Maxwell the Cat / Spinning Cat

Confirmed 325,775

Part of a series on Cats. [View Related Entries]

About

Maxwell the Cat, also known as Spinning Cat is a black-and-white tuxedo cat who achieved virality online in October and November 2022 after her model was first added to Garry's Mod and later used as source material for videos in which it spins around as various songs play, similar to the Horizontally Spinning Rat memes. The cat is also known as Dingus the Cat and Big Boobs, and its real name is Jess.

Origin

On November 20th, 2017, Imgur^[11] user Voidhawk42 posted an image of a black-and-white cat sitting on a piece of paper reading "please do not bend" (original poster unknown; image shown below). Starting in 2020, the image was actively circulated through reposts on Facebook^[12] and Twitter.^[13]

On October 12th, 2022, Steam^[4] user шизео кодзима added a 3D model of the cat, usable in Garry's Mod and other Source games, to Steam Workshop, where it was viewed over 20,000 times and favorited over 500 times in two months.

Identity

The cat, whose name is Jess, belongs to Imgur user Voidhawk42.^[11]^[14]

Online, the cat has been misidentified as Dingus the Cat, the black-and-white cat who can be found on @BigOldBuns TikTok^[1] account and @big_old_buns Instagram^[2] account, and as Uni the Cat, a similarly-looking cat, mostly due to a viral His Name Is X, Look Him Up meme posted in November 2021 by Twitter^[3] user @calicokritter (images shown below).

Spread

On October 21st, 2022, Steam^[5] user ScottRim modified the model into a carryable item, with the model garnering over 119,000 unique visitors and being favorited over 6,700 times in one month (shown below). On the Steam Workshop page, the cat was referred to as "Maxwell the Carryable Cat."

On October 25th, 2022, YouTuber^[6] user Awesome Te4m posted a humorous Half-Life 2 video titled, "Half-Life 2, but a have a cat," in which he used the model. The video (shown below) received over 639,000 views in one month,

On November 4th, 2022, Twitter^[7] user @blastycat posted a GIF of the cat model spinning, with the post gaining over 34,100 retweets and 161,300 likes in one month (shown below).

On November 5th, Twitter^[8] user @hacer_kun posted an edited version of the GIF, captioned, "You have acquired CAT!" The post gained over 1.4 million views, 35,800 retweets and 171,200 likes (shown below).

On November 6th, 2022, Tumblr^[9] user escuerzoresucitado reposted the GIF. On November 8th, Tumblr^[10] user funke replied with the song Around the World by Daft Punk, with the exchange gaining over 69,000 reblogs and 83,500 likes in three weeks.

Following the posts, the GIF of the cat model spinning achieved viral popularity online as it was combined with various songs. Among them, the melody "Stockmarket" by Weebl gained particular popularity, becoming known as "Maxwell's Theme."^[15]