In 2019, the world mourned the passing of Morristown, Arizona’s most celebrated resident — a cat named Tardar Sauce was universally revered as the feline with the lousiest attitude, earning her the moniker “ Grumpy Cat.”
She dominated internet memes with other kitty-cat compatriots like Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat until her passing at the tender age of seven.
Like all power vacuums, cats across the internet clawed for a slot as top meme kitty, and in early August, a 4-month-old kitten rescued by the Arizona Humane Society claimed that spot.
Judgy Roger’s adoption page went viral on Reddit due to his scowling eyes and furrowed brow. Despite his expression of chronic disapproval, Roger was adopted by a loving home in early August.
Judgy Roger is just another in a parade of internet cats that dominate the bandwidth with trivial and gratifying moments of meme-contentment, but why do cats overwhelmingly hold this space in pop culture, and how did they become such a ubiquitous and institutional presence on the internet?
To answer this, The Show spoke with Jason Eppink — in 2015, he worked at the Digital Media at Museum of the Moving Image in Queens where he curated the exhibit “How Cats Took Over the Internet."
The Show spoke with him about what drives cat popularity on the internet.
