The Cat in the Hat

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About

The Cat in the Hat is a children's book written by Dr. Seuss about an anthropomorphic cat who befriends two children along with his companions Thing One and Thing Two. In 2003, a film adaptation of the book was released starring actor Mike Myers as the titular character.

History

In early 1957, Houghton Mifflin published The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, in which a child named Sally and her little brother are visited by an anthropomorphic cat wearing a red and white striped hat and a red bow tie. While entertaining the children, he releases the creatures Thing One and Thing Two, who proceed to make a mess in the house. After cleaning up the mess, the Cat in the Hat leaves the home right before their mother arrives.

2003 Film

On November 21st, 2003, the comedy film The Cat in the Hat was released, in which actor Mike Myers stars as the protagonist cat character (shown below). The film received mostly negative reviews, having received a 10% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 19/100 score on Metacritic.

Online Presence

On October 24th, 2006, a page on The Cat in the Hat was created on the Dr. Seuss Wiki.^[2] In January 2012, a "Dr. Seuss' Cat in the Hat" Facebook^[7] page was created, which gained over 920,000 likes over the next six years. On March 11th, 2013, a page for The Cat in the Hat film was created on TV Tropes.^[1] On April 16th, the Nostalgia Critic released a review of the 2003 Cat in the Hat film, garnering upwards of 2.5 million views and 9,300 comments over the next four years (shown below, left). On April 17th, 2016, the GameGrumps YouTube channel uploaded a video featuring footage of a 2003 Cat in the Hat video game (shown below, right).

Mr. Sprinkles

In 2007, the animated series Mr. Sprinkles by Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland was released, in which a Cat in the Hat-like character terrifies children by entering their houses to play with them (shown below).

On Reddit

In early February 2017, several Cat in the Hat-themed Fake History image macros reached the front page of the /r/MemeEconomy subreddit, with many speculating that memes related to the 2003 film were "on the rise" (shown below).^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]