Author|bean sprouts
The ancient Greek god in charge of emotions was none other than the cat meme.
When joining the world's top 500 companies and still being paid to fish, the cat meme happily twisted the happy dance; When encountering a child who kept crying on the plane, the cat meme collapsed to the point of covering her ears and screaming; When she accidentally said the wrong thing, the cat meme became weak and helpless again......
Recently, there is a type of cat image with rough cutouts, sloppy state, and almost 0 aggression - collectively known as cat meme, which has quickly become popular on the Internet, with magical BGM and direct emotional expression, and has even become the emotional spokesperson of netizens.
At first, cat memes were just simple emojis, until a Japanese blogger borrowed the image of cat meme to create a series of vlogs - "The story of the change of values after a Japanese single mother went to China", and the narrative of the cat meme model became popular.
In the cat meme vlog, the blogger expressed his original prejudice and the story of the prejudice being broken by telling the details of life such as small frictions in the neighborhood, seniors in the workplace, and rushing to pay for meals. The simple, humorous, and real narrative method cleverly resolved the original sense of conflict and negative emotions of the story, and also aroused the empathy of netizens. In the comment section, many people shared their own similar experiences.
At present, the blogger has 355,000 fans on station b, and the 16 videos that have been released are all cat meme vlogs.
Since then, more and more people have begun to use cat memes to make various versions of vlogs, such as "the story of sleeping for ten more minutes in the morning at Hengshui Model School", "Amnesia in a car accident 1 month before the college entrance examination, and finally 985";
And now cat meme has also become the standard configuration of major brands to achieve fan growth and event publicity, and even official accounts such as fire protection, public security, and cultural tourism in various regions have also joined in to popularize science.
Why does making a rough cat meme vlog go viral? Become the new cheats for growing fans? In fact, it is closely related to its narrative style of "sad" core and "happy" shell.
From the moment the cat meme became an emotional expression for netizens, it was no longer just a simple emoji.
When more and more netizens began to join the second creation and communication, the narrative framework of cat meme vlog gradually took shape. From the perspective of emotions themselves, although cat meme vlogs are light-hearted and humorous on the surface, the core is often some negative emotions and even bad encounters.
After oversleeping in the Hengshui mode school, the cat meme and her roommate were surrounded by the head teacher and physical education teacher at the door of the dormitory, and finally had to escape directly by "rushing the card".
"It's a very youthful and energetic and funny little story, but I don't know how, I feel sad and distressed when I watch more", "I'm a teacher at Hengshui Model School, and I've been thinking about you two when I watch the video, don't get caught"...... In the comment area, while everyone felt fun, they also expressed their helplessness about the strict system;
Some netizens also shared their story of having a car accident a month before the college entrance examination and finally causing amnesia, and they had to repeatedly confirm that they were in high school every day, but fortunately, they played the best level in high school in the end, and the barrage was full of "distressing and funny";
Some people even shared that when they were children, they witnessed their father's cheating, and they were happy to sing K, but their mother called to tell them that the house was on fire and other painful experiences.
However, when these negative emotions and encounters are expressed through cat memes, it effectively reduces the sense of heaviness and adds a bit of humor. Judging from the presentation of cat memes, simplicity, repetition, and magic are its core characteristics.
Although the stories are different, the expression of cat memes is much the same, almost all of them are cats in different states with magical BGM, combined into happy, or proud, or helpless and other direct emotions are presented, and the repetition rate used is extremely high. To a certain extent, this lowers the threshold for netizens to understand the story itself and the emotions of the blogger.
Looking back at the vlog made by Japanese single mother bloggers, the reason why it can trigger empathy and discussion is essentially because under the interesting and relaxed expression, it is wrapped in those prejudices under the difficulty of foreign life and cultural differences, such as "After taking children, I studied Chinese for 14 hours a day, and finally was able to work in China after a year", "I was praised by the salesperson when I bought clothes in a clothing store, and after buying them, I found that the clothes were seriously shrunk".
Overall, cat meme vlog can also be regarded as a narrative framework that amplifies emotions and simplifies expression.
Therefore, whether it is a serious and heavy topic, or a small embarrassment and small contradiction in life, as long as you put on the cat meme template, it will immediately become simple, interesting, and even reveal a faint sense of madness.
The biggest advantage of this narrative style is that it gives netizens enough room for interpretation. Because the story is real enough and often has some negative encounters, the expression is simple but the emotions are clear, and the highly condensed story and emotions can make netizens not have too much burden to read it, and at the same time, it also provides space for discussion.
In the comment area of many cat meme vlogs, there is no accusation of the moral high ground, and there is no endless quarrel and questioning. It's more about showing empathy for the blogger's experience, warm encouragement, and taking the opportunity to say bad things that have happened to you. No wonder some netizens said, "Cat meme is really a rare and kinder stalk on the Internet that is now full of anger", "The unique temperature of the cyber era".
