The Body Is Round

Submission 5,250

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

About

The Body Is Round, continued, His Little Legs Aren't Designed For Distance, is a line of dialogue from a viral video clip of a Wildlife Instincts documentary showing researchers holding a Pallas's cat and commenting on the roundness of its body. The documentary was uploaded to YouTube in 2020 and the catchphrase "the body is round" became the subject of memes over the following years on sites including Tumblr and Reddit, the audio clip becoming a viral original sound on TikTok in 2023.

Origin

On September 11th, 2020, YouTuber^[1] Free Documentary – Nature posted a full documentary on Pallas's cats titled, "Wildlife Instincts: Pallas's Cat – Master of the Plains." At the 7:41 mark, the researchers pick up a Pallas's cat and discuss its body, calling it round and noting that its legs aren't designed for distance, although the audio is now muted during this section for an unknown reason. The video gained over 2.6 million views in three years. On May 28th, 2021, iFunny^[2] user LOVEROFHAPPINESS posted a video capture of a now-deleted Tumblr post showing the scene, with commenters pointing out the lines of dialogue, garnering over 67,900 smiles in two years (shown below).

On November 4th, 2021, YouTuber^[3] mesa posted the isolated clip, garnering over 7.3 million views in two years (shown below).

Spread

On November 5th, 2021, YouTuber^[4] indefinid64 posted the clip, garnering over 3.3 million views in the same span of time. On March 29th, 2022, Redditor fullnameqwertyu posted a photo of a Pallas's cat to /r/aww,^[5] writing, "They weren't kidding when they said 'The body is round,'" garnering over 1,300 upvotes in a year. On April 8th, 9GAG^[6] user manowartank posted a photoshop of a Pallas's cat, writing, "Can confirm… The body is round, garnering over 300 upvotes in a year (shown below).

On May 8th, Tumblr^[7] user sleepy-bebby posted various clips from the video, garnering over 29,000 notes in 11 months. On May 30th and June 7th, Tumblr^[8] user screwpinecaprice and FurAffinity^[9] user 8Aerondight8, posted pieces of artwork using the phrase, garnering over 640 notes and 1,900 views respectively in 10 months (shown below, left and right).

On October 10th, TikToker^[10] @daily.cat.factz posted the clip of the Pallas's cat, garnering over 440,000 views in six months. In March and April 2023, the video's original sound^[11] became popular on TikTok as users set videos of overweight or round animals and characters to it. On April 11th, the official @teletubbies TikTok^[12] page posted a video to the sound, garnering over 3.6 million views in a week (shown below).