Aristocat

About

Aristocat is an advice animal image macro series featuring a black-and-white photograph of a cat dressed in a suit and top hat. The captions typically portray the cat as a member of the wealthy elite class who orders his servants to do chores and run errands for him.

Origin

On August 4th, 2011, Redditor Scratchie submitted a post titled “Aristocat’s worked for it” to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[2] subreddit, which included a black-and-white photograph of a well-attired cat with the caption “Poverty / Is a lazy man’s problem” (shown below, left). According to the vintage media website Vanished Americana,^[1] the original photograph came from a 1906 postcard with the caption “One of the ‘Smart Set’” (shown below, right).

Spread

On December 4th, 2011, Redditor theel25 submitted an Aristocat image macro to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[6] subreddit, which included the caption “What did one poor person say to the other poor person? / Who cares?” (shown below, left). On February 21st, 2012, Redditor YellowBatman submitted a post titled “Quite the Aristocat” to the /r/funny^[5] subreddit, featuring an image macro with the caption “Jeeves / Fetch me that red dot moving on the wall” (shown below, right). Prior to being archived, the post received over 7,300 up votes and 45 comments.

For several months the meme remained dormant until Redditor Chubb47 submitted an image macro titled “Aristocat” to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[4] subreddit on December 15th, which featured the caption “Geoffrey, bring the car around / I want to sleep under it” (shown below, left). Within 48 hours, the post received over 13,400 up votes and 115 comments. On the following day, Redditor peternemr submitted an image macro with the caption “Jeeves / Turn on the laptop I require a warm bed” (shown below, right),^[9] which accumulated over 11,700 up votes and 60 comments within the next 24 hours. As of December 17th, 2012, the “Aristocat” Quickmeme^[3] page has accumulated over 950 submissions.

Notable Examples

Additional examples can be found on the microblogging site Tumblr^[10] under the tag “#aristocat.” Within the family tree of Advice Animals, Aristocrat bears some resemblance to Business Cat and Lawyer Dog, particularly in juxtaposing the privileged status of each character with their natural instincts and habits.

Old Money Dog

Aristocat inspired the creation of the “Old Money Dog” advice animal series, which featured a similar black-and-white photograph of a dog wearing a suit and hat with captions portraying the canine as a wealthy businessman. The first example was posted by Redditor lets_be_truant to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[8] subreddit on December 16th, 2012, which featured the caption “Benson please pull the car around / I would like to chase it” (shown below, left). Within 16 hours, the post received over 17,400 up votes and 225 comments. As of December 17th, 2012, the “Old Money Dog” Quickmeme^[7] page has accumulated over 395 submissions.

Search Interest

External References