I have a confession to make. I’m not proud of it. I know it’s wrong. But I’m hooked on Internet cat videos — call it a kitty porn addiction. That’s right, I love those adorable youtube.com videos of frisky felines flushing toilets or getting stuck on a rotating ceiling fan or climbing into an empty box of Japanese diet soda. A lot of you folks apparently share my shame: the now-classic “Practice Makes Purr-fect” video—the biggest blockbuster in the cat video oeuvre, in which Nora the cat “plays” what sounds a bit like a Gustavo Santaolalla compostition on the piano—has been clicked on 13 million times. I’m only responsible for a couple of dozen.
I don’t know why, but cats are funnier on home video than any other animal. Something about watching a kitten eat broccoli just cracks me up. Occasionally, other species make decent straight men—the video of that parrot stroking a cat’s head with his claw is pretty cute—but I don’t ever find myself looking forward to new fish gags or hamster hijinks or even doggie bloopers. I spend more time than I should hunting for cat videos, though (just last week on CNN, between Wolf Blitzer talking about politics and Lou Dobbs grumbling about the economy, they ran a story on “the keyboard cat,” another musically inclined tabby that’s making a splash online). For me and other feline-ophiles, cat videos have become a micro-genre all their own. They’ve become a regular part of our personal media diet, as legitimate a form of entertainment as The Daily Show or 30 Rock or anything else that we watch on a screen. Which is why, Pop Watchers, I’m inviting you to submit your own nominations for best cat videos on the web. Later on, maybe EW will even pick a winner. We can call it The Felix Awards.
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Hey, check out my kitties wrestling in the bathtub. Pretty hilarious!
After reading the article I thought the video below would be funny or sweet. Wow, that video is in fact really sick and cruel. What is wrong with you Ben S.?
omg i love cat videos! lmao @ kitty porn! i nominate “yelling at cats”!
this one makes my friend and i cry from laughing so hard…it gets really good about halfway through
http://cuteanimals.todaysbigthing.com/2009/04/27
I am the king of CUTE!
OK, that was pretty hilarious, but then I really dislike cats anyway. That feline has a great career ahead as a stunt cat. But wow, the animal rights people are going to go bat spit crazy about that clip. Get ready to really “hear” the fur fly.
Guys, it’s CLEARLY fake (the ceiling fan one). It’s a German ad for Nokia.
Wow, that “yelling at cats” video is really actually disturbing. I don’t get the humor of that one, because almost all of those cats seem to genuinely startle and be scared when the guy starts screaming at them. Is it just a collection of videos of the cats getting startled and running off, with the sound recorded and added later? Because that’s the only way I wouldn’t think of this video as creepy and just mean. I still wouldn’t get the humor, though. But I do love Maru and the other kitty videos referenced!
To clarify, Benjamin Svetkey didn’t mention the “yelling at cats” video – that was one of the comments below.
That cat (is his name Maru?) who likes to attack boxes and then slide across the floor with legs splayed is pretty tough to top, but I do have a few suggestions. Three nominations: The cats talking to each other (followed by that same video with voice overs), and the video of cats on a treadmill (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyY5wqLtnYM). Priceless.
Stealth Cat is so great! Totally deserves a Felix Award!! Check it out on youtube.com
I love cat videos as much as anyone else but that one you posted is NOT cute and NOT funny. What’s wrong with you?
Gets me everytime.
THIS one is the best!
(And you really need to view icanhascheezburger.com ).
I like cat videos as much as the next guy, but that video isn’t very funny–it’s obvious the cat in this video was hurting. Thumbs down, Benjamin.