each other at the zoo, the lion labeled "king of the jungle" and the cat labeled "king of the internet," garnering over 800 shares and 900 reactions in seven years (shown below).

The earliest known edit of the comic was originally posted by the meme page "hackingvision," although the page no longer exists. The earliest known reupload was posted to the anicistan Blogspot^[2] page on June 10th, 2017 and replaces the cat with the Linux penguin (shown below).

Spread

The comic spread over the following years, inspiring further memes. On April 9th, 2021, the A Room With a Miew Facebook^[3] page posted the original comic, garnering over 122,000 reactions and 27,000 shares in two years. On April 15th, Instagram^[4] user forbidden.raccoon.memes posted a version of the meme replacing the cat with a raccoon, garnering over 5,100 likes in two years (shown below, left). On April 20th, u/Sanguine230 posted a version of the meme featuring swole doge to /r/dankmemes,^[5] garnering over 24,000 upvotes in the same span of time (shown below, right).

On December 6th, X^[6] user @Bulbagarden posted a version of the meme replacing the cat with the Pokemon Bulbasaur and the text above it with the phrase "king of our hearts," garnering over 29,600 likes and 3,500 reposts in two years (shown below). That day, the meme was reposted by Facebook^[7] user Bulbasaur Propaganda, garnering over 2,500 shares and 10,000 reactions in the same span of time. On December 8th, a Redditor posted a version about streamer Jerma985 to /r/jerma985,^[8] garnering over 2,400 upvotes in two years.

On January 2nd, 2023, Facebook^[9] page Cat Attack uploaded the original comic, garnering over 139,000 reactions and 9,000 shares in nine months. On June 25th, and 26th, X^[10]^[11] users @E1M1Magazine and @DeMickyD posted edits of the "king of our hearts" version of the meme featuring a cacodemon from Doom and a silt strider from Morrowind, garnering over 2,500 and 3,800 likes respectively in four months (shown below, left and right). On June 27th, Instagram^[12] user lover_capybara posted a version of the meme featuring a capybara instead of a cat, garnering over 80,000 likes in four months.