The origin of your favorite memes (6/6): the furious woman in front of the contemptuous cat

A woman screaming loudly, pointing her finger at a bewildered cat: these are the kinds of unusual disputes that the Internet confronts us with and which in this particular case have created a viral image. However, these two scenes are basically unconnected and it is again the magic of social media that they have been able to combine them to become one.

To the left of the meme we find this blonde woman, visibly very upset and on the verge of tears, held back by her friend in the background. This is Taylor Armstrong, a candidate for reality TV. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

In the fourteenth episode of season 2 of the show, aired in 2011, Taylor argues for several minutes with almost the entire house. And under the influence of anger and alcohol, comes the famous scene in which she screams non-stop against Camille Grammer, another of the program’s participants, although calmed down (in vain) by the other “housewives”.

The cat does not like vegetables

To the right of the meme, there is no scene from a movie or a series, but a very ordinary cat. This is how the latter sees the photo of him published for the first time on the Tumblr social network, on June 19, 2018, with the caption “He doesn’t like vegetables.”

Given the success of the publication (80,000 shares and even more likes), the cat’s owner decides to introduce himself a little later on Instagram, thus creating a real account for Smudge, the official name of this adopted white cat.

Subsequently, the owner of Smudge will share on Instagram other photos of the feline disgusted by vegetables, recreating at the same time the famous meme about the origin of his sudden fame.

The silence between June 2018 and May 2019 is justified, however, by the fact that, during this period, the photo of the cat in front of his salad did not necessarily attract crowds. It is thanks to a tweet published on May 1, 2019 that the two images will see their destinies cross.

Editing from Twitter

The Twitter account @MISSINGEGIRL, which has since gone private, decided to post photos of Taylor Armstrong and Smudge side by side, with the caption: “These two photos together are having me laughing.” A tweet kept in memory by the temple of the “KnowYourMeme” meme.

It doesn’t take more for netizens to get hold of this new meme, that is, on the one hand, a person on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and on the other, a person who doesn’t care at all or vaguely tries to respond .

The meme takes up the symbolism of another emblematic meme, that of this young woman trying to explain something to her mother (and which is also an opposition between two scenes with different content).

And while the Taylor and Smudge scenes are unrelated, some have still tried to make up a story from these two images. Over on Twitter, one cartoonist even created a four-part mini-comic that’s missing Smudge. A comic that gave him almost 350,000 likes on the social network.

Four years after its creation, the “Woman Yelling at a Cat” meme remains firmly entrenched in internet pop culture. Smudge the cat has also become quite the celebrity on Instagram with no less than 1.6 million subscribers and accessories with his image.

Taylor Armstrong continues to be a regular influencer and participant on American reality shows. She also took part in 2023 in another spin-off of real housewivesthis time as a guest and with much less shouting.