Bad news, BuzzFeed -- your business model based on cats and kittens doing various a) cute; b) stupid; c) silly things is not new. In fact it's as old as the moving picture itself, apparently. The pioneer of the genre was none other than Thomas Edison. According to the Museum of the Moving Image, the Wizard of Menlo Park made a short movie called "Two Cats in a Boxing Match." It was shot at Edison's studio in New Jersey in 1894. The Museum of the Moving Image produced a rather expansive article about the entire LOLcats genre last year, under the title, "Pussy Galore."
This is all being discussed today because today is National Cat Day. Which is also why Uber has been running a nutty promotion where you can pay $20 and they'll bring you a kitten to pet for 15 minutes.
But without further ado, here is Thomas Edison's classic film, "Two Cats in a Boxing Match":
The Meow Game
And here, in further honor of National Cat Day, is my own personal favorite cat-related video of all time, which comes from the cult movie Super Troopers and in fact features no actual cats: Photo: Museum of the Moving Image.
Originally published Oct 29, 2013 5:05:00 PM, updated January 18 2023
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