Sir Are You Aware You Are A Cat?

About

Sir Are You Aware You Are A Cat? is a two-panel exploitable meme format where, in the first panel, a man holds a microphone to a cat and asks, "Are you aware you are a cat?" and in the second panel, the cat is seen with a shocked expression. The original meme was posted to Tumblr in 2013 and gained viral spread through reposts over the following years, also inspiring redraws altering the appearance of the cat.

Origin

On July 22nd, 2013, Tumblr^[1] user plastis-wafers posted two images of himself holding a microphone up to a cat. The top image shows the cat at the microphone and the second shows the cat with a shocked expression. The post garnered over 33,000 notes before it was deleted (shown below, left). The post description reads, "From when I interviewed my friend’s cat. It got weird."

On August 21st, Tumblr^[2] user dboybaker posted the same images, adding a caption to the first reading, "Sir are you aware you are a cat?" The post gained over 2.3 million notes in 10 years (shown below, right).

Spread

The meme gained viral spread over the following years through reposts, also inspiring redraws and memes referencing it. On October 12th, 2013, the meme was posted to /r/cats,^[3] garnering over 2,300 upvotes in 10 years. On October 2nd, 2015, Deviant Art^[4] user Gannadene posted a redraw of the meme that gained over 25,000 views in eight years (shown below, left).

On January 5th, 2016, the original meme was reposted to /r/funny,^[5] garnering over 6,600 upvotes in seven years. On May 4th, 2017, Tumblr^[6] user ravefirell posted a version of the meme redrawing the cat as Morgana from Persona 5, garnering over 11,000 notes in six years (shown below, right).

On June 15th, 2020, u/RaionArt posted a Doki Doki Literature Club version of the meme to /r/DDLC,^[7] garnering over 3,700 upvotes in three years. On January 10th, 2023, X^[8] user @teletelo posted a Pokemon themed redraw of the meme featuring the Pokemon Raikou, garnering over 50,000 likes in 11 months (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References