Nyan Cat is a YouTube video uploaded in April 2011 by Sara June, also known by her YouTube username saraj00n, which became an internet meme. The video merged a Japanese pop song with an animated cartoon cat with a Pop-Tart for a torso flying through space and leaving a rainbow trail behind. The video ranked at number 5 on the list of most viewed YouTube videos in 2011.
History
On April 2011, the meme's gif was created by Christopher "Chris" Torres (aka PRguitarman) on his website LOL-Comics. Sara June later on uploaded the video to YouTube on April 5, 2011.[1] She later on transferred ownership of the channel to Means TV at March 2019.
On February 2021, Chris made an updated version and sold it as an NFT.
On April 5, 2022 (the 11th anniversary of the "Nyan Cat" video), Sara June uploaded "Bathroom Time", a short film directed by her, onto the channel.[2] It was subsequently made unlisted.
saraj00n's Free Palestine video and transfer of channel
On c. November 6, 2023, the channel that hosted the popular Nyan Cat video uploaded and changed its name to "meow" and removed the profile picture. The video uploaded by saraj00n was called "meow".[3] The video starts with the Nyan Cat music on a white background with a rainbow road, slowly turning on a burning background with a demonic voice raising attention to Palestine, in response to the current war between Israel and Palestine that started a month prior. On the description of the video, there are 4 links. All of them lead to resources and charities about Palestine.[4][5][6][7]
After the Free Palestine video was posted and popularized on social media platforms, the original creator Chris Torres transferred the video to his own YouTube channel.[8] Once the video was taken down, Sara's channel description was changed to:
| “ | the meme you seek has been forcibly displaced by the copyright holder Chris Torres | ” |
―actual channel description | ||
It is suspected that Chris Torres sent a copyright takedown because of the Free Palestine video due to the meme being hosted for 13 years without any problems until that video was posted onto saraj00n's channel.
Currently, Sara's channel only links to PCRF, a charity and relief fund for children in Gaza which are suffering due to the Israel-Palestine conflict.[9][10]
Trivia
- The original song of the meme was "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!".
References
- ↑ One of the archives of the video on IA prior to the takedown, August 11, 2023
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIxyqzY53Dk
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9PX4XDMP5E
- ↑ https://www.pcrf.net/
- ↑ https://www.shutitdown4palestine.org/
- ↑ https://www.map.org.uk/
- ↑ https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/
- ↑ https://twitter.com/prguitarman/status/1723178422531133856
- ↑ https://youtube.com/@saraj00n/about
- ↑ https://www.pcrf.net/
