Me Petting My Cat Before the Nuclear Blast

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Part of a series on Good Ending / Bad Ending. [View Related Entries]

About

Me Petting My Cat Before the Nuclear Blast refers to a series of image macros that explore various scenarios in a continuity which starts with a man petting his cat shortly before a nuclear blast. Spawned by a viral image macro, the meme gained viral popularity in early May 2021, particularly in the /r/196 subreddit and on Twitter.

Origin

The exact origin of the photograph depicting a white-and-orange cat being pet (shown below, left) used in the format is unknown. On March 20th, Discord^[18] user h189#1587 came into possession of the image, posting it to the GAYSEX2 Discord server. On that day, Discord^[19] user 槌の子#5521 created an emote based on it. On March 23rd, Discord^[20] user -Charon-7000#7208 posted the full version of the image to the server, with him and user NeverPlayPubg#2571 posting^[21]^[22] the two earliest memes based on the photo (shown below, center and right) that day, with -Charon-7000 later reposting his meme to Reddit.^[23]

On March 24th, 2021, Charon7000 posted the photograph to the /r/cats^[1] subreddit, where it received over 20 upvotes. This is the earliest publicly available post of the photograph online.

On March 31st, 2021, iFunny^[2] user TheDarkKnightTriumphant reposted NeverPlayPubg's meme, with the post gaining over 26,300 smiles in one month.

On April 9th, 2021, Discord user Furbybrennan posted an image macro that combined the brightened image with the caption "me petting my cat before the wave of the nuclear bomb hits us (it's our final moments together)" to the r/okbuddyretard Discord server (shown below).^[24] On April 13th, 2021, Redditor^[3] Greygun98 reposted the image to the /r/okbuddyretard subreddit. The post received over 19,200 upvotes in the /r/okbuddyretard subreddit in two weeks.

Spread

The macro received viral spread online in the following weeks. For example, on April 21st, 2021, Redditor^[4] LongDoggos reposted the meme, with their post gaining over 9,600 upvotes in /r/memes.

On April 22nd, Discord user Furbybrennan#7297 posted a follow-up meme to the same Discord server (shown below).^[25] On April 30th, 2020, Tumblr^[5] user pinkfloydanimals1977mp3download reposted the new image, gaining over 22,800 likes and reblogs in one week.

On May 1st, 2021, Redditor^[6] AlkarinePineapples reposted the image to the /r/196 subreddit, where it received over 7,200 upvotes in three days. On May 2nd, Twitter^[7]^[8] user @aitchwhore and @citruscereal posted the two image macros, with their posts gaining over 12,000 retweets and 94,000 likes and 4,000 retweets and 25,600 likes in two days, respectively.

On the same day, Twitter^[9] user @phadingle posted the third macro within the trend, adding on to the story. The post received over 130 retweets and 2,700 likes (shown below, left). On March 3rd, Redditor alexhmc reposted the meme to /r/196,^[10] where it gained over 17,200 upvotes in two days.

Starting that day, /r/196 subscribers posted multiple memes in which they came up with various endings for the events of the original macro in the Good Ending / Bad Ending fashion, with the memes utilizing ironic bracket explanations. For example, Redditor^[11] impatient_salmon posted a meme that gained over 11,300 upvotes in one day (shown below, center). Redditor^[12] Splurted_The_Gurt posted a version that received over 7,300 upvotes in the same period (shown below, right).

On May 3rd and 4th, several dozen memes developing the events of the original macro were posted in /r/196 and on Twitter. On May 3rd, Redditor^[13] Splurted_The_Gurt made a timeline post that received over 4,600 upvotes in /r/196, with more timeline posts shared on Reddit^[14] and Twitter^[15]^[16] on May 4th (timeline created by Redditor tdsdr shown below).

On May 3rd, Splurted_The_Gurt created /r/MePettingMyCat,^[17] a subreddit for Me Petting My Cat memes, which gained over 2,000 subscribers in one day.

Good Ending / Bad Ending

Good Ending / Bad Ending, also known as All Endings, refers to a series of memes that present various scenarios as a good, bad or another type of ending for a certain event or cultural phenomenon. The format gained popularity in the form of ironic demotivational poster videos in May 2020. In the memes, good and bad ending music themes from Fight Nights at Freddy's 3 are often used.

Bracket Explanations

Bracket Explanations are a supplementary meme format used in captions of GIF captions and image macros, particularly on iFunny. The format involves a user finishing their caption with brackets containing an explanation which is either deliberately unnecessary or provides additional context. Used as a part of GIF caption memes on iFunny since at least 2019, the supplementary format gained wider recognition online in 2021.