Put On the Maid Outfit / Cat Ears

About

Put On the Maid Outfit and Put On the Cat Ears refers to a series of memes, including image macros, in which one character, often female, threatens another, often male, to put on cat ears or a maid outfit in order to style them like a cat boy or femboy. The meme first became popularized online in June 2020 on sites including Reddit, X (formerly Twitter,) Facebook and Instagram.

Origin

On June 7th, 2020, Redditor u/redd-ledd posted an image macro to /r/RoleReversal^[1] showing Tohru from the anime Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid holding up a maid outfit, captioned, "I DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE A GUY PUT ON THE FUCKING MAID OUTFIT," garnering over 5,100 upvotes in three years (shown below). This is the earliest known example of the meme.

Spread

The meme spread over the following months, also inspiring similar memes replacing "maid outfit" with "cat ears." On July 30th, 2020, the original meme was shared to /r/egg_irl^[2] garnering over 5,100 upvotes in three years. On October 4th, a now-deleted tweet making a similar sentiment was posted by Instagram^[3] user garage.farts, garnering over 11,000 likes in three years (shown below, left). On October 26th, the traumac0re Facebook^[4] page shared a version of the meme from a now-deleted Instagram user that mentions maid dresses and cat eats, garnering over 1,600 shares and 1,600 reactions in three years (shown below, right).

On November 6th, Instagram^[5] user uwugoblin posted a panel from chapter 3 of the manga Candy & Cigarettes, of Miharu Suzukaze holding a gun forward, edited so that she says "put on the cat ears," garnering over 22,000 likes in three years (shown below). It was reposted to Facebook^[6] that day, garnering over 3,600 shares in the same span of time.

On January 9th 2022, YouTuber^[7] Luke Correia uploaded a voice-over parody of JFK from Clone High insisting "I don't care what gender you are, put on the maid outfit," receiving over 678,000 views and 71,000 likes in under 2 years (shown below, left). On July 5th, YouTuber^[8] Voice Quills uploaded a voice-over of the aforementioned captioned image featuring Tohru from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, in which she demands "I don't care if you're a guy, put on the fucking the maid outfit," receiving over 488,000 views and 43,000 likes in 1 year (shown below, right).

On July 15th, 2022, Instagram^[9] user wholesomenes___ posted a version of the meme that gained over 18,800 likes in a year (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References