About
Huh? Cat is an exploitable video meme format depicting a confused or shocked-looking cat making a "huh?" sound. with its mouth open and eyes wide The clip was uploaded to TikTok in early 2023 and is often used alongside object-labeling captions about situations in which a person feels confused and lost.
Origin
The huh? cat is known as Ben Cat, which is a pet owned by TikToker @planetvenus500 who posts videos about their chubby cat. The video used in the meme was originally posted in September 2021 but has since been deleted and reposted on February 12th, 2023, showing the cat meowing for food (shown below), which received more than 2 million plays and 332,000 likes in two months.
One of the earliest posts using the cat's video as a meme started in the Russian TikTok community, as seen in @aromobar post on September 24th, 2021, which added overlay texts to match the cat's expressions. The video (shown below, left) amassed over 2.4 million plays and 80,000 likes in two years. On October 3rd, 2021, TikTok user @planeta_belki posted the cat meowing as a reaction video (shown below, right), which garnered more than 3 million plays and 231,000 likes in two years.
Spread
The earliest usage of the cat's video as a meme was posted on December 8th, 2022, by TikTok user @21pamix, who added the "huh?" sound to match the cat's meow. The video (shown below, left) garnered roughly 135,000 plays and 5,000 likes in a year. On May 11th, 2023, the cat's video received a new viral "huh?" sound meme video, posted by TikTok user @nyc.jav3 (shown below, right), which amassed more than 1.7 million plays and 135,000 likes in six months.
