What Does Please Do Not the Cat Means? Social media is a regular companion for people these days. People turn to social media for entertainment and information, however mostly the former. The current generation is completely indulged in using the social media. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Reddit, and to name a few are the daily companions of many since people share their day-to-day lives, find entertainment and information, and pass their leisure time by keeping the brain engaged.
With the introduction of smartphones, these social media platforms have become extremely optimized and even the earlier generations have largely indulged themselves. Amongst the forms of content for entertainment, “memes” have got great engagement and exposure to the huge community of social media users.
What Does “Please Do Not the Cat” Mean?
On September 30, 2019, an illustration was posted on an article on the WikiHow page. The illustration depicted a hand-drawn image of a cat on a bed who seems to be very angry. A hand is reaching out towards the cat, thus making the cat angry. A red cross symbol is also shown in the picture depicting that the action is wrong. Along with such symbols and images, the illustration is captioned with “Please Do Not the Cat”.
Many would say that the phrase or caption is wrong. It indeed is wrong since a verb is missing from the phrase. Due to the missing verb, it is difficult to understand what kind of action is depicted in the illustration towards the cat.
However, it is said that the missing verb is intentional to somewhat confuse people. For example, the phrase should have been saying “Please do not touch the cat” or “Please do not irritate the cat”.
Usage of “Please Do Not the Cat” Meme
Over time, the illustration of “Please do not the cat” became a meme after the WikiHow post got more than 4000 reactions and upvotes on the platform. As the illustration gained popularity, internet and social media buffs started turning it into a meme.
First, it is highly spread across the Facebook page of WikiHow Image Macros. It gained immense popularity as people started to manipulate and restructure the original illustration with fun and humor-filled captions and content.
When it gained fame on Facebook, users from another popular social media platform, Reddit came into play. While the original illustration was posted multiple times for the first few days on various subreddits such as r/english, r/comedyheaven, r/memes, and many more, the restructured versions came out a few days later.
The post of the original illustration on the subreddit r/english turned out to be the most famous one out of the other posts on other subreddits. This post gained more than 18000 up votes and reactions accompanied by more than 300 comments.
The next famous social media platform to use this phrase was TikTok. By the time the illustration and phrase had reached Tik Tok, it became more of a copypasta (a block of phrase or content that is copied from the internet and used on social media platforms and its subsequent posts) than a meme. The phrase was used mostly in videos that depicted the actions of a cat. It became a sort of keyword for more views and exposure than having an actual meaning behind its usage.
Tik Tok users started using the “Please do not the cat” repeatedly in their posts. A Tik Tok user by the user handle @drappep used this phrase in their post once which got more than a whopping 1.6 million views.
Most social media analysts and users say that the phrase did not get popular because of its range of usage. Instead, it became famous due to its wrong grammatical construction and nonsensical context when used on related posts.
Interpreted Meaning of “Please Do Not the Cat”
While the actual meaning of “Please do not the cat” is not known clearly, many have deciphered or interpreted different meanings of the phrase. The main problem lies in the missing verb. Since the verb is missing, it is very difficult to decipher the actual meaning or action behind the illustration.
Some people on the internet and social media platforms have tried to interpret the original meaning by studying the given illustration or image. The most common explanation to the illustration is termed as “Please do not pet the cat” or “Please do not touch the cat”. The ones mentioned here are the only plausible explanation found for the illustration given the symbols and actions depicted within the image. The cat in the illustration is an angry or ill-behaved one and while a hand is going to touch or pet it, a cross symbol is shown depicting the action to be wrong.
Apart from these explanations, no other plausible explanation has been found for this illustration, even though many have tried to come up with meanings and even inner interpretations.