Hundreds of products are still for sale on the official Grumpy Cat website. And in 2016, she joined the cast of Broadway musical Cats. In 2013, Grumpy Cat signed an endorsement deal with Friskies, lent her trademark scowl to a line of “Grumppuccino” coffee beverages (and later won $710,000 in a lawsuit after the company created a roasted coffee line without permission), published a book, Grumpy Cat: A Grumpy Book with tips on how to be grumpy (“or most it takes a lifetime of practice”), and won a slew of awards, including the Webby’s Meme of the Year “ by a landslide.” In 2015, Grumpy Cat starred in a comic book alongside her brother Pokey. Since then, her face has launched a thousand coffee mugs and swimsuits and beverage napkins and “Nope Book” notebooks, among too many other products to name. Within a year, merchandise bearing her scornful likeness appeared in Hot Topic and Urban Outfitters. Although Tardar Sauce left this cruel world in May, Grumpy Cat died much earlier.Īccording to the meme-cataloging website Know Your Meme, Grumpy Cat’s first T-shirt line was available just over a week after her Reddit debut. Far from her humble beginnings as a simple Reddit meme, Grumpy Cat became completely commoditized. What began as a simple cat photo morphed into a sprawling business that sold an endless array of useless online products. Tardar Sauce was a true overnight sensation. The photo quickly went viral, gaining tens of thousands of upvotes in 24 hours.

Tardar Sauce was born on April 4, 2012, in Morristown, Arizona. She was born unto the internet just five months later, when a photo of her pouting face, scowling just off-camera, appeared on Reddit. Grumpy Cat, whose real name was “Tardar Sauce,” died peacefully at home after contracting a urinary tract infection, her family announced on Instagram in May. The cat curmudgeon captivated millions of internet users with her iconic frown, which was likely due to feline dwarfism. This was the year the internet lost its cat. Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

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