Laptop Cat

Submission 17,669

About

Laptop Cat refers to a series of TikTok videos in which a user films their cat sitting at a laptop as if working. These videos are set to an original sound recorded by TikToker bestcoastbaby,^[1] in which she says, "So I read on the internet that cats get on your laptop because they're mirroring you, and so if you get them their own laptop they'll leave you alone, and look at this little businessman." Videos typically start with a shot of the user working on their laptop, followed by a pan to their cat sitting at their own laptop as the line of dialogue "and look at this little businessman" is spoken.

Origin

On September 13th, 2020, bestcoastbaby uploaded a video to TikTok of herself working at her laptop while talking about how cats sit on your laptop to mirror you, and how you can give your cat a laptop to get them off of you (shown below). She pans to her cat "working" on a powered-down laptop, proving her concept. The video garnered over 3.9 million views and 938 thousand likes in 17 days.

Spread

On September 13th, 2020, TikToker hannahmarieraeann^[2] uploaded her own version of the trend using bestcoastbaby's original sound (shown below, left). The video gained over 3.3 million views and 722 thousand likes in 17 days. On September 16th, TikToker sabretz^[3] uploaded a version of the trend with her cat Neville, gaining over 9 million views and 2.1 million likes in 14 days (shown below, right).

TikTok users continued the trend throughout September, leading #laptopcat to the trending page late in the month. As of September 30th, there are over 917 million views attributed to the hashtag, and over 1,100 videos using bestcoastbaby's original sound.