Why Is It Empty?

Submission 14,854

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

About

Why Is It Empty? or Why It Empty? refers to a series of exploitable memes based on an image macro of a cat looking in shock at a diminishing food bowl, captioned, "why is it empty?" or "why it empty?" The meme was posted to Reddit in February 2021 and went viral through reposts on Tumblr, inspiring variations replacing the caption and food bowl.

Origin

On February 23rd, 2021, Redditor jabanty posted an image macro to /r/meme^[1] showing a cat with its mouth agape at a mostly full bowl of food with a section of food scooped out of the center, captioned, "Why is it empty?" gaining over 30 upvotes in a year (shown below, left). This is the earliest known post of the meme. On March 3rd, Tumblr^[2] page dankmemeuniversity posted a version of the meme replacing the caption with on reading, "Why it empty?" gaining over 38,000 notes in a year (shown below, right).

Spread

The meme received viral spread and inspired new variations over the following months. On March 15th, 2021, the Facebook^[3] page Cats on Catnip reposted the original meme, gaining over 9,600 shares and 19,000 reactions in a year. On June 7th, Instagram^[4] page education_memes.in posted a version of the meme showing the cat yelling "why is it empty" at a brain Emoji, gaining over 5,600 likes in a year (shown below, left). On August 10th, Tumblr^[5] page dankmemeuniversity posted a version showing the cat yelling at a brain captioned, "why is it sad," gaining over 14,600 notes in a year (shown below, right).

On September 7th, Tumblr^[6] user foeofcolor posted a version of the meme captioned, "why is it no write," referencing writers block, gaining over 30,000 notes in 11 months. On September 28th, Twitter^[7] user @northstardoll posted a version of the meme captioned, "why is it always daydreaming," gaining over 75,000 likes and 15,000 retweets in 11 months (shown below). The post was screenshotted and shared to Tumblr^[8] the next day, gaining over 3,500 notes.

On May 15th, 2022, Twitter^[9] user @dumbricardo posted a version of the meme using the brain image captioned, "why is it losing focus," gaining over 39,000 likes and 14,000 retweets in two months (shown below, left). On June 30th, Instagram^[10] user colorofmori posted a painting based on the meme, gaining over 24,000 likes in a month (shown below, right).