We Still Talk About You

Submission 899

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

About

We Still Talk About You is a series of memes based on a piece of art depicting a girl lying in the dirt over a cat buried deep in the ground, which many interpret as being her dead cat. The art, titled "kotik," was originally posted to Deviant Art by t-a-t-k-a in September 2009 and the text "we still talk about you" was later added, likely by TikToker @sierra81204 in August 2024. That year, the artwork became the subject of memes as an "exploitable,": in which the cat is replaced with something else. Additionally, the phrase "we still talk about you" was popularized on X / Twitter in posts sharing images of nostalgic things.

Origin

On September 10th, 2009, Deviant Art^[1] user t-a-t-k-a posted a piece of artwork titled "kotik," a Russian term of endearment that translates to "kitten," that garnered over 1,900 favorites and 44,000 views in 15 years. The art depicts a girl lying on her stomach with her ear to the dirt. Far beneath the dirt is a cat, which can be interpreted as the girl mourning the loss of her pet.

The artist responded to comments under the post for several years in the 2010s, expanding on the idea behind the art and insisting that the cat is not buried there, but acts as a metaphor. In a 2012 comment, the artist wrote:

"He is definitely not buried, because it is obvious that he is not buried, but lies there and in the ground above him there is a lot of life, I have already consoled people so many times about this cat, don't worry, the picture is about the fact that he is not alone, that even there she hears and feels him (the girl on top)."

In 2017, the artist responded to a comment under the post asking, "Please, say something about this… Is that her cat who died?" The artist responded, claiming that the cat is a metaphor, writing:

"No, the cat is not dead. it's a metaphor. Look closely – the ground is not excavated, and the cat has not decayed to the bone, so it has nothing to do with the real funeral :) The girl hears the cat that lurks under the earth :)."

On August 27th, 2024, TikToker^[2] @sierra81204 posted a slideshow consisting of the piece of art with additional text in the middle reading "we still talk about you," followed by a photograph of her cat captioned, "I know mama," garnering over 9.9 million views in three months. It is unconfirmed if this is the first person to add the text to the image, however, this is the earliest known example.

Spread

The image, mostly the version with the added "we still talk about you" text, garnered viral spread over the following months. On October 8th, 2024, X^[3] user @parhloumahrukh reposted it, garnering over 673,000 likes and 87,000 reposts in a month. On October 9th, Instagram^[4] user softcatmemes posted it, garnering over 1.3 million likes in the same span of time.

On October 10th, X^[5] user @Ya2sBkr posted a Saddam Hussein's hiding place edit of the meme, garnering around 15 likes in a month. This is one of the earliest known edits of the meme. On October 11th, an edit replacing the cat with an Among Us crewmate was reposted to the Eternal Classic Telegram^[6] group, garnering around 15,000 views in the same span of time. This is a repost, as the original source is unclear.

Several other edits were posted by various Instagram^[7]^[8]^[9] users between October 12th and 23rd. On November 7th, X^[10] user @PunchingCat reposted the original "we still talk about you" meme, garnering over 603,000 likes and 60,000 reposts in a week. On November 8th it was reposted to /r/me_irl,^[11] garnering over 66,000 upvotes in the same span of time.

On November 9th, a higher quality Saddam Hussein's hiding place edit was posted to /r/shitposting,^[12] garnering over 10,000 upvotes in six days.

On November 12th, X^[13] user @sahnemis posted a version of the meme replacing the cat with football player José Luis Mato Sanmartín, garnering over 12,000 likes in three days. That same day, X^[14] user @nocontext_paul posted a photo of a Toys R Us store, writing, "We still talk about you," a reference to the meme, garnering over 180,000 likes in three days.

Later that day, an edit of the meme replacing the cat with a t-rex skeleton was posted to /r/dankmemes,^[15] garnering over 3,700 upvotes in the same span of time.

On November 13th, a version of the meme replacing the cat with a copy of Bloodborne was posted to /r/Bloodborne,^[16] garnering over 7,300 upvotes in two days.

On November 14th, a version of the meme referencing a spoiler to Jujutsu Kaisen was posted by X^[17] user @SHANKSTOPME, garnering over 14,000 likes in a day.