Keyboard Cat: History and Key Facts

Keyboard Cat is a viral video and internet meme. Its original form was a video made in 1984 by Charlie Schmidt of his cat Fatso seemingly playing a musical keyboard (though manipulated by Schmidt off-camera) to a cheery tune. While Schmidt had uploaded the video himself to YouTube in 2007, Brad O'Farrell, with Schmidt's permission, appended the video to the end of a blooper video uploaded in 2009 as if to have the cat "play" the person offstage after the gaffe as they had done in vaudeville. The idea of this quickly expanded on the Internet by numerous other users, typically under the name "Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat", and became a popular meme on YouTube.

Although Fatso died around 1999, Schmidt has since adopted other cats that have become new "Keyboard Cats", including Bento, Skinny, and the current Keyboard Cat, Presley.

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