# Keyboard Cat

> A 2007 cat upload became a failure-video punchline with over 200 remixes by May 2009.

- Owner: Charlie Schmidt
- Kind: Meme & format
- Sector: Culture (no sector)
- Seed date: 2007-06-07
- Milestone date: May 2009
- Date basis: Documented milestone; not a measured attention peak. Dates use the stated precision; chart positions are date anchors.
- Spread Score: 40 (Notable, provisional), v1.2
- Mechanics: Response chain, Platform jump, Press loop

## Summary

An old home movie sat on YouTube before O'Farrell added it to a failure clip in 2009. A repeatable play-off gag spread through mashups, comedy sites and television, followed by advertising and a successor cat.

## Timeline

- 2007-06-07 — Charlie Schmidt (YouTube) — Schmidt uploaded his old keyboard-playing cat footage as Cool Cat.
- 2009-02-02 — Brad O'Farrell (YouTube) — O'Farrell appended the cat clip to a failure video as a play-off gag.
- 2009-04-06 — Brad O'Farrell / Charlie Schmidt (Open web) — PlayHimOffKeyboardCat.com launched as a home for the growing remix collection.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/keyboard-cat

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “Keyboard Cat.” Case HIS-01010. Spread Score v1.2: 40/100. Updated 2026-10-15. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-01010