#CREATE: Tardar Sauce the Grumpy Cat
If you’ve been sitting in front of a computer screen for longer than five whole minutes, it’s not exactly hard to recognize the obsession the internet has with cats. ESPECIALLY if you can use them to personify your feelings and make them #relatable. Somewhere around the middle of 2012, pictures of a cat with a certain disposition started to circulate and before long, Grumpy Cat was unexpectedly thrust into memedom, taking the world by storm and looking kind of pissed about it.
Tardar Sauce (yes, you read that right. TARDAR SAUCE THE CAT.) was one of four kittens born in Tabatha Bundesen’s home on April 4th, 2012. She was born with a form of Dwarfism that effects her hind legs and some of her facial features, thus giving her the signature grumpy look she is known for. After a post of her on reddit began circulating, she immediately blew up, being used for her cynical and disapproving stare as a way for people to post reactionary pictures and make memes out of her. It was all to overwhelming for Bundesen. So much so that she had to quit her day job in order to keep up with her feline friend’s demanding schedule.
Tardar Sauce’s timeline is unclear, but soon after the initial reddit post was made, the demand for her to make public appearance’s was so great that Bundesen actually had to hire a manager. A real life person was paid real life money to manage the fast growing career of a house cat. This was paired with Bundesen’s brother taking to the internet to manage all of the Grumpy Cat social media platforms.
It all seems so ridiculous, but when Grumpy Cat caught on, it caught on hard. Everyone wanted a piece of Tardar Sauce and before anyone knew what was happening she shot right to the top and began appearing on dozens of network TV shows. This includes appearances on: NBC’s Today, Good Morning America, Anderson Live, American idol (absolutely ridiculous, she may be weird looking but theres no way this thing can sing), The Soup, and Big Morning Buzz Live to name a few. The TV appearances went as far to include commercials for Honey Nut Cheerios, the season finale of the Bachelorette, and even an episode of WWE Monday Night Raw. WHY?
This cat was everywhere. She earned a Friskies sponsorship and was licensed out for merchandising. Grumpy Cat limited is valued at an estimated 1 Million Dollars, its brand encompassing products like: Stuffed toys, keychains, a deal with Webkinz, a novel, a comic book, sticker books, colouring books, and a video game that is playable on Android and IOS. It was almost overnight that old Tardar Sauce started appearing on T-shirts, mugs, and backpacks. There was even a Grumpy Cat Christmas special, which debuted in 2014. Simpler times.
Or were they? She was in high demand, so much so that people were breaking trademark infringement and selling unlicensed merchandise, bootlegging a cat as if it wasn’t the weirdest thing in the world to do. Grenade Beverage LLC rolled out a new edition to their product line: Grumpy Cat Grumppuccino. Grumpy Cat limited sued them for infringing on trademark and copyright, despite Grenade boasting that the court case held little to no legitimacy. Just last month, Grenade was ordered to pay out $710,000 in damages for this trademark infringement.
Not only was Grumpy Cat an internet phenomenon, she was making her owners STACKS ON STACKS of money. An unstoppable force of hilarity and wholesome fun on the internet. The Grumpy Cat brand has dominated the hearts of millions, exploiting the very serious issue of Cat Dwarfism to wring out every last dollar of every child in North America, and continues to build its squishy faced empire.