Another reason why cat meme can quickly attract large-scale second creation is mainly the low production threshold. Compared with other video types, cat meme does not need exquisite vision and cutout, only need to splice suitable cat materials and add text expressions to fully express emotions, and there are currently a large number of cat meme materials on the Internet.
The amplification of emotions and sufficient space for interpretation, coupled with the low threshold for creation, these factors jointly determine the viral spread of cat memes.
Of course, the core reason behind this is also in the context of the current multiplication of pressure and increasing anger on the Internet, netizens are also more willing to see this kind of relaxed and self-deprecating and warm little story, and whether it is through the framework of cat meme or the comment area, everyone can output the inconvenient and heavy memories in life without burden, and find an emotional outlet.
When a certain content template becomes popular all over the Internet, merchants with a keen sense of smell will inevitably enter the game.
After the cat meme became popular, not only the relevant vlog content will attract high comments and praise, but also a number of cat meme plot accounts have emerged on social platforms, and the ability to attract fans is extremely strong. For example, the Douyin account @猫meme小theater is to make the historical story into a cat meme vlog, and superimpose the crossing element. For example, "If history is the life of Su Zhe of meme", "When Liu Chan secretly drinks cold drinks behind his father's back", "If the Three Kingdoms are modern".
At present, the account has 728,000 followers on Douyin, and has successfully received business orders. "If you are reborn as a palace maid, how will you ascend to the throne?" The video is a collaboration with a role-playing game called "Call Me the Big Shopkeeper". In addition, the game "In the Name of Shining" was also collaborated. In the product window of the account, there are also links to cat meme pendants and pet supplies.
However, cooperation-related accounts are not the best choice for brands, and under the strong drainage attribute of cat meme, brands have begun to make their own cat meme vlogs.
For a time, cat memes successfully joined Tmall, Nestle, ZEEKR, Jierou, SF, Miniso, L'Oreal and other major brand companies. I thought I could go to the pinnacle of life, and the cat memes who were so happy that they were "happy~happy~" soon ushered in the crit version of the KPI.
"It's no problem to increase the number of followers to 200,000 fans this month, right?" , "I have great expectations for your account, it's no problem to increase the number of fans to 10w", "Young people have a lot of ideas, it's no problem to make a hit"...... The cat memes who received the order could only work like crazy, and in the end, they did not forget to attach a poor working cat meme who kept knocking on the rice bowl and was crazy and express.
The above-mentioned routine of "I am operating in xx company" has become a cat meme vlog template for many brands, although the content is similar, but because these part-time cat memes are mainly post-00 workplace images, the main one is crispy, cheerful, and confident, and it also shortens the distance between the brand official account and young users.
It can be seen from the story template that the main purpose of the brand to make cat meme vlogs is to increase fans. Of course, the entry of cat meme has indeed successfully attracted a wave of fans for the brand, and after the cat meme operated by @Tmall received the demand for leaders to increase fans on April 20, the official Xiaohongshu account successfully rose by nearly 2w fans on April 28, and the total number of fans exceeded 20w. @顺丰速运小红书官方账号甚至7天怒涨8w粉.
Jierou also opened an exclusive cat meme Xiaohongshu account @Jierou Diary (Part-time Job Version), and released "I am reborn in Jierou stealing paper", "The Eight Virtues of Workers", "Reborn I am in a hard fight with the chairman" and other content with a beautiful mental state and full of madness. The account released its first cat meme vlog on April 8, and the number of followers has reached 33,000.
In addition to increasing followers, many brands also borrow cat memes to implant event information. For example, in order to celebrate the first day of work, the cat meme who works at @Didi revealed a benefit to netizens, which is actually the official event of "Wednesday Mileage Membership Discount"; The post-00 hr cat meme who works at @Extreme Krypton asks for resumes online to recruit people for the brand.
Although it is a new template derived, the reason why the brand cat meme can be popular on social platforms is also because the cat meme has been shaped into the image of an arrogant and humble post-00s worker, and has successfully attracted fans with the mentality of "paid fishing", "happy show-off", "being lectured by the leader" and other similar worker mentality.
Many official social media accounts have also joined the whole campaign, allowing a group of post-00s cat memes to take over the operation of the official account and carry out science popularization.
@海南消防借猫meme科普电动车消防安全; @宜昌公安则是让猫meme做五一假期交通安全提示的视频; @江西消防 @江苏高速消防...... and so on will also successfully hand over the account to the cat meme. On Douyin, the associated entry #Official Account finally fell into the hands of the post-00s# became a hot list, with 27.55 million people watching.
In fact, whether it is a cat meme vlog spontaneously produced by netizens, or a gameplay extended by the brand and the official account, there are specific emotions and personalities behind the cat meme, which can bring fun and arouse empathy.
The popularity of cat meme is not only a rebellion of netizens against the current Internet sentiment, but also a kind of non-aggressive self-deprecation and relaxation. Maybe the cat meme won't be popular forever, but the spiritual core behind it will be there for a long time.